Pinnace
A pinnace is a type of auxiliary craft, carried by ships to transport personnel to and from the ship.
In the Honorverse canon, a hyper-capable warship carries a complement of auxiliary craft, including pinnaces, shuttles, and cutters in their boat-bay. Since the ship is incapable of atmospheric flight or landing on a planet, the auxiliary craft are used to transport personnel and materiel to and from planetary surfaces, as well as between ships, or between ships and stations in situations where it is not practical for the ship to dock with the station.
Pinnaces in TRMN
In The Royal Manticoran Navy: The Official Honor Harrington Fan Association, Inc. (TRMN), a pinnace is a chapter type available to members who wish to start a chapter, but who have not yet recruited enough members for a larger ship type. The pinnace is sponsored by an existing chapter and takes its name from the sponsoring ship's name, eg the first pinnace sponsored by HMS Merlin would be called "Pinnace Merlin-01" (or "Pinnace Merlin-One"). The parent chapter (HMS Merlin, in this example) lends support to the pinnace in order to ensure that the pinnace will be ready to operate as a full independent chapter.
When the pinnace chapter meets the crew complement and training requirements for a larger chapter type, BuShips then commissions the chapter as a larger ship, and the pinnace is then considered "returned to the boat-bay" of the parent ship.
Pinnaces are commissioned by the authority of fleet commanders.[1]
Pinnaces are meant to be temporary chapter types. There is a time limit for their operation, and they must either commission as a LAC or larger ship by the time limit, or be decommissioned.
Pinnaces by parent chapter type
The number of pinnaces that any hyper-capable ship may have at any time is based on the ship type:[2]
| Ship type | maximum pinnaces |
|---|---|
| Light Attack Craft (LAC) | None |
| Destroyer (DD) | One |
| Light Cruiser (CL) | Two |
| Heavy Cruiser (CA) | Three |
| Battlecruiser (BC) | Three |
| Dreadnought (DN) | Four |
| Superdreadnought (SD) | Four |
| LAC Carrier (CLAC) | Five |
Civilian chapter
In the Royal Manticoran Merchant Marine, the equivalent to an RMN pinnace is an Inter-System Shuttle.
List of TRMN Pinnaces
| Name | Launch Date | Returned to boat-bay | Upgraded to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pinnace Ajax-01 | 19 August 2016[3] | 13 May 2016[4] | HMS Hellhound (DD-446)[5] |
| Pinnace Hexapuma-01 | 5 November 2014[6] | 13 May 2016[7] | Decommissioned |
| Pinnace Sabrepike-01 | 26 January 2015[8] | 13 May 2016[9] | HMLAC Stiletto (LAC-018) |
| Pinnace Demon-01 | 6 June 2016[10] | 26 May 2017[11] | HMLAC Tiger's Pride (LAC-022) |
Pinnace Broadsword-01 Pinnace Buddenbrock-01 Pinnace Chaos-01 Pinnace Claymore-01 Pinnace Death Claw-01 Pinnace Drake-01 Pinnace Gryphon-01 Pinnace Gryphon-02 Pinnace Intrepid-01 Pinnace Invictus-01 Pinnace Invincible-01 Pinnace Merlin-01 Pinnace Merlin-02 Pinnace Roland-01 Pinnace Wolf-01
References
- ↑ Admiralty Order 1403-02
- ↑ Admiralty Order 1511-02
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1608-F
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1605-B
- ↑ BuShips Directive 1705-01
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1411-C
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1605-B
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1501-B
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1606-A
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1606-B
- ↑ Second Fleet Order 1705-D