Battle - 1721 - April 30 - Claiming Nassau

Ships in Action:
British Fleet

Captain Darrell Berett, HMHV Berett's Glory, Heavy Hercules-class 5th-rate

Captain Nathan Blatchford, HMS Javelin, Capricieux Mastercraft-class 5th-rate

22 other British ships, consisting mostly of medium to heavy frigates, a few 4th-rates and one Prince 1st-rate.

French Fleet

19 French ships, mostly heavy frigates with some 4th-rates.

Action Setup:
The battle took place on the Arch Coastline map, Britain was attacking.

While completing the paintwork on the Javelin, a note reached me from the Admiralty that tasked me to proceed without the loss of a minute to the Fleet rendezvous off Nassau, there to aid in the attack on said Port. When I arrived, shortly before the battle started, it became clear that it was a highly manouverable fleet of 5th-rates that was to attack, and that it was expected that the enemy was to field the same. The British organized into the three frigate groups of Green, Yellow and Red, with one heavier Black Group. I was assigned to Green group under Commodore Brigham Valen.

The Action Itself:
The wind was blowing strong in the S as the Fleet formed two lines with Black and Yellow to larboard of Red and Green. Almost immediately the enemy were spotted directly NE of our position, heading W with full sails. The Fleet formed a single line ahead and set course SE, waited for the enemy to be some thousand yards N of our foremost ships, then turned N, aiming for their sterns. The enemy then put their ships about and headed E, while the Fleet headed W, causing the two fleets (the British still in a single line, the French in a big blob) to exchange the first broadsides of the battle. When the foremost British ship reached the rear of the Frenchmen, the Fleet set course N in another attempt at raking their sterns, causing the Frenchmen to head N to a small bay near the mainland for safety.

Still maintaining the line, the Fleet set course ENE towards the gun emplacements guarding the Nassau Harbour, sending Captain Berett ahead to destroy them. As the tip of the Fleet where directly S of the French fort, it became clear that the French were leaving their bay in an attempt to get S of us and thus claiming the weather-gage. The signal to reverse the line was hoisted immedieatly, and as the line was reformed the Fleet headed E to intercept. Green and Black (now at the van) kept course while Red and Yellow headed NNW to get on the enemy's sterns, and as the French were seen turning their ships about to counter Red and Yellow, the groups Black and Green headed N to get behind what was now the rear of the enemy. Seeing this the French fled N back to the bay, with the British in hot persuit with to lines ahead. As the French reached the bay, it was deemed too dangerous to follow due to the narrow inlet leading there, and the Fleet turned SE to round the island that was now to our E.

As the Fleet round the island on the southern side, the French round it on the northern, leaving each fleet heading E parallel to eachother as the island was left behind. When seeing that three French vessels were still in the narrow passage into the Nassau Harbour, the Admiral quickly hoisted a set of orders for an attack. Red was to cut off the three stragglers while Green, Yellow and Black was to head N to deal with the main fleet. As Red closed in on the stragglers, the French put all their ships about and charged them, and Green was tasked to reinforce Red while Yellow and Black would try to get on the enemy's sterns. Red began recieving heavy damage, but luckily the French was too jumbled together to have effective concentrated fire, and Green reached the fighting just in time. Two Frenchmen manouvered into the Harbour alone, and Yellow quickly intercepted them and forced them unto a lee shore. After a short time, Black managed to reinforce the line of Red and Green. Now the hot work really began, with the two fleets broadside to broadside at only hundred yards or less. After two or three broadsides, however, the French desided to retreat once again to the cove, and a British Prince 1st-rate managed to manouver between to retreating Frenchmen, sinking one with one broadside into the stern while denying the other headway long enough for Red and Green to brutally sink him. In the Harbour, Yellow Group had just sent one of the two Frenchmen to the deep, and was in great activity with mercilessly mauling the other. This last Frenchman struck his colours soon after watching his companion sink, and as men of honour, the British accepted and took the ship as a prize.

Now, the attack on Nassau itself began, and as Red and Black formed a blockading line from the western part of the Harbour, Yellow and Green provided landing-parties and were soon standing on the Nassau docks. The landing party were recalled to the docks twice during the fighting, but the first time turned out to be a false alarm. The second, however, was an ernest French push for the town. As I shot up the side of the Javelin, I could hear the great thundering of the British broadsides as our blockading line fired upon the advancing enemy, and looking towards the fighting I saw the first Frenchmen break through and crack on for the Nassau docks. What followed was a slaughter on the scale of the recent Battle of Caracas, with enemy ships sailing straight into a wall of fire and sinking as rapidly as our gun-crews could aim and fire. One Frenchman was boarded and knocked on the head, his ship making the second prize of the battle. As the whole Fleet prepared to launch the last attack on the town, the French had lost twelve ships in total, with the two remaining vessels still visible hull-up some three thousand yards to windward. The British launched the final push on the town centre, and as the last Spaniard fell to the ground the town was ours!

The Result:
British victory!

The French lost 11-13 vessels, the British lost none.

Lessons Learned:
Dicipline in keeping the line, flexibility in the use of the different groups and concentrated fire won the day. It was also to our advantage that we managed to make the French react to our manouvers instead of vice versa, and that we managed to keep the weather-gage until the very end.

Battle Schematic:


''The wind was blowing strong in the S as the Fleet formed two lines with Black and Yellow to larboard of Red and Green. Almost immediately the enemy were spotted directly NE of our position, heading W with full sails.''



The Fleet formed a single line ahead and set course SE, waited for the enemy to be some thousand yards N of our foremost ships, then turned N, aiming for their sterns.



''The Fleet headed W, causing the two fleets to exchange the first broadsides of the battle. The foremost British ship reached the rear of the Frenchmen [...] causing the Frenchmen to head N to a small bay near the mainland for safety.''



Still maintaining the line, the Fleet set course ENE towards the gun emplacements guarding the Nassau Harbour, sending Captain Berett ahead to destroy them.



''As the tip of the Fleet where directly S of the French fort, it became clear that the French were leaving their bay in an attempt to get S of us and thus claiming the weather-gage. The signal to reverse the line was hoisted immedieatly, and as the line was reformed the Fleet headed E to intercept.''



''Green and Black (now at the van) kept course while Red and Yellow headed NNW to get on the enemy's sterns, and as the French were seen turning their ships about to counter Red and Yellow, the groups Black and Green headed N to get behind what was now the rear of the enemy. Seeing this the French fled N back to the bay, with the British in hot persuit with to lines ahead.''



''As the Fleet round the island on the southern side, the French round it on the northern, leaving each fleet heading E parallel to eachother as the island was left behind. When seeing that three French vessels were still in the narrow passage into the Nassau Harbour, the Admiral quickly hoisted a set of orders for an attack. Red was to cut off the three stragglers while Green, Yellow and Black was to head N to deal with the main fleet.''



''As Red closed in on the stragglers, the French put all their ships about and charged them, and Green was tasked to reinforce Red while Yellow and Black would try to get on the enemy's sterns. Red began recieving heavy damage, but luckily the French was too jumbled together to have effective concentrated fire, and Green reached the fighting just in time. Two Frenchmen manouvered into the Harbour alone, and Yellow quickly intercepted them and forced them unto a lee shore.''



''After two or three broadsides, however, the French desided to retreat once again to the cove. In the Harbour, Yellow Group had just defeated the two Frenchmen.''



Now, the attack on Nassau itself began, and as Red and Black formed a blockading line from the western part of the Harbour, Yellow and Green provided landing-parties and were soon standing on the Nassau docks.



''The landing party were recalled to the docks twice during the fighting, but the first time turned out to be a false alarm. The second, however, was an ernest French push for the town. The attack failed, and the whole British Fleet entered the town to take it.''