Mercury

General Description

A very handsome two masted brig, the *Mercury* is currently the most modern ship in the game. She is well armed for a brig with her 24pd carronades.

## Armament

The Mercury can be armed with either 6pd medium and long guns or 24pd carronades.

Generally, the Mercury is recommended to be armed with carronades, as with most ships smaller than a frigate.

## Characteristics

With her sleek lines and tall masts, she is a very quick ship on the open sea and in battle, although frigates with speed improvements will be able to catch up to her sailing on a broad reach. Her turn rate is prehaps a bit slower than other 2-masted ships, but the difference is not that big if one knows how to tack properly. She is still able to out turn any frigate. Her structure is slightly higher than the Navy Brig. Fighting the Snow(*Ontario*) might be a bit of a challenge due to the Snow's extra guns, but you should be able to outrun it. The **Mercury** however lacks bow or stern chasers in the game, making running fights more difficult, particularly if you are using carronades.

Here is the Sailing Profile of the Mercury. While her profile is similar to that of the other brigs, she differs in two positive ways. First of all, she does not punish a Captain for sailing slightly upwind of a beam reach as much as the others and furthermore she is actually a surprisingly strong sailer (for a brig) on a beam reach. This makes her a good ship for chasing down fore-and-aft rigged vessels, or indeed potentially escaping square-rigged vessels on a beam reach. Like the other brigs she is fastest sailing at point 135.

## History

***Mercury*** (Russian: Меркурий) was a Russian navy 20 gun and two masted warship. It is famous for its unequal battle with two Turkish ships, which took place on May 14, 1829.

The name *Pamiyat Mercuriya* (literally *In Memory of Mercury*) was given to a number of ships of the Russian Baltic Fleet.

### Summary

Pursued by the Turkish Fleet (6 ships of the line, 2 frigates, 2 corvettes), Russian brig *Mercury* engaged in unequal battle with line ships *Selimiye* (110 guns) and *Real-bei* (74 guns) near the Strait of Bosphorus. After damaging the ships one by one, the brig escaped pursuit.

Crew (As of May 1829)

#### Officers

* Aleksandr Ivanovich Kazarsky, Lt. Capt.
* Fyodor Mikhailovich Novosilsky, Lt.
* Dmitry Petrovich Pritupov, midshipman
* Ivan Petrovich Prokofyev, naval pilot Lt.
* Sergey Iosifovitch Skaryatin, Lt.

#### Seamen

* Anisim Arekhov
* Philip Vasilyev
* Gridnev, bataler
* Afanasiy Gusev
* Seliverst Dmitriev
* Ippolit Erofeev
* Ivan Lisenko, canoneer
* Fyodor Spiridonov, naval pilot mate
* Artamon Timofeev, cannoneer
* Anton Scherbakov, cannoneer

### Damage and casualties

As a result of the battle, the brig lost 4 men and 6 more were injured. Damage to the ship included:

* 22 hull breaches
* 133 sail plan breaches
* 16 spar breaches
* 148 minor rigging damage
* loss of all rowboats

By official information, neither Turkish ships lost crew as the brig's main objective was to achieve spar and rigging damage.

## How to get Crafting recipe

You can get the crafting recipe of the Mercury by crafting Brigs, Navy Brigs, Pickles or snows, you can also get the recipe by breaking up Mercuries

## Image Gallery

Mercury fighting 2 Ottoman Ships of the Line