Battle - 1721 - April 5 - Defending Bartica

Report by Captain Sir Leo Davis describing the battle for Bartica against a Pirate raiding attempt.

Ships in Action:
ALLIES:

 Captain Darrell Berett - (Hercules Sleek Frigate)

Captain Sir Leo Davis - HMS Black Prince (Reason fourth rate) - White Group

-22 other british captains including several Prince first rates.

ENEMIES:

- Pirate fleet of 24 vessels:

Consisting of mostly Frigates, one Treason Pirate Flagship and one Bahamut Bark.

Action Setup:
The battle took place on the Wild Keys map at night.

We entered the battle from the north eastern side of the island. While the Pirates came from the north west. Both fleets sailed south to reach the city entrance.

Captain Berett sailed meanwhile nortwest to act as a scout with his speed fitted Hercules Sleek Frigate.

My white group was led by Captain Noir Blackheart and consisted of five Reason fourth rates and one MontBlanc Indiaman.

We were assigned to form a double line next to the Colossal group with gaps to allow the first rates to fire trough. But this was made almost impossible, because some captains in my group did not hear the orders in Vent and they always pushed their ships into the gaps everytime we tried to reopen it.

The Action Itself:
Our fleet arrived first at the city entrance. And took a defensive position in the southern part of the bay. We waited there for the pirate fleet which was aproaching from the north-west. As the pirates sailed into the bay our fleet pushed north and turned in wide circle to catch the pirates on their tail. This forced the pirates to make a turn to the left deeper into the bay, both fleets now formed together an almost perfect circle, with each fleet touching the tail of the other fleet.

Unfortunately our rather slow Reasons in white group were not able to catch up with the faster colossal ships, so that our double line formation fell quickly apart. The fight now evolved into a fast moving line battle. Then suddenly Captain Blackhearts ship was forced to a stop by an unknown effect,and he called for cover, since I sailed at the second position this would have been my part, but because I had not expected his sudden stop my ship slipped past him so that I could not cover him, in addition the rest of our group could not hear his orders and stopped right behind him without giving him the cover he asked for. As a result of this miscommunication my ship was separated from my group leaving me with no cover too, at that time I spotted a heavily damaged pirate frigate that tried to hide behind the other pirate ships, I was able to find a small gap in their blockade and sunk him with a full broadside, but to my demise this caught the attention of the pirates who tried to cover him and I was sunk within seconds by the combined broadsides of at least four enemy frigates. Luckily this helped Captain Blackheart to get back into the fight and he survived the battle.

Moments later after I got sunk one of our Prince First rates got sunk too. And later in the battle my group lost the MontBlanc Indiaman as well. But overall the fight went to our favour, with massive losses for the pirate ships.

The Result:
We succesfully defended the port against the pirates. Our losses were small in numbers but rather expensive.

We lost six ships

one Prince first rate

my Reason 4th rate

one MontBlanc Indiaman

and three frigates

The Pirates lost approximately 15 ships including the Treason and the Bahamut. The rest of the pirates where able to flee to the open sea.

Lessons Learned:
This battle showed how important a good communication is. Three captains in my group where not listening in the Port Battle Vent Channel and they did not tell us that in chat, so that we did not know that they can not hear us. This is something that must not happen in such a critical battle.

They did not hear the orders from our leaders which caused disorder in our fleets formation several times in the battle.

If they had listened in Vent we might have not lost two ships in our group.

Misc.
chasing the pirates tail