*Oak & Iron* with Owen. The objective this week is “Dangerous Waters”: Play a game with 5 or more pieces of terrain on the board. We did! I suffered for it! The English admiral was John Benbow and the French was Jean II, comte d’Estrées. --- Mon intendant, I regret bringing you bad news again, but this time I do so as a free man, and with a one of his majesty’s ships still afloat and free. The English have beset us at sea like a biblical plague, but honesty demands that I give you a detailed account. We moved to intercept the English fleet and defend the shore of Long Island. They intended to land a raiding party and take the magazine on one of our offshore forts. We met them under bad conditions; they were far to weather and we were left beating up to windward between the shoals and the narrow channel between the islands. I was in command of the restored *Sirène*, under the command of the comte d’Estrées, in the fourth-rate *Le Tonnant*. I brought up the rear of our line of battle. At the front, we had a sloop and brigantine loaded with marines, intending to take the English by boarding if we could. Alas, this was not to happen. ![[july_4-1.jpeg]] The first half of the engagement was a slow and arduous series of wears and tacks upwind. The smaller fore-and-aft rigged ships began to outpace our two larger ships, and made it through the channel without much trouble. But the English were navigating their own challenges, and tried to pass carefully around the Dutchman’s Rock, and stay clear of the shoals beyond. They sailed impressively, to within the inch, but the islands gave us cover from their guns long enough to start to move into closer range. ![[july_4-2.jpeg]] This is when things began to go awry. Our lighter ships pulled ahead and broke formation, with the brigantine *La Reine du Vent* being exposed to concentrated broadsides from three of the English line. The crew fought valiantly, but it was a doomed action—the ship was loaded with boarders, and never got within pistol-shot of an enemy ship. I mourn for how many brave French soldiers were lost when it sunk. Meanwhile, the master of *Le Tonnant* must be reprimanded for his handling of the ship. While the comte had a no doubt laudable desire to bring his flagship to bear, it passed too close to the island and was caught on a lee shore. Without the sea-room to navigate, it could only have moved by warping or by waiting for the winds to change, and the first would be impossible in battle, and the second was not our fortune. The great guns were stuck facing across the channel, allowing the English fifth-rate frigate that brought up the rear of their line plenty of room to avoid their fire and come in close across the bows of *Le Tonnant*. ![[july_4-3.jpeg]] Meanwhile, our sloop was able to attempt to board the lead ship of the English line, but, fearing our soldiers, they cut free as often as we put grapples to them, and kept us at arm’s length, until their fluyt could break formation and bring its broadsides to bear on the sloop. At this point, both the brigantine and sloop were destroyed, the flagship rendered immobile and useless, and I was left, cutting to lee of the island and out of sign of the admiral’s signals, to determine that bringing you this news was the only honourable course left to me. I saw our ships hammer the English, but never such that they were kept from fighting. I lament that the guns of *Le Tonnant* and *La Sirène* were never brought to bear. To expect a sloop and a brigantine to hold off a full English line of battle is perhaps gallant, but certainly unrealistic. Votre serviteur, Cpt. René Macquer ![[july_4-4.jpeg]] > *Gameplay notes! I think that I made a terrible mistake trying to bring the large ships upwind through the narrow channel. In effect, that was 61 points of my 100 point list that I just was unable to bring to bear, while Owen’s least-used ship was his 5th rate, at 24 of his 100 points. If I were to replay this, I would try one of three things:* > 1. *Hug the windward side of the channel, keeping out of the wind’s eye and keeping enough sea-room to move.* > 2. *Come up on the shallower approach from the other tack, avoiding that channel entirely.* > 3. *Move the smaller ships around the lee of the objective island, but leave the 4th and 6th rates anchored across the lee end of the channel, with their broadsides ready to blast anything that came into the channel.* > *Who knows, right? It’s impossible to guess how that would have changed Owen’s play, but it’s interesting to try to learn from each game!*