Leroy's Ship Construction System

I've been revisiting the ship construction system designed by Leroy lately, and
have come up with some questions regarding the system (and some things I want
to use it for).  Anyone familiar with the system chime in (those not familiar
with it... well you should be! ;)  It's great).

1) I'm trying to design some ships for the effreet.  I need Brass.  Does anyone
have any guesses as to how it would fit into the materials list (hardness, hp,
cost, etc...)

2) I'm designing some pretty weapons heavy ships for the Blackmoorians
(campaign-wise they need to be) and am coming across a problem.  The amount of
people that it takes to operate the vessel is prohibitive (mainly with regard
to air supply).  I wanted to design a piece of magical equipment (an Iron Lung)
that doubles the air supply of a vessle.  I figure that the size of the device
should be about 5% the size of the vessle that it operates on.  So for a 100
ton ship, that's 5 tons for the Iron Lung.  Does this sound reasonable?

3) I've also had the idea to implement "clockwork riggers" and "clockwork
weapons".  This would also cut down on the number of men required to operate a
vessel (and save me some more air).  Any ideas about the cost of such items,
and how much more space they would take up on a ship?  Are there any other
disadvantages you can think of?

Thanks in advance for any help/suggestions you can give me.

-John

=====
Rule #85.
I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align
the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the
moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the
button."

from "A Guide to Becoming an Evil Overlord" by Peter Anspach

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