23 Attachment(s)
June 2015 Solo Mission - At War again: By Vagabond
Ah Hermione it is good to see you this cold evening, and I see that your imbecile of a Father is at the bar, run over and tell him to bring me a glass of the 98 brandy, he had better make that a large glass so that it will thaw these old bones out, it’s damnably cold outside.
Pierre it is a pleasure to see you have kept my seat by the fire, you are a good boy, now move over and let me sit down, no move a little further to make room for Hermione when she returns. Yes I know that it puts you close to the window but you are young and the blood flows swiftly in your veins and so you won’t feel the cold. Besides, Hermione is a little hard of hearing and so she needs to sit close to me to be able to follow my tales of the sea. You may listen as well but don’t keep interrupting like the last time, and don’t keep making those donkey eyes at Hermione, she is far too good for the likes of you and it depresses me to see you make such a spectacle of yourself.
Well done Hermione and thank you for bringing the glass so swiftly I am parched, having to explain so much to Pierre here, he does not have your quick intelligence and love of the sea and can be a little trying at times.
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Of course I will regale you with another of my intrepid stories, you are so kind to ask, indeed I will follow on from my tale of last night if you don’t mind, the one regarding the start of the war and the loss of most of the ships in my squadron. As you remember the ship I was serving on was the Commerce de Bordeaux and she was the only one to survive that dreadful battle. We returned to port and the refit was fast which enabled us to put to sea in a few days. Our Admiral, a wily old bird wanted us to check out some intelligence he had gleaned from one of his sources to the effect that the Rosbifs were making good use of a sheltered anchorage some 40 leagues away.
Normally you understand, this would have been the work for a Frigate but they were all out on patrol and the job couldn’t wait so he sent us. I imagine he knew we were his most professional crew and he may even have heard of my exploits in our recent battle and perhaps wanted to test my mettle.
Yes Pierre I know I said I was not even an Aspirant but you know that my fame spread far and wide, more quickly than most, and did I not tell you not to interrupt my story. Yes I did, now be quiet, Hermione’s heart is already beating faster knowing the stirring deeds that will unfold if I am allowed to continue.
We found the bay but the sea fog was so thick at this time in the morning that we could not see more than a few metres and so our gallant Captain reduced sail and started to explore.
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We ghosted along the northern shore and discovered a Rosbif frigate Hamadryad anchored close under the guns of a shore battery in a small fortification. We were in a dangerous position as you appreciate, my apologies mademoiselle you are quite correct I forgot to mention that the wind was blowing from the East and pushing us into the bay. It would be the devils own job to tack our way out of there but I see from your astute question you already realised that.
No Pierre I will not explain it to you and my glass seems to be empty, if you would be so good as to have it refilled I will continue.
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We quickly found another of their Frigates, the Unite anchored close to the cliffs also on the north side of the bay and then a third one, Cleopatra, off to the South and not so close to the shore.
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As I mentioned, the fortification protecting to north side of the bay was only small but it would make it difficult for us to attack Hamadryad. What surprised me at the time was how close the Frigates were to the cliffs, it was only later when we saw the stern lines they had put out to maintain their position that I understood. You appreciate a small shift in the wind to the south would have put them on the rocks. It did mean also that we couldn’t sail around them, there was not enough water to get Commerce through the gap between ship and shore, quite clever for the Rosbif’s.
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However on the south side the Cleopatra had left a little more room and so our intrepid Captain decided to go inshore of her. A foolhardy move in my opinion, yes pass me the bottles of beer and I will demonstrate the difficulties for you Pierre and after that remain quiet or you will distract Hermione with your inane chatter.
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Sure enough as we came through the wind - remember Pierre in this demonstration it is coming from our left, we failed to maintain enough speed to pass through the eye of the wind and were taken aback.
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This could have been disastrous, a collision was only narrowly avoided. I had the presence of mind to rush forward and pole us off. It took tremendous strength and a few of the quicker witted hands realised my plan and lent a helping hand, but even then we almost entangled our bowsprit but Neptune was with us and we didn’t wake the crew on the enemy ship.
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Fortune favoured us that day and we slipped behind Cleopatra, picking up a little speed as the wind blew from astern.
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This put us in a perfect position to fire our broadside along the length of the Frigate, it was devastating. Yes Hermione you remember quite rightly, normally a Ship of the Line would not fire on a Frigate, it’s unsporting and even the Rosbif’s don’t do it but in this instance we were trying to pluck the eyes out of the head of their fleet and to do that we had to destroy their Frigates.
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Within seconds the Cleopatra sank beneath the sea but the Rosbif’s reacted swiftly, Unite’s crew must have been alert even if they had not discovered us before. Within a heart beat they had fired their starboard stern battery in our direction, causing some damage to our ship but fortunately none of the crew were hit.
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Both Hamadryad and Unite realising the predicament they were in, cut their anchor and stern lines and both fell off the wind. As we were turning to starboard at the time it put Unite directly in out path and a collision was inevitable. Unfortunately for Unite we were able to fire our forward larboard battery at point blank range and this combined with very effective musketry put her out of the action.
There is some damage caused by the collision but I reduced it due to the slow collision speed.
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The situation on Unite was dire indeed, most of her crew had been laid low, 2 masts were down she was holed and on fire, a fire that would eventually burn her to the water line.
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You can imagine the elation on board Commerce, we had destroyed 2 of the 3 frigates and taken no serious damage ourselves but as we pulled away from the domed Unite we were showered with shot from Hamadryad.
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As we fell off the wind we were able to return the compliment but didn’t appear to do much damage.
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We really just needed to get out of the bay without taking much more damage, Hamadryad was upwind of us and so could escape the confines of the bay before us. Once out we would never catch her, but even so we continued to exchange canon fire to stop her escape.
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And that’s when we ran into the previously unseen second fortification on the south of the bay, her guns were primed and ready, the first volley caused a fire on Commerce, that most dreaded thing on a sailing vessel.
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As we turned to larboard the Captain ordered the guns to fire, they were at full elevation, which as you know Hermione is not very high. Ships are built to fire at close range, a horizontal fire you know but our gunners were good and I could see our balls hitting the stone fort, we must have been doing some damage to them but it was hard to discern what.
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Turning away from the fort we ran into a hail of fire from the last remaining Frigate and I realised that we might not make it out of the bay. The wind was blowing strongly into the bay and we would have to tack all the way out, taking fire from the forts at either side of the entrance. This was going to be far harder than it appeared when we sailed in.
We all learn from our experiences Hermione and I learned a lot from this one. Never enter a trap without some way out.
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I believe that our Capitaine had decided escape was more important than finishing the job and destroying the last Frigate. Even so we gave it all we had and as we came under fire from the other battery on the north side of the bay we were able to pour a devastating broadside down the length of Hamadryad. The swell was picking up and just as we fired our larboard side lifted a little and the shot flew high. Damage was caused mainly on the crew rather than the ship. Wooden splinters flew along the deck, I saw one slice a man’s head clear off his shoulders, it was terrible to behold.
You should know Hermione that war is just as terrible as it is glorious, but the glory is usually felt long after the terror has gone.
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We were nearly out of the bay and were able to pour one last broadside into the southern fort, It appeared we were out of angle of it’s guns because there was no answering fire.
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Hamadryad had obviously decided not to make a run for it but to seek shelter back in the bay, relying on the forts to defend her, and she was able to fire at close range into our stern. She must have been badly damaged with most of her cannon out of action because the close range broadside was ineffective and although we lost more crew than we could afford I could see that we would get out of here, that was a big relief I can tell you.
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One last broadside from our guns and the fight was over. It was a glorious victory and well deserved, we could have done better I suppose and if my Capitaine had asked for a little advice maybe we would have. I was young then and hardly dared put forward my ideas on how a battle should be conducted, even though, if I had, we would not have suffered so. C’est la guerre my Hermione.
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Well Hermione the Commerce de Bordeaux was a fine ship and she served us well on that day, it was a battle in two parts, the first and easy part, taking the enemy by surprise and destroying him, and the much harder part where we had to escape from a difficult situation. Never forget Hermione if you don’t win and survive, there is little glory and no one to drink this fine 98 Brandy.
Ah Pierre, you are still awake, even if a little glassy eyed, another brandy would be much appreciated thank you and don’t forget it’s the 98 vintage, that is the best, and when you’ve lived a life like mine, sometimes the best is only just good enough.
This was a most enjoyable game and it was reading this scenario that decided me on the course of playing as many of the Campaign games as possible, it's very similar to a game Dobbs posted which was purely sailing out of an anchorage, but the sailing is very difficult in tight conditions as I found out here.
I have the next game almost set up, it's sending a fire ship into a small harbour which would be fairly easy I think but I have to take my ship in to pick up the fireship's crew, that's going to be very difficult to get back out again. I might end up taking to the boats but I'm sure Jean le Vagabond will be able to spin it into a great victory. :wink:
