In the Bay of Biscay
A small French trading vessel, the “Fougueux”, was making her way towards the French harbour of Vendee. She is returning from a trip to Gelre where they had taken over goods from the hanseatic ships, coming from Pskov. The deal with the grand princess had said that to trick the Danes so that French ships wouldn’t have to pay the Sund due, hanseatic ships would transport the goods from Pskov to Gelre passing the Sund, and French ships would get it there.
Now she was pretty heavy loaded with timber and fur, and the captain Dominic Loiters was very happy. With this load he would surly have secured a nice little income for him self for at least some years a head. Also he was not planning to stop now, this spring had just arrived and they would have several good months to sail before the storms come back in the autumn.
Dominic stood on the deck with his son, Michel 15 years of age, together with him, looking towards the coast. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining and it was a light breeze so the ship sails with good speed.
“Now son if this wind continues we will be back in Vendee tomorrow. Ah it is a good life, and with this load we will earn a lot of money, so when we come home we will have a party.”
“Yes dad, that sounds very nice!”
“Now listen in there you can see the coast of Brittany. A fine Duchy that have been friendly and close co-operator of France for many years. That is the coast of Bretagne you can see there, and a little further down the coast we will see the coast of France, of Vendee. And out there to the west, you see those islands?”
“Yes, there is a lot of islands there dad, are they under the Duchy of Brittany, or the crown of France dad?”
“Neither boy. The islands you see there are the Channel Islands, belonging to the crown of England. The used to belong to the Duke of Normandy, but now they are directly under the crown of England. So they are actually friendly territory as well, so we should nothing to fear.
Now do you remember what I told you?”
“Yes, dad. To the east we see the Duchy of Brittany, and to the west the Channel Islands, under the King of England.”
“That is correct. Now shall we go and get something to…”
“Deck ahoy!
Ship ahead!”
“Seems like we will have to wait a little Michel.
What monsieur Pallers, what do you see?”
”It seems to be a small fast going vessel monsieur Captain. They are not showing any colours!”
“Hmm very well, monsieur Deupart, show them our colours. Up with the flag of France!”
“Aye, aye, sir.”
Deupart walked slowly towards the flag and started to get it ready, and up it went. He had worked on merchant vessels for as long as he could remember, and the captains had always been slow to take decisions, and it was always a pretty lazy life to work onboard a merchant vessel. But with this new captain, Dominic, had introduced a new standard where thing should go quicker, and under much more discipline and rules. Deupart was not too happy about that, but the new captain had already showed him self as a very good sailor, and Deupart respected that, so he did his best. So up the colours went.
“Now monsieur Pallers what do you see now?”
”Hmm still no colours sir, but they have altered curse, and are coming right against us.
Hey, wait a second!
If you ask me I would say he look pretty overloaded, sir.”
“Oh what do you mean?”
”Well sir. As you know we are holding a good speed with not that much sails up, but they are keeping a pretty slow speed with all their sails set. Also they are very low in the water. Seems very strange, you should probably be able to see her from deck soon, sir.”
“Yes, quite correct. I see her, and she is actually pretty low in the water.
Monsieur Bepaourt hard over. We will try to get away from this.”
AS they change course to sail further out in the see, and closer to the Channel Islands, instead of sailing so close to the coast of Brittany as they have been, Dominic see that the other ships is also altering course.
“Damn, damn. He is still coming down towards us. Deupart take forward the swords. The crew will arm them self.”
“Sir? Arms?”
“Yes, Deupart. I fear that this might be a pirate ship. Just look at them, overloaded, probably with men and weapons, maybe even prisoners from other ships they have taken, also they way the react to us. They sail down towards us, and when we alter course, they do the same as to cut us off.
But I still think we can sail away from them, as monsieur Pallers said they are much slower than us. So take forward the arms.
We will show them!”
“We will sail right at him, and then we will make a fast turn in towards the coast again, and pass him before he ill get a change to turn. Steady now, keep the course!”
They where coming closer and closer, and now he could even see people on the deck. As he had though she was overloaded with men, but why should they care. They only went out from the coast nearby when it was nice weather.
Every moment they where getting closer. Then suddenly an arrow flow from the other ship, and more arrows follow after. Most of them were hit only the water, but some of them hit the ship. A cry comes from the pirate ship.
“Surrender!
You pansies have no change against us. We outnumber you. Surrender!”
“NOW
ALL HANDS! ALL HANDS TO RISE SAIL!”
As the small crew runs up from below, and climbs up to the sails. Dominic stands on the deck looking over at the other ship. The same moment as they set more sail, Dominic feels that the little vessel is gaining speed.
“HARD OVER!”
The small ship gains speed extremely quickly and starts coming around. From the pirate ship they can hear yelling, and people swearing. Then a new group of arrows is sent towards the small ship, but it is a little too late. They had gained speed so quickly that now they had turned around and had changed course from south to west. The small vessel gained speed quicker and quicker, and as Dominic turned backwards he could see that the pirate ship was still trying to turn around. In front of them the coast of Brittany was coming closer and closer.
“HALL HANDS! WE SHALL TURN AGAIN!”
As the pirate ship had almost finished their first turn, the little merchant ship started the second turn, which would lead them back on a curse south wards.
“We are coming around, we are coming around, and they have just managed to turn once. Hurray for the captain lads!
HURRAY!!
They now had their tail turned towards the pirate ship, and they where gaining speed every minute. The pirates had not bothered to even try to catch up with them, and they could see that they pirate ship had changed course towards the coast to look for another ship to pillage.
“When we get to Vendee. I think the harbour admiral will be very interested to hear about this!”
Dominic smiles at his crew, and they all start to laugh.
“Well where was I, yes now let us go down to eat breakfast. We will be in Vendee before tomorrow!”
M for you E]
