Up The Orinoco

The Spanish Main! 15 Something-Something!

The local Spanish authorities have got wind that a notorious nest of French buccaneers are hiding up the Orinoco River and send an expeditionary force to weed them out.

The French are at anchor, far upriver, covered by a small shore-battery. In the foreground is the Perle Noire and the gun-vessel Requin. Beyond then, anchored at the far shore, is the Vieux James.

Perle Noire - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Square Rigged, Shallow Draft - 42pts
Vieux James - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Shallow Draft, Square Rigged, Carronades - 46pts
Requin - Q3 C2 - Bow Guns, Lateen Rigged, Shallow Draft, Sweeps - 30pts
Battery - Q3 C2 - Bastion, Reinforced Hull - 46pts

The Spanish force heads upriver, with the wind on their starboard quarter (top right of the picture). In the  distance are the vessels Belen and Cisne, in the foreground are two gunboats, San Martin and Fama and between them a group of cannon-armed boats. The wind is with them, but the current isn't.

Belen - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Square Rigged, Shallow Draft - 42pts

Cisne - Q3 C3 - Chaser Guns, Square Rigged, Shallow Draft - 42pts

San Martin - Q3 C2 - Bow Guns, Lateen Rigged, Shallow Draft, Sweeps - 30pts

Fama - Q3 C2 - Bow Guns, Lateen Rigged, Shallow Draft, Sweeps - 30pts

Boats - Q2 C2 - Bow Chasers, Boats - 23pts
(Bow Chasers are the same as Chaser Guns but fire to the bow only and cost 2pts)

To represent the river-current (flowing from left to right here, I had it that if any side caused a turnover all ships not anchored or grappled to another ship would drift one S downstream. Needless to say the Spanish had some bad activation rolls and made little headway on the first couple of turns. The French ships turned at anchor to bring their guns to bear.

Opening shots; the Vieux James tried a long-range shot at the approaching Belen, but missed.

Meanwhile the gunboats San Martin and Fama tried their luck against their French counterpart, Requin.

Belen opened up on Vieux James and damaged the French vessel.

Early positions. The two Spanish ships were well advanced, but a shift of wind to the east (straight along the river from the bottom of the picture) had put the fore-and-aft rigged gunboats at a sailing disadvantage and they were struggling to advance against the current.

The captain of Perle Noire decided to come to the aid of Vieux James, and raised anchor, but couldn't turn away from the shore fast enough and collided with Requin as the current dragged his ship downstream.

Belen continued to inflict damage on Vieux James, which was slow to return any effective fire.

Cisne now joined in, with its bow-chasers at first.

The shore-battery tried a long-range shot at Belen, but missed.

Perle Noire was free of Requin now, and turning across the river, but also heading away from the action in the grips of the current. It now found itself engaged by the Spanish gunboats.

Belen had also turned across the river; Vieux James was close to striking so it had left its consort, Cisne, to finish off that buccaneer vessel, and moved to engage Requin.

Plenty of gunnery!

San Martin and Fama ran towards the Perle Noire, grappled and boarded. San Martin came off worse in the initial exchange.

Meanwhile Belen boarded Requin, but the attackers were driven back

Two boarding actions and the Cisne still trying to close with Vieux James. The French ship used this lull in the attack on it to repair damage.

An upset for the Spanish as the Belen struck! 

But soon after the Spanish gunboats forced the surrender of the Perle Noire.

Cisne worked into a raking position across Vieux James' bow, but only managed an ineffective broadside. With the shore close to hand, Cisne dropped anchor.

As the struck Belen drifted downriver, San Martin moved to board Requin ...

... but the bold buccaneers saw them off, and the Spanish gunboat struck its colours.

Vieux James and Cisne began a furious exchange of broadsides that saw both ships end up badly damaged.

Meanwhile the Spanish boats finally managed to head towards the fighting. Slow-moving and reliant on actions to actually row they had suffered badly from the current and had spent most of the action near the Spanish start-line. Now they began to creep slowly towards Requin. Fama was also approaching the French gunboat.

Cisne finally defeated Vieux James, which sank

At that point I called the game (it was getting late) and gave the Spanish a minor victory. They'd lost a ship and a gunboat, but the buccaneers had lost their two largest vessels. However Requin, with only the dubious support of the mostly ineffective shore-battery, would now be facing three Spanish vessels, and I didn't fancy its chances. If I'd have played longer I may have had it make a run for it downriver.

The current and shoreline made this a frustrating action for both sides, as did the mix of different sailing plans and gun positions - the gunboats only fired from the bow. But it was entertaining enough and I'd certainly try it again. 

Oh, and if you've paid attention to this blog over the past couple of weeks you'll see the the action is a reworking of the first scenario in 'Under The Southern Cross'. I didn't even bother changing the names of the Spanish ships.