WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Wind and a Cluster of Stars
Chapter 19
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First Battle
36. First Battle
The situation was bad.
They were still far enough away to make out through a telescope, but they were steadily closing in.
In a headwind, trying to shake them with only a few fore staysails and main top staysails (the front and middle auxiliary triangular sails) was absurd.
They had already angled into the headwind and were chasing from our five o'clock, and the ship behind them was charging north right on their tail.
There was no clean way out.
"Navigator, I'm handing command of the ship to you, do something!"
"We have to take them apart one by one! I don't know if we can win, but that's our only chance!"
"Amy! Lieutenant Shawn! Amy, battle stations, now! Get the water barrels up!"
Amy quickly went below with a few sailors to roll up the water barrels.
They were for firefighting.
"Lieutenant Shawn!"
In the middle of this chaos, Lieutenant Shawn had already led his soldiers up to the upper deck.
"Lieutenant, you can see it yourself, we don't have time! You aren't marines, but I need you to fight with us!"
"Of course. Split in half and use light infantry tactics!"
Once I finished deploying the fighters, Zenon got even busier.
While Amy and the cook strained and groaned as they rolled the barrels up, Zenon tore open the sandbags we had loaded as ballast and spread the sand across the gun deck.
It kept sparks and flames from spreading.
It also kept the wheeled gun carriages from sliding backward every time we fired.
"Olson! Olson!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Take powder to the line infantry! Davidson, open the gunports, now!"
The sailors rushed to their guns exactly as trained, and the rest ran to the upper deck guns.
They opened the gunports and pushed the muzzles out.
Once everyone was in position, Zenon opened the armory and handed out firearms and bullets.
The line infantry received powder flasks and musket balls as well.
They hurriedly wrapped black powder in paper.
"Amy, get below the waterline, now!"
Amy was a non-combatant, so I sent her first to the safest area below the waterline.
Even cannon fire could not easily punch through below the sea.
"Turn to starboard!"
"Turn to starboard! Turn to starboard!"
In the headwind, the ship swung hard and came around to face the lead sambuk.
On the pirate ship, white and black pirates stood mixed together, glaring at us with killing intent, swords and guns in hand.
If we lost, death would be the best outcome. Being sold as slaves would be the kinder alternative.
"3rd cannon ready!"
As loading calls rang across the deck, Red Tea began dropping south of the lead ship's bow, trying not to get trapped between both pirate vessels.
Then we set across and caught the crosswind.
"6th cannon ready!"
"Upper deck, fire at maximum range!"
"Boatswain, they're still over 900 meters out!"
"The side that fires first wins! Shut up and do as you're told!"
The loaded crew raised the muzzles as high as possible and touched off the slow match.
-Boom!
Two starboard sakers and one culverin on the upper deck fired together.
As expected, the shots fell into the sea nowhere near them.
"Correcting error! Five degrees left! Three degrees down!"
The sailors rammed in fresh shot, then checked elevation again with metal angle gauges against the barrels.
"14th cannon ready!"
"12th cannon ready!"
"13th cannon ready!"
"All cannon ready!"
"Fire!"
-Kwa-boom!
This time, the shots landed close.
But instead of trading broadsides, the pirate ship kept charging in to board Red Tea.
They wanted to settle it in close combat, not by gunnery.
To keep weight down, the sambuk only had five side gunports, and since even those were closed, it looked like more than half their cannons were missing anyway.
Most merchant ships gave up and begged for mercy. Since we had started firing from long range, they probably thought we were strange.
Still, a pirate ship would not sink from a few hits, and if they latched onto us at that speed, we would have no answer.
"Hold course!"
"All cannon ready!"
"Fire!"
-Boom!
At last, the range tightened and our shots started to connect.
Hitting at 800 meters was brutally hard.
But the small six-pound saker rounds did little damage even when they landed.
The ships kept closing fast.
Red Tea fought desperately, turning left so we would not get boxed in between the pirate ships, trying to keep the trailing one screened behind the lead one.
"Fire the moment it's loaded!"
The distance kept shrinking.
With full speed behind it, an approaching ship quickly became too huge for the target to handle.
"If they latch on, we die! Load chain shot!"
At the upper deck culverin, we loaded two balls linked by chain.
"Fire!"
-Kwa-sheeeeeek!
With a tearing scream, the chain shot barely missed the enemy ship, now only about 300 meters away.
The second shot missed too, but the third punched through the forward sail and scored the main mast.
That was the limit.
Now there was less than 100 meters left, and they started firing muskets.
The foredeck burst with impacts, splinters flew, and holes opened across the sails.
"Turn starboard! Turn starboard!"
To reduce the exposed surface even for a moment, we turned the helm to starboard again.
As we turned, speed dropped sharply, and enemy fire began concentrating on the bow.
While everyone ducked from bullets, the line infantry entered range and started firing.
"Don't form a line! Skirmish order!"
The line infantry sprinted in, spread out along port with gaps between men, and used the rail as cover.
"If you fall back, military law will deal with you!"
Lieutenant Shawn shouted, sword raised.
"Fire!"
With a cloud of smoke, the muskets fired in volley, and four or five pirates dropped at once.
They bit open paper cartridges, poured powder, rammed ball and wadding, and worked quickly.
We had already closed to musket range, around 50 to 60 meters.
If they got any closer, it would become truly dangerous.
And if we hesitated here, the rear ship would catch up.
-Kwa-sheeeeeek!
Another chain shot missed.
At last our heavy carronades roared, but the rounds only buried into hull wood or smashed railings.
"Damn it, move!"
A sharp-eyed veteran sailor shoved aside the deck culverin gunner and took the position personally.
"Redcoats, ready, fire!"
Another line infantry volley dropped more pirates across their deck.
Our sailors also fired muskets whenever they managed to reload.
The pirates looked rattled.
Regular troops on a merchant ship.
Shells burst around the veteran and hammered the rail, but the sailor loaded under cover and finally fired the slow match.
-Sheek! Crack, crunch!
The chain shot the veteran fired struck true at the base of the foremast, and the crushing impact blasted sharp splinters in every direction, dropping nearby pirates.
Pirates screamed.
"Hit!"
With its base shattered, the foremast started to lean.
It toppled across the deck, then fell into the sea.
"Fire!"
-Boom boom!
Right after that, a 24-pound carronade (about 11 kg shot) smashed into the already broken hull and punched a hole through it.
At that moment, the fallen foremast in the water, still tangled in rigging, acted like an anchor.
Because the mast had collapsed to starboard, the pirate ship suddenly pivoted hard while still carrying all its speed.
The pirates fired into empty air, then tumbled over each other and rolled across the deck.
"Cease fire!"
"1st cannon ready!"
"5th cannon ready!"
Listing about fifteen degrees, the pirate ship began spinning around the fallen mast like a top.
Then, still tilted, it exposed its stern.
"All cannon ready!"
"Raking fire!" (A stern-shot naval tactic that tears through a ship from back to front.)
-Boom boom boom!
Four port-side carronades, two sakers, and one culverin fired together and tore into the nearly unprotected stern.
In less than a second,
the shot drove from stern toward bow, gouging out the inside just as the name implies, and splinters and fittings blasted out through the gunports-
-BANG!!!
"Aaaaaah!"
The sambuk's powder magazine exploded.
A massive column of fire hurled broken ship fragments straight into the sky.
I had been helping Zenon near the poop deck, and the flash and blast hit so hard my ears rang.
The shock threw Red Tea into one heavy lurch, and then burning fragments and charred debris rained down on us.
Going for a lucky shot with that stern volley produced an incredible result.
(lucky shot: In naval combat, this means extra damage caused by a concentrated volley. That is the point of volley fire.)
The lighter fragments had lost most of their force by the time they reached us because of the distance, and that alone was a huge stroke of luck.
The sambuk split in two from the blast, and even its tattered fore-and-aft sail, barely hanging on, caught fire as it sank.
The pirates who took that explosion head-on did not survive.
A very small number, wounded, clung to floating wreckage, but they soon went limp and could only drift at sea.
Now only one pirate ship remained!
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