The Treasure Ship
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...9&d=1567163552
The French Navy had been raiding the British East India Company for a year and collected a large amount of treasure of various kinds but the most valuable items have been loaded on to the good ship Bertin and is en-route for France. The Bertin had anchored on the west side of a large bay in a secluded natural harbour and is taking on water prior to the next stage of her journey home. She is lying to her bower anchor and so is facing into the wind. There has been a constant on shore breeze for the last few days and her Captain is concerned that his ship shouldn’t drag her anchor and risk losing a fortune so he prefers the security of his main anchor even though it will be a slow process raising it when they come to leave.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...8&d=1567163552
On the east side of the bay lies the Bertin’s escort the Frigate Courageuse, her Captain John le Vagabond is more concerned about the rumours of a British naval force in the area and is quite happy lying to his 2nd anchor, his wind is offshore and there is only a short fetch so very small waves. As I said he is quite happy until there is a hail from the tops. Sail Ho.
(That would be in French but my French is very limited and so you’ll have to do your own translations in this game.)
A sail can only mean one thing of importance, the arch enemy of France the British Navy has found them.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...7&d=1567163552
He runs up the rat lines with his telescope and spies a large Frigate, she looks to be of French build, he recognises the sweet lines, it can only be the HMS Amelia, taken by the British in some underhanded way a few years previously. There’s another smaller Frigate further south, a short ugly ship she is, it must be HMS Cleopatra, he’s seen her before, he never forgets a ships lines.
Cut the anchor rode he shouts, before sliding down the backstay to the deck, all hands on deck, raise sail fast as you can boys, gunners check your priming, all men to their stations, there’s going to be some hot work this very day.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...6&d=1567163552
The British have caught the French on the hop and if they can act fast will be in a good position to take the treasure ship and starve France of the money they so dearly need.
Bertin is off to the left of the picture, Courageuse far right, HMS Amelia right and HMS Cleopatra in the foreground.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...5&d=1567163552
Captain Vagabond is in remarkably good spirits, mainly because he has only lost his 2nd anchor, the topsails are set and the Courageuse starts to turn with the wind off her port bow. It will take some clever helming to get through the gap in the islands but Vagabond has every confidence in his helmsman on watch.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...4&d=1567163552
The Captain of the Bertin can’t afford to lose his bower anchor when he is so far from home and getting a replacement is not likely, so the crew are heaving on the capstan raising it slowly. As they turn the heavy capstan the ship moves slowly forward, it’s going to take 3 turns to raise the anchor, 1D3 dice roll.
The two British Frigates are flying under full sail, HMS Cleaopatra is gaining in the race to get to the Bertin first.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...3&d=1567163552
The Courageuse is making her way through the gap, te crew are hauling on lines, letting go others and the mainsail is set, they are picking up speed but quite a long way behind the flying British ships.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...2&d=1567163552
At long range the much heavier HMS Amelia fires her starboard quarter battery and takes the return shots from Courageuse. The ships Carpenter reports that the shot has sprung a leak below the water line and Captain Vagabond orders men below to plug it.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...1&d=1567163552
Bertin has finally raised her anchor and set the topsails to turn her head away from the wind and towards the downwind gap in the islands. Her Captain knows that the Cleopatra will get to him well before he is through, but if they close fast enough the damage should be small and he is relying on the fact that the Bertin is a much larger ship and quite well armed.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...0&d=1567163552
Bertin now with mainsails set and HMS Cleopatra close the distance between them, they both fire as soon as their guns bear rather than risk missing as they pass each other going at this speed. Bertin has had the guns double shotted, quite a risk when they have been loaded so long but lady luck is on their side and no gun explodes with the excess load. Cleopatra takes heavy damage, she is a much lighter ship that Bertin even though she carries a heavy broadside.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...9&d=1567163552
Captain Vagabond over on the right is calmly telling the helmsman they need to turn to starboard, the First Officer relays the command to the sail handlers and they make the corrections. The crew are busy pumping and trying to plug the hole to stop the water pouring in.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...8&d=1567163552
Both Captains let out a sigh of relief as they make it through the channel, but HMS Amelia has got within range of Bertin and lets fly with her starboard bow battery. They fired on the upward roll and the cannon balls went high doing no damage to the ship but there were a lot of crew casualties.
Cleopatra is in the natural harbour and it’s going to be difficult for her to turn and head out quickly.
The crew of Courageuse have managed to plug the hole and quickly the pumps reduce the level of water in the hold to its normal 3ft. or 1m because they’re French. However they are still a long way from Amelia, but they have the wind on the quarter, their best point of sail. In spite of losing crew Bertin is rapidly reloading the post guns.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...7&d=1567163552
HMS Amelia is caught between the two French ships and suffers heavy crew casualties but she hits Courageuse hard with the first salvo from the port side. She sends another ball through the planking below the water line and everyone on Courageuse holds their breath until the Carpenter reports that he can plug it, given a little time. The marines in the tops fire their muskets and Amelia comes off the worse from that exchange.
At this point Amelia has lost over half her crew, it’s not looking good.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...6&d=1567163552
Bertin’s Captain orders the helm hard a lee and he puts his ship neatly behind Amelia, he fires his starboard broadside down the length of HMS Amelia causing massive damage, the mizzen mast falls in the water, slowing the ship down as the crew take axes to cut through the rigging and remove the tangle of ropes, but worse than that she is holed in two places and water is pouring into the hull. Courageuse compounds the damage, turning to starboard she brings her other broadside to bear and blows Amelia’s rudder to splinters as well as killing even more of the crew. There is only 1 man and the ships dog to try and plug 2 holes as well as pump the water out, cut the mast away and get the floating wreck underway again. It’s a forlorn hope.
Sorry to interrupt the narrative but I should like some advice on the rules. Here Bertin could have fired her full broadside but not with a raking shot, or her Quarter battery with a raking shot. Her guns were at 2,3,2, it’s also her first shot from the starboard guns.
Quarter guns 2 + 1 for a raking shot +1 for first shot = 4
Broadside guns 3 + 1 for first shot = 4
I read the rules as being separate not cumulative? Then there are A and B damage counters because of being double shot.
Does that make sense. Cheers
HMS Amelia, tries to pump the water out but with 1 crew action it continues to pour in and at this point she strikes her colours. Bertin and Courageuse both send a prize crew to take control and try and keep the ship afloat.
Another rules question, Amelia had 2 hull sections clear and 1 crew action available. So at the beginning of the turn she took 2 water markers which filled all the hull sections so she struck, then the crew pumped and she lost 1 marker so should not be struck! I pumped rather than repaired the hole which meant that the hull damage recovered 1 section. I realised that pumping would not suffice and so next turn I repaired one of the leaks and took extra water damage to the hull, I also checked to see if the ship suffered a catastrophic hull collapse and it didn’t, well not yet. By the time I had repaired both hull damages I had 3 excess water tokens on the ships card. My thinking was that if I repaired the hull I could pump out the water and save the ship.
Does that make sense, I know that the rules just say the ship has gone?
Anyway back to the action.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...5&d=1567163552
Cleopatra has been turning hard a port downwind and has very nearly turned 360’, here she is just about to head into the wind. Far too close to the shore for my liking.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...4&d=1567163552
She turns to starboard, trying to edge round the point of the island, but takes fire from both French ships, a lucky or unlucky shot, depending on your perspective takes away her main mast, she is stopped in the water with the wind blowing her on to a lee shore.
Random die roll decided she was blown onto the shore before she could get underway again.
Basically I ran out of time and needed a quick resolution.
Courageuse took more heavy damage including her rudder being shot up, but she is still a viable fighting platform.
Amelia is still fixing the 2nd hole in the hull when the prize crew arrived, I couldn’t find any ruling on prize crews so decided on 1D3 for the time it took them to row over and claim the ship.
The 2nd hole was repaired but there is still lots of water in the hull and I was checking each time to see if the hull collapsed, and eventually it did. By this time the Amelia’s crew were battened down below and the ship went down with all hands except the prize crew who made it back to their boats.
The Admiralty finally heard of this fiasco from a merchant ships Master, there will be a court martial to allocate blame but the French treasure ship made it to France and there was rejoicing in the streets of Paris when they heard of the victory.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...0&d=1567165209
Bertin the Treasure ship was hardly damaged in the fight.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...1&d=1567165219
Courageuse suffered quite badly but there were plenty of crew to effect repairs.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...2&d=1567165231
HMS Amelia had surplus water damage when she finally sank. She had actually repaired the 2nd hole, I just hadn’t taken the tokens off the card.
https://www.sailsofglory.org/attachm...3&d=1567165242
HMS Cleopatra was towed off the rocks by the French ships and she would have made it back to France as a prize but her crew broke through the hatches and retook the ship and sailed her to a British port, although her Captain was killed in the action, which means he did not have the ordeal of a court martial to go through.
Hopefully I've managed to get all the right bits of code in the right place, and I would appreciate any thoughts on the rules questions. I've not had chance to look up what my title should in the French Navy including what the French Navy is called in France, any help on that will mean I do not offend any Frenchmen in the future.:happy:
Cheers
Captain John Le Vagabond of the French Navy
