Nation: the Dominion of the British West Indies
Location: British West Indies as presently constituted, the Bahamas, Jamaica and Bermuda. Control established over coal mines in East Texas (the immediate area of them, not surrounding areas)
Icon: [img]http://www.targetszone.co.uk/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderpictures/webassets/unionjackolivepvc.jpg[/img]
History: During the Commonwealth-Middle East wars, the British rearmed the Royal Navy to a predominately nuclear surface fleet to obviate the need for fossil fuels.

During the European civil war, the British used this new and rearmed Royal Navy to forfend assaults by continental counterparts.

On 10/23/2077, ships of the Royal Navy's North Atlantic Fleet lost all contact with the homeland. These vessels plotted courses to the nearest responsive British territory, Bermuda, where they learned the ghastly truth about what had occurred. (OOC: As evidenced by Tenpenny crossing the Atlantic, it sucks being in England, moreso than in America.) Bermuda was quickly being irradiated, however, by winds from the continental US, so it behooved them to find a different place to make their way.

Ship's Meteorologist Lieutenant Burns correctly determined that the trade winds blowing from Africa, a place unlikely to have been bombed with nuclear weapons, would make the British West Indies, themselves unlikely to have been involved in violence given the main war's pacific axis and British guarantees in case of Latin American aggression, an ideal place to restart British civilization. 

Of the 21 ships of the North Atlantic fleet, all 21 including railgun armed battleship HMS [i]Vanguard[/i] decided to make their way to the British West Indies. 

After several fruitless voyages back to the UK in 2078, King George VII and other members of the royal family were not able to be located, so the fifth son of King George VII, Prince Phillip of Wessex, a ship's lieutenant aboard a destroyer was crowned and coronated in the dining room aboard Vanguard as King Alfred II. The following ceremonial proclamation was read aboard each ship after the new king had appointed his new privy council.

"Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to call to His Mercy our late Sovereign Lord King George the Seventh of Blessed and Glorious memory, by whose presumed Decease the Crown is solely and rightfully come to the High and Mighty Prince Alfred Phillip Charles:
WE, therefore, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this Realm, being here assisted with these His Majesty's Privy Council, with other Principal Gentlemen of Quality, with the Lord High Admiral, Aldermen, and Sailors of His Royal Navy, do now hereby with one voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart publish and proclaim that the High and Mighty Prince Alfred Phillip Charles is now, by the death of our late Sovereign of happy memory, become King Alfred the Second, by the Grace of God King of this Realm and of all His other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, to whom His lieges do acknowledge all Faith and constant Obedience with hearty and humble Affection, beseeching God by whom Kings and Queens do reign, to bless His Royal Highness Alfred the Second with long and happy Years to reign over us. The King is dead, Long Live the King!"

Over the next 20 years, British and the occasional Australian ships in various states of disrepair or damage would limp across the Atlantic in response to the West Indies' radio beacon into Bermuda's irradiated former US naval base, now just a staging area for fissile material expeditons. The ships would there be stripped for parts and Uranium to keep the aging Royal Navy afloat, and over time they built up quite a surplus to keep the navy going for years, even if considerably less efficiently. 

Despite all this, 40 years later only 12 of the original ships (8 destroyers, 3 guided missile cruisers, and HMS [i]Vanguard[/i] were operable. It behooved the Dominion to seek other alternatives before their ships finally rattled to pieces. They sailed the world over in a perilous voyage, collecting museum ships of older, simpler designs. Among their best finds were HMS [i]Warrior[/I] and the Danish steam frigate Jylland, among several replica ships of the line, sloops, and frigates.

In true British form, they are prolific merchants, and operate their warships to protect their commerce from pirates. They trade up the Atlantic seaboard and the Mississippi.