Springhare Narrowboats (Patreon)

Space Springhares are capable of making many ships, habitats and other space born structures out of Bonewood China, but the most basic type of interstellar craft they produce is a type of Narrowboat.

Narrowboats are generally small, easy to produce, and highly customisable. They can act as general use ships for Springhares hauling small to medium cargo, but their most frequent use is that of a transport-home combination. Often cosy, cluttered and filled with high efficiency, these ship-homes will almost always be a reflection of the Springhare living in them.

Space Springhares established in a galaxy will typically have facilities and resources abundant enough to make such small craft hulls more or less freely available upon request in their potteries, with the main factor stopping them spitting out reserves of them being the fact that each Narrowboat hull is typically a custom build.

Much like the smallest of habitats they are typically lived in by between one and five Springhares. A Narrowboat trades the space and additional facilities of a small habitat with manoeuvrability, the ability to land on planets/in gravity wells, and a greater ease to dock with other species spacecraft/stations.

While the Narrowboat hull is freely available, the value of such a craft comes with it's fittings, functions, and furnishing. Bonewood furnishing, trinkets, and technology built in will all add the value to a Narrowboat, making a mostly free hull into a potentially expensive craft depending on the owners whim.

Being made of Bonewood China, the hull of such craft have some properties that lad to some cultural aspects of Springhare society. Testing of a Narrowboat Hull quality is generally done by gentle taps to make the ship produce a 'ding' noise, the noise quality often being highly important to large Springhare ears to detect both defects in the hull and to ensure the hull has the right 'sound' to it. Deep in the depths of space, Springhares are known to produce a curious harmonic-like song specifically tuned to their own ships hull resonance frequency, the result being both Springhare and Narrowboat can sing together in the emptiness of space.