September Mission. AAR. Running the gauntlet.

[Bligh]

Rear Admiral Sir Joshua Pound sat in his Office at Government House Cape Town known as the Castle, and took in the view from his window overlooking the bay. He could see the recently arrived convoy from England discharging its consignment of supplies and two fresh Regiments of Redcoats, which were all part of the buildup to an attempt on the French held Islands of Isle de France and the newly named Isle de Bonaparte.




Even more ships out in the bay were approaching and giving their customary salute to the residence.



His musings about the forthcoming action, and his new appointment as C in C for the Cape were brought to an abrupt halt when there was a knock upon his door.
His Flag Captain Josiah Perryman ushered in Captains Grenville Tanner of the Leander, Commander George Farthing of the frigate Concord, and Lieutenant Peter Shilling Commander of the Brig Swann.
Waving them all to a chair in his sumptuous Office, he indicated the Decanter and glasses on the Table in front of them.



" Please be seated gentlemen and help yourselves to the Claret or Port as you prefer."
Having put the three Officers at ease, sir Joshua went on to outline a plan for sweeping up any supply ships creeping up the coast of Africa in an attempt to re supply the French prior to the invasion of the Islands. The three Captains were to deploy along the coast and take or destroy all such vessels as they came across.
Within a few days of this interview, the three ships were making their way out to sea in search of enemy Prizes.

Rob.

[Bligh]

September Mission AAR Running the gauntlet.





The three British ships had cruised up the coast for over a week without any success. The French merchants and escorts were using the Islets and river estuaries to hide up during the daytime, and then running close along shore during the night to their next haven.
Finally a bit of luck came the way of the three British Captains. Standing off a series of sandbanks one night, the wind suddenly dropped and they were forced to anchor in the shallows to prevent the incoming tide sweeping them onto the sands.
With the dawn the wind picked up again, and captain Tanners' masthead lookout reported sails within the sand bars. Ships which had obviously been making there way up the coast in the dark, but had also become becalmed by the lack of wind.





Now with a freshening breeze, they were attempting to run past the blockade before the British could navigate a way through the various channels.
There were two Frigates in rear but leading the group was a Sloop heavily low in the water, obviously carrying munitions or artillery pieces.





The bad news for the French was that, worried about going aground, Tanner had put out ships boats during the night to investigate the extent of the sandbars, and was thus appraised of the position and depths of the various channels through the sands. He immediately signaled his consorts to engage the enemy.





The Concorde and Swann headed for the enemy, even as the French crowded on sail in an attempt to reach the next point of safety which was an old fortified Moorish tower some way down the coast.





Meanwhile Leander with too deep a draught to cross the shoals cruised up the coast seeking a deeper channel than the one to which she was opposite.





Concorde and Swan where soon crossing the bar with a fair wind on the beam.





As they did so, the Moorish tower raked Concord at extreme range, damaging her steering with a lucky shot which hit the wheel and wounded one of the helmsman with a shower of splinters.








This was not a good spot to be caught out, and Leander attempted to distract the enemy by entertaining the French ships with a long range broadside in return, from the far side of the sands.





Concorde now free of the passage now was in position to rake the Sloop Le fortune, whilst Swan put about on her Starboard side.







Meanwhile Leander was taking return fire from The French National Frigate Hermione who was second in the line. Firing high she did some damage to the sails and several men in the tops.





The fighting now became general with Swan exchanging fire with Le Fortune and fortunately setting her on fire, whilst receiving sail damage and fallen crewmen in return.





Meanwhile Leander found a deeper channel and in attempting to tack was taken aback as the tide racing through the channel pushed her bows over the wrong way.





Swan now stern raked Le Fortune and forced her to strike.





Concorde, not so lucky was stern raked by the hilltop fort, but the plunging fire was mostly ineffective and simply struck down some marines gathered on her quarterdeck.





Hermione was not so lucky as she received the full force of Concorde's first double shotted broadside at close range.





Captain Tanner having finally managed to navigate through the Sandbars, was just in time to engage the rearmost French Frigate Artesian.





Once more the British ship was able to deliver a massive raking broadside to the Frenchman, with its Carronades adding to the mayhem between decks, as they ripped the bows and cat-heads asunder.





Next came fire from both ships fighting tops.





Then Artesien gave her reply, but as she was already sorely hurt this fire was very desultory indeed.








Again musketry gave no advantage to either ship, but was telling on the strength of both crews.





A small coastal tower now chipped in with a shot but had no effect upon the battle save to mark the demise of le Fortune,




who despite all efforts from Swans boarders finally succumbed to her fire damage and went down with her crew and the boarders making off in the ships boats in opposite directions.





Dryade, now appeared upon the scene having kept out of the fight thus far, and attempted to pick up the French survivors.




Swan gave her some encouragement in this respect with a salute of her own.





Hermione and Concorde continued to exchange broadsides, and it was now obvious that she was getting the worst of the encounter as Concorde's Carronades firing the larger ball began to steadily wear her down.




Concorde herself was not impervious to enemy fire, and took damage from one of the Moorish towers on the heights, even as Hermione finally struck to Swan.








Meanwhile, Artisien's Captain had decided to run aboard Leander and take her by boarding.




The first clash of arms was indecisive as each crew strove for dominance.



By this time Dryad had recovered the French survivors from Le Fortune, and was busy making sail once more.



Not so for Artesien and Leander, where the battle continued to flow back and forth across the decks as French Soldiers on passage in the Frigate now joined in the struggle. Eventually a charge from Tanner's marines swept the French from his deck and under threat of further broadsides, and with her Captain mortally wounded the French Frigate struck to the British.



This was not the end of the action, however, for in one last act the Moorish tower had the final say.



Its fall of shot plunging straight through the decks of Swan and sending that worthy to the sea bed after the ships finest hour, having taken both a Sloop and Frigate.





Lt George Farthing being the last man to take to the boats saluted his brave little ship as it slid below the waves.
Concorde was meanwhile taking command of Hermione, and at long last rescuing the prize crew from the sunken Le Fortune.





This task completed, the remaining two British ships slipped back out to sea with their prizes before the shore batteries could cause them any further damage.

Dryade now safely under the guns of the large Moorish Fort made off in the other direction.

Bligh.




Bligh.

[Bligh]

Butcher's Bill.


Ships name…………………………......LEANDER.
Type of Ship……………………….....FOURTH RATE.
Captain's name…………………….. Tanner.

Returned to port (RtP)………………RTP.
Captured (C) ………………………..
Killed in action (KIA…………………
Total hull boxes undamaged………8
Total crew boxes undamaged…..…4



Ships name…………………………......CONCORDE.
Type of Ship……………………….....FIFTH RATE
Captain's name…………………….. Farthing.

Returned to port (RtP)………………RTP.
Captured (C) ………………………..
Killed in action (KIA…………………
Total hull boxes undamaged………3
Total crew boxes undamaged…..…3





Ships name………………………….....SWAN.
Type of Ship………………………...UNRATED.
Captain's name……………………..Shilling.

Returned to port (RtP)………………Sunk.
Captured (C) ………………………..
Killed in action (KIA…………………
Total hull boxes undamaged………0
Total crew boxes undamaged…..…3









Total burdens of all enemy ships sunk or captured……8
Did the squadron meet its goals?...................................YES.


Following this action, For his taking of the Frigate and sinking of the Sloop. Lt. Shilling was promoted to Commander.
Commander Farthing was promoted to Captain with less than three years seniority for assisting in the taking of the ships.
Captain Tanner was mentioned in dispatches to the Admiralty and his report of the action was published in the Gazette.

Bligh.