A Life on the Ocean Wave

Some say Cornwall...I say Barbados

Some more action to keep the wolf from the door...or at least enough for a doggy flap to ensure the wolf only comes in if he behaves himself

Cornwall or Barbados - somewhere the Royal Marines are clearing the land of piratical influences

Read on for a play test of "Smooth and Rifled"

Report of Able Seaman Scatty Kat and Seaman Will "The Legend" Thompson. As dictated to Ensign Thomas Frogmore-Richard RN (Spelling corrected  by said Frogmore)

Me and Will are gunners on the Shamrock as you know. Captain Arnicle had said we was to clear this island of pirates. Lieutenant McGuiness said they was going to need a gun and some marines to do the job.

Me and the lads instantly volunteered to take  Betsy (one of the 6 pounders) along for the hunt. We'd been hunting pirates around these parts for a while and they weren't up to much.

We set out in the longboats : me and Will and the other lads hauled Betsy along the beach and up the track after the Captain and his matelots who had also volunteered. There were four of them and they was to keep a good guard over the Captain. Otherwise they would feel the lash Ensign Frogmore said.

Lt McGuiness had 10 Royal Marines with him in the shore party. They was the only ones who didn't volunteer but then again they get paid a whopping amount and do this all the time.

From the crows nest on the Shamrock Toby Mintblohm painted a good shot of us lads approaching the pirates den.

There's Will and the lads with the gun, then the Captain with his Matelots, then Lt McGuiness and the Marines.

This is what we could see through the tree cover. I thought there was probably three groups of them and a ships canon. I didn't see the ones in the house at first but as we moved forward they started to come outside and Will said he seen um.

You can see us starting to lag behind a bit. We can only move as fast as the lads can haul the gun. The others are spread out and can move faster. The Captain yelled out that he was going round to the right.

You can see the Pirates moving out of the house and barn. They all move as a group but from what we've seen before, they can't fire as a group...useless sots.
The Captain circled around the bottom of the little knoll and it was clear he was gonna wait for the devils to come over the top and then blast them. His Matelots had some of those new blunderbusses. Mostly the Pirates we've seen have had pistols and cutlasses and not much else.

Now you can see the Pirates getting on top of the little knoll and the Captain telling his men to aim. This was gonna be good. The Lt had formed his marines up into a two deep firing line and was about to start a slow and steady firing advance. The Pirates weren't gonna get out this intact....those we don't shoot we will hang.

I didn't see what happened next but there was an almighty crash and the Captain and three of his men slumped to the ground dead. The Pirates had come up in two groups and as the Captain was getting ready to pot the first group, the second one got up close and stuck it to him. I got the lads to wheel Betsy about and we loosed a single ball at the Pirates. It took out three of them. We'd aimed at the one in front but the ball passes backwards in a sort of rectangle. They didn't look like they was gonna stop so I didn't think we could reload the gun in time. 

I was right. They didn't stop. Two of them raced down to young gibbons who had been wounded but was still on his feet and came at him from both sides at once. He didn't stand a chance.

The rest came at us. There were four of them and four of us so we thought we could handle them as long as their friends didn't join in.

I took out one of them with the pikestaff but they got Markyboy.

As I thought their two mates joined them and we looked like we were in trouble for a minute. Will took out one and Steve took out the other. But I had two in front of me...and I couldn't land a blow on them. But once Will and Steve joined in we had them on the run. The last one who looked like a leader ran back toward the trees and fired a parting shot...catching Steve in the neck. There was just Will and me then. We ran back to the gun to see what was happening on the other side. We could hear gunfire and then a lot of shouting. We was hoping that the Marines were giving the Pirates a right seeing to.

When we looked across we could see that the Pirates had fired off their canon and it had taken out the Lt and several of his men...a lucky shot....it must have been a canister of shrapnel but the range looked too long. I think it was just a lucky shot.

The Sergeant at Arms (Kittle I think his name is...or was) reformed the line and advanced toward the second group of Pirates emerging from between the little clumps of woods. He got off a volley but it wasn't a good one. I think having the Lt and most of the rear rank blown away didn't help. We could see another group coming around the other hill. The Marines were too far forward and they were gonna be in trouble. We couldn't move the canon with just two men and it was going to take forever to reload. We started but we couldn't do much.

The Pirates charged across the little clearing taking advantage of the fact that the Marines had loosed off a volley and not yet reloaded. That didn't stop them meeting the charge with fixed bayonet. The Master at Arms got two on his own and they cleaned up two more. I could see one young Marine trying to fight two at once and not winning.

Just as the Master at Arms was rallying his men the second group raced in and hit them. Almost everyone was fighting two and three Pirates.

With those odds the result was inevitable. He held off a couple but he lost three men. The survivors moved back toward the clump of trees to get some cover and to protect themselves.

The Master at Arms was hit leaving two of his men surrounded by screaming barbarians.

It didn't take long to finish them off. Will and I looked up. It didn't look like the Pirates were going to come for us. They looked like they was getting their dead and wounded and fleeing back to the house.

Will and I thought we better do the same and started pushing Betsy back to ward the long boats. We got her on board and rowed back to the Shamrock. The rest is what we've said in this statement.

You can see all the bodies. If we'd had more Marines or the Captain hadn't been ambushed we would have had em. You can't do much if lady luck isn't with you.

Signed

X
Kat

X
Thompson