Re: Why Big ships?

> A fire that is completely enclosed in a house won't run out of oxygen
> to
> consume before reducing the house to a smoldering ruin.

No house is ever absolutely sealed.  A ship is.  And a ship probably
doesn't have a perfect air envelope to start with (people have already
been breathing it and whatnot).

> I'm not saying that a certain amount of air isn't getting in from
> outside,
> but generally not enough will get in to make much of a difference
> unless the
> doors or windows are open. If I could smother a fire just by keeping
> it
> locked in one room, and it wouldn't do over-much damage to the room,
> I think
> fire would be a much less dangerous thing.

Look at what you're burning in a modern house vs the ship.  The ship
has massive, tick beams for the primary structure while most houses
have relatively flimsy wooden frames.  If takes a heck of a lot of time
to burn through such thick, dense wood (ships are probably made of
hardwood while houses are made of pine and other softwoods).

> As it stands in the rules, fire is extremely dangerous in SJ.
> Supposing I'm
> trying to destroy a 60-ton, flammable vessel; I could start one fire
> every
> round, with a torch, say, and have the ship destroyed in under a
> turn.

I would have to check my rules for that but I don't see those tiny
fires that might not even catch as the fires SJ rules cover.  SJ rules
fires I consider to be the big blazes.  Like when the sails catch or a
lantern full of oil falls on the deck.

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