Battle - 1721 - January 24 - Defending Cartagena

Ships in Action:
ALLIES:

Roger Berett - Dauntless Frigate ?

Dirty Nelly - Hercules Heavy Frigate

Leo Davis - HMS Black Prince  -   Reason class fourth-rate

-19 other British ships, consisting mostly of heavy frigates and one Prince first-rate.

ENEMIES:

-Pirate fleet consisting of 24 vessels, mostly Frigates, two Bahamut Barks and one Trinity second-rate

Action Setup:
The battle took place on the Wild Keys Map. The Pirates where attacking the port.

I was assigned to the black group and got orders to be the bodyguard for Captain Jimmy Firth´s Prince first-rate.

The Captains Dirty Nelly and Earl Berett where both assigned to two other groups.

Shortly before the enemy got into cannon range the port battle leader convinced Captain Firth to leave the battle to prevent the loss of his mighty ship.

From that moment on I was the new group leader of the black group.

The Action Itself:
We moved into a defensive position in the bay next to the port entrance. The Pirates approached with their main fleet from the north while a small group of pirates sailed in from the north-west to disable the ports gun emplacements on the smaller Island.

The pirates waited till the smaller group destroyed the two gun emplacements. Then the main fleet moved south to engage our battle line. During their approach our line had a good firing arc so we were able to concentrate fire on the incomming pirates. Soon the first Bahamut Bark was sunk. Meanwhile the small pirate group approached us from the west. To prevent a two sided battle we were ordered to leave our position and form a new line sailing north. Now the enemy Trinity second-rate came into range and was our primary target. After getting a heavy beating by our fleet, a full Vital Strike broadside of my Reason sunk the Trinity. During our movement north the pirates were able to sink several of our frigates too. But the losses of ships where quite equal, giving no advantages to either side. Unfortunately my black group was too much split up in the fleet and soon some of my group captains got sunk.

On the northern edge of the large island some boarding combats where initiated, but we were able to sink all involved pirate ships before they could capture any of our ships. The pirate and british line then headed further north evolving into several ship clusters fighting each other. During this fighting Captain Earl Berett´s ship got sunk. Then our lines went into several turning maneuvers which made it hard for me to follow the faster frigates. I got soon separated from the fleet and into the focus of four pirates who started to fire at my sails and my starboard armor. After I received some serious damage to my hull and sails I got assistance from some british frigates and was able to repair and pull away into the safety of our fleet.

Thanks to our discipline and our focused fire we now where able to gain the upper hand and sunk more and more pirates. Until the last two pirates fleed from the battle. Then we had the usual boarding bug which forced us to stay in battle till the timer ran out.

The Result:
Victory for the british. It was a very hard battle both sides suffered severe losses.

The Pirates lost 22 ships including the captured Trinity and both Bahamut Barks, only two ships escaped

The British lost 12 ships mostly heavy and large frigates.

I was the only captain of the black group who saw the end of the battle, Jimmy Firth left the battle at the beginning and the other four ships got sunk.

But I was able to score kills on at least five pirates including the captured Trinity and one Bahamut Bark.

Lessons Learned:
When the battle started the odds looked not good for the britsh, since we had four ships less than the enemy, and we were in danger to be crushed from two sides.

But our battle leader kept a cool head and the whole fleet fought with discipline and passion, this was our key to success.

This was the most intense and hardest battle I have participated in for a long time.

The only bad thing was, that the group lead of the black group was transfered to me right before the fleets clashed together. I had no time to reorganise my group and we got immediately separated. During the whole battle my group was scattered over the whole area, this way we could not assist each other causing mostly unnecessary ship-losses in my group.

Misc.
our defensive line shortly before the Pirates attack from two sides.



The HMS Black Prince in battle with four pirate ships.