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July 2015 Solo Mission - The Fire Ship: By Vagabond
Cats…. Cats…. don’t talk to me about cats Baptiste look what happened last night when you let that kitten in here.
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The blasted thing drank the last of my Brandy, I’ll have no more talk of cats do you understand.
What do you mean Hermione - you like cats! Well I can see they have their uses, keeping down the mice, and they don’t take up all the heat from the fire like dogs do, but that’s about the best I can say for them.
What do you mean Hermione – you would like a cat! Well in which case there must be more about them than I’ve discovered so far, you will have to explain. However, we transgress, it’s as cold as the grave outside and I believe Baptiste that it’s your turn to buy the drinks and if Madame Tricoteuse has any brandy left after the cats rampage last night I will have a large glass if you please.
Come now Hermione, tell me about cats and why you like them so. Oh - you would rather hear another of my seafaring tales, well that’s perfectly understandable my dear.
Baptiste while you are at the bar would you be so good as to ask Madame Tricoteuse if you could borrow her blackboard chalk, I have the perfect story for such a cold winters night, it’s about a Fireship and a burning. No Pierre not a witch burning, you’ve been thinking too much about cats, I never understood why black cats are associated with witchcraft but people do have such strange ideas.
Thank you Baptiste now to illustrate my story I need to draw an outline of a harbour so you may understand the difficulties with this operation. Pierre mind you keep a sharp eye on Madame Tricoteuse, if she stops her knitting and wanders over here we must rub out the chalk outline quickly, you remember the fuss the last time I drew on her new table tops.
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Right – on this diagram, you see these stars, here and here, they are two forts on the promontories that guard the harbour the smaller one is to the south and the larger the north, and this block outline are the ships we were to attack. It was a safe haven and a difficult nut to crack, but first I should explain what this was all about.
PIRATES
We had been ordered to clear out a nest of Pirates, and for some reason our Admiral wanted to use a fire ship to do it, so had allocated the poor Sloop Le Fortune for the task. I was sure that there were better ways to achieve this without burning a beautiful French ship but you must understand I was young then and it took some people quite a long time before they were to realise my advice was of importance.
Yes Pierre by now I was an Aspirant in the great Marine de la France, yes Pierre my Father the doorman at Madame Le Fifi’s had secured me a position in the Navy, yes Pierre he was sad to know that I would probably never come home again but he thought it was for the good of the family. Yes Pierre my glass is empty and another tot of the 98 Brandy will help me keep my temper so you had better go and fetch one, no make that a double, I can see it’s going to be a long night.
Are you sure you don’t want to go and sit with Baptiste and the Blacksmith, I’m know Hermione would be perfectly happy, just the two of us in the alcove by the fire and I wouldn’t have to shout above your inane chatter, it’s worse than a hurricane in June.
Ahh you are back quickly Pierre, well I waited for your return and now will tell you about our Capitaine de Fregate Robert Auclaire who was as crafty a Capitaine as I’ve ever served under. Indeed some of his exploits almost matched my own for cunning and daring, and this was as cunning as any plan he conceived.
The Capitaine took one look at the chart and declared “This will not do, we can’t just sail into the harbour and set fire to the Pirate ships, it will be a death sentence for the fire ship crew” “No - I will follow you in with Sibylle and pick you up from the water”, and he looked directly at me when he said those words.
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And so it was, that I Jean le Vagabond, was chosen to command the Fireship Le Fortune and sail first into the harbour. There was a lot of grumbling from the crew, they said we should follow the larger ship, they complained that the grog ration was too small, indeed they complained about almost everything. When I looked at the men I realized they were the worst of Sibylle’s crew, the malingerers, thieves, landsmen all. The Capitaine had put the dross of the crew in the Fireship and he had put me in command. I was so proud that he trusted I could handle these scurvy knaves and make them pull together as a crew, although I don’t mind admitting I would have liked 1 or 2 sound men from the crew.
My orders were to arrive at the mouth of the bay at 05:00 just as it was getting light, I wondered why we didn’t try and get past the fortifications in the dark but didn’t want to question him too closely on my first independent command. On the stroke of five there was a flash of light, followed by a big cloud of smoke and I realised the battery on the south side of the harbour had fired on us, just then their cannon balls struck home.
It was pandemonium, our ship was loaded with combustibles and a fire started in the main sail, presumably some burning wadding adhered to a ball, it’s unusual but I’ve seen it happen before. Then the ship shuddered and the call went up “We’re holed and shipping water” Another broadside like that and we would be sunk.
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You understand Hermione the predicament we were in, I shouted to the crew to man the pump and some hands to go aloft and cut that sail free before it set fire to the combustibles on the deck. This was a perverse situation, putting out a fire on a fire ship but it had to be done or we would never make it into the harbour.
I could see musket flashes from the nearest fort, the larger one on the northern side of the harbour and knew that Capitaine Auclaire’s plan had worked. Looking astern Sibylle was right behind us, we both had full sails set, a risk it’s true but speed was essential to get through the entrance before we were shattered by canon fire.
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The musket flashes were because the crafty Auclaire had landed Sibylle’s marines further along the shore and they had made a landward attack on the fortification, our trained Marines had caught the pirates unprepared for this and they were overrun in no time at all.
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We entered the zone of fire from their guns just as the fort fell and so suffered no damage, which after that first salvo from the southern fort would have destroyed us completely.
You can see Hermione the wind is blowing out of the harbour mouth and we were going to have to put in a tack or two unless we are very lucky or skilful. Yes that’s very kind of you to say so but yes I think I can say without contradiction that I have more skill than most when it comes to helming a ship.
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The poor sloop Le Fortune was flying like the wind, she was a weatherly craft and I encouraged the helmsman to steer a little to starboard, full and by as we sailors say, and we maintained the wind in our sails which enabled us to set a course directly for the target.
The south battery had time to re-load and they blasted away again but we were out of her zone of fire Sibylle though was so close that the balls missed the ships hull but struck high, sending splinters of wood cascading down on the crew. I knew this would be a major concern for our Capitaine because part of his crew were on Le Fortune and all the Marines were ashore so he was manning the ship with a skeleton crew only.
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After successfully putting out the fire in the rigging we had to set fire to the combustibles and get the ships boats over the side. The men were still manning the pump trying vainly to stem the inflow of water, but they were keeping pace with it and I felt the elation that comes with knowing you are going to succeed.
If only we could get off this tinder keg we might even succeed and live, but you understand that for a man such as I, success and glory are the only drugs that fuel life.
Behind us I could hear the guns from Sibylle as she opened fire on the fort giving them a taste of their own medicine. From the noise I knew the Capitaine had loaded double shot and was giving them hell.
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This knocked the stuffing out of them and no mistake, we gave a quick cheer before dropping our boats in the water. No Pierre - dropping the boats in the water is not meant literally, we lowered them quickly but carefully, because our lives depended on them.
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Dust and debris flew in the air from the Sibylle’s guns and she nearly destroyed the battery in one broadside.
It’s a shame they couldn’t be holed and lose a mast or it would have been much worse.
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Le Fortune crashed into the nearest pirate craft and my crew took to the boats, there was a lot of jockeying for position but with the flat of my sword blade I made the men move which give me space to clamber into the lead boat.
Yet again I wondered why the Capitaine hadn’t spared any steady hands for this venture, but cast that thought aside as I got the men rowing in something like unison.
If you are wondering why the ships boats look like Greek Penteconters that’s because they are.
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As we rowed to the centre of the harbour to rendezvous with our mother ship I wondered if this would happen after all. There was very little space in the harbour but Sibylle with judicious use of sail power only just managed to make it round. If it hadn’t been so steep too she would have grounded I’m sure, as it was some wag said she had fewer layers of paint on the starboard side when she came out than when she went in.
One by one the pirate ships caught fire and there were not enough of their crew to extinguish them.
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We all made it on board, and we had a following wind.
By now all the pirate ships were ablaze and so we just had to get past the battered fort to be away from this place of destruction and start our celebration.
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To try and make the passage safer we jinked the Sibylle to larboard and gave a lacklustre volley at the fort, even with the Fireship crew assisting with manning the guns it was a poor thing.
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Fortunately we were still out of the angle of their guns because as we turned to avoid the cliffs we would have made an easy target for them.
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With our final turn to larboard, we had them lined up for a full broadside that was sent with gusto and finished all resistance, we lost the fore topsail with a lucky shot from the Pirate fort but that was the end it. A most successful mission and I gained a new nickname, Fiery Jean.
Quick Pierre rub out the chalk lines Madame Tricoteuse is coming over and you don’t want to get into trouble for drawing on her table top.
Hermione, you have been an attentive pupil tonight but I must say adieu and I hope to see you again in the near future, I may have a little surprise for you then but more of that later.
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I couldn’t find any rules that I thought suitable for a land attack on the fort so I went with the Marine’s and Matelot’s boards I found on here somewhere.
Then rationalised the fight as a surprise attack on the rear of the fort, the defenders would have been preparing to fire the cannon at the ships sailing into the harbour, so this would negate the bonus of the fortification itself, otherwise it was a straight fight.
If anyone can point me at land fighting rules I would be more than grateful.
I decided the pirates would start to wake up from an obvious drunken stupor after 1D6 roll and they rolled 6 so the fire ship had already set the first ship alight on turn 5 and there was no resistance from them.
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On my last AAR, there was far more interest in cat photos than my deathly prose and so I thought if I wanted anyone to even look at the post I should close with a cat picture.
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But I’m not going to.
