FC

Civilian bulk hauler

MV Tallow

A forty-one-year-old hauler that went out with ten and came back with fourteen. Her hand log says three hundred and thirty-one days on passage. Her master clock says two hundred and forty-one. Her second engineer's says two hundred and sixty. Nobody has ever reconciled them, and the ship is the argument.

Operator
Independent registry
Registry
MV — Master-commanded civilian hull
Series
The Cairn
Drawn as
As she came alongside at the Cairn, Book One — displaced, overdue, and carrying more than her manifest.
Sheet 1 General arrangement — profile, looking to port 204.5 m overall · 410 frames at 500 mm
D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 Bridge — Bridge deck · frames 30–76 · published 1-01 Chart space — Bridge deck · frames 76–100 · fixed 1-02 Master's cabin — Bridge deck · frames 100–124 · derived 1-03 Ship's office — Boat deck · frames 40–68 · fixed 2-01 Radio and log space — Boat deck · frames 40–68 · derived 2-02 Officers' cabins — Boat deck · frames 68–116 · fixed 2-03 Ladder well — Boat deck · frames 116–128 · published 2-04 Galley — Main deck · frames 56–84 · published 3-01 Crew mess — Main deck · frames 56–92 · published 3-02 Midships lock — Main deck · frames 92–114 · published 3-03 Passage aft — Main deck · frames 114–150 · published 3-04 Cargo office — Main deck · frames 114–136 · published 3-05 Sleeping deck, rigged — Main deck · frames 136–190 · published 3-06 Forward tween-deck — Tween-deck · frames 60–120 · published 4-01 Tween-deck, main — Tween-deck · frames 120–340 · published 4-02 After tween-deck — Tween-deck · frames 340–380 · published 4-03 Hold bays 1–3 — Hold · frames 120–180 · published 5-01 Hold bays 4–6 — Hold · frames 180–240 · published 5-02 Hold bays 7–9 — Hold · frames 240–300 · published 5-03 Hold bays 10–11 — Hold · frames 300–340 · published 5-04 Forepeak and stores — Tank top and machinery · frames 10–60 · fixed 6-01 Provisions deck, cold store — Tank top and machinery · frames 60–100 · published 6-02 Double bottom, tanks — Tank top and machinery · frames 100–340 · fixed 6-03 Water plant — Tank top and machinery · frames 340–366 · published 6-04 Plant room — Tank top and machinery · frames 340–396 · published 6-05 Steering flat — Tank top and machinery · frames 396–410 · fixed 6-06 Midships lock — where the fourteen came off After end of the hold 1 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 FRAME
Sheet 2 Deck plans — 6 decks, looking down 41.0 m maximum beam

Command, and the master's cabin behind it.

Bridge · frames 30–76 · published · S13 B1 Bridge Chart space · frames 76–100 · fixed · spec ruling 2026-08-01 Chart space Master's cabin · frames 100–124 · derived · Master Cray, S13 B1 Master's cabin 1 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360 380 400 PORT STBD
  1. 1-01 Bridge Fr 30–76 published S13 B1
  2. 1-02 Chart space Fr 76–100 fixed spec ruling 2026-08-01
  3. 1-03 Master's cabin Fr 100–124 derived Master Cray, S13 B1

    Canon establishes a master who died aboard and an acting master who took her in; it does not draw the room.

Key

  • Command
  • Navigation
  • Engineering
  • Life support
  • Habitation
  • Galley & mess
  • Stores
  • Cargo
  • Access
  • Communications

Grade of every figure on these sheets

  • published Stated in the books. If a drawing disagrees, the drawing is wrong.
  • derived Arithmetic on published facts; the working is given.
  • fixed Canon was silent here and the drawing decided.

Principal figures

Canon fixes the mass, the frame run and the hull's age directly. The length follows from the frames; the beam is the drawing's own decision, bounded by what the books rule out. Each figure says which it is.

  • Length overall

    204.5 m

    derived410 frames @ 500 mm

    Length is not published. It follows from the beam at a bulk hauler's proportions and from eleven hold bays; the frame run is the drawing's, and it is the drawing's so that the published eleven-metre run below can be arithmetic rather than assertion.

  • Beam

    41 m

    publishedS13 B1

    Forty-one metres across the frames — the registry figure, and the one the Cairn's ranging gallery used to range her optically on approach. It is the only dimension of this ship canon states outright.

  • Height

    25.6 m

    derivedsix decks, floor heights below

  • Hull age

    41 yr

    publishedS13 B1

    The same number as her beam, which the crew have remarked on and which is a coincidence.

  • Complement

    10 out, 14 back

    publishedS13 B1

    The four are the reason the book happens. Master Cray died aboard; Efe brought her in as acting master.

Systems

Water plant

published

Three barrier stacks

Crazed through the potting. Whatever the passage actually was, this is the equipment that had to keep working through it, and it is the reason a hauler with ten crew could carry fourteen people home.

S13 B1

Main plant

published

Civilian hauler drive

Never described. The prose is interested in the route rating and never once in the machinery.

  • Route rating9 hours 12 minutes what the passage was booked at
  • Elapsed, hand log331 days
  • Elapsed, master clock241 days
  • Elapsed, second engineer's260 days

S13 B1

Cargo

published

Eleven bays and a tween-deck

Manifested: 31 sealed transit cradles in six crates, 40 litres each, hazard class two, plus 4,800 kg of bulk print feedstock. She came alongside eleven tonnes light against her own manifest, and that discrepancy is not a clerical one.

S13 B1

What was checked

The books state distances aboard this ship. The drawing has to produce the same ones or it is wrong — so it is made to, and the working is shown. These run again on every build; a compartment moved by a metre fails them.

  • “The cargo office is eleven metres from the crew mess” S13 B1

    Mess ends F92; cargo office begins F114. 22 frames of run at 500 mm = 11.0 m.

  • “The cargo office is off the after end of the hold” S13 B1

    The hold runs to F340 and the cargo office sits on the main deck at F114–136, directly over the hold's forward reach and opening onto the passage aft. On this arrangement the office is at the hold's after end as approached from the accommodation, which is the direction the prose approaches it from.

  • “Beam is forty-one metres across the frames” S13 B1

    Stated dimension; carried into the drawing unaltered and used to scale every deck plan.

Service history

  1. Departure

    Ten aboard. Route rated at nine hours twelve minutes.

  2. The passage

    Three hundred and thirty-one strokes cut into the galley hatch. Three clocks, three answers, and a second engineer who kept his own.

  3. Master Cray

    Died aboard. Efe took her as acting master and brought her in.

  4. Arrival at the Cairn

    Fourteen aboard, eleven tonnes light, hull bare metal for a metre and a half above the boot-topping, number-two mast light dead, a hand-welded strap over the aft cargo seam. Admitted.

  5. After

    Becomes a shore-based short-haul contractor. She does not go out again.

What this drawing does not decide

A blueprint that answered everything would be inventing. These are the things canon has not fixed and this sheet deliberately leaves for a book to claim.

  • Length, depth and every deck height are the drawing's. Canon publishes the beam and nothing else dimensional.
  • The three elapsed figures are deliberately irreconcilable and must stay that way. This sheet records all three and resolves none of them.
  • The drive is never described. The systems block says so rather than inventing one.
  • Which of the eleven hold bays carried what is not established; the bays are drawn evenly because canon gives no other division.
  • The sleeping deck was rigged, not built. Its extent is inferred from 'aft, where the plating stays warmest' and nothing more.

Compiled from

  • S13 B1 The First Claim — chapters 01–26 (frozen)
  • series-13-the-cairn/book-1/LOAD.md — the number lock
  • universe-state/ships/other/mv-tallow.md
RegistryService record and command history →