| Grand Admiralty
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| Category: |
Navy
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| Level: |
0
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| Turns to build: |
4
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| Building cost: |
1500
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| Indian
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| Middle Eastern
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| Enables
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A navy requires an administration to keep ships manned, supplied and at sea, to keep dockyards well stocked and ready, and bring order to the large organisation.
Even more than an army, a fleet is a highly technical and very expensive operation. The land-bound officers of an admiralty oversee every aspect of organisation, making sure that sea-going captains want for nothing when they finally engage the enemy. A dockyard is useless unless someone has organised the supply of timber; the timber remains stacked on the wharf until someone approves the naval architect’s plans; a completed ship is useless without officers and men; and the crew expects to eat, be paid and receive prize money. All of these tasks require clerks, secretaries and experienced admirals to keep the inevitable paperwork in order and thus the machinery of a navy working.
Historically, the head of the admiralty could expect to have a senior position in government and untrammelled access to his monarch or president. He was often spending a significant portion of the national wealth: navies and their dockyards were some of the biggest “industrial” enterprises in the world during the 18th Century. A powerful and effective navy guaranteed that trade could continue, unimpeded by nefarious foreigners!
This building can only be built in the faction capital.
