More Action Under Sail

     Last weekend R.U.P. presented another sailing ship action, a close fight between a couple of Napoleonic featherweights; Portugal and Spain. A follow-on to this  earlier action. The history between the nations that share the Iberian peninsula is long and acrimonious so they probably didn't need to be on opposite sides in the Napoleonic era to take a chance to have a go at one another, but any excuse is a good one when you are looking for a fight.
       The problem being is that neither of these nations were on the cutting edge of naval power by the 1800's, in fact they were pretty solidly in the "has been" category. That didn't make them hate each other any less (or lessen their desire to steal each other's colonies) they just weren't real good at the fighting part of conflict any longer.
      The scenario is two Spanish ships fleeing a slightly stronger (and better manned) Portuguese fleet trying to make safe harbor behind the guns of a fort.

 

the layout, in the distance the Spanish, the nearer three ships are Portuguese,

 sailing slightly faster and closing in inevitably on their prey

 the Spanish were hampered by poor crews and fouled bottoms

 meaning that sooner or later they would be overtaken  

 

while the Portuguese enjoyed cleaner hulls and (marginally) better crews

 

things went pretty much as expected when the Portuguese managed to cut off the Serio, 

crossing her T and fouling away her bowsprit, the ships became entangled and the crews were not competent to cut away the wreckage

 

the San Augustin took the opportunity to continue to sail away

 

unable to cut away the fouling or repair the extensive rigging damage the Serio formed boarding parties in an effort to capture a more seaworthy ship

 

a few turns later , with most of her crew dead 

and the rest cowering below decks the Serio struck her colors

 

in the interim the San Augustin had made good progress in slinking away 

until a stray Spanish frigate, the Perla showed up,

 with witnesses now present the San Augustin had to turn to fight

 

this led to a swirling gunfight wherein the Spanish ended up on the losing end

 

better maneuvering and better crews aided the Portuguese 

poor admiralship and horrid crews hampered the Spanish

     Another great outing with R.U.P.'s wonderful ships, sooner or later I will wrap my head around maneuvering on hexes and I might even put in a decent showing as the Spanish commander. Kudos the R.U.P., oldSarge and  J&R for smartly handling their ships.