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Message no. 1
From: "K. Sundqvist" <kylesun@*.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Underwater Ideas for Seattle Waters
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 13:45:56 -0800
Hi there. I am a student at the University of Washington in Seattle.
I've been playing Shadowrun since Jr. High. Hearing talk about designing
underwater stuff for role-playing in the waters outside of Seattle is a
clever idea. I am a member of the sailing club here and I go out on the
water a lot. To help make people's ideas more realistic I had a couple of
ideas to keep in mind from what I've personally experienced. Of course,
much has changed from present day to the world of Shadowrun, so these are
only suggestions.
One thing to keep in mind which is kind of interesting is the
depth of the waters. If you consult the Seattle Sourcebook maps in the
back of the book, you can probably make out Lake Washington and Union Bay.
It is important to note that these waters aren't all that deep. They get
deeper in a very gradual decline from the shore. Most of Union Bay, in
fact, is only about 12 feet deep. In fact, when I capsize my sailboat, it
is nearly impossible for the boat to turn over completely because the mast
is too tall and would get stuck in the mud. That is good to keep in mind
if you were planning to make up stuff like have a huge underwater temple
or some crazy thing right off the shore of Seattle. Puget Sound itself,
though, does get quite deep as you get out from the shore.
Another issue is the Ballard Locks. I can't recall if the Seattle
sourcebook goes into this or not, (the book is at my home in Auburn and
not in my dorm room). I can't imagine that the locks system has changed
all that much in the world of Shadowrun because it's rather a necessity.
If you are from a land-locked part of the country, you might not know what
locks are. They are to make up for the change in depth of the waters
between the freshwater inner waters near Seattle (Lake Union, Union Bay,
and Lake Washington) and the seawater of Puget Sound. It is hard to
explain without a diagram or hand motions, but it is basically a system
for boats containing two gates. One gate opens and boats may go in, the
gate closes and the water level sinks in this contained chamber untill it
reaches the depth of the other side of the water, then the next gate opens
up letting the boats continue on. It is kind of like a dam system. You
can walk across the locks on a bridge. when the water level is down, it
is quite a drop. I imagine you could die or get pretty hurt. The locks
are the only way in a boat to get to the Sound from the inner waters. It
is presently owned by the Corps of Engineers, and maintained for
commercial traffic, but the fee for anybody is always free. With
Shadowrun politics, who knows. I don't know how long exactly the whole
cycle takes to get through the locks, but as I recall it takes about 1/2
an hour.
One last thing about underwater stuff in Seattle waters is this
stuff called "mill-foil." It is a rather strong form of underwater weed.
I don't know if it was originally introduced in Seattle waters from
somewhere else, but they've had problems with the krap for years. It is
like seaweed, with many rather small "leaves" An individual stalk is
rather skinny, but the tensile strength of this stuff is rather strong. It
grows in mass underwater "fields" like grass. Since the water level isn't
all that deep in the inner waters of Seattle, this stuff grows up to be
quite close to the surface of the water. When you go swimming in Lake
Washington, you can go pretty far out into the water and this stuff still
tickles your chest and stomach as you swim by. When sailing a boat, or
with an outboard motor, it is not unheard of to have to stop and untangle
this stuff from the propellors or rudder. The deepest parts of the area
are deep enough to be void of it. But, I imagine if, in Shadowrun, you
were diving, and a big klutz, you could get trapped by the stuff because
it is rather strong. It would also hamper visibility, obviously. Maybe
critters make theyre home in the stuff. I can definitely imagine it being
in Shadowrun because the stuff is a pretty nasty weed. The city has tried
for years to get rid of the stuff by dragging heavy reaper things with
boats along the bottom to mow the stuff down, but it always grows back.
Thanks for listening to my opinions. Feel free to drop me a line
if you would like 1st hand accounts other impressions of Seattle. It's
not like I think I'm cool because I'm from Seattle, or anything, but maybe
someone out there wants a little more insight. I always liked Shadowrun,
in part, because it is role-playing in areas of the world that I know (or
once knew.)
Message no. 2
From: "K. Suderman" <ksuderma@******.ACNS.FSU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Underwater Ideas for Seattle Waters
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 17:30:25 -0500
> One thing to keep in mind which is kind of interesting is the
>depth of the waters. If you consult the Seattle Sourcebook maps in the
>back of the book, you can probably make out Lake Washington and Union Bay.
>It is important to note that these waters aren't all that deep. They get
>deeper in a very gradual decline from the shore. Most of Union Bay, in
>fact, is only about 12 feet deep.

This fact suggests that an oxygen rebreather might be the appropriate gear-
max. operating depth about 20 feet (though 30 feet was the old standard and
didn't cause too many cases of oxygen toxicity...).
There was a Japanese rebreather I saw pictures of a few years ago
that allowed for 20 minutes at 20 feet. It looked like a pink (or other
designer colour) gas mask with a 2" corragated (sp?) hose looped around the
neck to a canister of scrubber (removes CO2). The O2 was supplied by a pair
of 25-gram cylinders screwed into the snout of the gas mask and sticking out
horizontally. Total weight about 3-4 pounds. A good addition any emergency
kit...

And in case anyone's players are thinking about using long snorkels,
you can do this simple physics experiment with them. Figure that an average
person's chest is about one foot square. Water weighs about 64 pounds per
cubic foot. So, to simulate the difficult the breathing resistence, due to
pressure differential, incurred while breathing through a 3-foot-long
snorkel, just have the hapless player lie down while you stand on his chest.
Isn't physics great?


> One last thing about underwater stuff in Seattle waters is this
>stuff called "mill-foil." It is a rather strong form of underwater weed.

Eurasian Water Milfoil. Yech.
I was under the impression that it was a freshwater plant, but
apparently it does just fine in brackish/salt.
Spreads by fragmentation- so shredding it just makes more. [Has
everyone heard the story about fishermen who would find starfish stealing
the bait from their traps and "kill" them by cutting them in half and
throwing them overboard? Good idea, except that starfish regenerate....]

>were diving, and a big klutz, you could get trapped by the stuff because

I would like to point out that you don't have to be a "BIG KLUTZ" to get
tangled in milfoil- thank you very much! :) Actually, it was Elodea- which
is North Florida's counterpart to Milfoil- the strands got tangled around my
fin straps and pretty soon I quit making forward progress... So maybe I was
a klutz... oh well...



Keith

Keith Suderman Department of Oceanography
Florida State University Phone: (904) 644-2599
Tallahassee, Fl 32306 e-mail: suderman@*****.fsu.edu
Message no. 3
From: "K. Sundqvist" <kylesun@*.WASHINGTON.EDU>
Subject: Re: Underwater Ideas for Seattle Waters
Date: Mon, 20 Jan 1997 20:03:47 -0800
> Eurasian Water Milfoil. Yech.
> I was under the impression that it was a freshwater plant, but
> apparently it does just fine in brackish/salt.

Yep. It IS a freshwater plant. Seattle is built in a basin that
has water all around it. On the East and South sides (roughly), the water
is freshwater as it is fed by rivers coming in from the Cascade Mountains
to the East (the same chain of mountains as Mt. Rainier and Mt. St.
Helens.)
These calmer, shallower freshwater areas on the East and South
(Lake Union & Lake Washington) are where milfoil can be found. The West
side of Seattle, where all the big seaports are, faces Puget Sound which
is seawater as is it essentially is part of the Pacific Ocean. If you
look at the State of Washington, the big body of water that dips into the
middle of the state is Puget Sound. That may or may not be basic
knowledge to everyone, but I don't know what people from other parts of
the country know about the area.

Further Reading

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