The west coast of Africa saw a short fierce action between the Frigates HMS Apollo and the French Minerva.
It was a dusk that we aboard the Apollo spotted the French Frigate. They were to windward of us at about a 1000 yards when the battle began. I had a major concern going into the battle. The Apollo was short of crew from a bout of sickness and subsequent desertions in Cape Town so I was just able to man all my guns on one side if I assigned my marines to the task. We were equally matched with our French foe and I figured if things went badly I could hold them off until nightfall and then slip away in the night.
The French came down wind at us and we exchanged the first shots of the engagement at 500. The French scored a hit on that cut some of my rigging and I watched as one of my 18 pdrs plunged into the enemy ship undoubtedly causing some damage in return. We were wrestling with the French to try gain the weather gauge and just when it seemed we would have it the squirrely French attempt to tack.
For a moment they hung there in the wind with their stern to us. I swung around to unmask my port side and raked them with 18 pdr and Carronades at 200 yards. The French decks must be a mess but they succeeded in their tack and once they came out of it they fired off their reply which cut off my fore top mast and caused significant damage to my rigging.
I pulled men off the carronades and set them to cut away the fallen mast. We danced with the French and scored a few more hits while my men worked at their task. No sooner did they get it cut away then the French fired a broadside that knocked out a gun on the port side and devastated our rigging. By some miracle we didn't lose a mast.
I reorganized the crew once again, I stripped more men from the guns and set them to trying to repair my rigging before a mast decides to let go. I was only manning 3 guns on the starboard side now and I greatly wished to open the range. Either I would make sufficient repairs and could choose to close with the enemy again or nightfall would cover our retreat.
So we set off with the French off our starboard quarter. Try as they might the French could not get closer than 600 yards. A few favorable gusts gave me some room to maneuver and got into position to fire off a salvo at long range but I failed to score any hits.
My rigging was as good as it was going to get and I was able to man my guns again. Durning the chase I had developed a theory, the French captain refused to show their starboard side and I guessed that I must have done some sort of damage to their starboard side when I raked them. To test this theory I would put my ship on the port tack. If I was correct the French would decline to follow and the battle would be over, if I was wrong then we would fight it out until the sun finally set over the horizon.
I gave the order "Wear ship" then I took up my glass and watched for the French response. There was none and we parted ways.
As it turns out, I was correct. When we raked the Minerva we knocked out every gun on her starboard side. Admirably the French crew rallied and were determined to fight it out.
We decided that it was a draw and maybe I came out the slightest but ahead. My damage could be repaired with materials on hand while the French would have a hard time replacing their lost guns. Casualties were very light, somehow. I took none (thank god) and the French lost one crew factor.
It was a ton of fun I think we both played it very smart. In hindsight maybe I should have stayed at close range and shot it out but all I knew at the time was "my rigging is shot to pieces, where am I going to find the men to fix that". (I had two boxes of rigging left and I rolled a one on my rigging check).
I hope the admirals won't look at me too harshly.
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