The Battle of York Factory

The Battle of York Factory, also known as the Battle of Hudson's Bay, was a naval battle fought during the War of the Grand Alliance. The battle took place on 5 September 1697, when a French warship commanded by Captain Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville defeated an English squadron commanded by Captain John Fletcher. As a result of this battle, the French took York Factory, a trading post at the southern end of Hudson's Bay.

In the historical encounter, the French flag, Le Pelican, became separated from the rest of its squadron by fog, but arrived at York Factory and sent out a shore-party to investigate it. Ships were sighted to the north, which d'Iberville assumed were the rest of his squadron coming up, but which were, in fact, an English squadron under Captain Fletcher in the Hampshire. D'Iberville gave battle and fought three English ships; the Hampshire and the armed merchant vessels Dering and Royal Hudson's Bay. Seriously battered Le Pelican declined an offer to surrender from the English captain, who saluted the French crew's bravery just before a final broadside from Le Pelican caused the Hampshire's powder magazine to explode. Royal Hudson's Bay surrendered to the superior French ship, whilst Dering fled. Le Pelican sank soon after, just before the rest of the French squadron arrived and took York Factory.

I decided to play this battle using Galleys & Galleons (naturally), and adapted a scenario from one developed by Barry Hilton over at the League of Augsburg. Although he has a scenario just for the duel between Le Pelican and Hampshire, I went with a different one he has produced which pits the full English and French squadrons against each other, but in a haphazard manner hampered by fog and drifting ice. Historically it appears that both sides lost one or more ships to the ice before they ever got within range of each other.

The ships:

English
Hampshire (52) - Q3 C4 - Chaser Guns, Drilled Soldiers, Master Gunner, Square-Rigged
Dering (36) - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Merchantman, Square-Rigged
Royal Hudson's Bay (32) - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Merchantman, Square-Rigged
Owner's Love (12) - Q3 C1 - Fireship, Shallow Draft, Square-Rigged, Yare

French
Le Pelican (46) - Q3 C4 - Chaser Guns, Square-Rigged
Le Palmier (36) - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Square-Rigged
Le Profond (26) - Q3 C2 - Chaser Guns, Square-Rigged
Le Wesp (14) - Q3 C1 - Shallow Draft, Square-Rigged, Yare
L'Esquimaux (10) - Q3, C1 - Shallow Draft, Square-Rigged, Yare

For each side roll a D6 - on a 1-3 they start with one ship on the table, on a 4-6 they start with two. Randomly determine which ships they are.

Ships start 1D6 * 4" from entry edge. The French entry edge is from the South. The English enter from the North. They start (1D6 * 6) - 3" from the East edge. English ships are heading South, French ships are heading North. (I play on a 3' x 3' board - you would need to adjust these distances for your own table).

The wind starts from the West. The battle was fought in thick fog, so I used the low visibility rules from Fair Winds & Foul Tides (minus the automatic Derring Do rule). Because of the ice-floes I used the following rule:

On each activation a ship can opt to spend its first action navigating the ice. If it chooses to do this then all of its other actions/moves are resolved normally. If it chooses not to, then roll a D6 to see if it runs into difficulty in the ice.

1-3 - No effect. The ship acts normally this turn.
4 - All of the ship's movement is reduced by one level for this turn
5 - All of the ship's movement is reduced by one level for this turn and it may not perform any voluntary turns.
6 - All of the ship's movement is reduced by one level for this turn and it may not perform any voluntary turns. In addition it takes a point of damage.

Here's the game set up. The ice floes are just for show. In the centre of the board is a small island.

The French started with two ship, both to the east - Le Wesp and Le Profond. The English had one ship; the little fireship Owner's Love to the west. I actually did the setup wrong, with the French coming from the North and the English from the South, but materially it doesn't make much difference to how it plays.

At the start of each turn from Turn 2 onward a side rolls a D6. On a 5-6 a single ship appears on their entry edge, (D6 * 6) -3" from the East edge. The English were reinforced with the Royal Hudson's Bay. The two French vessels were working upwind towards Owner's Love.

Le Wesp continued after Owner's Love, whilst Le Profond turned to engage Royal Hudson's Bay. However the French ship ran into some ice and was damaged.

Being a fireship in G&G, Owner's Love cannot fire broadsides, so found itself in rather a sticky situation, with French ships closing in  from two directions. The French had been reinforced with Le Palmier (left).

Fortunately the short ranges forced on the battle by the fog meant that the little fire-ship had an easier time escaping than you might expect.

Ice prevented Royal Hudson' Bay from turning its broadside on Le Profond, and a few shots with the chasers were the best it could manage.

A view of the scattered action. On the far left the French now had Le Pelican whilst at the top of the picture the English Dering had entered the action.

I should note that the ice-floes were just for show.

Le Profond and Royal Hudson's Bay exchanged broadsides.

Owner's Love avoided a broadside from Le Wesp, which ended up more concerned with avoiding ice. Small arms from the English vessel inflicted a hit on the French.

Le Profond raked Royal Hudson's Bay, causing some damage and starting a fire.

Owner's Love continued to elude the French attempts to shoot at it, and was now closing on Le Pelican

Three other English ships were heading towards the French flag, including the newly arrived Hampshire.

Royal Hudson's Bay exploded - the first loss on either side.

Le Pelican found its way impeded by ice and took damage.

Its way was them impeded by the Dering, and it was forced to grapple to avoid a collision. The French quickly gained the upper-hand in the boarding action.

But here comes Owner's Love ...

In G&G the fireship rules are bizarre; you have to spend an action each turn to prevent the ship catching fire. I allowed the ship to ignite by spending an action; on subsequent turns it would simply burn and roll no further actions until it either exploded or sank.

Anyway, Owner's Love ran aboard Le Pelican, and, nicely aflame, grappled it.

Le Pelican quickly caught fire and the fire soon spread to Dering, who was unable to cut grapples in time.

Owner's Love exploded ...

... quickly followed by Le Pelican ....

... and finally Dering

This left the English with just Hampshire, to face Le Wesp, Le Profond and Le Palmier. (L'Esquimaux had left the East edge and was presumed lost). However all three French vessels were damaged to some extent, from a mix of gunnery and collision with the ice, so stood little chance against the well-manned heavier English ship. Wisely they broke off the action.

I decided to call this a draw. Hampshire was undamaged, but was the only English ship left; the other three had all exploded. The French had lost their flag, and L'Equimaux, and could probably repair, but taking on the Hampshire might still prove a challenge. Maybe that would make an interesting follow-up game.

This was a chaotic action, with random arrivals and positioning, and a wide ranger of ship strengths. The short gunnery ranges made for a challenge as well. It was a shame that the mighty Hampshire never got into action though; it's a tough ship that would prove a real challenge for the French, as it did in the actual action..

If I ran it again, what would I do differently? I think I'd scrap the having to spend an action to avoid ice, since this was a messy extra die-roll. Instead I'd randomly scatter ten ice floes around the board that simply have to be avoided (a ship would take a point of damage if they collided with one). In addition I think I'd simply run Owner's Love as a regular small-ship; this wasn't really an action for a dedicated fireship, plus the fireship rules in G&G really are a bit bizarre. It leaves the English slightly down on points, but not to a degree worth worrying about. I'd balance it by allowing English ships to leave the board via the North or South edges, but the French only via the North (since they were moving to escape the estuary on which  English-controlled York Factory was situated at the time).