Santa Catarina

Played a Close Action game, hosted by Tracy Johnson in Newport News. The scenario was #3 "Santa Catarina Island" from the Monsoon Seas book. In 1777 the Spanish and Portuguese were at war, and the Spanish occupied Santa Catarina, off the southern coast of Brazil. The Portuguese sent as squadron to challenge the Spanish, but historically, the Spanish squadron declined to come out and fight; they just sat there, protected by shore batteries, until the Portuguese sailed away. Today's game presumes that the Spanish took action. I was selected to be the Portuguese commodore.

One of the key factors in this game is that none of my subordinates were experienced players. Aside from my lead ship, nobody did anything drastically wrong; however, there were times when I had to maneuver in ways that weren't ideal, simply because that was the only way I could be sure my teammates wouldn't accidentally run into me. It was a subtle effect, but it had a major influence. I also have to say that I was dismayed when I realized exactly what I had to work with. At one point I sent out the signal "Portugal expects every man will do his duty"--an obvious play on the most famous naval message in history, Nelson's signal at Trafalgar. Not one of my teammates knew what I was talking about.

The Portuguese had five ships, a little smaller than the Spanish but with better crews and better maneuverability. The Spanish had six ships. Both sides started close hauled, with the Spanish downwind of us. My plan was to send our first two ships around the head of their line and attack from both sides; their plan, as I later heard it, was to avoid that by having their lead ships curl around and head back in the direction they came from. As it happens, both plans worked. We kept formation better at first, but both sides broke up when first contacting the enemy. After some confusion, we reformed line and the enemy had two parallel lines. Since you can't fire through friendly ships, normally this would mean that their downwind line wouldn't have anyone to shoot at; however, our lead ship bravely (foolishly, suicidally) sailed into the midst of them. He got pretty thoroughly shot up and set afire, which he entirely deserved. Fortunately the Spanish admiral collided with one of my ships and that distracted the enemy enough that my errant captain could put out his fire and limp off. A few rakes, combined with low Spanish morale, forced their flagship to surrender. Time was called at that point, after 18 turns. It would still have been a pretty even fight if we'd continued, but as it was, we'd captured an enemy ship and that gave us an edge in victory points, 65 to 44.

 Starting position, with five Portuguese under full sail near us, and six Spanish with battle sail in the distance.My ship is the Santo Antonio, in the center of the Portuguese line. Note the wind direction marker at the head of the Portuguese line.

 Halfway through the game. All five Portuguese (white labels) and the leading three Spanish ships (yellow labels) mill around in disorder, trading shots. A fourth Spaniard, lowering sail as he finally gets into gunnery range, comes in from the right. In this picture and the next, the wind is blowing the same direction as we're looking.

We've reformed a line, although I've had to sail farther than I wanted so as to be sure Belem didn't run into me. Ajuda, left of the turn card, was pursuing the Spaniard in the far left but guessed wrong as to when he'd turn. The Portuguese ship on the far side of the Spanish line is about to take fire from three ships; however, the Spanish flagship Poderoso has just collided with Belem.

The situation at the end. In this picture, the wind is from the left. Poderoso has struck; the Spaniard at the upper right has turned into the wind and is in irons; just below him, the Spanish America has been stern-raked and is leaving the battle. However, two of the Spanish ships, upper left and center right, are just getting into action and are essentially unscathed.