NationStates Jolt Archive

OOC: Has anyone played the game 'Corsairs'? If so, then imagine NS in that sort of place/time. If you've never played Corsairs, then basically, the game is set in the mid-18th Century, in the Carribean (For the most part, methinks). The 1612 Colonisation game is a real success, but it's sort of set before any real military organisations. By 1775, all the major players (The British Empire, France, The USA, Spain, and the Dutch) Were fully organised and bent on destroying each other. In the game, it's all ship-to-ship combat, with the occasional invasion of a port. Why don't we try it out? Say, start with a 74-gun frigate (Crew: 200 or so), and one or two other ships (Smaller than 40 guns each), and an island of your own to repair/resupply/hide/build ships, and see how we get along? Remember, it's 1775, so that's flintlocks, and rifles are very expensive, and it would take at least a week RL - 7 NS years to build a ship, more if it's big. Have a go. Make up a nation, or be...PIRATES.
Go on, you'll like it once you've tried it...
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IC: The Principality of Legren sends two of it's vessels - The HMS Vigilant, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line with a complement of 180 men and 40 Royal Marines, under the command of The Hon. Captain James Arthur Harrington, and the HMS Escort, a 36-gun sloop crewed by 75 men.

OOC: Can't actually do anything until other people join in, sadly.

OOC: Bumpage. Come on, mates, just make your island, think up names for the ships and off we go...

IC: The HMS Vigilant and HMS Escort operate from the harbour of Saint John's.
OOC: Imagine a map (800 milesx800 miles), lots of it is water, with a few blobs of land sticking out. St John's is in the...Top left hand corner at (70, 750).

Alright, I'll make up a pirate flotila, ship names, a map, and such soon, just let me brush up on my 18th century warfare.

OOC: Thankyou very much for your contribution, Fluffywuffy. Good to have a veteran player with us. Rather than just me. On my own. Sailing in circles for something to do.

Interesting. I shall think on it.

St John's is around five miles long, and nine wide, with a population of three hundred and fifty-five, St John's relies on trading rather than any production businesses. There is only one blacksmith on the island, a Mister Daniel Butler, of fifteen Whyke Road. The local shipwright provides some employment to the population, though only when vessels enter the harbour for repairs or the like. The three taverns (The most notable being the George and Dragon) serve a locally brewed beer named 'John's Best', which tastes slightly of mud, and 'Rotgut' a drink so strong it is also used as a cleaning fluid.

OOC: Come on, you sods. Don't let the thread die in it's first HOUR!

Ok, I have founded the pirate band known as the 'Flotila of the Scarlet Flag,' which will be a group of disgruntled Americans (here meaning 'someone in the Americas') that are a group of people wanting to make Cuba an independant nation.

The Flotila, commanded by Admiral William Steward, is using this disguise of liberating Cuba to try and win support from anti-Spain nations, so as to help fund and house his pirate force. His current hideout is the uncharted Dead Man's Island, named after the dead men found upon the island, with Port Dreadmore as the base.

The flotila of ships will be drawn up soon, and here is a map of the island.

http://www.stewarts.net/zac/img/island.gif

Ships of the Flotila

FSF Determination
74 gun frigate - captained by the Admiral himself - with a complement of 100 mercenary fighters, crew of 200. A few swivel guns for (I assume these don't count as actual guns) clearing off men are on both port and starboard sides of the vessel.

FSF Liberty
34 gun sloop (?) captained by Captain Roy Vikkers. 40 mercenary fighters and a crew of 100 (maybe more or less, not sure if this is enough crewmembers)

FSF Freedom

36 gun sloop captained by Captain James Scot. 40 mercenary fighters and a crew of 100 (maybe more or less, not sure if this is good)

Port Dreadmore

A town of rebels, revolutionists, and pirates, the Port is home of the Flotila and is home to a few illegal trading ventures. Money is made, apart from looting and illegal trading, mainly from the legal slave trade. Crops and such are grown on other parts of the island, though imports from monthly supply ships are common.

Defending the port is a contingent of 600 mercenaries and a few land based cannons. An old, forgotten fort from a lost expedition is home to the gaurding troops.

Foriegn Relations

The Scarlet Flotila does not have many relations with foriegn powers except that it hates Spain. An occasional diplomat is sent to foriegn powers, yet they are usualy dismissed promptly, labeled as pirates, misfits, and nobodies.

OOC: Why is it that I can never get image files to load? Completely unfair. Um...By 'Flotilla' you mean...Three, right?

Yes, Flotila is a small group. Three would fit the flotila bill. And I see the imagine just fine. Maybe you turned off images?

OOC: No, I mean I just can't see MINE. They don't work.

Are you trying to link from your personal computer, because if you are in won't work. You need a host/your own server for it. photobucket and those guys do it for free, yahoo and them is also free.

OOC: I read the BBCode stuff. It just doesn't work. :( Never mind, I've got along fine without them...

I'd like to RP a nation, if that's fine.

Go ahead, the more the merrier :D

AARRGH(sorry for poor pirate impersonation) the Skaven are more land bound, but still have ships, but more or instead hijack others and "improve" them.
What type of engines did they have when this is taking place, industry wise, not ships?

OOC: Used sails. No steam or anything.

For factories and what not, thats what I want to know.







Warpstone makes it happen!(will most likely cause mutation and/or death)

Due to recent raids on merchant ships by maruading pirates, the HWS Republic and HWS Steadfast have been stationed at the Halibrisian colony of Saint Gregory's. The HWS Republic is a 74-gun ship, with a crew of 180, and a detachment of 30 Marines. Captain Ronald Jessup is at the helm. The HWS Steadfast is a 30-gun ship with a crew of 70 men.

OOC: Fine, fine. Skaven-level tech for SKAVEN ONLY. (Used to collect WFB Skaven, now 40k Chaos Marines 8) )

On second thoughts: NO WARPFIRE THROWERS! Wooden Ships+Weird Green Flamers = Easy win. Too easy. Plenty of Jezzails, though.

The Republic of the Golden Simatar keeps a small garrison of 2,100 marines on the island of St. Luther's Mission. It is located on the bottom right of the map. Named for the man who founded the small Catholic mission on the island. The island is 50 square miles and is shapped like an openparrot beek the inside of the open beek are mostly rocky cliffs with short beaches. The bay is five square miles. The only port St. Luther is a thirving and bustling city with just over 500 residences. Fort Baxton guards the northern end of the city, it's battery of 21 48lbs cannons covering city and bay.

The island has small gold deposits but is rich in rubber and tin.

The three ships. Admiral Jesse Grey

GSS Sea Serpent 20 12 pounders and 2 24 pound bow chasers. 100 men Capt. John Summers

GSS Princeton It is the Serpent's Sister ship. Capt. Daniel Perkins

GSS Thunderer 70 24 pound cannons, 2 32 pound bow chasers, and 32 pound stern chaser. 200 men Capt. Kyle Jenkins

OOC: 98 guns? 98 SODDING GUNS?!? That's FLAGSHIP level! Bloody hell, this is minor stuff, not 2000 marines and a 98 gun BATTLESHIP!!! Nelson's flagship HMS Victory had 100 guns in 1805 and it was big then! 74 guns, alright? other two are perfect, but 74 guns and about 200 men (Not inc marines, who are about 20-60). Also, 98-gun ship's about 600 crew.

OOC:YIPPEE. Only engines, no warp-lightning(that would be just a tad cheesey)
My group are basically pirates but get service from Clans on the coasts of continents
Name:Clan Mors
Population:Unkown(its alot, butmostly slaves)
Ships:One Captured Frigate(no flags, hidden warpstone engine)ChitterBoil
1 Captured British Ship. SkitterSqueek
1 Captured American Ship. ChitterSqueek
Last 2 ships have their previous owners flag still showing, also have hidden warpstone engines.

IC:The ChitterBoil drifted at sea with no apparent crew, only a white sail as it headed twoards the Carribean Islands.
SkitterSqueek was docked at Clan Mors dock in present day Algeria.
ChitterSqueek was docked in an isolated spot above the present day state of florida(can't remember what state it is, I think georgia)

OOC: I'll assume the frig is a 74, but how many guns do the other two have?

The other two would be equipped just like the countries that "donated" them would be.(do you now what they would have?) Basically i am trying to pass them off as belogning to those nations.

OOC: Say, 36 guns each. Ships with so few guns were referred to as 'sloops'. About a hundred crew per ship

Ok, thanks, I'm not really knowledgeable about this time period, I'm more WWII.

Legren, were you ranting at me? If I made any error, I'll correct it. I'm more into WWII also HR.

OOC: Yeah, was ranting, but with a reason. I'd said earlier (1st post) that you should begin with a 74-gun frigate and one or two other ships with less than 40 guns each. 'bout 200 men on the frig and 100 each on the sloops.

My frig has 72 guns and 200 men and my two sloops have 22 guns and 100 men, is that okay?

Perfect. Absoloutley no probs

For three days the HMS Vigilance had patrolled the waters around the isle of St. John's. On the morning of the fourth day a sail was sighted on the horizon. By midday the vessel was clearly visible, it had obviously seen the Vigilance because it was heading towards them.
At a distance of around half a mile the unidentified ship, for an unknown reason, lowered it's flag. Seconds later voices rang out on the Vigilance, for another flag had been raised, black with a skull and pair of cutlasses upon it. Pirates.
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Captain James Arthur Harrington strode onto the deck.
"What the bloody hell is going on?" he yelled.
"Pirates, sir!" replied a young, and frightened, midshipman.
"Pirates? Damn! You there! You bugger! Get to the gun decks and tell them to load!"
"What's going on, sir" asked the midshipman, whose name was Thomas.
"We're going to sail next to the enemy, boy. Then we're going to shoot the bastards!"
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The Vigilance was fully loaded by the time the enemy ship ran alongside them. Both ships fired as soon as possible, the first shot ripping into each of their sterns. Grappling hooks, thrown by the pirates, sailed through the air to land upon the deck of the Vigilance, then the pirates heaved at the ropes, dragging their prey against their side. Boarding planks were dropped, and they swarmed over them. The first pirate, a great muscled black man, was shot as he was halfway across, he fell down between the ship's hulls, to be crushed as they banged together.
Marines ran up onto the top deck to engage the enemy, they fired a volley, then charged with their bayonets.
Captain Harrington drew his pistol and fired into the mass of pirates, then drew his sabre and joined the melee. He parried a wildly swung axe, stabbing his sword through the chest of it's wielder, he twisted, and it was free again. A frantic jump backwards avoided a blow that would have had his guts on the floor, his attacker was tall, he wore a tricorn hat over black hair and carried a brace of pistols in addition to his cutlass. The two circled, then the pirate attacked, swinging his heavy blade. Harrington parried, then riposted, flinging his opponents sword onto the ground and out of arms reach. Unperturbed, the man drew a pistol, cocked it, aimed it, and pulled the trigger. The flint sparked on an empty pan. Harrington screamed a challenge and hurled himself at the pirate. He thrust his sabre upwards through his enemy's belly, twisted, and pulled it out again.
Harrington gazed at the scene around him. Bodies littered the deck, an equal number of pirates and marines. The pirates cut their boarding ropes, fired a final shot into the Vigilance, and drifted away.
The boarding had been repelled, but at a high price. Fully half the marines were dead or very nearly so. There was not a man among them who was not wounded. Sailors stalked the deck, finishing off the wounded enemy.
"Butchers bill" called Captain Harrington, "And get me a damn drink"
The tally counted twenty-one dead among the marines, and four would never fight again. Casualties among the sailors were no better. In the dark of the gunnery decks men been killed or lost limbs to the cannons of the enemy. Forty-six dead, eight unfit to work, and a number of cuts among the top deck gunners who had rushed to repel the boarding.
The Vigilance limped back to St. John's for extensive repairs.

OOC: There you go, then. HMS Vigilance clashes with the FSF Determination, repels the boarding but gets seven kinds of shit beaten out of it in return. My casualties are as above, Fluffywuffy, post your own. If you're wondering why I would near-cripple my frig so early in the thread I have this to say: Neeed...Kill..Stuf..*Dribble*

P.S. In case you're thinking it is, I must say that the pirate officer was NOT the Admiral. Just some junior bugger. So you can stop worrying. :mrgreen:

The Sea Serpent carefully stalked it's prey. Though it's crew could only see the outline in the night they could tell it was for ill purposes. The pirate ship was too busy moving towards one of the ships in the convoy the Serpent was protecting.
"What do you consider his canon size?" Capt. Summers asked. Black hair hung in a pony tail underneath his hat. His equally black eyes followed the ship as it followed the enemy ship.
"Eight pounders if you ask me sir, otherwise she wouldn't get that close." 1st mate Bill Williams said.
"Fire the bow chasers." Summers ordered. It was quietly repeated till it reached the gun crews. Both 24 pound guns belched, the shell tearing into the forecastle of the ship. The ships in the convoy now alert to the danger gave full sail and turned for the wind to give as much push as possible.
The pirate vessal turned to close with Serpent.
"We are still out of range." Williams said.
"Hard a port!" Summers shouted. The sloop swung and the starboard guns opened up. They raked the bow of the oncoming vessal, several shells breaking through several rotted spots.
On board the bow of the pirate ship a wounded man touched the tiny bit of powder left on the hole of the single 24 pound chaser.
Summers saw the puff of smoke.
"ALL HANDS DOWN!" He shouted. The shell went high into the rigging striking the observation post killing the two men there and sending deadly splinters onto the deck. The starboard guns opened up and for 25 more minutes pounded the crippled pirate vessal to oblivion, but not before some of her crew had slowly reloaded the guns and turned thier ship to send several shells into the sloop.

Serpent moved to rejoin and organize the convoy. It's rigging needing repair and several holes in the side.
"Casualites?" Summers asked.
"23 dead and 42 wounded, total." Williams said
Serpent continued to escort the convoy as her crew teneded to thier dead, wounded men, and ship.

OOC: These people are like pirates, except instead of fighting for their own personal gain, they are fighting against the British crown to try to bring democracy to England. They used to be in the British navy, but they mutinied.

They renamed the ships as well.

IC: The frigate L.S. Athens sailed along with the L.S. John Locke and the L.S. Montesquieu.

The Athens had a full complement, and sixty marines. The othe two ships had a full complement, and twenty marines each.

"Land Ho!" yelled Midshipman John Downey, a young boy. Captain Eric Cartwright pulled out his telescope. "Set course for that bay in there. We shall build our base there."

They went ashore, and felled trees, and built docks and buildings. Extra cannons, carried aboard, were put into towers they built facing the sea. Half of the marines (50) were garrisoned there, while the marines on the ships were cut in half.

A month later, the base was finished. "Set sail, prepare to engage royalists and supporting nation's ships! yelled the captain.

The ships sailed out together to combat any forces they would find.

When the HMS Vigilance entered St. Johns it was barely afloat, with a quarter of the crew frantically pumping the bilges to get rid of the water they had taken. Once dry docked, Captain Harrington made his way to the shipwright's house.
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Harrington entered the building. The inside was cramped and dark, with a desk at the far side and a door leading to a back room. Harrington rang a small bell which was nailed to the desk.
"Just a minute" called a voice from the back room. After a while a man (Supposedly the owner) walked through and stood behind the desk. He was about five and a half feet tall, with white hair, and he was wearing a dark orange jacket.
"Hello, Captain Harrington" he said, "What may I do for you today?"
"Ship's buggered. You can fix it"
"Oh dear, buggered, you say? Is it serious?"
"'course it's bloody serious. Had a damn run in with pirates. Both got shot to pieces"
"I best have a look at her, then"
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"Ooh dear" said the shipwright (Now identified as Mister Wilson), "This will be expensive..."
"It's always bloody expensive" replied Harrington, who was in a foul mood.
"There's a lot of damage to the keel, and to the middle of the ship. Had trouble getting back, I assume?"
"Aye, bloody ship kept on filling with water"
Wilson nodded. "Well, it's not all bad"
"Whaddyou mean?"
"Well, if you didn't keep getting shot up like this I would be out of a job, Captain"
"Shut up, Wilson, you bastard. Go find some men and repair my damn ship"

OOC: Has anyone claimed the island of St. Martin? If not, I would like to lay claim to it. Further more, how many islands can we start off with?

IC:
The Kaufmanstad navy dispatched the following vessels to its Caribbean colony of St. Martin in 1775 to protect its shipping from the greedy hands of pirates:
The 44-gun frigate (built like those of the US Navy of the time) KNS Republic under Captain Adriaen van den Ende.
The 10-gun sloops Swordfish and Kaufmansburg commanded respectively by Captain Leonard Vogel, and Lieutenant Thomas Hendrix.
Finally, the 8-gun sloop Serpent commanded by Lieutenant Frederick Hals.

OOC: No-one has claimed the island of St. Martin because we're not doing this on a real map, its just a large amount of sea with islands in. No-one has claimed the name St.Martin, though, so you could call your island that, should you want to. Are you sure you only want 44 guns? Most everyone has a 74-gun frig to start with.

OOC: Ok, thanks for the input. Well, my island is called St. Martin. The main port on the island will be called Port Denstad.
The reason I choose a 44-gun frigate is that it is smaller, more maneuvarable, and has a shallower draft. Meaning that it can out gun anything it can't out run, and out run anything it can't out gun. On top of this, the shallow draft allows it to go places a 74 can't, i.e. over many of the reefs and shoals that plague Caribbean waters.

IC:
Arriving off St. Martin, the Republic, under Captain Van den Ende resupplied and began a cruise around the small island, taking careful notes of all the coves, harbors and reefs that surrounded it. Van den Ende enjoyed himself immensly standing on the poop deck in his green navy uniform with the Kaufmanstad Naval Ensign flying behind him.

OOC: Sounds fun. I'm in. Since this is the past Adornia is an Empire instead of a democracy.

IC: The Empire of Adornia has dispatched the 74 Gun frigate, the ANS Imperial along with the 36 gun corvette Hornet and the 24 gun sloop Wasp. These three ships are currently en route to the island called New Adornia. THey are in convoy with several transports that are carrying supplys, as well as a battalion of troops and more settlers.

New Adornia currently has a decent szed port and a fort is nearing completion.It is one small gold mine, but it's main exports are grain, timber, fish, and iron ore. It is a very fertile, very forested island.

Fort Baxton

A man with white hair and a beard to match sat behind a large oak desk filling out papers. His crips blue uniform displayed nothing of rank, yet everyone knew the Admiral by mere looks. There was a knock at the door.
"Come in." Admiral Jess Grey said. He looked up to see Summers walk in. "Ah, John do come in. Care for a drink?"
"Yes please Admiral." Summers took a small glass of amber coloured liquid from the old man as he sat down. "Here is my after action report. All six merchants safely arrived back here sir."
Grey looked over the paper Summers handed him. The dull green eyes scanned the page and nodded.
"I see you ran into a pirate ship. Take her as a prize?"
"No sir, we blasted her to the bottom." Summers said. He hadn't taken a prize in several months. "Sir, I talked with Captain Perkins of the Prince..."
"No you may not go activly hunting pirates and enemy ships."
"Sir, escorting convoys is not being a captian."
Grey put on the his hat and ushered Summers out into the open. Fort Baxton sat on a hill less than a half mile from the town. They stood on the top level of Fort Baxton. Three levels each a half circle and boasting 7 48 pound guns covered the harbor and town. Grey pointed to the Thunderer.
"See her?"
"Yes sir."
"Good, now understand me Captain. The Thunderer though the most powerful ship the Golden Simatar has in these waters battles other men of war more than she does anything else, she still escorts convoys! Escorting is sailoring! Just as digging trenches is soldiering. Alright?"
"Yes Admiral."
"Dimissed." Grey walked back iniside as Summers walked down into the town to oversee the repairs of his ship and to get a drink.

By the way, a 74 gun ship would be a two decked, 3rd rate Ship of the Line, not a frigate. The heaviest frigates rarely had more than 40 guns. Sloop is a reference to a type of sales... schooner rigged, more or less, as opposed to the for and aft rigging of the 6th rate and up. Sloops, MIGHT, if they were heavy, carry 20 guns. A 74 gun ship, was, again, a Man o'War, a Ship of the Line, a Line of Battle ship, a Battleship.

And victory wasn't particularly large, as 1st rate ships went. The spanish had 120 gun ships.

That last post was me, in my guise as NSBC Loans officer... you ought to check them out. Good company.

ANYWAY, I'm interested in joining in. Chardonay used to have a very powerful navy, before the advent of steam. Sory for my last post, I'm a bit of a napolionic warfare pedant. In any case... we would like to send in a force consisting of 4 32 gun frigates, 2 24 gun brigs,3 18 gun sloops, and a single bomb ketch. Is this appropriate for a large, powerful navy wishing to begin antipiracy patrols in the area? Does anyone have a port we can use as a base?

Governor Hans Coen of St. Martin was a crooked man. While the navies in this area of the sea had been small, pirates roamed and took prey without mercy. Coen offered them a refuge. By offering them safe harbor, few Kaufmanstad vessels had fallen prey. On top of this, Coen got kick backs for not revealing secret coves on St. Martin's south shore to enemy nations. Coen had invested this dirty pirate money in Sugar plantations on the island and became a very wealthy man. The rich sugar trade was enough to allow officials to ignore Coen's practices. But now, the jig might be up. The build up of navies from other nations had caused many pirates to turn on Coen. Now the pirates attacked anyone. But still, Coen accepted the bribes. Captain Adriaen van den Ende, however, recently arrived threatened to reveal Coen's schemes.

OOC: Bumpage. Come on, mates, just make your island, think up names for the ships and off we go...

IC: The HMS Vigilant and HMS Escort operate from the harbour of Saint John's.
OOC: Imagine a map (800 milesx800 miles), lots of it is water, with a few blobs of land sticking out. St John's is in the...Top left hand corner at (70, 750).

[OOC: I'm already doing a 1800s era RP as the United States. If I want to spend at least SOME of my day doing actual work, I'd have to pass. But I LOVE this idea!]

#TAG# for interest!

Ships:One Captured Frigate(no flags, hidden warpstone engine)ChitterBoil
1 Captured British Ship. SkitterSqueek
1 Captured American Ship. ChitterSqueek
Last 2 ships have their previous owners flag still showing, also have hidden warpstone engines.

IC:The ChitterBoil drifted at sea with no apparent crew, only a white sail as it headed twoards the Carribean Islands.
SkitterSqueek was docked at Clan Mors dock in present day Algeria.
ChitterSqueek was docked in an isolated spot above the present day state of florida(can't remember what state it is, I think georgia)[/quote]

IC:The ChitterBoil has been un-accounted for for several days, no Maskrit patrols have seen her.
The ChitterSqueek has been recalled and is making its way A non-marked island off the north-west coast of africa.
While the SkitterSqueek was about to make an attack near Tripoli.....
On board the British Ship (insert name of non-important ship), which is a sloop.
"Captain, there's one of ours"
"What the bloddy hell is it doing out here, are there any ships assigned out here"?
"No sir, it appears there's no crew either, probably pirates or abandoned"
"Well, we'll just have to claim it for our king then, have the marines ready, I don't want any surprises"
"Yes sir" and the aid scurried off to relay orders to the men.

As they pulled up along side, they saw nothing, no crew, no bodies, no supplies, empty.
"Must've been abanoned captain, they probalby took the supplies and bailed"
"Jourgan, have your marines check the ship, I want to make sure"
All while this was going on, they failed to see the rats all swimming aboard and several hunched fiqures crawl through opening large enough to hold(everyone was top-side, no one below decks).
After a half-hour or so, the marines assembled on the "abandoned" ships deck,
"Captain, still their was nothing on board"
"Ok, good thing were carrying extra crew from those irate victims, Jourgan, split your marines, 50 on this ship, 50 on ours, labor manager, assign men to crew this ship and we will escort it home"
"Yes captain"
And later on they set sail, each ship unknowingly carrying the waiting Skaven underneath.....

tag for later joining and reading

By the way, a 74 gun ship would be a two decked, 3rd rate Ship of the Line, not a frigate. The heaviest frigates rarely had more than 40 guns. Sloop is a reference to a type of sales... schooner rigged, more or less, as opposed to the for and aft rigging of the 6th rate and up. Sloops, MIGHT, if they were heavy, carry 20 guns. A 74 gun ship, was, again, a Man o'War, a Ship of the Line, a Line of Battle ship, a Battleship.

And victory wasn't particularly large, as 1st rate ships went. The spanish had 120 gun ships.

OOC: Fine...Just...You...*Gah*...Had correct me, didn't you? Honestly. :P
Never mind, all corrections are gratefully recieved. All it does is make the thread historically accurate, so thankyou. I guess that a more powerful nation WOULD have more ships. I was basing it on my own nation, i.e. starting nation.
Due to corrections by the NS Banking Corporation, Legren now has 1 74-gun Ship of the Line, with a 36 gun FRIGATE. So there.
On another note: YAAAY! WE HAVE MORE PEOPLE! Ahem. Sorry...Couldn't help myself. :oops:

Well... since everyone's just making an island out of nowhere =) I have a small island... I'll pin down the location later. It is heavily wooded, has a good fresh water source, and is fairly close to the mainland. It serves as a naval base and transshipment point because it has a good central position (between chardonayan towns on the mainland). There's no agricultural land at all, and the people subsist on fish and imports. Two of my frigates have been sent out individually on anti-piracy cruises, accompanied by a sloop each. The final sloop is operating independantly in shallow waters, while the brigs and other two frigates are escorting merchantmen.

The Adornian convoy finally sailed into New Adornia Harbor, recieving a salute from the newly completed Fort Stalwart. The Fort's guns cover the entire bay. It has 20 12-pounder long range cannon and 12 8-pounders.

Commodore Jonathan Forrest, the cammander of the Imperial and all Adornian Naval Forces in the area stalked onto the deck. The miday sun beat down as he surveyed the harbor.

"Excellent. Signal the transports to begin unloading. I will be going ashore to meet with governor. Notify the crew that they'll be getting shore leave for a littile while. OH, and send out the Hornet as soon she's resupplied. He's going to do some commerece raiding and anti-pirate work."

"Aye, Aye sir."

OOC: Just a quick note: when you take a ship you assign a "prize crew". Usually a leftenant or midshipmen with six to twelve crewmembers to sail it. They then bring it in ot port and wait for their ship to come back.

Another note... it's very very difficult to actually sink a ship. Remember, they're made of wood. Wood floats. Usually, ships would be dismasted and their crews killed... but the ship would still float, if listing badly.

If enough hits were taken below the waterline, it was possible for the ship to fill with water. and founder, but that was unlikely. The surest way to destroy the ship was to set fire to it... once the flames reached the poweder magazine, it was all over.

To this end, shore batteries would often heat their cannon balls (remember, this was, for the most part, before explosive shells. The cannonball is just a lump of metal or, in some cases, stone. The only ships that would carry explosive shells were Bomb Ketches, which usually had two 100 pound mortars. These would fire an enormous cannon ball filled with 7 pounds of powder, with a fuse sticking out. They were used for shelling fortresses and infantry positions (Imagine a 100 pound grenade, if you will) to kill the men. Occasionally, they would be used against ships, but this was rare) because the heated cannon ball could set fire to the wooden ships, or occasionally touch off a powder charge. Because of this, the powder was kept in a room in the center of the ship below the waterline, usually, and was protected by damp cloths. Young boys known as 'powder monkeys' would carry small amounts of gunpowder to the gunners as it was needed to reduce the chance of an accident.

The goal of a battle between two sailing ships was to dismast the enemy, dismount her guns, and kill her crew. To destroy the masts and rigging, chain shot and bar shot were used. Chain shot was basically two small cannon balls (occasionally half cannon balls) attached to each other by a chain, which would rip through rigging and sails, and could severly damage masts. To dismount the guns and kill the gun crew, roundshot was used... solid cannon balls that could somtimes penetrate the sides of a wooden ship, but which more importantly would generate clouds of leathal wood splinters, or shrapnel, when they hit. A direct hit on a gun would knock it out of it's carrage and send it spinning, killing men, but even a near miss could kill a gun crew. If the gun crews had time, occasionally they would put two cannonballs in the gun, and increase the powder charge slightly. This had a very short range, and increased the chance the gun would expload when fired, but was absolutely devistating. To kill the crew on deck, grapeshot, canister, and marine sharpshooters were use. Grapeshot was just a bunch of small cannon balls, often 4 pounds I beleive, that were held in a bag. They would be fired out of a cannon like a shotgun shell, and could occasionally penetrate the walls of rolled up hammocks that were used as sandbags. Canister was a similar concept, except using hundreds of musket and pistol balls. Marines would often hang in the rigging and try to shoot officers, while other marines would aim to kill crew.

Another note... a small gun took a minimum of 3 people to operate... most larger guns (9 pounds and up) took a crew of five. The really heavy ones occasionally needed 7 men.

Captain Henry Hat came on deck in a sour mood. Everyone on board was generally sour. Hat was concerned that his crew might mutiny. Fortunatley, the winds had kept up and remained steady.
Suddenly, Captain Hat's mood picked by a simple shout from the crow's nest.
"Ship Ahoy!"
Hat smiled and asked "What is it, my lad?"
"Small British Merchantman, sir!"
"Very good! Send them a flag single that we have run out of provisions!"
"Aye sir!"
Hat's ship, the Holliday, was a brig with 20 guns.
"She's coming to help us, sir!" cried the crow's nest.
"Excellent. Crew! Stay low, don't let them see you! Get your cutlasses ready."
The British came alongside and shouted "How can we help?"
"You can surrender!" replied Hat. Upon this response, the Jolly Roger went up, and a broadside brought down the Brits' mizzen mast. The crew lept up, grappled the merchantman, and swung over. After a brief fight, the British surrendered. Hat made a prize of the ship, putting its original crew in an open boat, with a small barrell of beer and a single loaf of bread.
As he sailed away, he shouted to the British, "When you reach the hereafter, tell St. Peter Captain Henry Hat sent you! Hahahaha!"

Thats not the ship my people are on, is it?

Nah, it's just a random British Merchantman. Not the one you captured.
Legren: Are you still doing the Colonization RP? I gave your men at Calvintown a huge beer ration.

EDIT:
IC:
After the attack on the British, Captain Hat renamed his prize the King's Ransom. He then sailed to a cove on St. Martin's southern coast, repaired his prize, and gave his men an extra rum ration.

Where is everyone? BUMP

Where is everyone? BUMP