Looking damned interesting!

You'll love the way He will defend the Harpy from enemy aircraft, involving a hand held MG (think .30 M1919) a couple safety lines and a crewman to hold the ammo box, scampering around the uppers of an airship at 25,000 ft.

This is good.

"Hoo boy..."

Conflict without weapons....that is a tougher battle.

The Airship Harpy has one .30 cal machine gun and 2,000 rounds of ammo as well as four bolt-action rifles, not a real match to the possiblity of multiple fighter aircraft. That they have even that is more a matter of dealing with the occational pirate or smuggler. Airships are fundamentally NOT combat aircraft, too big and slow to maneuver, and too delicate to take any substaintial enemy fire. In peace time, the Harpy has hydrogen cells(gas bags) inside the main helium cells for extra lift, and that would be converted to all helium in wartime. The end of Pride of Fairhaven was due partly to being caught in the opening moves of an unexpected war, so still had hydrogen on board. She also didn't have any machine gun, only some rifles and pistols. More telling, she had other technical limits and no one on board with any practical combat experiance.

Shooting the cells of an all helium ship would be just short of a waste of time. The leaks couldn't be ignored, but wouldn't be an immediate problem. Helium is totally inert. More a problem would be an envelope fire that would both breech the cells, loosing lift, and compromise the structure. The Harpy had a relatively less fammable envelope finish than other ships, no powered aluminium or nitrate dope so an attacker would most likely focus on the engines and gondola. The engines were buried in the main hull driving the props by extension shafts, so zeroing in on them would be not as easy, and being Diesels, wouldn't be as easy to ignite as a gasoline engined type.
However, on the day things get hot, She is still nearly half hydrogen, so incendiary rounds would be more of a risk, though being inside helium cells, the hydrogen would need to leak out to the outside or have the helium leak out enough to let oxygen into the cells to support combustion.
Parasite fighters in real life were never operational by anyone except the USN Akron and Macon around 1932-33. In the scenario, the NA operated several Whale class big fleet escort airships which did carry fighters, though their expected role was more extended range scouts to help the airships avoid direct combat and support the fleet's area of coverage (much like the RL Sparrowhawks on the Akron and Macon) They did have a secondary defensive role, but only in a worst-case situation. The much smaller Abatross II class ships could be fitted with a single hook up trapeze for a single scout, but usually was either not fitted at all or carried a messenger airplane instead.
Once the war gets going, the surviving Albatros IIs were stripped down to take advantage of their one strength, they had a much higher ceiling than other airships and even some airplanes, because they could rotate all their propellors up for direct powered lift.

The real advantage of an airship over an aeroplane is that of endurance and vertical maneuver. For search and rescue or anti-submarine work, they are unsurpassed. And they can escort and patrol for a fleet, either as a static vantage point or actively seeking contact, especially with the aid of their own launched scout 'planes. They are not the most efficent transport/logistics units, though do have the ability of ultra-long (though not fast) non-stop range as couriers.

You'll have to wait for the story to find out about the ultimate fate of the Harpy.

Having the gondola fitted to the envelope couldn't hurt, but the Albatross class would not be modified as the production is complete, though newer ships would have that feature.

Was thinking of the conflict between Beans and offspring.

I remember a scene from "The Blue Max" film (I think) with a zeppelin getting shot down with a ball of fire. Don't expect the crew to survive that.

WWI airships were all hydrogen, so were particularly vunrible to fire. The mixed gas ships still had fire risk, but less likely the total burn-up, more likely have a section burn out and the rest of the ship collapse around it. A ship burn-up was not nessisarily a total loss of crew. Even the Hindenberg had many of the passengers and crew survive. More crews were killed by falling/trapped in the wreakage rather than burning.

Yep. Family complications. Social dynamics between her and the female crew.

I like seeing your airship knowledge.

The daughter/father issues were from his being gone during important times in her life, so they never really bonded. She was also very ambitious/unorthidox, unlike her older sister (an intelligent woman who was fully satisfied with and took seriously the role of wife and mother) and wanted to prove herself equal/better than her male counterparts. For his part, while he knew he hadn't "been there" for her, he is a bit confused by her joyless drive for success. Complicating it all is that she is an officer and he enlisted, so they cannot be too informal with each other.

(I'm writing this as 2 AM under the influence of vodka, so hope it actually makes sense)

That's all a very clear outline of an interlinked batch of interesting complications.

I like the amused look on the Captain's face =0)

Your "doodles" are always interesting and intriguing. I love the expressions here, and appreciate the background info, too. I hope this keeps being developed somewhat. :)