Battle - 1721 - April 3 - Raid at West End

Report by Captain Sir Leo Davis describing the attempt to end the french occupation of the West End Harbour in the Bahamas.

Ships in Action:
ALLIES:

Captain Viscount Wick - (Dauntless Frigate) - White Group

Captain Sir Leo Davis - HMS Unicorn (Mercy Naval Frigate)- Green Group

-13 other british Frigates including two Valiant third rates and one Mordaunt Sleek fourth rate.

ENEMIES:

-French fleet of 22 vessels:

Consisting of mostly Frigates and some ships of the line ships.

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

When our fleet gathered for the attack we realised that we are not able to field a full fleet, so we decided to wait for the sun to set to start the attack in the cover of the night. Unfortunately the enemy was able to bring a much stronger fleet into the battle, So that we soon realised that we had no chance with a direct attack.

The Action Itself:
The french fleet was taking position in the bay guarding the fortress and city entrances. We had the wind at our back and sailed to eastern side of the small Island and waited for the french to make their move. The french soon moved north around the island to fall into our rear, this was our chance. We moved south to destroy the gun emplacement on the island. While the head of our fleet passed the southern corner of the island the french started attacking the rear of our fleet. During this action we lost a Mercy Naval Frigate and a Mordaunt Sleek fourth rate, while the rest of the fleet made it safely into the Fortress.

In the fortress we waited for the french counterattack. The first frenchman we saw was Ubért le Danois who was quickly shot down by us. But with his sacrifice the french knew our exact position and soon the whole french garrison troops charged onto our fortified position and in a short sword and pistolfight we were quickly killed by their superior numbers.

The Result:
We were defeated, but we were able to minimize our losses by forcing the french into a landbattle. Being in such a grave disadvantage it was the best we could do.

Only two british ships got sunk while the french lost no ships at all.

Misc.
our fleet rushing for the fort entrance



Ubert shot down in the fortress