Battle of Zenkar Port

The battle of Zenkar Port was the final engagement in the War against Piracy. It saw a coalition of seafaring nations destroy an improvised pirate fleet led by the 'High King of the Seas' Orinthos. The battle was the first major naval battle in the history of the Old World.

## Battle of Zenkar Port

Drawing of the Battle of Zenkar Port (Artist: Samuel Pollay)

### Side 1

Seafaring coalition: Kartaga, Trinsulae, Tabard, Macarmonil, Council of Tards, Deutschmeister empire.

### Leader 1

Amiral Cortez (Kartaga), Gravitos (Trinsulae), Octavian (C.o. Tards), Friedrich von Bock (Deutschmeister empire), Themistocles (Macarmonil), Lysander † (Tabard)

### Troopstrength 1

75 quinquiremes, 22 triremes, 20 biremes and 9 transportships.

### Result

Total coalition victory, pirate fleet destroyed

## Background

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To learn more about this subject see: The War against Piracy

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Orinthos, the self proclaimed High King of the Seas had beaten a small Kartagan navy of 10 warships in the battle of the Sunken Cave, along the Tongalian coast. A 6 state coalition then formed to beat the pirate threat together. Cortez was chosen as their leader since he had the most experience dealing with the pirate and his country, Kartaga, had been hit hardest by the pirate threat. The allies decided to link up in the recently established Trinsulaean outposts in Svean. Many of the fleets had arrived already but Cortez had waited to get more favorable tides. In the meanwhile Orinthos had secretly been converting his pirate fleet of small vessels into a bigger one, consisting of 62 quinquiremes, most of which equipped with rams of hard wood, only 10 having the standard bronze ram.

### The Blockade

The same day Cortez had wanted to set sail the pirate fleet arrived in Zenkar, blockading the port. Orinthos had become less careful after his victory in the Sunken Cave and decided to extort tribute from Arturo I of Kartaga. The Karteese had been rioting against their king due to the trade stoppage caused by Orinthos and total rebellion seemed imminent. The High King saw this as his chance to strike and it seemed he had achieved success when his ships appeared. The population panicked and violence broke out in the streets. Cortez remained calm however and sent in troops to quell the worst violence, putting a curfew in effect whilst creating a plan that would relieve the blockade. He sent out the best captain he had, a Karteese man called Alvaro, who he then ordered to take the fastest ship available. The plan was for Alvaro to run the blockade and send a message to Gravitos at Svean, the leader of the Trinsulaean fleet and second-in-command of the coalition. Meanwhile Orinthos still had no clue of the existence of such a coalition and thus he kept blockading the city.

### The fleet sets sail

Alvaro arrived in Svean 2 days later and told Gravitos about the blockade and the fact there were around 60 quinquiremes present. This shocked Gravitos as such a big navy had never been seen before in history and was indeed the biggest fleet the world had seen up until that point. What he did not know was that these ships were inferior in quality as they were mostly hastily converted smaller vessels, most of them didn't even have proper rams and the crews were inexperienced sailing such big and sluggish warships. The Trinsulaean was concerned about the Tabardan fleet not having arrived as well and was leaning towards waiting for them to arrive first before making any moves. When he laid this decision before the other admirals they accepted it reluctantly. Then Friedrich von Bock arrived and he was furious when he heard the news. "My people are not the greatest seamen to have ever lived but at least we know the difference between care and cowardice. If the grandest sailors of your respective states wish not to set sail then so be it, but I, Friedrich von Bock, and my proud Germans will set sail, even if it is alone, for we do not budge against pirates, scum and villains. Even if it were a 1000 ships that blockaded Zenkar we would go, and by the Pizzagod we would be victorious or die honourably. People would say that on that day the Germans showed the sea what bravery meant, as before it was merely ruled by the craven." Gravitos was moved by these words and stated: "You humble me master Von Bock. Had someone told me that a German general would bravely sail to battle whilst the great Trinsulaean navy sat in dock I would have had the man hanged. But today it has happened and I am the one that deserves to be hanged. You are right noble German, we must set sail and rid the world of villainy. Tomorrow at sun-set we leave for Zenkar!" The many admirals and their staff cheered, their morale skyrocketing by the brave words spoken.

The next morning the coalition was making the last preparations to leave when in the horizon Tabard ships appeared. They had sailed continuously from their homes to Svean, sleeping nor stopping, in order to make it on time. Gravitos thanked their commander, Lysander, for his determination and together with the Tabardans the fleet set sail towards Zenkar.

A week later the coalition arrived at Zenkar, coming from the west. Gravitos, seeing the enemy ship's horrible quality decided to attack straight away, wishing to break the blockade with the momentum of arriving. The plan worked and Orinthos broke out in despair. He had been a shipbuilder and pirate and besides hit-and-run tactics he had no experience in any actual naval warfare. He gave orders to break the blockade and head north. The many messengers that were sent out interpreted the messages differently and every ship received a different order. Some received orders to go North, others received orders to head back to Tongaal, North-West of their position. This led to overall confusion and delay, some ships even bumping into each other as conflicting orders gave them different directions to go. Cortez, in the meanwhile, had used the enemies' confusion to link up with the rest of the fleet and take command. He set up his fleet and moved towards the enemy fleet, quickly advancing on their position. Orinthos knew he could not get away anymore and quickly gave orders to face the coalition.

## Fleet compositions and battle plan

### Coalition fleet

The coalition led by Cortez knew it had the superior ships and numbers and adapted an aggressive tactic. The fleet had 75 quinquiremes, 32 from Trinsulae, 10 from Tabard, 10 from the Tards, 11 from Kartaga and 12 from Macarmonil. There were 22 triremes, 10 from Macarmonil and 12 from Tabard. Besides this there were 20 biremes, 12 from Trinsulae and 9 from Tabard. On top of this there were 9 German transportships, built to turn the naval battle in a land battle where the Germans excelled. The Karteese Amiral placed his own and the Armonilen ships led by Themistocles on the left, with the exception of the Trinsulaean biremes armed with firepots who were placed on the extreme left. The other Trinsulaean ships, mostly artillery ships, were placed in the center supported by the Tabardan triremes and biremes. On the right were the Tabardan quinquiremes led by Lysander, the Tards led by Octavian and the Germans led by von Bock. The plan was to lure the enemy into reinforcing their center as this was where the strong Trinsulaean navy was situated, exposing the sides which would then be overwhelmed by the coalition.

### Pirate fleet

The pirate fleet existed entirely out of 62 quinquiremes, 10 of which had bronze rams, the others had hard wooden rams. Orinthos plan was to lure the enemy into boarding actions where his experienced pirates excelled. Leadership and communication problems made this hard however and individual captains preferred ramming since they did not wish to risk their lives fighting against experienced marines.