The Skycruiser II

The Man Who Counts, II.

The crashed vessel (see here) is not a spaceship but a "skycruiser."

Additional information:

the skycruiser has a navigation turret;

 

Eric Wace, our first human viewpoint character, who is from Earth, had been co-piloting it;

 

it has an "...ornate bronze portal..." (p. 152), a cargo hatch and a small emergency door although the first two are now submerged;

 

water, filling the "...smashed engine compartment..." (ibid.), seeps through the rest of the vessel and will soon sink it.

 

Wace works for Nicholas van Rijn and wishes he didn't. Thus, even without Hloch's introduction, we now know that van Rijn is around somewhere, maybe inside this sinking vessel, but he will not come on-stage until the beginning of Chapter III.

Arguably, War Of The Wing-Men, published in book form even earlier than Trader To The Stars, was the first Technic History volume. However, it was badly copy-edited so we prefer to regard Trader... as Volume I in the original publication order and The Man Who Counts (its proper title) as part of Volume VI, The Earth Book Of Stormgate.