Begob begob

Well there ye are laddies and lassies of the auld HMS Scozzeze, insofar as you have gotten out of the hammocks below decks after so much whetting of young underpar whistles. But here is the latest bulletin from Waterloo -

Fresh from her campaign in Egypt old Boney m is still astonished that this little rout at the crossroads has turned into the main event. It wasn't supposed to be a big battle at all at all me hearties. Even odds but ye gads even Cara Armada is getting involved - it is like Thermopylae already -

Shivver me timbers but over the hill the London grenadiers were replenished by the welsh grenadiers, and old Boney is perplexed at the stiff resistance of the west. 

It has all become a murderous if minor affair. He is moving up his French artillery on the royals, and the scots greys have just charged at them - !! The most feared cavalry in Europe !! Says old Boney, so we shall have to commit my precious Polish lancers now sacre bleu!!

Cara has charged with her British Rajette Long Lancers, right in front of the scots greys!!

Well Waterloo 1815

Well me hearties, here we are in a squall aftermath, sitting becalmed now off the coast of a France, waiting for news from the French attempt to seize Brussels. 

Meanwhile amazing news - an impossibly small troupe of grenadiers was sent to block the immortal Imperial guards of Napoleon at a farmhouse on a road to Bruxelles. Holding it there at La Haye mais Sainte we believe while taking many hits and much loss even of life. Old Boney is losing patience and getting old too, and throwing in even his artillery and heavy cavalry, but the London company of proud grenadiers are doing a grand job begob lads. Methinks we are stopping the French advance at last at last. Bruxelles soon to be free.

Here's a pic boyos -

Epic stuff - in the pic a Gb grenadier is finishing off a drunk Frenchman, drunk with a victory he thought was already in the bag and an easy run of it. 

Loose cannons

Any sailor who has to work in the proximity of gunpowder, knows the problems that can be posed by loose cannons on deck, and we have had the spectacle of several ships blowing themselves up in the French Napoleon flotillas, ships like the SS Gladys Nightly, a lean brig designed to sail fast into Royal Navy waters, which then linked up with an Italian man of war called the SS Santa Monica, and then there was the SS Alison Rathaus which blew up several times in friendly waters, carrying too much oil to be of much use, and then there was the spy ship the SS Adriana Lukasova, which also blew itself up in Portugese waters, and then the SS Jackina Ken which blew up against all prediction, carrying too many Arab slaves. And so on. 

Moscova 1812

Old Boney Napoleon was quite a general, a field commander that was a legend, but chiefly in his own lunchtime, because all of his glorious victories ground to a halt at the walls, those real walls, of Moscow. Oh yes a real legend among simple peasant French Maghreb boys of Tunisia, but then he had to face the Russian winter. He did not expect a million Marshall Zhukhovs to be waiting for him outside Moscow. So French legends in France, with a bunch of Tunisian boys, but then he had to face the real men of Russia. Hail to the glorious legions of Holy Mother Russia - !!

Well there's a waterspout

Well shiver me timbers me hearties, there is a fine vessel, the HMS Venerabile with its 21 gun salute for us all as we sail out of Portsmouth and the Sound on the Solent. And not far behind us is the new fangled steamship, the newly decommissioned Temeraire, an experiment that is not universally liked, as most of the sailors of the Line prefer sail and rope. 

Old Boney

Well rumour here in the Bay of Biscay is that Old Boney Napoleon didn't entirely trust his flagships and corvettes, which is why he appointed a scuttle man of war among the grey flags and old grey sludgery of the SS Haddon, SS Whitmoan, and SS Hombres, namely the SS Bon Viveur out of Helsinki, given that private property is an antidote in itself to all socialism, just to keep an eye on these big old grey tugs as they mowed down Boney's key faster younger ships albeit juniors in the French Navy. Dieu et mon droit - as we say for our next trip to Archangel in the Northern Russian seas, near the site of PQ-17. A French navy all united ? Not so, not so. These younger men n their captains could easily turned by a Turner beastie. 

Shiver the old timbers

Well shiver the old timbers, this old tug does creak a bit at night, as old old square riggers do, like the 4 corvettes of the Rigatoni class. Central pillars on central bulkheads. Such is the new design, a return to classicism though on Greek triremes, but necessary in choppy seas. Centralitas.