The Sacrifice - Another Episode in the Shell Clans fight for Survival

The Shell Clan are a small but tight knit group of male and female characters who have been wandering through the pages of this blog for some time. Never very successful they have still managed to survive in an extremely dangerous world of hostile inhabitants and now a hostile environment.

Kee'Ak and Tohona are the male half of the Clan, there is no real rivalry between them for the leadership of the Clan because they are both too lazy to want the responsibility. Ayah and Luana the female half of the clan are quite happy with this state of affairs because they are astute enough to know that they all have strengths and weaknesses and need to work together to survive.

This then is the story of what happens when you go against the natural order of things.

Every season when they leave, we follow the herds north and the next season we follow them back south again, why don’t we just stay here until they return. There must be other herds moving from further south up north to where we are now. This had been the argument put forward by the men of the Shell Clan. They were after all a lazy pair and questioned why they should make the long trek and head north into the colder lands, surely it was better to stay in this place as the days got warmer.

The women argued, “it’s what we’ve always done, it’s what our parents and their parents and their parents parents have done and so it must be the right thing to do, there must be a good reason that they did it for so long”.

“Well there’s the huts”, the men argued back, “we spend a long time building them and each time we go away they fall into disrepair, or we come back to find them occupied by some other Clan and we have to fight to get them back”.

“Well some times we fight and sometimes we have to move elsewhere when there’s too many of them to fight” they finished lamely, remembering the last fiasco.

Finally they’d all agreed not to go.

The sun had stayed long in the sky, longer each day that passed, it got hotter and then hotter still, finally there was no rain. The grass disappeared and the land shrivelled, there were no herds coming from the south, food was scarce and then got scarcer. The Shell Clan were getting desperate, their food supplies had dwindled to virtually nothing and they knew they must make a sacrifice to their Gods to earn favour or they would all die in this parched landscape.

All they had left were a few of the hardier goats, 10,500 years ago they were in the process of turning the wild Bezoar goats into the domesticated Capra Hircus, what you and I would call Billy and Nanny. It wasn’t an easy process, the goats were still semi wild and had to be watched all the time or they would wander off.

The other problem with keeping goats was that they were a strong temptation to any passing predator, and it could be a dangerous job protecting your food source. The Shell Clan were fortunate in that they had a pair of Barkers to help with both tasks, these animals were also still semi wild and we know them as dogs.

The Barkers and Humans had a strange relationship that went back many thousands of years earlier than the one with the goats. It had been a difficult transition before the Wolves stopped eating Humans and turned into Barkers who helped them in their daily life then when times were hard the Humans started eating the Barkers.

Such is life on a Palaeo Diet.

Having made the decision to sacrifice to the Gods they had to decide what or who they should sacrifice. Normally it would be some animal they had caught alive, or for a more serious sacrifice, one of the goats would do, usually the oldest one, maybe even one of the Barkers but none of these would do this time. This time it was serious, they weren’t sacrificing for a good hunt or fertility for the clan, this time it was for survival and it needed a serious sacrifice.

The men eyed up the women and the women eyed up the men, no words were said and it was a huge relief when a stranger, a young woman entered their camp begging for food and shelter. Her Clan had all been killed by a marauding band from the south and she was on her own and needed help.

It was an easy decision, they fed and let her rest overnight and now she was tied to the sacrificial stone awaiting her fate, not quite what she was hoping for when she begged for shelter.

Luana was checking the ropes were still tight as Ayah fed a little more fuel onto the fire, the one they would need to cook all the food that would soon be coming their way once the sacrifice was made and the Gods granted them good hunting.

That was when they heard a low pitched growl from the East as a cave lion caught the scent of either the goats, the Clan or the Sacrifice. They all smelled attractive in a strange way….food has that effect on all of us and he was hungry, the Clan were not the only ones in need of sustenance.

At the same time to the north a small group of humans were also hunting and they were just as hungry as the lion and even if they didn’t have his sense of smell they had good eyesight and even more dangerously had developed a fearsome weapon over 50,000 years ago, the bow and arrow.

You probably don’t remember but the Shell Clan, whilst familiar with the bow had never acquired the skill to make or use them, instead they relied on the ability with a sling that the two women in the clan possessed. The men maintained that a flint tipped spear or a stone axe together with a strong physique was all that was necessary to take down prey or defend themselves.

It also meant that they didn’t have to spend hours and days learning the coordination necessary to use the sling, giving them more time to work on their physique.

Then to make matters worse and also slightly surreal, a pair of large monkey like creatures were moving towards the Clans small settlement from the west, no doubt with evil intent.

They certainly scared the bejazus out of the goats, who ran away.

Looking on the bright side the Clan have plenty of food to choose from, unfortunately for them, they are also on the menu. Perhaps if they’d made the sacrifice earlier, a nice herd of slow defenceless animals might have been all they had to contend with. Who knows, but it’s too late now.

Kee’Ak shows no fear and throws his spear at the monkey’s, he misses but one flees and the other moves away from our intrepid hero.

It’s probably about now that he’s wondering what to do next, as he’s thrown away his only weapon. Maybe learning to use a sling is out of the question at this point in time!

The female members of the Shell Clan are not known to back away from a fight and Ayah skulks forward, trying to get into range of the large monkey without scaring it away. From her point of view it looks to be good eating and she’s not so sure if the idea of the sacrifice will work anyway.

She throws a river pebble from her sling at the animal. It’s a good pebble, hard and round, she’s hit many a creature with it before but not this time, and rather than back off, the monkey charges forward to attack.

Fortunately for her it’s an old silver back male and he soon runs out of breath, pulling up before he can make contact and he glares malevolently at her, breathing heavily and wondering what to do now.

Unfortunately for him it brings him closer to Luana, who is also pretty nifty with her sling and she lobs a couple of river pebbles his way….missing.

Later she maintained that it was because Ayah was in the way and she didn’t want to run the risk of hitting her instead of the monkey. Explanations were necessary because lobbing the stones at the monkey enraged it further and he charged forward again.

Obviously he recovered his breath fairly quickly and in the ensuing fight Ayah was bitten on the arm but help was at hand.

Luana howled a loud piercing howl which unnerved the ape and he backed off, then Luana’s Barker ran forward, growling and barking, as Barkers are prone to do. The monkey roared back and then the Barker backed off…stalemate.

To the north of their encampment the bow armed humans started to advance. Tohona reacted to this by failing to activate which embolden the Cave Lion who advanced out of sight to his right. One of the bow armed humans roared, he wasn’t very good at roaring and instead of retreating Tohana’s Barker ran at him. Not being as brave as the Barker, or not as stupid, the man retreated quickly.

Maybe his descendants would become postmen and have an instinctive fear and dislike of dogs, maybe it’s a DNA thing, who knows!

Meanwhile Ayah slings more river pebbles at the monkey, missing again. Probably the wound to her arm is affecting her aim because she’s usually pretty good with this long range weapon.

For reasons that I can no longer remember the monkey decides to attack Keh’Ak and yet again it runs out of steam and stops short of his intended target. Keh’Ak isn’t the fool I made him out to be earlier. He carries 2 light throwing spears as well as one stout spear for when things get tough and it’s melee time. So he throws his second spear, and yet again, he misses. The good news is that it causes the ape to back off and hopefully Kee’Ak will be able to collect at least one of the lost spears and make another ranged attack because he doesn't want to get too close having seen what happened to Ayah.

Luana has decided that Ayah and Kee’Ak can deal with one monkey on their own and she advances on to the 4 humans. She pelts the nearest with stones hitting him hard and then she roars intending to drive them off, but it has no effect. She’s going to have to work on that roar she realises before commanding her Barker to attack the human.

The other one may have Postmen’s DNA but this one doesn’t, and when attacked he stands his ground and kicks out at the Barker but doesn’t inflict any damage on the animal.

Before you report me to the RSPCA, no animals were harmed in this story. Well….not seriously harmed.

Tohona’s Barker attacks one of the other humans, and receives a wound for his boldness. Oh dear I spoke a little too soon about no animals being harmed. The human howls, a wild feral sound, which pierces the still desert air, and for some reason this enrages Tohona. He advances quickly in their direction, probably to protect his goats but he’s getting very close to four men, all a similar size to him and better armed as well.

Is the man mad or just high on testosterone!

Meanwhile Ayah has pelted one of the apes, she missed again but the animal takes fright and runs off, closely followed by its mate.

Damn she thinks, there goes a good few days worth of food. It looks like the sacrifice is going to be necessary after all.

Things are not going well for the dark skinned humans, bows are fearsome weapons at a distance but no where near as deadly in hand to hand combat as a spear or stone axe, or even teeth, and in the hand to teeth combat both Barkers have killed their opponents. This is good news and bad news, the good news is that they’ve obviously reduced the attacking force by half, the bad news is that they start to eat them, reducing the potential food haul for the Clan.

Tohana on the right has a hard fight, he is wounded but eventually smashes in the skull of his adversary with his stone axe which proves more effective than the bow. Later, around the campfire he will repeatedly tell tales about this daring fight, until eventually everyone in the clan tells him to shut up.

Kee’Ak is not so lucky and is laid low by a blow from the Archer, this is also something that Tohana points out, time and time again, until everyone in the Clan tells him to shut up.

Luana has carefully moved into sling range and she drives the last human away before he can kill Kee’Ak.

The Cave Lion proves to be a timid beast and keeps failing to advance, eventually it slinks off, looking for easier prey. As he goes, both Luana and Ayah consider how fine they would look wearing his skin as a cloak. Each of them wonders how she can persuade the rest of the Clan to hunt down and kill the lion, then having done that how can they ensure the rest of the Clan give her the skin.

This is going to require a lot of careful thought and maybe some negotiation.

Well, in spite of facing three separate opponents the Clan survived and gained some food, the three humans, although 2 were badly chewed by the Barkers. They would have done better to kill a monkey but “food is food” as Luana the philosopher said.

It had been a hard fight though, with three of them being wounded. In the days after the encounter Ayah’s arm healed quickly and she suffers no lasting damage, also for some unknown reason she developed her skill in Gathering which was a bonus.

Luana came through the fight unscathed but with no great deeds done didn’t gain any benefit from it. Due to his wound from the hunter Tohana would have lost any positive traits but as he didn’t have any, he remains a slightly bemused character. Kee’Ak’s wound was more serious because he lost the Alert trait and has become lame in one leg as well.

However, in my book, any escapade in which all the members of the Clan survive is a good result, they have food for the immediate future and their wounds may heal given time so there was a cheerful feeling around the campfire that night.

Tomorrow is another day, is one on the Shell Clans favourite sayings, along with Bugger and Sh*t happens, just don't step in it.

You might be wondering about the young woman, the Sacrifice, or then again you might have forgotten all about her in the excitement of the latest episode in the ongoing saga of the Shell Clan.

There was a lot of discussion that night, they hadn’t sacrificed her and yet the gods had still favoured them, was this a good omen. The men were inclined to think so, there was the ulterior motive in that she was female, not unattractive and so good breeding stock which would increase the size of the Clan, and as everyone knows, size matters. She would be grateful not to be sacrificed and that would be an added advantage in the well being and cohesion of the Clan. They were well aware that Ayah and Luana had a very high opinion of themselves and they hoped that introducing a third female would redress the balance somewhat.

What fools they are.

Ayah and Luana had other reasons for agreeing with their men on this subject and so they let the young woman live and hopefully be a valued member of the Shell Clan, in their fight for survival in a Palaeo world.

The Fire Ship

Cats…. Cats…. don’t talk to me about cats Baptiste look what happened last night when you let that kitten in here.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The final view of the Pirates.

If you read any of this you will have gathered that the yellow string marked the angle of fire from the Pirate fortifications.

Yo ho ho and a barrel full of tar is I think the naval equivalent of Cheers.

Pre Aspirant Jean le Vagabond in Who Fired the First Shot

May 2015 solo mission - 'Who fired the first shot.....': By Vagabond

This is a scenario from the Sails of Glory site, one that they used in a campaign run back in 2015. The site has sadly sunk below the waves but has been raised from the sea bed as a section of the Wings of Glory site, but I've decided to repost my stories of Jean le Vagabond on here, Sorry!

These tales are told by that old French Sea Dog Jean le Vagabond to anyone drinking in Martine’s Bar in central Provence some time in the 1830’s. His usual audience is Baptiste and Baptiste’s handsome daughter Hermione, but in general includes anyone who will listen and then fill up his glass with the proverbial 98 Brandy, or indeed anything alcoholic.

I have stolen my style from Arthur Conan-Doyle’s Memories of Brigadier Gerrard a Light Cavalryman in the Napoleons Wars, it is a great read if you like tongue in the cheek humour.

I wasn’t even an Aspirant back then but my Father had managed to get me a passage on the Commerce de Bordeaux, a fine 74 gun ship of the line in the magnificent French Navy. I believe I mentioned some time in the past that he was the Doorman at Madame Fifi’s and seemed to have some influence with the Admiralty and for a reason unknown to me at the time thought that a life at sea would be good for the family.

No Baptiste you don’t have to listen to another of my interminable tales of my life at sea, you can go and sit with the Blacksmith and reminisce on how you spilt his beer. I’m sure that Hermione would be more than happy to chew the lardons with me, we can sit here by the fire on our own but before you go I believe it is your turn to buy the drinks again and I’ll have a 98 brandy, and if you are going to sit with your friends all night you had best make it a double.

Shall I continue Hermione, of course, well as I was saying we were on patrol in the Atlantic and had been shadowing a squadron of Johnny Rosbif’s finest ships. The situation was tense in Europe, war was inevitable again, it was only a question of when and who would start it. Our instructions were clear, we should not start a war by firing first on our smug enemy but we should not let him do the same to us.

They had four ships of the line including one of their 1st rate ships the Royal George, she was a great big lumbering thing and a ship with a male name is an abomination to Neptune the Sea God but we can discuss that some other time.

We were up wind of the Rosbifs but their lead ship started to turn, to cut across our line just as we saw a sail in the far distance.

Will that be a messenger and will it be a glorious French messenger or a dastardly Rosbif one and what would she have to say. Is war declared and are we to be fighting our first battle against the odds? We were not afraid Hermione, don’t think that for a moment, we wanted to bring glory to France but the Rosbifs had a superiority in the number of ships even though we had the superiority in élan.

She drew closer but her sails were obscuring her colours, she had the fine clean lines of a French built ship but there were many of our ships serving in the old enemies fleet, taken by subterfuge and occasionally in a straight fight, but not many of the latter. 

She looks like the Artésien muttered our Premier Lieutenant, I’d recognise the lines of a ship built by Joseph-Louis Olliver, am I not his nephew. I looked at him in awe. The Nephew of Olliver, I’ve served with some great men in my time Hermione, I will tell you of them if we can keep your aged Father from falling asleep, but first I will tell you of this action.

As she drew near we could see she was flying signal flags but we could not discern the signal. Every ship in the 2 small fleets was prepared for action, slow matches burning, shot and charges prepared, marines up in the tops, the Captains cabin squared away, the stern guns rolled out, and the galley stoves doused.

As the ship drew close enough to recognise her I heard various hands confirming what our premier Lieutenant had already said “it’s the Artisan” and just then, before we could make out what signal she was flying, she fired a broadside into HMS Defence the leading British 74.

Every gunner dropped their slow match to the touch hole, no one waited for the command, everyone was at fever pitch and the sound of cannonades blasting out in the still afternoon air shattered the silence.

At the head of our column Artisan and my ship the Commerce de Bordeaux fired into HMS Defence who returned our fire most effectivly. The noise and smoke was unimaiginable, many of our crew were laid low but I could see we had struck Defence below the waterline but beyond her, flames shot up in the air from Artisan.

Further down the line and just to our rear I could see HMS Impeteux taking a severe battering from the Ville de Varsovie our flagship and further in the distance, right at the rear of our line Genereaux was brutally struck by the enemy flagship Royal George.

In response Genereaux turned to larboard with the intention of breaking the British line between Royal George and the last ship in the line HMS Bahama, if this works it could win the battle but she had a long way to go before she would be able to pour a volley from either side into their weak stem and stern’s.

Artisan made a similar move to try and sail behind Impertuex but their steering must have been damaged because she came to close to Impetueux who fired a devastating broadside down the length of Artisan and she dropped her colours, too badly damaged to continue the fight.

The Hulk of Artisan can be seen bottom right but HMS Impetueux didn’t have time to send a prize crew on board, the battle was raging and there would be the opportunity to do that later. She fired a full starboard broadside into the Ville de Varsovie who was reserving her fire, in a bold move she sailed in to get to a closer range before firing her salvo in retaliation and I thought she would then board Imperteux.

At the head of the line, our ship Commerce de Bordeaux and HMS Defence were slugging it out out, toe to toe and we were getting the better of the exchange.

Back at the rear of our column, Genereaux continued to turn to larboard but HMS Bahama was turning to starboard, there was the sound of splintering wood as they collided with each other, but not as big as the explosive broadside from Genereaux blasting Royal George at close range, although the return volley from Georges forward battery started a fire and did some damage to her rudder.

I know that the rules don’t call for collision damage between enemy ships but I’ve included it and used A tokens rather than B because it’s a bow to bow collision and so will cause potentially less damage than bow to beam.

In the distance the Ville de Varsovie fires her close range broadside into Impetueux this causes Impeteuex to pull out of the line to make repairs but in retaliation HMS Royal George poured a withering fire into Ville de Varsovie who strikes her colours.

As Genereaux and Bahama drift apart they fire into each other and the Bahama comes off substantially the worse from the exchange losing her foremast which falls to the deck killing a number of the crew before it topples overboard.

This doesn’t stop her marines from inflicting heavy crew casualties on Genereaux.

And then they fire again causing even more casualties as they break away from each other.

The smoke from the gunfire obscures my view and I can no longer see their valiant fight.

The capitulation of our Flagship allows HMS Impetueux to make repairs but we continue to hammer HMS Defence who finally has had enough and strikes, but with the Royal George foaming through the waves, closing the gap to the battered Commerce de Bordeaux’s our Captain decides discretion is the better part of valour and so with 3 of the French Fleet out of action he decides four is too many and shouts the order to raise full sails and we make our getaway.

It was a sad sight Hermione, our glorious fleet battered into submission but my ship the Commerece de Bordeaux had defeated her opponent, even though we could not put a prize crew on board and sail her home in triumph.

I can tell you Hermione, I have known great glory and victories in my life and as you now know the occasional sour taste of defeat. This was one of the low points for me. Yes I know you are right I was not in command or even on the books of the Commerce de Bordeaux and so no one could ascribe blame to me and as you say, we defeated our opponent HMS Defense but as a man of honour, I share in the sad day for my fellow countrymen and comrades in arms.

We were able to avenge this day and sooner than Johnny Rosbif would have liked but it’s late and I must take my leave.

Your sorry father has fallen asleep over his glass of wine, luckily he has not spilled it, pass me the glass and I will see if this can not warm my poor body enough to tackle the cold and snow outside.

Adieu Hermione, until next time.

Well my poor French fleet took a pounding, but on the bright side my British Fleet won a famous victory.

I realise the chits and ship cards will mean bugger all to most people but to the cognoscenti out there they will be like wine at a feast.

Bon Voyage Mes Amies,

And Cheers to those who don't speak foreign.