Atlantean Ship (nave atlante) is a class of ancient vessel that “plowed the depths of the ocean”; its one recorded example is a giant wasp-shaped flying ship that landed in the desert about five kilometers from Ciudad Juárez.
| Type | Vehicle (class) |
| Size | 20–30 m long, 6 m high |
| Spanish entry | Nave atlante |
Description
Shaped like “an immense wasp”, with metal parts, it is about 25 meters long (“80 feet… almost 30 meters, a bit less”) and six meters (twenty feet) high on winged legs, its landing gear. It has no sails or oars; vibrating wings hold it up, sounding like “a kind of helicopter”. It has a bow, a tail and numbered decks; the Bridge and Helm is forward, on four deck.
Operation
“A convoy ship, coastal… so it’s a Minor”: its Minor helm limits it to escort and short coastal routes. It “moves by itself”, levitates, takes off from the ground and can rise “quite a lot”, though too high complicates crossing the frontier and certain spaces. In flight it can be “total and invisible”.
A dorsal turret fires upward but cannot reach targets very close or directly below. The tail, the only part climbable from outside, is a killing ground: “climb up the tail, like it was the slaughterhouse”.
The desert ship
Inside is a panel with red, green and yellow buttons; green opens access or dialogue. At one point “the elves are taking off in the ship”. It is not tied to the company or any named faction.
Other ships are not Atlantean: “bamboo ships” held by a city, and “a very ancient ship” lacking teleportation. The Dragon Ship is a separate entity.
Open questions
- How an ocean-going class relates to this flying example.
- What turns its invisibility on or off, since it was seen landed and boarded.
- Whether its self-propulsion is magic, mechanism or the helm (disputed).
- How many remain, who built and keeps them; crew, cargo, decks one to three, range, and the red and yellow buttons.