Had a great day of battling yesterday in Red Lion PA. We only had two ships on the water, but had a few other Captains (ships werent ready) come to watch the USS Alabama and the HMS Invincible go head to head at the second treaty event. The Invincible gave a good account of herself, using her maneuverability to keep the Alabama's superior firepower at bay. The highlight of Sortie 1 was "The Turn", where Alabama caught the Invincible up against the beach, with a PVC pipe sticking out of the shore much like a pier. The Invincible turned towards the pipe and was able to come around and clear the pipe, leaving the Alabama stuck up against the pipe while the Invincible sailed away, and finished out her 5 while Alabama was trying to get back to open sea. A collective "no way" from the other captains when Invincible cleared the pipe gave the Invincible's captain much pride in his fine ship. To add insult to injury, Alabama got severely mossed while Invincible was making good her escape. The highlight of the second sortie was "The Grounding". Invincible was running from the Alabama (this was a popular theme for the battle...run, battlecruiser run!) and moved behind some bushes, so I could't see her. I moved down past the bushes, but my ship didnt' come out. I'd smashed into this big submerged rock. There was much carnage on the Invincible. A large hole was punched in the side (which of course I didn't check for...not smart...) and a blade was busted off one of my props (already missing one blade, but I hadn't repaired it from the last battle). So now, I was down to a single blade on my port prop, and had a large hole in my port side I didn't know about. I continued to battle, and found I couldn't turn real well in one direction (port). The Alabama's captain also noticed this, and attacked the starboard side so I couldn't easily turn away to avoid his sidemounts like I had been all morning. I got a serious pounding laid on me, and as my hull started filling up, I slowed down. At the best of times, my 26 knot battlecruiser is slower then the 27 knot Alabama. Full of water, it just got ugly. She started getting low, and the Invincible headed for the shore not even attempting to evade Alabama anymore. Sensing her demise, Alabama's gunner's checked fire, and hove to to rescue survivors as Invincible sank on an even keel (she sure does sink pretty). Since Bob was already wet, he recovered the Invincible for me...talk about sportsmanship. We patched up and went out for a 3rd sortie. Invincible's speed and maneuverability weren't top shape running on 1.3 shafts, but I didn't drive all the way up there to not battle. The Evil I held her own and gave as good as she got. With rain coming in, and a drive back to the DC area ahead of me, (and Northern Virginia for one of the other captains who watched) we called it a day after the 3rd sortie. All in all, I had a great time, and think everyone else did as well. It was good to see Bob H again, not to mention Bob A (Captain of the Alabama) and meet Charlie P from the Red Lion area. That was the first time this pond had been used for combat, so we were able to demonstrate that it could easily accomodate several more ships since we only used a small portion of it. I'm looking forward to the next Treaty event with much anticipation. Good Mike
Very nice write-up Mike. As always. I will come down for the July battle to help you sink Bobo's Bama again. We battlecruiser guys must stick together, when engaging battleships. Mikey
