The Archer's Marines: The First Marines - Medieval fiction action story about Marines, naval warfare, and knights after King Richard's crusade in Syria, ... times (The Company of Archers Book 5) by Martin Archer Page A
Authors: Martin Archer
Tags: Historical fiction
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run to our forecastle and get my bow and a couple of arrows – the longest ones you can find; and bring all the linen strips we use for our arses if they’re clean and dry.”
“Jeffrey, please tell the sailor cook to light a cooking fire and send a man to bring up his driest and smallest firewood kindling.” Fire arrows, by God; maybe we can burn the bastard if we can’t take it.
Jeffrey’s men row us on past the Moorish ship so we can look over the few ships still in the harbor while he and the rest of his crew rush around trying to organize fire arrows.
All we find are a couple of our prizes, galleys from the beach with Henry’s men on board - which each have an empty sailing ship in tow and are slowly pulling them out of the harbor. The only other ships still in the harbor are two single masted sailing ships with Moorish crews and the Moorish cog we passed a few minutes ago.
There is no telling how many Moorish ships, if any, raised their sails and successfully left when our prize crews began taking prizes from among those not strong enough to resist; or what we could have done to stop them.
We also found a listing and abandoned prize galley with a badly damaged bow and a couple of dead Moors on its lower rowing deck, but no trace of whatever it had hit. The chains of its slave rowers are still on the rowing benches but they’re empty; the slaves and other survivors must have been picked up by Harold and his men.
It’s time to leave. The two galleys following us swing around when we do and follow us as we once again row past the three Moorish ships still in the harbor. The Moorish captains must have changed their minds about staying in the harbor and fighting off boarders here in the Tunis; by the time we get back to them they’ve all three raised their anchors and are setting their sails to leave. Hopefully they’re getting under way too late.
But they’re not too late. Our fire arrows don’t work. We easily shoot them into the Moors’ hulls as we row past – but they either go out or the bundles of rags and kindling wood fall apart before the hulls catch fire. All we end up doing is wasting time and giving the Moors a good scare.
@@@@@
Our plans change. Except for our two prize galleys and their tows there are no more galleys or potential prizes in or near the Tunis harbor. So there is no probably no need for Jeffrey and the captains of our two sister galleys to stop at the entrance to block it while our prizes get away.
Even so, our drum goes silent and we stop rowing when we reach the harbor entrance. A few minutes later the last of our prizes rows slowly past us towing an unmanned Moorish sailing ship. The sound of its rowing drum comes over the water as it goes by.
Spirits are high and the handful of men on our decks give each other cheers and waves as the closest of the two prize galleys and its tow slowly slide past.
It’s little wonder the prize galley’s deck is so empty; our prize crews are small so almost every man is at a rudder or an oar to help the slaves on the rowing benches. Everyone on board wants to get out of the harbor at the highest possible speed, however slow that might be – and that’s exactly what they should be doing.
It will be a while before the two prize galleys and their tows will be over the horizon towards the south and out of sight of any pursuers we might have missed. We’ll stay here just in case until they are almost out of sight. Then we’ll catch up with them and escort them to Malta.
“Jeffrey, do any of your men have experience on sailing ships?”
@@@@@
We leave our two sister galleys to convoy the last two prize galleys out of the harbor. Before we leave them we cobble together enough of a sailing crew from our
“Jeffrey, please tell the sailor cook to light a cooking fire and send a man to bring up his driest and smallest firewood kindling.” Fire arrows, by God; maybe we can burn the bastard if we can’t take it.
Jeffrey’s men row us on past the Moorish ship so we can look over the few ships still in the harbor while he and the rest of his crew rush around trying to organize fire arrows.
All we find are a couple of our prizes, galleys from the beach with Henry’s men on board - which each have an empty sailing ship in tow and are slowly pulling them out of the harbor. The only other ships still in the harbor are two single masted sailing ships with Moorish crews and the Moorish cog we passed a few minutes ago.
There is no telling how many Moorish ships, if any, raised their sails and successfully left when our prize crews began taking prizes from among those not strong enough to resist; or what we could have done to stop them.
We also found a listing and abandoned prize galley with a badly damaged bow and a couple of dead Moors on its lower rowing deck, but no trace of whatever it had hit. The chains of its slave rowers are still on the rowing benches but they’re empty; the slaves and other survivors must have been picked up by Harold and his men.
It’s time to leave. The two galleys following us swing around when we do and follow us as we once again row past the three Moorish ships still in the harbor. The Moorish captains must have changed their minds about staying in the harbor and fighting off boarders here in the Tunis; by the time we get back to them they’ve all three raised their anchors and are setting their sails to leave. Hopefully they’re getting under way too late.
But they’re not too late. Our fire arrows don’t work. We easily shoot them into the Moors’ hulls as we row past – but they either go out or the bundles of rags and kindling wood fall apart before the hulls catch fire. All we end up doing is wasting time and giving the Moors a good scare.
@@@@@
Our plans change. Except for our two prize galleys and their tows there are no more galleys or potential prizes in or near the Tunis harbor. So there is no probably no need for Jeffrey and the captains of our two sister galleys to stop at the entrance to block it while our prizes get away.
Even so, our drum goes silent and we stop rowing when we reach the harbor entrance. A few minutes later the last of our prizes rows slowly past us towing an unmanned Moorish sailing ship. The sound of its rowing drum comes over the water as it goes by.
Spirits are high and the handful of men on our decks give each other cheers and waves as the closest of the two prize galleys and its tow slowly slide past.
It’s little wonder the prize galley’s deck is so empty; our prize crews are small so almost every man is at a rudder or an oar to help the slaves on the rowing benches. Everyone on board wants to get out of the harbor at the highest possible speed, however slow that might be – and that’s exactly what they should be doing.
It will be a while before the two prize galleys and their tows will be over the horizon towards the south and out of sight of any pursuers we might have missed. We’ll stay here just in case until they are almost out of sight. Then we’ll catch up with them and escort them to Malta.
“Jeffrey, do any of your men have experience on sailing ships?”
@@@@@
We leave our two sister galleys to convoy the last two prize galleys out of the harbor. Before we leave them we cobble together enough of a sailing crew from our
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