The Lion Hunts - Another Shell Clan fight for Survival

The Shell Clan survived the summer drought and they were grateful when the rains returned, the grass grew and the food came back.

Ayah and Luana both thought about the Cave Lion from time to time, the one they’d encountered in the previous encounter. Each privately knew they would look superb in a lion skin cape, it would enhance their prestige within and without the Clan. The difficulty would be persuading both the Cave Lion to relinquish its skin and the rest of the Clan to let her have sole rights to it.

Cave Lions are dangerous foes and it would take the full might of the Clan to take one down and kill it, let alone skin it. The Clan was an egalitarian unit and so everyone would want a piece of the skin and what prestige was there to be had from a lion skin belt or furry hat for example when there was the prospect of the whole skin to really show off in.

If this makes no sense to you it doesn’t surprise me but should you be at a loose end and read the previous story about the Shell Clan it might make more sense, or maybe not!

The young woman who had escaped from being the sacrifice turned out to be younger than previously thought mainly because I have no suitable figure to represent her and is both impetuous and pretty good at throwing rocks.

The Clan are discussing how they will conduct the forthcoming hunt as Sura the newcomer shows off her new throwing rocks. Rock 1 and Rock 2. She’s an imaginative youngster, although not so imaginative with naming objects or people. Her previous Clan were short on language skills and she had previously been called young young young thing. Her Clan were also short on numbering skills and she was the 3rd young thing born to her mother, hence young young young thing. That’s probably the last joke I’ll explain so anyone reading this had better sharpen up.

With the return of the rains, there is a plentiful supply of food. In the background are Mouflon sheep, tasty when grilled slowly over an open fire, but wily and sure footed although not as swift as the other potential source of food.

Which is a small herd of horse, they will be harder to chase down and the meat is tough and chewy.

Of course a horse makes a welcome meal for a Cave Lion, he likes to chew on bone and gristly and a Mouflon sheep isn’t much more than a snack for him…..or her.

The Shell clan after much discussion, decide to chase the sheep and leave the horse to the lion. This could be a win win decision but remember the desire for the lion skin.

The Mouflon have young with them and they will not be able to move as fast because of this and will be unwilling to leave the young behind. Why this should be I’ve no idea, some sort of maternal thing or other!!!

Maternal doesn’t enter into the thoughts of Ayah, juicy meat and dripping fat does and she sets off to outflank the herd followed closely by Kee’Ak. The males of the Clan are not known for their stealthy hunting qualities and Kee’Ak makes a noise. Most of the sheep ignore this but one of the kids moves away.

Tohana also moves forward stealthily, hiding in some bushes and a twig snaps under foot but the sheep are intent on eating and pay him no mind.

Ayah and the human kid who the Shell Clan have decided to call Sura in spite of the fact that she prefers her given name of young young young thing, are engaged in the traditional Shell clan hunting tactic of surrounding the food before closing in for the kill. This is a difficult thing to explain to Sura who has little concept of team tactics.

The Cave Lion predates and decides that Human meat is preferable to Horse meat. It stealthily follows Ayah and the kid Sura. This could turn from being a win win situation quite quickly.

The Clan have settled into their hunting routine and now only the kid Sura makes a noise but fortunately the sheep ignore it. Sura receives a life lesson in team tactics when Ayah threatens to skin her with the extremely sharp flint knife she carries if she makes another noise. Despite Sura’s limited knowledge of language she understands this lesson readily enough.

The Cave Lion is still hunting Ayah and the kid but it’s the same lion as in the previous encounter and if you remember, it’s quite timid for an apex predator.

Just to show the overall situation and explain the Clans hunting technique. The two females are generally quieter and stealthier than the males so they tend to move stealthily around the prey and then drive them back to where the males are waiting in ambush. Kee’Ak and Tohana have the heavier weapons and are generally stronger but not as fleet of foot. They strike the prey as it rushes past in a panicked flight caused by the females who are good at pelting and roaring which usually strikes fear into most things, including Kee’Ak and Tohana.

The males are settled in their ambush and just wait on the females who are nearly in position.

The Cave Lion is resting, probably trying to decide if Ayah or Sura is the tastiest morsel on the menu.

Finally everyone is ready.

Ayah runs forward and howls at the top of her lungs, the stupid sheep ignore her. This isn’t how it usually works and she beckons Sura forward. Imitating Ayah’s howl is hard for the child but she does her best and the blasted animals stampede.

A herd of stampeding grazers is dangerous if you happen to be standing directly in front of them. Kee’Ak is standing directly in front of them. Fortunately it is only one of the kids that runs into him and he survives without injury, at least to his body but not his pride because he fails to strike it with his spear.

Ayah encourages him with good advice like “don’t let them get away you fool” and “you are useless” when his second stab fails to inflict a mortal wound on the Mouflon next to the kid.

All is not lost though because Tohana brains one of the sheep with his trusty club.

The smell of blood has the unfortunate effect of reminding the Cave Lion that it’s hungry and he or she moves towards Tohana, thinking this will be an easy meal, all is needs to do is drive the two legged animals away from what it perceives as it’s food.

However it hasn’t understood the power of the Shell Clans team spirit. That and the fact that they are even more hungry than he or she is. Luana runs forward to help Tohana, she howls as she runs, a frightful howl but the lion doesn’t back away as she’d hoped and roars back. This stops her forward attack but she gives it another howl that the lion ignores.

Tohana stands astride the sheep, he’s not giving up his kill that easily.

Ayah runs forward and pelts the Cave Lion with stones from her sling, she misses but the poor beast turns and runs away. This causes the horses to stampede away from the fleeing lion, they run off away from the Shell Clan should they have been inclined to try and hunt horse meat as well as mutton.

Meanwhile Kee’Ak, humiliated by the taunts from Ayah is in a killing frenzy, he stabs at another sheep inflicting a wound but it doesn’t die, instead it attacks Kee’Ak, fortunately he dodges the sharp horns and wonders what the world is coming to when your food fights back.

It must be that maternal thing I mentioned earlier but eventually they all run away except one of the kids that has become separated from the small herd and it runs in the opposite direction.

Sura is so excited by all the action going on around her that she runs as fast as her little legs will carry her, she can’t get into range but throws Rock 1 to no effect.

Luana makes a long move and then tries to stealthily get nearer, she is able to pelt them from a distance, hitting one but can not make the kill.

Sura throws Rock 2 and this ensures the herd continue to stampede leaving the Clan with just the one sheep that Tohana managed to kill. She receives another life lesson when Luana cuffs her behind the ear for driving off the prey. Sura has received many life lessons so far but hasn’t learned much from them and wanders off on her own looking for the stray lamb she had seen running off in the other direction. Because of the cuffing she didn’t mention this to Luana which might be a mistake with a Cave Lion in the vicinity.

Ayah, Tohana and Kee’Ak crowd round the dead sheep to evaluate how long the meat will last the five of them, not long is the general consensus. Then they hear a roar from the Cave Lion who has returned to dispute their claim to the sheep.

Luana joins the rest of the clan and they face the Cave Lion who has predated closer to them and the dead sheep. There isn’t much going to drive the Clan away from one of their kills and Ayah slings two stones at the lion, hitting it twice. This was going to be the cause of much friction in the ensuing days.

The lion turns to flee, just as Luana hits it with a stone from her sling and kills it.

“It’s mine” both females shout out loud. “I killed it” shouted Luana with glee. “You wouldn’t have killed it if I hadn’t wounded it twice” responded Ayah.

Unfortunately, both these claims were true but the thought of the lion skin cape overcame sense and logic for both females.

He’s a big one said Tohana, I faced him down alone you know and I killed a sheep, I think the skin should be mine. “I’ll have the claws if you are having the skin” said Kee’Ak “they will make a strong medicine, and I'll also have the tail for a fly whisk, I'm fed up of the damn things flying around my beard”.

“He’s not having the skin” said both Ayah and Luana in unison, “we killed it together and if you washed the food out of your beard more often Kee'Ak the flies would leave you alone”.

“Well maybe you could have half the skin each” said Tohana who wasn’t as green as he was cabbage looking.

Maybe we could do that the two females agreed. "OK, I’ll have the teeth to add to my necklace" said Tohana which is what he’d wanted all along. So the lion was divided up between the Shell Clan amicably although the males got the best cuts of meat because they didn’t get the skin. Well that's only fair, isn't it.

Sura meantime was engrossed in the hunt for the stray lamb, she had watched how Luana had moved towards the sheep, carefully and quietly so she tried to emulate that as she approached the kid, rock 1 ready in her hand.

Initially the animal moved away from her so she slowed her approach even more.

The lamb wasn’t used to humans and their ways and as Sura got up close was a little surprised when Sura hit her over the head twice with Rock 1 and she died. This was information her mother would have been able to impart if she’d grown older but that is life in a Palaeo World.

Tohana and Kee’Ak later agreed that dealing with the females of the Clan wasn’t so difficult, neither of them had wanted the skin, and it wouldn’t do for either of the females to lord it over the other or indeed the Clan as a whole, they were an egalitarian unit and performed at their best like that.

Young Sura was given a strip of lion skin as a reward for killing the young Mouflan, she was shown how to turn this into a sling and given lessons in its use by her elders. If she survives then she will become a valuable addition to the Shell Clan and if she keeps upsetting the hunts then she can always be sacrificed to bring the rest of the Clan good luck.

Life isn't always fair but it's fun while it lasts.

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.