Part 21 —Battle off of Point Cerondesmouth—

*While the Captain read the signal flags, all of the ships of the line formed a "line of battle". With the convoy behind them and the minor vessels covering the small gaps between the ships. The Thalassa was positioned between the Seventy-four Asclepius which was ahead of our ship and astern was the iconic Fourth-Rate HMS Ferriston, the ship that when I was like eight, I would always in my free time go to the docks and watch the ship do gunnery drills, and we Ferristoners adore that ship, and I was so glad to be in the same fleet as it. And the Ferriston was piece of beautiful design and architecture. Kind of like a ship of the line from the 1630s to the 1740s. The quarterdeck and poop slightly more raised and slanted than the ships of today while also not being too raised and ugly like the old galleons, argosies, caravels, cogs and carracks. A stunning and powerful look, but that also makes the Ferriston a bit slower than the average 60 gunned warships, along with the questionably high caliber of guns compared to regular Fourth-Rates.*

*Shortly after everyone started going crazy, I got confused as to what was happening. Who was attacking us? From where? Then I heard it.*

*Tremendously loud gunfire raged from afar, as I leaned towards the sea turning my head to see what was in front of the ship from the starboard rim. A line of enemy ships passing in a line to the opposite direction as us. Exchanging gunfire while also having no real target at all.*

*Afore in the front section of the line of battle I saw the massive Second-Rates of 90 guns firing at the passing line of ships of- what nation?*

*As time passed, more broadsides were fired, and the enemy ships were approaching even closer to the Thalassa, and that's when I saw the flag.*

*A purple background, with a large white circle in the middle. And inside the circle was an image of a black dragon, with it's wings spread out.*

*The Empire of Erstanduer.*

*As the ships came closer to us, we loaded treble shots in our guns. The leading ship in the Erstanduen line was a three-decker, I started counting the guns, 86? 90? 94? 96? No, just when she sailed forwards to fire at the ship ahead of Asclepius, I got a great view to count the guns (whilst piercing my fingers in my ears), 98, and . . . 110? I knew if that fired a broadside at the Thalassa we would be done for, we'd b  turned to absolute rubble, we would be basically dead.*

*Now she engaged the Asclepius, and fired a single broadside and received back two double-shotted broadsides from the Asclepius. Despite how much larger that ship was than the Asclepius, she was still quite battered from the ships ahead and took a much larger beating by the more experienced and able gunners of the Valeraenian navy.*

*Then the wind picked up, a horrifying feeling stung my gut. The warship approached closer and closer towards the starboard side. Our gunners started loading, um, a quite risky amount of triple shots in the bore. They clearly wanted to do as much damage as they can, but I didn't put the risk on my men and ordered double shots on the f'c'stle batteries.*

*"Ram the shot in! good, we only need the wad now" While Andrew Stephens came with it, I saw something that calmed me from what I was about to face, a rat nibbling on some hemp.*

*"Good Andy, ram it in-"*

*If only I held my ears.*

*The broadside from the 1st Rate was more than devastating. It knocked off everything, the bowsprit, and the mainmast and foremast, leaving the Thalassa basically as a floating shipwreck. Many powder kegs blasted on deck, causing severe damage, it was already out of action but we still returned fire. I luckily held my ears at that time.*

*Little to no damage at all, except for a minor fire on board, the First-Rate started sailing away leaving us battered to fight the remaining three ships of the rearguard, HMS Ferriston, HMS Pontus of 64 guns, and the 96 gunner HMS Lionhearted.*

*There where three fires onboard the Thalassa. They raged and burnt a handful of poor and unlucky men to their deaths. The three fires meshed into two, and the two meshed into one massive fire. Before the ship could explode, I, Mr. Riversgate and most of the crew rushed down the deck grabbing water buckets from barrels here and there.*

*"Mr. Jeremiah!" Andrew shouted out. "Here!" He handed me a hosepipe. Mr. Riversgate went very far deep down to throw the gunpowder overboard incase, well, incase if the magazine gets on fire and explodes the ship the ship into dust. I and Andrew went on to assist him below the decks as the main gun deck caught on fire and powder barrels started exploded blowing massive holes into the ship while the ship's boys threw the barrels of precious gunpowder into the sea, and most of them were seven or eight year old orphans doing the most dangerous job there was at that time, until basically being alive was the most dangerous thing.*

*On the main magazine we headed, from above I heard a massive, massive blast. I peeked from a hole on the side of the ship, possibly caused by a cannonball. And saw great news.*

*"Mr. Riversgate! Look!"*

*The Erstanduen First Rate exploded in an awful blast, as fiery wood fell onboard the Thalassa, Ferriston, Pontus and Lionhearted. Causing commotion in the entire battle. An extremely devastating loss for Erstanduer. The only thing they gained from that ship in this battle is setting our ships on fire and destroying a poor frigate.*

*"Sir, we must hurry!" Andrew said to us, while also peeking through another hole.*

*Mr. Riversgate kicked the door to the magazine chamber and started grabbing barrels of gunpowder and handed it to me and Andy who tossed them to the sea while the fire grew closer and closer as it reached the orlop from where we were throwing the powder.*

*"Mr. Riversgate!" I shouted out. "What shall we do now!"*

*"Abandon ship, sir!"*

*"But sir! How can we jump out of the ship!" A voice shouted from behind, to my relief, it was Mr. Lakerton, who somehow survived the fire. Behind him was a hoard of men and thankfully some of the ship's boys (At least half of them survived) along with Wright, Mr. Evans, Cedarwood and a few others who somehow managed to survive the fire and escape down.*

*Which gave Mr. Riversgate the idea.*

*"Men, we'll kick and break open this crack!" He showed everyone the cannonball hole we peeked through.*

*With a man power of around fifty men we kicked, pushed and punched the hole. Causing the timbers to break apart, as the flames reached the magazine chamber, trying to get past the brilliantly built casings of wood protecting the magazine.*

*Then we made a hasty leap into the great seas, which felt like ages, carrying the people that couldn't swim. I saw hordes of rats jumping from the ship, never to be ever played for Catch the Rat once again. Some marines even made it out too, but no one was still safe yet, the powder could explode at any time and turn us into rubble. We (excluding I) started hastily swimming as fast as we possibly could while carrying other people, including me, who was getting carried by Andrew.*

*We aimed for the Ferriston who was along with Asclepius trying to run away from the burning Thalassa, giving us a better distance and angle to catch the Ferriston or the Asclepius.*

*But we were just hoping.*

*The Thalassa exploded in flames in a deafening blast, as flaming timbers fell on other ships and even us. Obliterating my eardrums, a heavy feeling of guilt pained my chest "How can I leave my ship and comrades alone to die!".*

*Then I thought of Captain Embleton, and Mr. Wainwright, Chaplain Carmichael and everybody else. And my heart sank.*

*The swimmers that where closest to the Thalassa sadly died from the shockwave, while some including I got temporarily deaf. But the good thing was, the Ferriston was here. We, with relief, climbed the ladders, all wet, filled with sweat, just barely escaped from bloodshed, had finally met, the glorious Captain Lord Tony Sutcliffe.*

*The men of the Ferriston gladly took us onboard, and put cloaks and blankets to warm us from the freezing sea. They didn't have time to be all like "Thank God you are all fine, which one of you are the officers so we can drink tea and wine together and have a talk blah blah blah" and all that. They were more focused on the battle. It turned out that the Serapish had capture our largest ship, the hundred gunned HMS King Jerome. Named after, well, King Jerome II the Conqueror. The ship was captured along with the 74 gunners HMS Intrepidus and Capturer (Who ironically got captured), so we had to "tactically" retreat as commanded by the flagship HMS Invictus of 98 guns under Vice Admiral Peter Andilet of the Red. Thankfully we had got the weather gage and along with the convoy we headed east towards the Kingdom of Marcestonia for repairs and supply.*

*Most of the crew and the boys that survived where sent to the sickbay towards the surgeon/doctor to get checked. While the officers that survived, sadly including Lester, were sent to the captain's quarters along with the 1st Lieutenant of the Ferriston.*

*"Here the gentlemen are!" The captain gladly welcomed us.*

*We all introduced ourselves happily.*

*"Greetings your Lordship, I am Mr. Midshipboy Arthur Horatio Jeremiah" I greeted Lord Sutcliffe*

*"May I ask you a question sir?"*

*"Indeed my Lord"*

*"I assume you are Lord Frank Jeremiah's son, sir?" He asked.*

*"Yes my Lord"*

*"Just as I guessed, Lord Jeremiah's father was my old captain once!"*

*After that he continued greeting other officers, and fitted us each for our stations. And I couldn't be more lucky, I was made a midshipman! Actually, the rank of midshipboy is only a rank in frigates. And in ship of the lines and fourth-rates. The rank of midshipboy does not exist, and any midshipboy gained/rescued must be changed to a midshipman, the reason for this is because in frigates discipline is not as harsh as in ships of the line and fourth-rates and thus in combat the navy faced a bunch of disobeying overconfident midshipmen. Thus it lead to the rank of midshipboy. But in larger ships, the discipline is strong, and midshipmen there are not very self-minded people.*

*So we now were peacefully sailing, aiming to dock at the Kingdom of Marcestonia, where we'd restock and resupply as well as repair our ships, and yes, we may have lost three ships of the line and a frigate, but at least the convoy was safe and we were alive. But again on the downside. Lester had got off scot-free for the third time. We can't just say "arrest this man" without a word from the captain, who was dead.*

*Anyways, a bit of time later, we were brought back to the cabin to report the casualties to the captain, by checking how many escaped and what was the crew compliment.*

*"So a hundred and fifty-two were assigned to the ship, and only thirty-eight survived, a terrible loss of life, a hundred and fourteen killed or missing, most likely from the fire, gunfire and the explosion" Lord Sutcliffe said after listening to us.*

*"Including Captain Embleton, your Lordship" Mr. Cedarwood said.*

*"Indeed sir, and also the ship's Master Mr. Worthwell, we'd better inform his brother who is also the master of this ship coincidentally" The Lord said.*

*"Eight bells, Four o' clock!"*

*A familiar young voice shouted from the ship's bell. Confused, I approached the officer, and he found out before me.*

*"Arthur?" He said. "How are you here?"*

*"Oh wait, oh my, it's you! Relish!" I laughed.*

*"I mean- but- for the whole week I am the Acting-Lieutenant here, and I never saw you! And I know this crew very well!"*

*"Well what were you doing when the survivors of the Thalassa climbed onboard this ship?"*

*"When was that! I've been below deck the whole day unless I had to ring the bell"*

*"Just after the Ferriston disengaged from combat, did you hear a massive blast?"*

*"Yes certainly, of the 1st Rate blowing up"*

*"No not that, another one"*

*"Of a frigate exploding" Relish finally got it.*

*"Yes, I served on that ship, until it went boom"*

*Relish laughed. "You where supposed to be on the Alliance though, I guess you ended up like me, the Alliance had too many officers, thus most of us were assigned to random ships in need of officer"*

*"Exactly the same for me!"*

*The chatting continued for almost forever, at least I'd have another companion on this voyage who I could hand my money to and expect him to keep it safe from others while I'm away. And thankfully Relish was assigned to the larboard watch, the same one as me.*

*But some good doesn't outweigh the bad.*

*Lester now had an even greater chance of killing me because now he could pick me up in a dark passage in the orlop deck, stab me, and act like nothing happened until my body is found. And it would most likely take a really long time for that because we're on a large ship. And that also means that while I'm sleeping he can piece a knife through my heart and no one would give any attention because we're on -again- a much larger ship. (But that also mean't I could do the same to Lester, heh heh heh!)*

*The sleeping conditions on the Ferriston was a whole lot worse than the Thalassa, I'd have to plug my nose up with something and breath with my mouth, but that would never work, mostly because once I'd be asleep I will be unable to breathe because no one breathes with their mouth when they're asleep. So I resorted to putting a blanket over my nose, not that it worked well but it at least reduced the smell a little bit. And also because the man next to me stank like hell and for some reason he had an unnatural issue of farting every second and not just regular ones, he did the most loud and smelly and mentally disturbing and disgusting ones. Along with also the threat of Lester killing me in my sleep and drinking all my blood. Thus for the first time, I slept for only two hours, and then I was put to night watch. And the drowsiness was really strong.*

*Onboard I stared at the night sky to see were we where at, but it was cloudy and dull -those bloody chimneys, if there was one in the middle of the sea- with no constellations in sight. The only thing that was bright and beautiful in the sad sky was the glory of the full moon. Observing the placement of the moon I could tell where we were heading towards, South-East, where the Kingdom of Marcestonia was located at, speaking from the place we where currently at. We needed to sail there fast for repairs and food, indeed scurvy may end the lives of all of us if the winds aren't fair. But I still didn't know which coordinate we where at and which exact degree we had to follow and all of that complicated mathematics.*

*Then the clouds moved, and then more moved, revealing a tiny glow, followed by more. I could almost make out a constellation, that'll give me some idea.*

*I needed to call Andy for my spyglass, for some reason I left it on my hammock. But it was so dark onboard I couldn't see anyone or anything, but at least I could hear, footsteps. Coming closer and closer behind me, slowly and gently, the sound of neat silver buckled shoes (And yes I can distinguish the sound of different shoes), just an officer approaching me, but he came . . . a bit too close for some reason. And if only I was conscious to tell you what happened, suddenly, a heavy and painful THWACK hit my head, my vision went blank and I could see nothing else but a dark silhouette with a ponytail and a short beard carrying a musket like a club just nonchalantly walking past me as other men were saying something like "What was that!" or "Any ideas on what happened there, Charlie?" as I fell unconscious.*