Ansaldo Ferrodumond

## Early Life and Career

Ansaldo and his younger brother Marius made their fortune as privateers first for Antargentina, and then later for Liotain, gaining a reputation for luck, skill, and exceptional daring.  Ansaldo, likely born in 1655 in the city of Bascanet in Antargentina, was the son of an Antargentine trader and his Liotainian-born wife.  The family spent a significant amount of time living in Sventoji.  Ansaldo went to sea when he was thirteen, aboard a ship belonging to a friend of his father.  By the age of twenty, he was the second mate aboard an Antargentine xebec, which in 1681 received a letters-of-marque for privateering during a short conflict with Astyria.  Ansaldo spent the next five years sailing aboard three different ships as a privateer, and accumulated a reputation as a capable and daring seaman.

In 1686, Ansaldo purchased his own ship, a polacre which he named *Corredora* and outfitted as a privateer, just in time for peace to break out.  He attempted to work as a legitimate trading captain, but in 1689 he was accused of pirating a Firoccan merchant ship off the coast of Pictfearr.  The case was dismissed due to lack of evidence, but the proceedings placed Ansaldo in a great deal of debt.

Sometime during the period between 1678 and 1680, Ansaldo took Diana Molis, a woman from the Firoccan trade port of Svyturys, as his common-law wife.  Molis operated a public bathhouse in the Liotainian Quarter of Svyturys.  Diana proved to be a severe drain on Ansaldo's meagre resources, gambling or drinking away much of his money.  They separated late in 1680, and Ansaldo did not learn he had a daughter, named Graziella, until late in 1696.  When he took Graziella away from her mother, Diana laid a charge of kidnapping with the Firoccan officials in Svyturys, but Ansaldo sailed away before the case could be brought to trial.  In 1699, the case was dropped after some of Ansaldo's friends intervened with the city authorities.

## As a Privateer

In 1696, Ansaldo, deeply in debt, took a letter-of-marque from the Liotainian government in order to raid Anitkabirite shipping.  This proved somewhat unprofitable, and in 1697, he received a second letter-of-marque, this time from Firocco, to hunt Fusan pirates operating on the Astyrian coast.  In what seems to have been a move of desperation, Ansaldo took his ship into a pirate haven on the Fusan island of Vahlenæmen, burning two larger pirate vessels and seizing three more.  Ansaldo then ransomed back a Fusan pirate chieftain (rather than turning him over for execution by Firoccan authorities).  One of the captured ships was sold in Astyria - likely because it would not have been a legal prize in the Firoccan courts - while the remainder were handed over to the Firoccan Navy.  The results of this raid were profitable enough that Ansaldo was able to pay off his debts.

With war brewing between Liotain and Firocco, Ansaldo sold the aging *Corredora* and purchased a new ship, the eighteen-gun polacre *Mistika*, in conjunction with his brother Marius.  The two brothers served as co-captains and sailed quickly for the Astyrian coast, using their familiarity with it to begin intercepting Firoccan trading vessels.  Unlike many Liotainian privateers, the Ferrodumond brothers did not shy away from fighting small Firoccan warships.  In November 1701, the Ferrodumonds captured the twelve-gun Firoccan naval xebec *Doris*; Marius purchased the ship and manned it as a second ship in their growing fleet.  The brothers captured the twenty-gun naval xebec *Soraia* in February 1702, allowing two other Liotainian privateers the opportunity to capture the *Soraia*'s convoy.  *Soraia* was also added to the small squadron the Ferrodumonds had assembled, with Marius taking command and giving *Doris* to his first lieutenant.

These depredations attracted the ire of the Firoccan Navy, which dispatched a number of vessels, including the twenty-eight gun frigate *Valquiria*, to the Astyrian coast to actively hunt the Ferrodumonds.  Eirennach traders tipped off the Ferrodumonds to the *Valquiria*'s presence, and the two brothers decided to deal with the hunter with the same brazen manner that Ansaldo had used earlier against the Fusan pirates.  In June, the brothers found the frigate at anchor in Astyrian waters, and boarded her in a night action, seizing the ship and capturing her crew of two hundred twenty-seven with barely even a fight.  Ansaldo purchased *Valquiria* for himself, bringing the fleet to a total of four ships.

Throughout the second half of 1702 and early 1703, the Ferrodumond brothers continued to spearhead a loose coalition of Liotainian privateers who operated on the coasts of Denishu, Astyria and Syrellia, and sometimes as far afield as Fusou and Pictfearr.  The Ferrodumond brothers, with their more powerful ships, would engage Firoccan convoy escorts in order to allow other privateers the opportunity to easily attack the convoy itself.  For this, the Ferrodumonds shared in the prize money for ships they themselves did not capture.  This informal fleet of privateers were largely composed of Liotainian captains with extensive pre-war trading experience on the Astyrian, Syrellian, and Firoccan coasts, and had turned that knowledge to good use as privateers during the early years of the war.  Due to the presence of numerous Breizhoned corsairs in the fleet, most of whom flew the "Black Cross" banderole of Roazhon, the Firoccans called them the Black Cross Fleet.

### Raid on Balefornia

In April 1703, the Ferrodumond brothers proposed a major joint operation to the other captains of the Black Cross Fleet.  In late 1702, one of the captains, Judikael LeTallec, had raided near the Firoccan island of Balefornia, and noted that the coastal defenses were in particularly dire shape, particularly around the eastern port of Abadon.  Ansaldo proposed that the captains of the Black Cross Fleet attack Balefornia, seize Abadon and hold it for ransom, empty the storehouses, and burn the palace of Count Carlos, who was both a senior Firoccan admiral (responsible for the Liotainian defeat at the Five Days Battle) and one of the senior aristocrats of Firocco.

On the basis of this plan, the captains of the Black Cross Fleet voted to raid Balefornia with a force of sixteen ships and approximately 2,400 men.  Ansaldo would lead the largest portion of the fleet to Abadon, while his brother Marius would lead three ships to attack the smaller ports of Salga and Povoacao.  Several captains ended up bowing out, reducing the fleet to only twelve ships, of which four belonged to the Ferrodumonds themselves.  Three hundred Syrellian mercenaries were hired to make up a shortfall in landing troops.

On June 16th, the fleet landed at night on the outskirts of Abadon, attacked the main barracks of the city watch, and seized control of the town by daybreak.  In an address at the town square, Ansaldo stated the privateers' intention of burning the town and its shipyard (where two small frigates were building for the Firoccan Navy), unless the town paid a ransom.  Ansaldo initially set the ransom at twenty million reales (the same ransom demanded by the Firoccan fleet which attacked Telsai in 1701), but after a passionate appeal by the town fathers, Ansaldo agreed (as apparently had been his intention all along) to lower the ransom to ten million reales.  Ansaldo's initial deadline was not met, but he agreed to extend it several more hours, whereupon the mayor was able to barely meet the limit.

Upon leaving Abadon, the privateers salvaged a large amount of naval stores, and took with them thirteen ships of various sizes captured in the various harbours in Balefornia.  Four of the fleet's ships detached in order to conduct further raiding independently of the others, although all twelve eventually returned to the fleet rendezvous in Pamplonia, Syrellia.

## Family

Marius Ferrodumond (brother)

Grazina Ferrodumond-Quemener (daughter)