Today was nice and easy, but I will admit that I am biased towards the Royal Navy.
The Amercs had the Terror and the Mobilis, two subs, submerged outside the English harbour so they could keep an eye on them. The English used up most of their reserve monies to ‘complete the fleet’, buying the only ships they had yet to build, the most powerful. They built their five five-masters, awakened(?) the two Luscas (sea monsters, if you didn’t know), and my original HMS Lord Walpole and HMS Birkenhead (my first English ships, they are very special to me). Then they put the two Luscas on underwater surveillance and sure enough, they spotted the two subs from deep in the water. Somehow the Luscas were able to communicate this to the English (any ideas on how?), and the English made the Luscas bring the subs to the surface. The subs were brought to the English admiral, who forced them to surrender or face the incredible broadside of the newly commissioned English flagship, HMS Lord Algernon :cool:. If they submerged, they would just be carried back up by the Luscas.
The English admiral proceeded to replace the Mercenary crew with an English crew, with the sailors using the clothes the Mercs had to play the part beautifully. At gunpoint, the Mercs were forced to tell the English the exact locations of their islands and harbour, as well as directions on how to effectively man and use the submarine. Then, with the Mercs, now officially POW’s, safely put away, the English admiral told the Englishmen what they were going to do.
So the English had their first subs and were embarking to find the Amercs! This brilliant plan would soon come to fruition. The English (as Mercenaries) completely fooled the Amercs and told them about how the English had only a handful of ships, most of them badly seaworthy, the crews were being decimated by scurvy, etc., etc. The Amercs proclaimed victory in their war against the Britons and set out to destroy this weak British fleet! They didn’t send their whole fleet, only a portion of ships of the line, but the fleet was still impressive at 28 SOL’s (including three of their four biggest ships) and 20 frigates. The two subs raced back to tell their comrades of the perfect sequence of events, and once safely ashore, the British sunk the two subs just off the harbour, announcing that sailing ships would rule the seas forever! (I wish)
The Amercs sailed leisurely along, singing sea songs while enjoying each other’s company and making bets on how fast the English would surrender. Some sailors bet they would surrender without firing a shot!
OH MY, OH MY. BIG PROBLEM. All I am going to say is: don’t mess with the Royal Navy. The English had 96 ships, but knew they wouldn’t need them all. They positioned their 17 three deckers, four frigates and the two Luscas to the southeast of the harbour, the wind blowing due north (no doubt a “Protestant wind”, this would be key later on). What happened next was one of the biggest fiascos/routs/dominating performances/whatever you want to call it in history. At night, the four English frigates surrounded the two Bletchleys that had been captured in the last battle and forced them to surrender. The two Luscas picked off the remaining 18 frigates one by one while the rest of the fleet, farther back, had no idea, singing too loudly and celebrating, not hearing the sudden screams of their fellow sailors.
Morning came, and the Amercs were hung-over and not at all ready for battle. After assuming that the frigates had just gone ahead to scout the situation, they decided to wait another day to attack. The English, however, would not. With the unfurling of the sails, the 17 three-deckers came bearing down from windward on the Amerc fleet. Every sailor, officer, and captain in the fleet suddenly had their eyes wide open :eek:. “We have been deceived,” said the Amerc admiral aboard the Enterprise. “Tell the men to load their guns and prepare for battle.” The decks were not even clear when the English swept down on them. The HMS Success and HMS Titan surrounded the USS Stephens, dismasting her and forcing her to surrender. Two HMS Gargantuans surrounded the Enterprise. The other Titan and the HMS Lord Algernon surrounded the 6 masted junk, Divine Dragon, and dismasted her. After ten minutes of furious broadsides, all three had surrendered. The two Luscas and the remaining British ships rounded up the rest of the Amerc ships and forced them to flee to leeward, but they could only go so far. Suddenly the rocks were sighted to the north, giving them the chance to surrender, be dashed on the rocks and killed, or fight a superior enemy and be killed.
At the conclusion, the British had captured 30 ships (including recapturing the three English ships), while sinking another 18. In the following weeks a British fleet told the Amercs to the east of the defeat, repaired the three flagships (now they have the “HMS” Divine Dragon, watch out!), and worked on a peace treaty.
The treaty will probably be worked out soon, and now I concentrate my energies on determining how the Franco-Spanish war with the Pirates should end.