Wooden Ship and Iron Men

Bullethead

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Following the treacherous Japanese attack on Port Arthur before the declaration of war, the Russian gunboats immediately raised steam and slipped out to sea in the darkness. Their mission was to attempt to spy out the Japanese dispositions prior to sorties by the main Russian units. The gunboats and clippers began to disperse in different directions, and the leaders were about 20 miles south of Port Arthur when the eastern horizon began to lighten. Soon, the growing light revealed the unarmored cruiser Tatsuta all alone on picket duty, in the midst of the dispersing Russians. The gunboat Gilyak was closest to the interloper, which bore about 5000 yards to the NW of her, while 3 other Russian ships much further away to the north and sout, not yet aware of the Japanese ship.

Gilyak endeavored to head Tatsuta off to buy time for the other Russians to close in, but at the beginning of the action the lighting favored Tatsuta. Gilyak was silouhetted against the light eastern horizon while Tatsuta was still in the gloom of the west, so that first blood went to the latter. However, Tatsuta wasn't there to fight but to spy, so sped off to the south at 20 knots and quickly pulled away from the much slower Gilyak. This shifted the relative lighting conditions more in Gilyak's favor, and she gave Tatsuta a few parting shots before the range became too great, but no great harm was done to either ship in this exchange.

Meanwhile, some miles to the south, the morning watch aboard the old clipper Zabiyaka spotted the distant gun flashes and roused all hands to action stations. Zabiyaka was an ancient vessel of the 1870s with her primary armament slide-mounted in the old way, able to swing across the deck to ports on either side. She still carried a full sailing rig and even used some wood in her hull structure. But her captain, who'd spent all his life aboard such vessels and still did not fully trust steam power, saw nothing obsolete about her. After observing the action to the north, he estimated the course and speed of the still-unknown Japanese ship and turned on an intercept course at Zabiyaka's best speed of 13 knots.

The sun's rim meanwhile began to edge above the horizon, giving Zabiyaka a view of Tatsuta at a little over 7000 yards. The Russian clipper had placed herself perfectly, broadside-on and crossing the path of the oncoming Japanese cruiser, which bore slightly ahead of the clipper's starboard beam. Tatsuta held her course and both ships commenced firing as the range dropped to about 5000 yards. The rapidly closing range, however, made for extremely difficult gunnery, and neither ship scored during Tatsuta's approach.

With the range dropping to about 2000 yards and Tatsuta now beginning to leave his arcs of fire, Zabiyaka's skipper turned 16 points to port. During the start of this turn, 2 Japanese 4.7" shells struck Zabiyaka amidships, damaging the stack and starting a fire among the 4.2" ready ammunition. Unphased, Zabiyaka continued to swing around and raked Tatsuta with both 6" guns and a barrage of 4.2" from the port battery. These hits caused heavy damage to the Japanese ship, knocking out many weapons and starting serious fires. As Tatsuta began to slow amid clouds of escaping steam from broken piping, Zabiyaka crossed her bow again and turned up her port side on an opposite course, continuing to pour in shells to which the Japanese were now unable to reply effectively.



Zabiyaka continued her turn to port, eventually making a complete circle which carried her close across Tatsuta's stern. The Japanese ship was now seriously afire forward, where ready 4.7" ammunition was exploding amidst the wreckage of the bridge structure. More hits now started another serious fire amidships in the 12pdr battery, perforated the waterline in many places, and shot away Tatsuta's rudder. The dying cruiser now wallowed helplessly as Zabiyaka, her own fires now extinguished, turned and cut back across Tatsuta's stern, raking her with the starboard battery again. A last broadside from the 6" guns finally doomed the Japanese ship.



The sun was now fully up, illuminating the scene and allowing Zabiyaka's crew to view their handywork. The gunners were awed by the huge rents now visible all along Tatsuta's hull, but the skipper was less impressed. He'd known his ship, his REAL ship, was a match for any new-fangled steamer. Now he had real sailorman work to do. Turning back to his crew, he shouted, "Lay aloft, you swabs! I want those port main shrouds spliced and new fore braces rove on the double! Bosun, start the last man to reach the shrouds! Idlers, get the wounded below and out of the way! Carpenter, turn to on the main trisail gaff--I want it fished and swayed back up before the end of the watch!" With that, Zabiyaka stood away into the rising sun, leaving Tatsuta sinking behind her.

 
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saddletank

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Nice report, good to see one of the old Russian wooden coffins doing some decent work for a change :)
 

Bullethead

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Thanks :). I like having battles between the odds and sods. While not as dramatic as major fleet actions, they are quite interesting and usually much more desperate, especially because I usually have no idea how these things will perform under duress.

I've decided Tatsuta is very flimsy. I restarted the campaign with 1.026 since I hadn't gotten far with the 1.025 version above. I did everything the same as to sending the gunboats and clippers out on patrol, and they again ran into Tatsuta at the same time and about the same place. However, this time it was only Gilyak there, with no help around.

Hehehe, Gilyak - Tatsuta II: The Showdown. Tatsuta charged the gunboat, launched a spread of torps which missed, and then turned away at full speed. Both ships took hits on the approach but Tatsuta got the worst of it, ending up moderately damaged as she started to run and only doing 17 knots. Gilyak kept banging away, however, and by the time the range had opened out to 2800 yards, Tatsuta was down to 12 knots, same as Gilyak. Gilyak had meanwhile repaired back up to no damage but Tatsuta's guns were again silenced and there was another big fire forward. A few more hits and Tatsuta lost all power, the range closed rapidly, and pretty soon Tatsuta was sinking. At first this would have taken 24 minutes, but 1 more hit reduced this to 11 minutes, and then she ended up capsizing in only about 3 minutes.
 

Daedalus

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I have had some good luck with the Clippers, And they can stand there own if they have a good gun crew. But if you tangle with a large CA or something. Well it is all over.
 
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