The south boundary of Nexra was formed by the Channel Sea, a body of water shaped more like a river than a sea. It flowed south into another small sea which in turn fed a narrow passage to a large sea, named the Southern Sea, which, finally, in turn, led to the Earth’s second largest ocean. There had been little expansion of empire south or west of Nexra because of the increasingly hostile human tribes encountered in that direction. Since Nexra was settled, the Channel Sea was utilized primarily for small boat recreation and was the center of the empire’s premier resort area.
As the reality of the barren location of the second and third descents was analyzed and understood, the inevitable conclusion required a major rescue expedition by ship. For fifty years, the humex developed marine engineering techniques – from river rafts to raft sail technology – to recreational speed sailing developed at Plateau Lake Outpost, most notably the development of sleek hulls to cut through water with far more efficiency than the river rafts. Then as copper was discovered all along the shores of the Prairie Lakes, larger ships were constructed to handle that cartage. These ships were much wider than any water vessel that had come before. Their width enabled them to sail with great cargo across relatively calm waters. Then, as the empire surrounding Nexra expanded north, out around the Great Sea, ships became larger, narrower and deeper to counter the severe storms that frequently occurred.
So by the time the decision was made to mount the effort to rescue the second and third descent groups from half-way around the world, humex ship-building techniques were quite advanced. Still, adjustments and modifications to existing ship-building technology in order to prepare them for safe ocean travel were necessary. Of primary importance was the strengthening of the infrastructure of the sailing vessels – especially the keel beams, thickness and spacing of the bulkheads, masts, centerboards and rudders. Further, construction materials to withstand the salt of the seas over which these ships would be sailing needed to be identified and developed. And, finally, the malleability of the tar and pitch used in sealing the ship from water-breachment needed to be improved to account for the increased circumstance of violent torquing the ships were bound to encounter on the high seas.
Except for small boat building operations on the Channel Sea, the area was devoid of any activity that could be utilized to jump-start a major ship building effort. Also no infrastructure aid could be gotten from any source on the Great Sea whose sea level lie four-hundred feet below Channel Sea levels. So giant dry-docks had to be constructed from scratch, and, even while the docks were being built, the construction of new enormous ships began in closely scheduled unison. Time was of the essence.
