English Bay (Marquesa)

English Bay is a large bay in the Commonwealth of Antilla, situated between southwest Marquesa, eastern Parmesa and northern Santa Maria, the three largest islands of Antilla. Antilla's four most populous cities are located along the bay's eastern shore on Marquesa, namely the Christiansby (the capital), Newhaven, Simpsons Cove and Bohemia; Reef Nook, the largest town and main port of Parmesa, is located on the western shore of English Bay as well as Petersberg, the main port of Santa Maria. English Bay contains Antilla's busiest sea lanes, as all vessels intending to dock at Christiansby or Reef Nook (the nation's two largest ports) must enter the bay, and as a result of the exponential growth of Antilla's economy in the last decade, the main ports on English Bay are usually at full volume, requiring vessels to anchor in the bay for up to two weeks while awaiting moorage–on any given weekday, especially during the drier, calmer season, one might spot up to 50 ships anchored in English Bay, in addition to those ships arriving and leaving and smaller local vessels like ferries, yachts, sailboats, fishing boats, tugboats and barges going about their own business.

As a result of the more than doubling of the daily traffic in English Bay in under a decade, in 2016 Antilla's Ministry of Transportation established the English Bay Traffic Management System, which functions as a maritime version of air traffic control. The system is controlled from a command centre at the Port of Christiansby on Spanish Harbour, staffed at all times by a minimum of ten controllers, who communicate with vessels via radio and manage vessel movements using large touchscreen charts, which display the current position and movement of all vessels in or approaching the bay as detected by the system's advanced network of sonar and GPS. The command centre itself is similar to an air traffic control tower, situated atop a 335-foot structure located at the western point of the harbour's South Mole on the site of a former lighthouse, surrounded by large inclined windows on all sides, affording a complete, 360-degree view of the harbour and surrounding bay on a clear day. The control tower doubles as a taller, brighter version of the lighthouse it replaced, with a massive strobe light fitted to the spire, a further 100 feet above the control centre, virtually eliminating nighttime glare which could seriously impair the visual observation of controllers, especially during poor weather.