*Oak & Iron* with Austin B. on Tabletop Simulator. The scenario was “Blockade”, with the Pirates under Blackbeard attacking the French under Jean Bart. ![[july_10-1.jpg]] ![[july_10-2.jpg]] --- Mon gouverneur, I bring a report of victory from the waters off Île de Vache, in Hispaniola. The supplies kept there are ready for our forces to use, and the pirate Blackbeard has been repulsed. My only regret is that the coward escaped. My patrol near the island sighted a ship we knew to belong to that pirate’s squadron—apparently he called it the Santa Maria, as a mockery of our Spanish allies—to our lee, and so we set out towards it. As we rounded the island, the captain of my leading corvette, Cpt. Macquer, sighted two vessels to windward, a sloop and Blackbeard’s schooner *Revenge*. He signaled, and we adjusted our plans. The *Santa Maria* was clearly a diversion, and we were supposed to go far to lee while Blackbeard himself reached our stores on the island. But no: we immediately brought our bows up as close to windward as they would go. The winds picked up, and we knew that it was coming on to blow. The pirates shot down towards our island, wing-and-wing, while we came up at an oblique approach to get them in our broadsides. The sailing was tight around the shoals to the lee of Île de Vache, but we sailed to the very inch. Captain Macquer opened the first broadside, hitting the pirates’ sloop. (This sloop, we later learned, they called the *Gezellige Oma*. As your excellency does not, I believe, speak the Dutch, allow me as a Flamand, to translate: the *cozy grandmother*. Truly, these pirates make a mockery of all they see.) The range was extreme and the fire far from decisive. I brought *L’Aurore*, my flagship, up to help, and realized I had a perfect opportunity: I opened a near broadside on the sloop, and a very distant one on the *Santa Maria*. Both ships suffered, and I set my crews to reloading both sides. ![[july_10-3.jpg]] The cowardice of the pirate captain became apparent, as he used his own sloop as cover from my broadsides, and attempted to come around the far side of the island into its lee. But I saw that Captain Macquer had the situation in hand, the sloop in his broadside, and I paid off towards the *Santa Maria*, ordering the captain of *La Chasseresse* to follow me. ![[july_10-4.jpg]] The pirate corvette took a wild swing, and put itself into the wind and athwart the bows of *La Chasseresse*, forcing a boarding action. The brave French crew fought well, doing France honour, but I was not going to let them do so unaided, and I came around giving them a broadside at very close range from the other side of their ship. The pirates’ sloop and corvette were both smashed, and they struck. We will have many prisoners to hang for piracy. Again, my only regret is that Blackbeard himself escaped. Captain Macquer gave chase, but I had to recall him—it was only too likely to be another ruse. Votre serviteur, Jan Baert ![[july_10-5.jpg]]