WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Wind and a Cluster of Stars
Chapter 25
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The Last Hope
46. The Last Hope
We were fleeing at top speed, but the situation was bad.
On top of that, the sea was getting rougher by the minute.
-Flash
A burst of light flared now and then from the frigate's bow gun.
They were repeatedly checking the range on us.
It was not within effective range yet, but even that put heavy pressure on me as captain.
If those shots started landing on us, they would shred our sails and make it even easier for them to catch us.
If luck turned against us, the helm could break too.
"Amy!"
At my call, Amy ran over at once.
"Go through the crew list and identify anyone with ties to France.
If there are any, bind them. Understood?"
"Yes, Captain."
Amy vanished down the hatch.
If any sailor had ties to France, there was a high chance of mutiny once we fought a French privateer.
Still gripping the helm, I watched the frigate glued to our wake.
If we surrendered, maybe they would spare our lives.
But I could not stand by and watch everything I had built vanish in an instant.
If that happened, I would be bankrupt on the spot.
Running was our only option.
From the sail plan, it was clearly a frigate, at least thirty guns, and in a one-on-one fight our fourteen-gun fluyt would obviously lose.
A fluyt was versatile, yes, but only when it had been built as a warship from the start.
Besides, a fluyt and a frigate were different classes to begin with.
Our odds of winning head-on were close to zero.
No, even if some miracle let us win, we would still take devastating losses.
"Ship in sight!"
A sailor on watch in the masthead lookout shouted down.
A little life came back into me.
Unlike the frigate chasing us, the southbound ship coming toward us was growing fast.
"Whose colors!?"
"Dutch!"
"Damn...!"
I did not expect help from them.
It was not their country's ship, and unless they had a blood feud with France, why would they help us?
Still, I ordered a red distress signal raised.
A red flag climbed the mainmast and snapped in the wind, but then,
-Flash
Along with another muzzle flash, the chasing frigate raised the tricolor battle signal.
A clear warning not to interfere.
The large Dutch schooner saw it and fled at once.
They swung hard and ran at full speed to get out of the frigate's sight.
I knew there was little they could do, but I still could not help feeling furious.
"There is no one who would side with France."
Amy brought me at least one useful piece of news.
Zenon ran around shouting, shoving guns into firing position and stacking powder and shot.
"This will not be easy..."
"I know."
Amy looked even more downcast at my words.
May 12, 9:00 a.m.
Dawn had already broken, but in this situation eating or drinking was impossible.
"Three or four hours at most."
If this kept up, they would catch us soon.
I prayed we would spot a coastal patrol cutter that could save us.
Clouds gathered, and the sky turned overcast.
The waves kept rising.
Red Tea fled across that sea with everything she had.
It was not raining, but the swells were higher now.
I just hoped something would happen to the frigate.
"Ship in sight, Captain!"
Please. I am not asking for much.
Even a 4th-rate ship of the line, the smallest fifty-gun type, could win this easily.
I was not even dreaming of a 1st-rate with over a hundred guns.
But what came into view was a Spanish carrack convoy.
Red Tea raced toward them, but when they saw the frigate behind us, they changed course too.
In the past couple of hours, those two ships were all we had seen.
-Fweee!
As if things were not bad enough, their cannonballs finally started reaching us.
The first shot landed only about 30 meters off Red Tea's starboard side as we headed north.
At least, in this rough sea their accuracy dropped, and for that I could only be grateful,
but the second shot barely cleared the deck and brushed the rail as it fell.
Their bow gun was aimed at damaging sails, so now that they had the range, they would keep firing.
-Flash
"Get down!"
The moment I hit the deck, a shot punched through an auxiliary sail.
Given that they had only one bow gun, I could predict another round in thirty to forty seconds.
If this kept going and we were worn down little by little, we would have no choice but to surrender.
Red Tea would likely be captured and either sunk or taken, and we might be left in the middle of this sea with a single lifeboat.
"No! We fight to the end!"
As captain, I was ready to go down with the ship.
She was not grand or beautiful, but after all the humiliation and effort poured into her, no one here could brush this aside.
"Guns, stand by."
"Artillery ready!"
The sailors ran to their positions exactly as trained.
Loaded firearms were laid out all over the deck, ready to go.
Under the bitter shadows of clouds hiding the sun, the sight felt grim.
"Incoming!"
-Boom!
A small round shot slammed in somewhere with a heavy sound, but I had held the helm the whole time, so I could not tell where.
Every time a flash burst, everyone dropped to the deck and groaned.
It was agony.
They were too close for us to turn and counterattack, and there was no way to gain more speed.
Then it happened.
"Ship, ship in si- -boom!- ugh!"
Even in the dim morning sea ahead, a bow light flickered.
"Deck crew, fire the gun!"
-Boom boom!
An empty cannon fired, flashing and roaring as a distress signal, and I prayed this ship, maybe our last chance, would see it.
I took the risk, cutting through wind and waves as I turned the helm toward that ship.
If they did not help us, there would be no next chance, and I steeled myself for one final stand.
"Again!"
-Boom!
The ship started growing fast.
They had definitely seen our signal.
Maybe they thought we were in danger from the waves or needed help.
But with only this much white water, no ship would wreck so easily.
I hoped they would notice the ship behind us and intervene.
By now the frigate was right on top of us.
-Thud!
A round shot struck close again with a bursting impact, and from the sound I guessed it had pierced somewhere near the quarterdeck.
The ship I cherished was suffering right in front of me.
At Zenon's order, one sailor struggled up the swaying mast.
He lit a lamp so our red signal on the mainmast would be seen.
"This is the last one!"
The ship grew larger by the second.
And in that narrow field of view, the moment we realized she was British, everyone cheered.
"Zenon, what ship is that? Will they help us?"
"I think they will. She is a warship."
Looking through the telescope, Zenon read her sail plan and identified her.
"A warship? -boom!- Ugh! Amy, report hull damage!"
Amy ran down the hatch, and Zenon continued.
"A sloop-of-war."
"A sloop-of-war..."
In an instant, my emotions swung from heaven to hell.
A sloop-of-war, not even counted in the rated ship hierarchy.
A small vessel outside even the sixth-rate bracket.
Even for a coastal patrol ship, I had expected at least a frigate or a 4th-rate ship of the line.
But...
"This will be hard. We are bound to lose..."
-Thump!
Dodging intermittent incoming fire, Amy came running back, clutching her head.
"Captain! The captain's cabin took a hit!"
"And?"
"The stern deck got punched through! There is a hole in an auxiliary square sail!"
"Damn it..."
"Still, military sloops have copper sheathing, right? It should endure some bombardment."
Zenon tried to reassure me, but I knew how small a sloop-of-war really was.
It was the largest among small ships, yes, but the armament gap was huge.
-Boom
As the British Empire sloop-of-war closed in, it fired a warning signal.
Our side answered with gunfire too.
I saw the Navy sloop-of-war grasp the danger at once and raise the tricolor, signaling entry into battle.
The frigate stopped firing its bow gun immediately,
which told me they had accepted battle too.
"We have to fight too! Zenon, the specs!"
"Britain, sloop-of-war, 18 guns! France, frigate, 32 guns!"
The numbers were hopeless.
Still, the sloop-of-war clearly believed we would fight beside them.
Otherwise, there was no reason for them to charge a frigate.
"Zenon, take the helm!"
Soon the British sloop-of-war skimmed close past Red Tea.
I saw marines in red coats and the naval captain on the quarterdeck.
Petty officers at the rail shouted toward us.
"Turn to starboard!"
I shouted to Zenon, "Hard to starboard!" Then I shouted toward the passing sloop-of-war, "They are chasing us! Help us!"
The sloop-of-war flashed past at high speed.
Red Tea quickly turned to starboard and fired on the ship now inside gun range.
"Fire!"
-Boom boom boom!
"Gunners, wait for orders!"
Zenon shouted toward the gun deck.
At last the sloop-of-war, after heading south, swung wide to port and came in behind Red Tea.
Barely avoiding the frigate's firing angle, the sloop-of-war struck first at the frigate's bow as it turned to fire.
The frigate was about 300 meters away, so I could not clearly see the damage.
Still, I knew their skill and ours were being tested now.
-Flash
"Downnnn---!"
As soon as more than ten of the frigate's broadside guns lined up while the ships ran parallel, they blasted Red Tea without hesitation.
-Sheeeeeeeek
-Crack- boom!
They meant to disable the smaller ship first, then deal with the sloop-of-war.
The range was still long, so the shots had lost force and did not seem to punch through the fluyt's planking.
They were still firing from the edge of effective range.
-Boom boom boom boom!
The sloop-of-war fired again, and Red Tea followed with another volley.
I thought this barrage must have hurt them too, but with the overcast weather I could not see clearly.
"The sloop-of-war is heading south!"
A sailor relayed the shouted order to me.*
*(Orders passed from ship to ship were usually shouted by voice.)
The sloop-of-war that had been following us now peeled away in a wide starboard turn, moving off to align with the frigate.
The idea was for Red Tea and the sloop-of-war to sandwich the frigate between them and bombard it.
"In the end, someone has to die."
On the stern of the southbound sloop-of-war, I could see her nameplate.
'Agincourt'
"Maybe... we might win after all."*
*(At the Battle of Agincourt, the English army crushed the French army.)
Soon, a fierce exchange of fire broke out between the sloop-of-war and the frigate.
Like lightning in clouds, smoke and flashes from both ships kept bursting, and in those split-second flashes their hulls were tearing and breaking apart.
Now our little 250-ton fluyt had thrown itself into this brutal clash between 600 and 1,000 tons.
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