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Saturday 16 November 2019

Memories of an Old French Sea Dog - When the Fog Lifts

Memories of an Old French Sea Dog (Souvenirs d'un vieux chien de mer français)

We had been sailing hard for four days and nights, beating against contrary winds from the Straights of Messina to The Balearic Islands via the very windy Straight of Bonifacio between Corsica and Sardinia. We nearly lost our foremast there due to a misunderstood order on the fore deck. Five of the foredeck crew were put in irons for that but everyone on the ship knew it was the Captains fault. He’d been drinking more than ever and the situation on the ship was getting worse, I believed at the time that he would fall (or be pushed) over the side before too long.

We sit here in this cosy bar, in front of a roaring log fire and you see an old man, but back then I was Jean Vagabond 1st Lt on the French Navy’s ship Hermione, a beautiful Concorde Class Frigate and should the Captain fall (or be pushed) overboard or just drink himself to death, I would have to take command and try to get the officers and crew to operate as one, if not we would all perish in our next action against the enemy.

We were chasing a British Navy ship, HMS Unite, she was the same class as us, one of our ships taken by the British in ‘93 I think it was and we might as well have been sailing in convoy, we sailed at the same speed and as close to the wind as each other, neither of us could break the invisible chain that joined the two ships.

HMS Unite was carrying a passenger who had vital information for the British and we needed to stop him reaching the port of Mahon, on the island of Menorca, how we would achieve that I did not know, until the night of the 18th June.

I can remember it like it was only yesterday, thick fog has enveloped us, the wind has died and we are making slow progress, the Captain is in his cabin, drinking. I came on watch at 04:00 and 2 hours later the fog was lifting and daylight was lighting up the eastern sky, when there was a shout from the Main Top Lookout, “ship on the starboard bow”. Call the Captain I shouted at the nearest crewman, it must be Unite, and I ran up the ratlines, yes I could run up the ratlines in those days, when I was a young man. Don’t think I’ve always been this fellow with grey whiskers that you see today, propping up the bar in this old tavern.

We were closer to the island than the Captain had calculated, and in the distance I could see the north cape of Menorca, I can’t remember its name now, but I do remember thinking that the Unite had missed her landing, Mahon was south of us.
Cap de Cavalleria that was it, you see my memory is not so bad, there was Fornells to the south, I could see the entrance to the Cala off our larboard quarter. Unite had made landfall 15 miles further north than she should have, but so had we, this was a good thing or we would have run straight into the east coast of Menorca before we even saw it and my life would have been very different as a ship wrecked mariner.

With the wind from the North this meant she would have to circumnavigate Menorca, or put in at one of the other harbours but I think Ciutadella on the west coast was the only deep water harbour and almost as difficult to get into as Mahon.

Any way enough of that, you bar flies don’t understand a word I’m saying so I’ll just concentrate on my story. Yes another brandy would be nice, it’s cold outside and this winter of ’32 has been damnably hard for an old man, even if I have the blood of a young sea dog flowing in my veins, it’s just flowing a little slower these days.

I saw the Unite as soon as I reached the top, she was close on our starboard bow, in irons having come up into the wind and I could see we had the advantage if we could take it, raking her stern would cause devastation.
For you lubbers here who don't understand these things, the wind was blowing towards the land and when a square rigged ship faces the wind she stops moving forward, the trick is to sail at an angle to the wind and turn through it, using the ships momentum to make the change, if you don't make it the ship stops and eventually goes backwards. Don't look so glassy eyed, it's a simple enough concept, have another swig of your brandy, that always helps the brain cells.

I slid down the main mast back stay but before I could issue any orders the Captain staggered on deck, ordering the helm over and we slowly turned into the wind and lost way. I looked on in amazement as the Unite put her helm to larboard and slowly came round onto a starboard tack. She was never going to clear the small sandy island in front of her.

With the wind on her starboard bow she can only pay off to larboard and there just isn’t enough sea room. What do you mean you don’t understand “larboard” you dumkoff, a ship has 2 sides, looking forward, that’s the pointy end to you from the stern, that’s the blunt end. On your left is larboard and on your right is starboard, no more questions if you please, just listen to my tale.

If I may be allowed to continue. She only just had enough way on to move forward very slowly and so although the collision did quite a lot of damage as she slid into the shallow water if there had been rocks rather than sand she would certainly have been sunk there and then.

Our Captain finally managed to stutter out some orders to the helmsman, if I’d heard them I would have risked my career to countermand them, but we turned slowly to larboard and both ships fire a partial broadside. We should have turned to starboard and raked the enemy as they lay at our mercy, but it was too late, our course was set.

I can tell you now sat here in the warmth of this bar, it was not as warm as it was that day. Our fool of a Captain ordered another change of course and we turned back into the wind, tight in front of the full broadside from Unite.

We were lucky that the violence of the collision had shaken the gun crews on the Unite or we would have suffered terribly, but you can see that our new course was going to lead to another collision.

No – you don’t understand, well let me use these bottles of beer to show how the two ships stood. Don’t worry the bottles are empty. Ohh, well almost empty.

There was a loud grinding noise as we ran straight along the side of the British ship, we were not going fast and glanced off, but there was a lot of damage to the paintwork although nothing significant to the structure of our ship.

Our Captain was blaspheming at the Helmsman, threatening him with the lash, but it was all he could do to stay on his feet he was staggering so much, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone so drunk before and not fall over.

As we bounced off the British ship, they let go a blast from their quarter battery but they were in much disarray, finally our gallant captain fell to his knees and slowly toppled forward onto his face and lay still, snoring like a pig.

Get him below I shouted, with such anger that the crew jumped quickly enough.

With the wind behind us we were able to get some sea room and bring the full larboard guns to bear, causing tremendous damage to the Unite, it was hard to see a good French ship take so much damage even if being sailed by the British, but this is war after all.

The British Captain finally managed to get a boat over the side with a kedge anchor to try and kedge the ship off the shore.

What do you mean, you don’t know what a kedge is for, good grief I can see why France is in the state it’s in with citizens like you who know nothing of the sea. You take an anchor from the ship, row it out in a small boat, drop it in the water and then pull on the anchor warp, then that pulls your ship towards the anchor, do you understand now. Oh pass me those beer bottles again and I’ll show you what I mean.

They were successful pulling Unite off the shore and then putting the helm over they quickly got underway, heading west. They were in a good position and ahead of us, so there was still a strong possibility they would get away.

I got Hermione as close as I could and we were able to fire another salvo into Unite, how much more of this terrible punishment they could take I didn't know. We would just have to pound them and pound them again until they struck their colours and surrendered.

More punishment than we had given them so far, that’s for sure, they got as many sails up as possible and started to pull away from us but I wasn’t done yet.

Turning Hermione to larboard (well done young man, you are correct, we turned left) we were able to get a final shot at the Unite and at that they lowered their colours and surrendered the ship to us.

It was a famous victory, I was feted in Paris and even met the great man himself, Napoleon did ask me what happened to the Captain and I told him he was lost, a hero’s death, buried at sea, I’m not sure that satisfied him but Josephine entered the room and he seemed to lose interest in me. Probably just as well.

Come on young man put another log on the fire and if you bring me another brandy I’ll tell you more stories of Jean Vagabond and my exploits fighting for France during the great Napoleonic Wars.



For those who know about these things here are the ships cards at the end of the game.

The Hermione was sailed and mostly Captained by the French hero Lt Jean Vagabond a proud, bold and handsome sailor in the French Navy.

HMS Unite was sailed by Captain Horatio Snapcase, this was his first independent command and at the Court Martial to investigate HMS Unite running aground it was agreed that the aged seaman Scrotum was to blame, his Ear Trumpet was full of freshly peeled prawns and he did not hear the command to go to Starboard, turning to Larboard instead.

It's rumoured that this action was the main reason that 30 years later the Admiralty changed the name of the left hand side of ships from Larboard to Port, it was too easy to confuse Starboard and Larboard in the heat of battle, of course with a Scrotum on the helm many things could go wrong.

This was one of the games we played when Wild Dougal Emfore and Captain Bertram Snapcase came to the north for a few days, Dougal arrived a day later than the Captain and missed this entertaining game, it's main entertainment was the incompetence of the two Captains, but in our defence it's only the 4th time I've played the game and the first for the Captain.

Cheers

24 comments:

  1. Wow!
    I've been looking forward (for'ard??) to this ever since you mentioned that you were getting into the game - and as usual you haven't disappointed :-)
    Absolutely cracking post, full of eye candy and accompanied by a tale told in your inimitable fashion mate!
    Fantastic looking set-up and that 'sea' mat really looks great. More please sir and can we up the rum ration?

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    1. Hi Greg, I'm glad you enjoyed it, I've always thought that naval battles, a bit like air battles are a bit stodgy when you try and describe them. I recently read some of Brigadier Gerard and liked the idea of a look back at a long and illustrious career told by the Brigadier in later life, so thought that might bring a bit of life to the proceedings.
      The mat is brilliant, unfortunately it's Martins, which we used for his Cruel Seas game, they're about £80 inc postage from Poland, I'm hoping Santa might bring me one.
      Rum ration certainly, funnily enough we have some friends coming tomorrow and Mrs V has made a chocolate tort and she needed some rum to go in it, I reluctantly agreed we should buy some ;)

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  2. What a great game, and very well told by yourself John. I also learnt something, that Port used to be called Larboard

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    1. Thanks Dave, I sail but had to look up larboard, I posted this tale on the Sails of Glory forum and they know a bit more about this stuff than I do, to be honest I wasn't going to post it here because I'm not sure if anyone would be interested in a sea battle. Although I suppose it's more me waffling on.
      Cheers

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    2. At the end of the day John, you post what you want, I'm sure you'll always find someone who comments and likes what your posting about

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    3. Thats true enough Dave I started writing up my games to please myself but now I also write to please other folk putting much more time into the writting than I used to. I guess this comes down to the nub of why peaple write a blog.

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  3. The Hermione is one of my favour ships in this sails of silver era, so it was a wonderful surprise to see this little 12-pounder Concorde-class frigate `put to` and beat the colours in all her glory. But my goodness The Unite took a pounding from her, even though she put up a valiant attempt to succumb the pressure placed upon the hard nosed dandy of the waves. Jack Aubrey would have been proud of this little skirmish, but possibly not at its outcome.

    Goes to show what a great story these little ships can create, and every time I get mine out of the box and handle them, I always coo and aaaah and Oooo over their intrinsic delicate beauty.

    Excellent display at seamanship sir.... except that Captain (he who shall remain nameless) should really be struck off and given a golden hand shake decommission and a plot of land somewhere in Wales.

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    1. Hi Stephen the 2nd photo is a picture of a replica Hermione. She is based in Rochfort Bordeaux apparently, I'm sort of wondering about heading down to Spain for part of the winter and this would be a big attraction for me if we do that.
      I have got a little carried away with the planes and ships from Ares, I'm really enjoying flying the planes, the games wiz along solo and give me a cracking story line, Not done much with the ships yet, I bought them because I thought it would give a deeper game that WoW, I'll let you know how I get on.

      Have you come across this site?

      https://www.sailsofglory.org/content.php?s=2cb57c00a73f02f28e9850b0a44bd1a4

      It's the Sails of Glory Anchorage Forum, there is a section on a solo campaign that was played from 2014 to 2018 there are monthly scenarios, which is where I got this one from. The campaign is dying out because there is no support but I am sure the guy who is keenest would continue if he got a couple of people interested. I think I'd be up for it.

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    2. Wow, can you fit me in your suitcase when you go, Id dearly love to see the many nautical wonders there (and from the Spanish perspective as well, so really nice).

      I wish so MUCH I`d have gotten Wings of Glory when I had the chance, but alas it wasn`t to be. Especially tease-worthy too as Hils and I just finished watching the series "Wings" on DVD... which I highly recommend: and its not very expensive on Amazon.co.uk

      Anchorage is a great site, I`m there as The Bantry Crew, but to my utter shame, I never followed up with any real presence there, which is a double shame as the guys there are so friendly and helpful too. Anchorage has a great following and is easily the best age of sails wargame site out there I think. I`d very much enjoy to be part of a campaign there, but timing is dreadfully unfortunate, as I`m just on the verge of creating and immerse into another linked sci-fi dedicated blog (more on this in the next TGC post in a few days).

      The new game from Warlord Games looks interesting, and if you like modelling.. the ships for it carry a lot of intricate detail, but I`ve watched many you tube videos on it being played, and honestly I really think Sails of Glory has the edge.

      However, not this side of Christmas, but I`d be VERY interested in maybe doing some sort of solo postal SoG game with you (and posting the AARs in the blogs), ts some point next year. I think it has legs and a lot of potential. It would work really well if combined with Perry Miniatures Travel Battle, as they are very close, scale wise, and would allow the two games to be combined - Napoleonic navy and land.

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    3. They have just released 8 plane type for WoW with 3 of each plane, so Camels, SE5a, Fokker Dr1 and Palfz D111 scouts are avaiable as well as 4 2 seater types. The rule sets seem to be available again and quite a lot of older planes can be obtained, especially from the US try Miniature Market, prices are good and shipping costs to the UK are quite reasonable, $6-8 for 2 to 5 planes. Customs collection charges can be an issue.

      I need to play a few more games of SoG to be convinced its for me but I do like the ships. Lets talk again in the New Year about what we might cobble together.

      Cheers

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    4. That's very useful information about the planes and the rules, thanks mightily for that.

      As for the other thing.... yep, one definitely to come back to later I think :-)

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  4. Did you pick 18th June because of it`s connection with that `other` great battle of that day?

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    1. Good question, but no, unless it was subliminal :)

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    2. I wondered about that. It was a nice subliminal Easter egg anyway :-)

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  5. Jean Vagabond, brilliant 😂 Great stuff John, really liked your narrative! I have a real soft spot for wooden sailing ship games and can't seem to keep myself from buying them when they have neat models like SoG - got pulled into Warlords new Black Seas game pretty big lol!

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    1. Hi Ivor, I've seen pictures of the Black Seas ships and they look pretty nice. Ive not yet seen them with sails on and there seems to be a school of thought paper sails don't work too well. Although there's also a problem with the mast/sail interface on the SoG ships.

      The big advantage with the SoG ships is they are ready painted and so they sail into our house and straight onto the table.

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  6. Well Jean what a yarn you've spun, I could picture you perched at the bar of some smokey old inn telling your tells of yesteryear to anyone who would listen & of course buy you brandy :)

    I did have the honer of playing SoG once & if you think your captains were incompetent then let me tell you they were like Nelson compared to my efforts :)

    Seems like you had a great start to your weekend of gaming & I look forward to more reports, that is if the booze didn't fog thinks up to much lol

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    1. Cheers Frank, things were a bit hazy at times and I was enthused enough to start building some appartment blocks to use in a 1930's and later gangster setting, probably only take 5 to 10 tears to do ;)

      Telling tales for brandy sounds about right.

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  7. Most entertaining, Jean, as usual, and also an unexpected post that I never saw coming. Well done mate on bringing us something so refreshingly different!

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    1. Thanks Bryan, it's not a particularly visual game is it, but I am rather enamoured with the little ships, I have thought of rigging them but I think life is probably too short.

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  8. Where did that come from ? I had to backtrack to make sure I hadn;t missd something !
    Great atle of derring do on the hgh ses an the original Captin of the dstrdly French ship Hermiione and the obviously inept captain of the Britih ship reminded me of myself whenever I played a sea game.
    Great story and another faorley unique way of presenting it - thoroughly enjoyable.

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  9. Cheers Joe, much appreciate your comments, it's quite an easy game to pick up and play. The land terrain is years old, I used it for Ancient galley games, just quickly tarted up for SoG.

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  10. Well, after that debacle my promotion prospects in the Royal Navy are looking a bit iffy! Still, I did give Old Scrotum (the wrinkled family retainer) a damn good thrashing for turning the wheel the wrong way at that crucial juncture. Still, I expect Uncle John Jervis will be able to help out.

    I really enjoyed that game, great report.

    Captain Horatio Snapcase

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    1. I'm not sure what happens to British Sea Captains when they run aground in the face of the enemy, I doubt it's anything good :(

      Pleased you enjoyed the game though, it seemed better in retrospect :)

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