The Great War Syndicate by Frank R. Stockton

Name: The Great War Syndicate
Author: Frank R. Stockton

An 1890s political crisis between the United States and Great Britain over the seizure of the fishing schooner Eliza Drum by the British cruiser Dog Star escalates into open combat when the American cruiser Lennehaha fires on the Dog Star and both American vessels are captured. National fury forces Congress to declare war within a week, but Washington has no navy capable of matching Britain's, since new ironclads take years to build while the British fleet is already at sea. Into this crisis steps a group of twenty-three capitalists in New York who form themselves into a Syndicate and offer the Government a contract: they will assume full control and expense of the war and secure peace within a year, forfeiting a massive deposited security if they fail, with payment scaled so a shorter war earns them more. The Government, desperate, accepts. The Syndicate builds two classes of vessels: "repellers," armored with elastic steel-spring plating that absorbs cannon fire, and "crabs," small submerged craft with powerful pincers that tear off enemy rudders and propellers. Their chief secret weapon is the "Instantaneous Motor," a non-explosive projectile of radiating tubes that annihilates its target by instantaneous propulsive force rather than detonation, aimed by mathematical calculation rather than eyesight. The Syndicate's fleet blockades a Canadian port, disabling the British warship Scarabaeus and two others by crab attack, then demonstrates the motor-bomb by obliterating the harbor's torpedoes, the unfinished Fort Pilcher, and the garrisoned fort itself — all without visible cause, leaving the British public and military convinced the destruction is the work of mines laid by traitors rather than any bomb. This skepticism becomes a strategic problem for the Syndicate, since proving the weapon's reality is essential to ending the war quickly. Complications include the American cruiser Lenox, whose commander defies orders by attacking a British ship and is humiliatingly towed backward into port by a crab; the capture of the British ironclad Adamant, whose captain refuses to surrender and is towed helplessly southward for weeks while continuously firing; and the annihilation of the warship Craglevin, witnessed and even personally triggered by its own captain after its crew and the transport's passengers are safely evacuated, finally proving the motor-bomb's reality to a credulous world. The Syndicate then sails Repeller No. 11 (rebuilt from the ill-starred Tallapoosa) and six crabs directly into the English Channel, defeating a large British fleet off the Isle of Wight by disabling multiple ironclads (including the Llangaron, whose novel stern-cylinder defense is torn away) and repelling a torpedo-boat charge with motor-bombs that create sea-chasms and cataracts. Britain withdraws to Portsmouth. The Syndicate then demands Britain name a target for a final demonstration; the coastal fortifications and fishing village of Caerdaff in Wales are chosen, evacuated, and utterly annihilated, carving out a vast new chasm later noted as ideal for a ship canal. Britain, now convinced, sues for peace within days. The Syndicate negotiates directly with the British Government despite some American political objections, and the two nations form a permanent Anglo-American Syndicate of War, pooling exclusive control of the instantaneous motor and pledging joint arbitration of future conflicts through a Joint High Commission. The narrative closes on scattered aftermath: the disabled Adamant, still oblivious to peace, is towed to Bermuda by its captor while continuing to fire on anything resembling an American vessel; a monument fund is raised for Thomas Hutchins, the war's only fatality, killed by an accidental derrick fall; and the original fisheries dispute that started the war is discovered to have been left out of the treaty entirely and quietly dropped. The text ends by noting that after the Syndicate's formation, nations of the world began teaching English in their schools.

By Frank R. Stockton · First published 1895 · Genre: Science Fiction, Adventure, Political Fiction · 39,478 words

First lines

In the spring of a certain year, not far from the close of the nineteenth century, when the political relations between the United States and Great Britain became so strained that careful observers on both sides of the Atlantic were forced to the belief that a serious break in these relations might be looked for at any time, the fishing schooner Eliza Drum sailed from a port in Maine for the banks of Newfoundland.

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The Great War Syndicate is listed on Textopian as a novel by Frank R. Stockton, dated 1895 CE.

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Work type: Novel
Author: Frank R. Stockton
Date: 1895 CE
Language: English
Genres: Science Fiction, Adventure, Political Fiction, War Fiction, Speculative Fiction
Length: 39,478 words
Structure: 1 section, 441 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Difficult (10th-12th Grade)

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Genres

Science Fiction — The plot revolves around advanced technology and futuristic warfare.
Adventure — The story involves a series of exciting and risky undertakings.
Political Fiction — The narrative includes significant political elements and international relations.
War Fiction — The central theme is centered around war and military conflict.