>>35509670Based on old lore written by the rep riverine steam boats would already have quite a bit of history for the Republic. It's basically just building two steam frigates to test the technology for driving bigger ships. The test would consist of open water voyages, mocked battles against sail ships and gunnery practices, to better understand difficulties that would arise from fielding steam ships.
It's tested from the Republic's facilities because I initially wrote them in some stories related to the tri-fleet. But since it would likely be at least 1 year long some later tests could be done in Hoshiyomi's ports. One of them would be given to the principality regardless after the testing period has ended and both countries get the test report.
The philosophy behind the original project is that the Republic isn't exactly being threatened navally nor does it needs to have great power projection capability in its nearby oceans, but it is interested in marine steam engines after some riverine ones have been tested so it embarked on a study and project to see how promising it is and to gather data on how it should be used doctrinally since it doesn't have any immediate enemies like nations in IRL Europe, other than a stand off against the clocks.
