Part 13 --Inside the Brain of a Midshipman--

*"Good afternoon everyone. I hope you are having a good day. Welcome to my class, I am Mister John Oakley and I teach beginner future midshipmen of Ferriston, Crimfordharer."*

*He greeted us in a very RP Posh accent.*

*"You all may be very new to a vessel and the sea, and may not know much about them, So I am here to teach you things that may confuse you, the problem is however, is that I have a bit too many things to teach you, so you all pick ones out of these: Weapons, Terminology, Navigation, Ships, Food, Duties onboard, Living, and Combat Tactics"*

*I'm quite sure no one chose Terminology and Navigation because they sound a bit nerdy and boring, most of us chose the more interesting ones like Weapons, Ships, Tactics and Food, which I'm pretty sure are those interesting but useless topics for newbies. The teacher couldn't understand which topic had more people so he held a vote and asked each of us. Victor voted for Tactics, Henry voted for Weapons and I voted for ships, mostly because I don't want to be stuck cluelessly again while getting laughed at when my father asks what new ship he bought, and also because it's interesting and ships are really nice. Anyways, the vote was won by combat tactics. And then Mister Oakley started teaching.*

*"So the topic of 'Combat tactics' won the vote, let me now teach it to you. You see in combat, you can't just go firing guns and then fight your enemy with a sword mindlessly. You also have to use your brain. So I am going to explain how to. In linebattles*

*, which is basically a lot of 2 or 3 decker large warships called "ship of the line" fighting in a line against their opponent which also are fighting in a line, this is a very common way of fighting in the navy and from my experience all of my battles as a Post Captain where fought in that way. Why? you may ask. Well because fighting in a line is really effective, when ships just go at each other not following any formation. You might hit one of your own ships or you might go against the wind slowing the battle down and possibly giving your enemy an advantage. In line battles. Both sides go parallel to each other following the wind and start blasting. This way you don't hit your own ships and the riggers get a rest. That's the most common and effective way for fighting in large scale naval battles, and in small scale ones, ones that include only two or four ships, they do the exact same, only the volume is lower, and your ears are safe. Now that's the tactics used for ship to ship combat and now I am about to teach you boarding tactics. Midshipmen are mostly disciplinarians of the ship and action. They fight with the crew and command the men that have gone on their own. So you have to do that when you become one. Anyways back to boarding tactics, you see in the top deck of ships, most of the officers and crew of the higher ranks are present. When the ships get close and the hooks are thrown and the planks are placed. The first ones to inflict damage are the sharpshooters or marksmen. They snipe the officers and the higher ranks by figuring it out by their decorative uniforms. Knocking the higher ranks out of action breaks the chain of command and creates confusion and disobedience in the crew -Wait a second who farted?- Anyways, it basically harms the ship and makes a bloody mess in the crew and on the deck. After the marksmen do their work comes the crew, armed with short sabres or sea hangers more commonly known as a "Cutlass". You should always just jump in their ship and kill their officers which will force them to surrender. And don't worry about the people below deck. They'll eventually surrender. And if they don't then you should just throw grenades through the ventilation hatches or butcher anybody that dares to come on the top deck. That was the boarding tactics, now hand to hand combat tactics. The most common way of fighting someone else is just using a cutlass and being good at it so you don't stop breathing. But that's moderately effective and extremely simple. Instead we should fight with a pistol and a cutlass. That way you can shoot and hit with a cutlass. After you have used your gun you should not throw it away or reload. Reloading takes time and by the time your done you would be with God. And throwing it away is not going to make this tactic work, which is this tactic. When your opponent attacks you, you should block with the pistol and then immediately counter the unprotected opponent with your cutlass. You should also push their sword away with the pistol when your defending desperately. Or you can even block with your sword and use your pistol as a club and hit your enemy with it..."*

*At this point I was getting really bored and tired and before I knew it I was dreaming. I was woken up by the teacher hitting me with the club of a pistol and people laughing. I thought I slept through the entire class and lo, I did. We where now told to return to the training ground, after a boring snore.*

*"Mate, how did you start sleeping in the middle of an interesting class?" Victory asked.*

*"I don't know I was bored by it, and was tired from the training ground, it just happened without my knowledge" I replied.*

*Henry then called me "Doofus" jokingly.*

*Esther joined in "There is an even better word for Arthur, Git Wanker"*

*"I'm pretty sure that Git and Wanker are two different words that both mean the same thing" Victor said.*

*"I know but it just sounds cooler" Esther replied*

*I was getting Thoroughbreded so I angrily said "That means I am a Doofus Idiot Idiot? That doesn't even mean anything, you lads have gone to the dogs!"*

*"Oh my God" Esther said sarcastically and over pronounced every letter like a true Deshi. "Woof Woof" Victor barked.*

*"Teasing heroes is a bad thing" Henry said.*

*"But he's a Mary Sue, he faced no problems" Esther claimed*

*"The problem I am facing are you two pigs!" I started burning the steak.*

*"But.."-"No buts, and none of your arse" Henry interrupted Esther.*

*"I was about to say 'But we just joking don't take it seriously Arthur'" Esther said*

*"I know it but it's not nice" I said.*

*"Oy where'd ye going Twits?" Some Man wearing a yellow overcoat interrupted.*

*"Uh, to the training ground?" Victor answered.*

*"It seems you plonkers have blundered your way here. The training ground is far back, now do the obvious task, go back" He told us.*

*That simply means we where chatting for too long. Now I, with the temperament level of a Thoroughbred now decreased to a Fish, we galloped like Thoroughbreds to the opposite direction we came from. And then we found the gate, and entered the ground.*