Description

A board game published in limited numbers by the Canadian Navy for its personnel to play aboard long boring voyages at sea, and improve their innate knowledge of collisions-avoidance. Since it's a government asset intended for use at sea, it's made of fantastically high-quality materials which help to make up for how utterly inane the actual trivia proves to be (example: According to the 1972 mandate, what is the minimum length of sounding cord that should be trailed behind any vessel approaching a port from the leeward side with the intention to transfer cargo after dusk?"). The game box also includes a copy of the hefty "Collision Regulations: International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 - with Canadian modifications, 1983".

Players start out taking only yellow coastal routes, but as their knowledge progresses their ships (oddly represented as multicoloured faux bullets made of iron termed "projies") can move out into the ocean, ultimately needing to reach certain key ports and complete specific routes, all while avoiding hazards and inclement weather. The winner is officially termed the "Commander of the High Seas", and more importantly the Canadian naval personnel have passed another two hours at sea. The popularization of video games ultimately rendered traditional classics like "High Seas" less necessary.

It was reported that the initial printing was of only 100 copies of the game in October 1987 for initial deployment and testing, and it's unclear whether there were later versions produced as the rules stated "Copyright 1988"; it is referred to in naval literature as both "High Seas: A Collision/s Regulation Game" and "High Seas: A Performance Maintenance Game".

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