AAR - January Solo Campaign

[Hjl]

First off, sorry for the poor quality of the pictures. They were taken with my ipad.




Ships involved, HMS Vanguard (Captain Henry Watson), The Honorable Joann (merchant), Generaux

Having captured the merchant vessel the Generaux moves towards the Vanguard with the wind and closes rapidly.

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The Vanguard veers to starboard and exchanges fire with the Generaux. Both ships come off fairly lightly but the Generaux suffers some crew losses.

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The Vanguard is still heading into the wind and drifts to port. The Generaux is caught off guard and receives a raking shot to its bow. The ship is starting to take some damage now and the crew suffer yet more losses.

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The two ships dance around one another trying to get the advantage while the gun crews desperately reload!

The captured merchant ship is making an escape and Captain Watson is too busy fighting the French Man of War to do much about it.

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Captain Watson orders the Vanguards crew to load double shot into its starboard guns. With the French ship in close pursuit the Vanguard turns hard to starboard and unleashes a devastating close range volley raking down the bow of the Generaux doing massive damage!

The Generaux loses one of its masts and suffers very heavy crew losses. The crew are wavering and the French captain considers striking their colours.

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The Generaux gives one final push, it is still behind the Vanguard and has a line of shot. The French gun crews fire their port guns but they have suffered too much damage and lost too many guns. The Vanguard takes an unlucky hit below the water line and starts taking water.

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The repair crews of the HMS Vanguard get to work patching the hull and Captain Watson turns the ship starboard. The Generaux moves up to point blank range with Vanguard and both gun crews open fire. The Vanguard takes another hit below the waterline but the Generaux is devastated. Having lost too many crew to remain combat effective the French ship surrenders!

The crew of the HMS Vanguard shout hurrah!! and send a prize crew over to the Generaux.

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The ship statuses as reported to the Admiralty.

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Captain Henry Watson notes his disappointment to find that the The Honorable Joann has made its escape, but also mentions that with the Generaux no longer prowling the area the loss of one merchant ship is a small price to pay for the dramatic improvement in the safety of the merchant shipping route.