*Oak & Iron* with Sidney. Pirates attacking French, trying to get objective markers per the “Spy” Objective. ![[june_1-1.jpeg]] Initially the Pirates attempted to use the closely spaced islands to their advantage, holding the French at bay, while poor visibility limited French broadsides. The French, however, rapidly closed with their excellent seamanship and fast ships, enabling them to get a few pot shots off at the pirates—and the pirates returned some desultory fire. ![[june_1-2.jpeg]] The lead pirate sloop attempted to make a break for it past the channel between the islands and towards the crucial observation points, but just then the French flagship, a sixth rate frigate, navigated through the narrow channel between the islands and into broadside range. The sloop was decimated in one broadside—despite its vain effort at flying false colours—but the desperate crew kept selling her around the second island towards their targets. At this point, the other two pirate ships emerged from around the headland, raising the Back and opening broadsides on the French flagship, destroying her under heavy close fire. But the day was by no means decided—one crippled pirate sloop to a destroyed French sixth-rate, and yet the pirates were still held back from their objectives. ![[june_1-3.jpeg]] The French sloop approached the pirates’ line of battle from behind, getting shots in where it could, while the French corvette had broken off to defend the areas of sensitive intelligence. In a desperate measure to engage and defeat that French sloop—the only way to bring the engagement to a decisive conclusions—the pirates managed a club-haul, wheeling their corvette at the rear of their line of battle, around to enter action with the French sloop. However, the action was to the French favour, which left the corvette crippled, and the pirates forced to flee (at turn 8 with tied strike points—a “but barely” win for the French defenders!) ![[june_1-4.jpeg]]