Evening from the Pacific Northwest,

I've got questions concerning the frozen watch and on MT Referee's Manual page 96 is the following text: "...If the boarding ship has no marines, it will have security troops (consisting of one-third of the ship's service crew station); only marines and troops may board a disabled ship...."

1. The frozen watch has the following entries:

Page 60 right column:

Frozen Watch: Supplementary crew member's may be carried in low berths; this frozen watch is then available to replace crew casualties incurred in combat.

Multiple Frozen Watches: More than one frozen watch may be assigned to a ship.. Each frozen watch must meet the requirements that it contain at least one crew section, and it must carry at least 50 percent of the ship's required pilots. Sufficient low berths must be installed to carry all frozen watch personnel.

Transfers To Other Ships: Frozen watch personnel may be transferred to other ships, but only between battles. A battle must end before frozen watch personnel can be transferred to other ships in order to crew them.

Page 82: Frozen Watch (Cf):

Cf = Z/H
      Z = Total Crew Count (not including Medical Crew)
      H= Hull Displacement Tonnage divided by 1000 (if less than 1, treat as 1)

If Cf low (not emergency low) berths are present, the ship can carry a frozen watch.

Page 94:

Frozen Watch/Ship's Troops Dead

Page 96:

Frozen Watch: A ship's frozen watch is a reserve pool which can be used to replace any crew casualties resulting from ship combat. If a ship has a frozen watch, it may be revived and then used to replace one or more crew sections which were lost in combat.

The Multiple Frozen Watches states that it must include one crew section and 50 percent of the ship's required pilots.

A. I believe that the one crew section is determined by Step 8 Crew Segment on page 82 which determines the number of crew in one segment by using the formula Hull Volume/ 13,500. The number of segments or sections is determined by dividing the total crew by (hull volume/13,500).

Using the Regal from the "A MT Starship Design Example" edited by Donald McKinney using the hull volume of 1,012,500 kl one crew segment/section = 1,012,500/13,500 = 75. Per the edited version the Regal has a total Crew of 329 which requires round(329/75,0) = round(4.3867,0) = 4 segments or sections.

The frozen watch is must have 1 section of 75 personnel plus 50 percent of the ship's required pilots.

Question 1: How do I determine the number of required pilots?

     My guess the pilots are for the subordinate craft.

B. Page 82: Calculating the Frozen Watch:

Cf = Z=(329 - 17)/H = (75,000/1000) = 312/75 = 4.16 = 4

     Z = Total Crew Count (not including Medical Crew)

     H= Hull Displacement Tonnage divided by 1000 (if less than 1, treat as 1)

If Cf low (not emergency low) berths are present, the ship can carry a frozen watch.

The text on page states that a valid frozen watch must contain 1 crew segment/section which in the case of the Regal is 75 personnel and no required pilots.

Question 2: What is the purpose of the frozen watch calculation since the frozen watch must be at minimum 1 section?

Question 3: Why does the frozen watch not include medical crew, since they take casualties too?

C. Page 96: "...it will have security troops (consisting of one-third of the ship's service crew station);..."

Question 4: Is the "ship's service crew station" the same thing as maintenance crew?

Tom Rux