OLD TOM - The Orca comes to play on the carebear ranch.

In my childhood as a blond haired lad growing up on coastal rural Australia. The ocean was always there as a place of play and financial success for many. I spent a good amount of my life in or around a small coastal fishing town Called Eden. It's situated on the southern east coast of Australia in the state of New South Whales and the town itself is smack bang in the middle of Two Fold bay. Said to be the southern hemispheres 3rd deepest natural harbor. I've spent hours of my life sailing, swimming, surfing, scuba diving, and snorkeling in this bay and the surrounding coat. Eden is known historically as a whaling town in the late 1800's and has a good amount of documentation around cooperation of whalers and orca during this time. Hunting whales when that sort of thing was considered cool. AS a result there is a local ledged and set of bones associated to an Orca called "Old Tom" who was the last orca to work with whalers before the decline of whaling. You can read about him here

So when I finally got around to adding an ORCA Industrial Command ship to my hanger recently it was a no brainer to name it after the legendary whale from my towns history.

Undocking in "OLD TOM" is like flying a small base around. It's got all the creature comforts a mining fleet or a worm hole crew might need. Sure it may not have a clone bay but that's what it's big brother the roquel is for. Given its size it aligns and warps fast enough that I don't feel the need to make coffee. It's got enough mids for a fair shield tank. The highs are there for gang links and the lows are perfect for utility mods. 3 large rigs and it's a pretty fun boat if you are mining rocks or supporting a small fleet. I'd not recommend you take it for a stroll into lowsec or Null sec alone but if you had a small force with you I can see how this boat would also be handy.

I've fitted Mine with a typical Highsec mining fit as such:

Highs:

Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization
Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement
Small Tractor Beam I

Mediums:

Invulnerability Field II
2 x Large Shield Extender II
TDB (Survey Scanner or second INV II)

Lows:

2 x Expanded Cargohold II

Rigs:

3 X Large Cargohold Optimization I

It's nice to sit in a belt now and rip stuff apart not having to hall rocks away constantly. More time getting the rocks done means less time mining. This makes me happy.

Cheers

EVE SOB