Ores, Oars and Mores was a large, international shipping company based out of Sydney, Australia. Before the War, it possessed a fleet of 100 ships and shipped Australian minerals to the United States, China and Europe. It was one of the most successful Australian companies before the War and was briefly nationalised by the Australian government. In the Great War of 2077, the company dissolved, however, it's legacy remains across the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans.
History[]
Early Years[]
Australia has a history of incredibly mineral wealth extending back to the Gold Rush of the 1850s. In the early and mid 21st Century, Australia entered a Practical Metals rush; aeroplane surveys of the Outback revealed literal mountains of iron, copper and uranium ore. US demand for nuclear material - both domestic and federal - meant a large market for Australian mining companies. Combined with European and Chinese demand for standard metals, the export market was rife with opportunities for companies to make a killing.
Oars, Ores and Mores began operations on 19th February 2053 in Sydney, Australia. The company was founded by Jeremiah Fish and started with a fleet of only three vessels. Early contracts were made with the Australian government, transporting materials to and fro from Papua and New Guinea, bringing anything from packaged food to mail to Port Moresby. This granted the company the capital necessary to expand into mineral transportation, with their first real contract being signed with the Cymru Nautica Shipbuilders in March 2056, supplying iron and steel to their warship program. This contract allowed OO&M to establish further relationships with European manufacturers, even landing the company a contract within Germany with the makers of the Gauss Rifle.
In 2058, OO&M was contracted to supply the United States military with Uranium ore, transporting it from Sydney Australia to Los Angeles, California. This deal was highly successful for the company and the funds gained from it - as well as the close relationship created with Cymru Nautica - allowed them to expand rapidly, with the fleet quadrupling in size by 2060. By 2065, the company had expanded to a fleet of over 65. Fish's skilled leadership had allowed the company to become of the richest and most successful on the Australian Stock Exchange.
OO&M's dealings were not all above the board. In the Spring of 2063, secret negotiations between the Chinese government and Fish culminated in a lucrative contract being signed. The company would be employed shipping Chinese military equipment to Fifth Columnists in the United States. Crates of Chinese Assault Rifles, stacks of pressed Chinese Uniforms, and dozens of "Chinese Liason Officers" arrived in Hawaiian, Californian and Maryland ports. Shipping was fraught with risk but the Chinese money could not be turned down.
Strokes of Bad Luck[]
This rapid growth could not last. The collapse of the European Commonwealth in 2060 made shipping to OO&M's partners difficult and even resulted in the loss of 3 merchant vessels, mistakenly identified as foreign warships. In March 2064 Jeremiah Fish's aeroplane crashed en route to Melbourne, killing him instantly. Succeeding him was his son, Martin Fish, who took control of the company on March 14th.
Martin proved to be significantly less capable than his father at a time when skill was desperately needed. The Australian government, seeking to incorporate OO&M, started making bids to purchase and nationalise the company. In 2066, China and the Australian Commonwealth entered a state of war due to Chinese demand for Australian resources. Officially, this ended any relationship between the Chinese government and OO&M - not that there was one in the first place, Mr American Coast Guard - yet traffic from Hong Kong seem to double overnight. A problem less solvable was the Government's demand for commercial vessels to use as troop transports. Martin could not resist for long and in April 2067 'leased' 13 large merchant vessels 'for the length of the conflict.'
Under Martin, the company's margins began shrinking. The loss of 17 ships in 7 years and the dangerous dealings the company still maintained with European groups did not exactly attract investors. Renewed efforts from the Australian government to nationalise the company appealed to Martin. Negotiations between him and his counterpart in the federal government began in November.
Rise to Extinction[]
Martin's relations with the Australian Government were discovered in February of 2070. The board of the OO&M, upon hearing the news, confronted Martin, questioning his decisions before ultimately removing him from a leadership position. He was replaced by his brother, former head of Public Relations, John Fish.
John was significantly more experienced in a higher-order leadership position, working in PR since he was 18. He knew people in the company and had established strong relationships with the heads of other departments. Public Relations had groomed him to be able to fit into any situation, chatting and joking with anyone from rough Outback miners to smartly-dressed politicians.
John quickly revitalised the company. His brother had practically run it into the ground: stock prices were at an all-time low, the fleet had nearly 35% of ships mothballed and dozens of domestic and international facilities were simply abandoned. John worked quickly. He evaded government efforts to incorporate the company into the federal body but managed to secure the transport rights of military equipment to Papua and New Guinea. Springing from this, John increased the scope of his underground Chinese transport: significantly more rifles, pistols, and uniforms were transported, sometimes even outnumbering the number of legitimate goods on a ship.
The company began to grow again, albeit slowly. The fleet was brought back to full strength and stockpiles of goods were brought to dockyards around Australia. The stock price began to climb and the companies reputation grew. In 2075, 58% of Sydney's exports left through OO&M. In northern Western Australia, this number was practically 100%. Massive stores of iron, copper, uranium, lead, and other metals were brought to OO&M's warehouses in Sydney, waiting to be exported. The company had recovered from 6 years of bad leadership and was steaming into the 2070s at full speed.
End of Days[]
The end of the world came two weeks sooner to OO&M than to the rest of the world. On October 7th, US Coast Guard in Hawaii, conducting random searches of shipping, opened a crate on an OO&M vessel. What was supposed to be stacks of iron bars turned out to be 24 Chinese Assault Rifles surrounded by nearly 600 rounds of 5.56 ammunition. The Coast Guard immediately reported this to their superiors, who arrested the crew of the vessel and impounded it. A more thorough search of the whole vessel unearthed over 100 Chinese Assault Rifles, 150 Chinese Pistols, 70 Chinese Swords and thousands of rounds of ammunition.
Both the Australian and American government demanded an explanation for this cargo. OO&M delayed it as much as possible but this only gave the two nations more time to inquire about other discrepancies. Over the 19 years of shipping to the United States, nearly 50,000 tons of minerals had been brought into the country, Yet shipping manifests did not corroborate this, suggesting almost 100 tons of difference.
OO&M assets in the United States and its dominions were immediately seized. The company was placed on a terrorist list, and orders were given out to capture and search any vessel flying under its flag. These orders were sent out to all naval vessels in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans on the night of October 22nd. As the Great War occurred the next day, these orders were soon forgotten.
Facilities[]
OO&M was more than a shipping fleet and had processing facilities, warehouses and administrative facilities around the world. As it was founded in Sydney originally, the majority of its facilities are clustered around Botany Bay. OO&M Headquarters and their primary warehouses are present here, where they continue to get Post-War visitors (even if they are only radroaches ). Other major locations within Australia include warehouses and shipping yards in Brisbane, Darwin and Perth. Internationally, OO&M held a number of facilities in the United States, China and Europe. However, all of these areas were destroyed in either Pre-War, War-Time or Post-War fighting.
Legacy[]
OO&M, like most Pre-War groups, has had a large impact on the Post-War world. Ships flying under their flag were in ports in California, Southern England, and New South Wales when the bombs dropped and their large stockpiles of resources proved to be very useful to Post-War groups. OO&M warehouses proved useful as faction bases, merchant crews turned quickly to pirates and stockpiles of raw and processed metals fed Post-War industry.
Former OO&M vessels have been used by navies across the Post-War world. Ships docked in Hawaii before the war were snatched up as fishing vessels or warships. Large tankers resting in the Boneyard and San Francisco harbours became capital ships of the New Californian Navy. Small runabouts or ship-to-shores were scrapped to build walls, used as fishing vessels by small settlements or became Mirelurk homes. OO&M has proved one of the most successful Post-War shipping companies, despite going extinct in the Great War.