AAR. Part two.
Work was hastily carried out to make Orpheus seaworthy, and eventually she limped into harbour with the news of the pending French Landings.
The only ship in port was the HEIC Nottingham, and as soon as he received the information Captain McBride recalled his shore parties and readied the ship for battle.
Unfortunately the news was too late for McBride to pick his battleground, for no sooner was the Nottingham almost out of sight of land than the enemy hove into view.
McBride could not therefore, as he would have wished, avail himself of the wind gauge, it blowing strongly from the North.
As the ships closed McBride put up his helm in an attempt to cut the leading frigate off from its consort.
The French with the wind advantage thwarted him, however, by turning down wind, and the only resort was for Nottingham to follow the turn and exchange long range fire.
The opening broadside showed that the Frenchman was no novice as one of Nottingham's t'gallants went by the board. Otherwise the exchange was fairly even.
After the opening flurry, the French came about in line as the Frigate which could now be observed as the Leander strove to cover the troopship.
The wind chose this moment to veer slightly from due south by a couple of points which aided the Nottingham more than the French.
Making full use of the wind Nottingham came about and raked Leander's stern with its first Port broadside.
As each gun Captain pulled his lanyard the balls ploughed through Leander's Gallery turning all before them into matchwood. The tiller ropes parted and for a time Leander wallowed totally unmanageable.
As she finally got away McBride followed her about hoping to pour another broadside into her stern. Unfortunately this brought him under the guns of the troopship and a lucky shot started a fire on the foredeck, whilst another ball hulled her.
Both ship bore away.
This gave Nottingham chance to Rake the Troopship, and score some telling hits on both ship and crew.
Then the wind which had been fitful veered back to South.
Favorable to all ships, they maneuvered for an advantageous position once more.
Nottingham was now in a stern chase, and gradually overhauling the Troopship.
The wind now backed a further two degrees, blowing off the ships Port forrard quarter.
Leander luffed up into the wind to cover the Troopship and try to bring her guns to bear.
The broadside fell short of the Nottingham, but served notice to McBride that the fight was by no means over yet.
McBride turned onto the opposite course, and using his deft captain's ability came about right smartly.
This was just enough to get another long range raking shot on the transport which took some fresh damage below the waterline.
The wind now veered two further points to the west.
As McBride followed the troopship it came up into the eye of the wind and tacked after the Frigate.
This gave the Nottingham a long shot with its aft battery which did little damage.
Nottingham then also tacked and a few minutes later got a better line on the troopship hitting it once more on the waterline.
Gradually Leander came back into the scene after wearing ship.
McBride was not to be denied his prey, however, and landed another broadside on the hapless Transport.
The wind maintained a S Westerly aspect.
With the wind behind him, another subtle change of course and McBride landed another full broadside on the troopship, which was now masking the Leander.
Before Leander could come about to cover the troopships stern, one last raking shot did for it and its Master was forced to strike.
In return Nottingham took more damage from the Leander, and lost some steerage.
Leander should now have been able to escape, but made the fatal error of being caught in stays.
This allowed Nottingham to give her the forrard guns.
McBride now decided to end the matter by boarding Leander, and putting the helm hard over the two ships came into contact amidst a smattering of musket balls from the tops of both ships.
Buoyed up by their Captain and grenades from the tops Leander's crew managed to repel the first boarding attempt from the Nottingham.
Finally getting a footing on the Leander's deck the fight continued.
As more grenades took their toll and more men poured up from Leander's lower deck the tide swung against the boarders.
The Nottingham's crew just could not get the upper hand and were beaten back across the main deck and onto the Leander's poop.
Finally forced to relinquish the French ship, they fell back onto the Nottingham.
The French also had lost so many men that they were unable to renew the action, and both crews stood off simply observing each other across the widening gap, neither with enough unwounded men to even set a sail.
Eventually small boats from the Orpheus and Merchantmen in the harbour plus part of the Garrison had to put out and take the French ships in tow, with a dozen able seamen to help get the Nottingham underway.
Bligh.
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