Poundern Ship Yards

Poundern Ship Yards‏‎ - Mars

Founded in 3968 by seven former Union fleet officers, under the lead of former captain Max Poundren and six of his closest friends (all senior officers from his last command).

Max was one of the very few Union Fleet engineers making it to Captain. In the years he commanded the USS Caligula

History

 * Max Poundern  born in 3910 on Mars -
 * Joined the Navy in 3929 -
 * Commissioned Ensign in  3933
 * 4 Years Engineering school 3937 -
 * 12 years Engineering duty -
 * 6 years XO 3955 -
 * 3 years command school  3958 -
 * 8 yeas CO - ship engages in battle, he is wounded ship almost completley destroyed [1]
 * retired  in 3966
 * Designs the Poundern Class almost alone and asks his friends to join him.
 * They get the crazy idea to built the ship.
 * Suprisingly Linda Schwartz responds to a galnet letter and provides them personally with a loan
 * They buy the nearly bancrupt Mars Yards Corp . An old company with along history (Max's father, his grand father and many of his family were employees with Mars Yards Corp)
 * Renamed to : Poundern Ship Yards‏‎ - Mars they more or less hand built the first Poundern class battle ship and make it with one hour tomn spare to the quinquennial Union Spatial Navy design contest under the auspice of  the Capital Ship Development Bureau . Any Union company who had a promissing design could come and present a prototype for evaluation.
 * The ship was fitted with weapons and restricted Mil Tech and evaluated.  That evaluation was directly observed by McElligott and more by accident by Stahl as well, who had business with McElligott.
 * Legend has it that McElligott asked Stahl for his opinion on the ships presented. Stahl took a skeleton crew and with the glee of a school boy in the candy store took temporary command of the poundern class. [2]  After Stahl had tested ship [2] his recommendation made McElligott order 3000 right away.
 * This unexpected success overwhelmed the then small company and the outdated dock facilities.
 * Rex Schwartz offered that SII Ship Worx builts the hulls under licence and for a very small profit while Poundern Ship Yards‏‎ - Mars would do the fitting, till their facilities were up to for the task. Poundern Ship Yards‏‎ - Mars grew to the largest employer of Mars and opened a second ship yard facility at Ross 128.
 * It became one of the most successful ship building companies that peaked in 3990 with over 6 million employees, many billion in revenues and a series of successful ship designs.
 * Max Poundern died in 4009 . Even at his funeral the bickering and fighting among the owners and the Poundren family started and in 4036 the company declared bankrupcy after a long series of mismanagement decisions and law suits against the estate and company assets.
 * The facilities at Mars were scrapped and the ones at Ross 128 became part of Ross Shipyards Corp.

[1] A battle enagement with the Nul. At that time Nul tech was more than equal to Union tech. Union tech developed tremendous fast while Nul tech develops at a snail pace, but for much longer. There was never open war against the Nul, but there were constant incidents and no defined clear border. Especially after the Klack joined the region was quite volatile.

Max was outnumbered and while he was a good CO. The Nul eliminated almost all Union advantages : They had fighters too, their Dual Froth casters and Gravo mines were a clear match to Union shields.

His fighters were outnumbered. Max however put the biggest blame in what he saw as design flaws of the USS Caligula, a Titan Spear Class and of the first generation Unified designed ships.

He lost 3553 of his crew and was wounded ( he resented that he was rescued) The mandatory hearing cleared him of any guilt in the loss of the ship and crew. But it was recommended that he would not receive a new command. Max retired a day after the hearing.

[2] No legend story of the Eternal warrior is complete with a heroic "add on". Something small often blown out of proportion or simply added after many tellings of the story. But the story goes that Stahl too, was engaged by Nul ships after responding to the distress call of a Klack ship. Depending on the version of the story, Stahl faced 2 or 5 Nul battle ships and of course prevailed. Ridiculous of course but that is the nature of these Stahl stories.(Gubil Gubarn, GalNet Editor)

[Suplement GalNet Supervisor]  Note to be deleted . Checking the battle logs of the test ship and the Klack freighter confirm, Stahl did face 5 Nul Nurtl-N battle ships. According to these logs, Stahl used a nearby star system, took helm himself and taxed the test ship to its very limits and won the battle. The Test ship was severly damaged but Stahl called it a tough and useful ship, praised the heavy armor that saved his bacon (his words)