The Alexander at Bay - All at Sea with Kiss Me Hardy

HMS Alexander' commanded by Captain Rodney Bligh, shortly before striking her Colours to the French Squadron, 6th November 1794 - William Shayer

In November 1794 the French Revolutionary War, the Great War as it became known before the horrors of mechanised warfare that characterised the next century, was in its second year, and a year that saw the navies of France and Great Britain finally clash in a fleet action on the Glorious First of June; giving both forces an opportunity to assess each others strengths and weaknesses, following their previous combats from the American War of Independence, just over a decade ago.

The British were probably surprised at the lack of tactical and sailing skill displayed in the battle by a force that they had come to respect in the American War, but in a battle that saw the twenty-five British ships of the line capture or destroy seven from a French fleet of twenty six ships, clearly demonstrating to the French that patriotic inspiration so successful on land was no substitute for competency at sea.

HMS Bellerophon pictured here in 1815 at anchor in the British naval anchorage of Torbay by Thomas Lunny, this being my home part of the British south coast, and the preferred anchorage for the Channel Fleet during the long wars with France with Plymouth being a notoriously difficult harbour to get out from, with the prevailing westerly winds up the Channel. The fort of Berry Head can be seen on the cliffs in the background of this view, which we visited back in 2020, see link below.
JJ's Wargames - Berry Head

In the months that followed the battle, the French Atlantic Fleet mostly remained in its home port of Brest whilst the commander of the British Channel Squadron, Lord Howe, determined to practice a policy of 'distant blockade' earning him the nickname of 'Lord Torbay' after the fleet's habitual anchorage; a policy that allowed small French squadrons to brush aside the watching frigates and thus exposing convoys to attack from forces far stronger than their escorts were ever intended to fend off.

Alexander and Canada vs Tigre, Pelletier, Droits de l'Homme, Jean Bart & Marat, 6th November 1794, latitude 48° 25' north, longitude (from Greenwich) 7° 53' west.

One such squadron of five 74's, three frigates and a brig, under the energetic Rear-Admiral Neilly, on the lookout for homeward-bound convoys set out  from Brest in November 1794 and encountered the British 74's, Canada and Alexander on the 6th returning home from convoying the Mediterranean trade to a safe latitude. 

William James from his 'Naval History of Great Britain' recounts the events that led to the French capturing the Alexander;

'The two British ships, when first seen, were to leeward of the French squadron, steering north-east,

with the wind at west. The Alexander and Canada immediately hauled upon the wind, on the larboard tack, and, at a little before 4 a.m., passed the strange ships, the nearest distant about half a mile, but without being able to ascertain their national character. Shortly afterwards the two British ships kept a little free, letting out the reefs of their topsails, and setting studding-sails. 

At 5 a.m. it was discovered by the night-glasses that the strangers were standing after the British ships; whereupon the latter crowded all sail, and hauled more to the eastward. At about daybreak the Canada passed the Alexander, and, steering a more northerly course, brought herself on the latter's larboard bow. 

Two ships of the line, one bearing a rear-admiral's flag, and two frigates, now went in chase of the Canada; and the remaining three ships, one with a commodore's pendant, and one frigate, pursued the Alexander.

Contre-amiral Joseph-Marie Nielly (left) and Captain (Commodore) Richard Rodney Bligh (right). 

At 7 h. 30 m. a.m., the French squadron hoisted English colours, and at 8 h. 15 m. a.m., the  Alexander and Canada did the same. On observing this, the French hauled down the English, and hoisted their own colours. 

The division in chase of the Alexander now drawing within gunshot, the latter discharged her stern-chasers at the van-ship, and received in return a fire from her bow-guns. At 9 a.m. a similar interchange of firing took place between the Canada and the French admiral in the Marat; whose shot, passing over the former, produced no effect. The Canada's signal was now made to form ahead for mutual support; a signal which Captain Hamilton instantly answered, and strove his utmost to execute; but the French admiral, seeing the British ship's intentions, hauled more to the starboard, and, with the aid of his second, who now began firing at intervals, compelled the Canada to resume her course.

The Alexander continued firing her stern-chase guns until nearly 11 a.m.; when the advanced ship of the three in chase of her (believed to have been the Jean-Bart) ran up and brought the British ship to close action. So well-directed a fire in return was opened by the Alexander, that, in half an hour, the French 74 was compelled to sheer off and call a frigate to her assistance. 

The French commodore, in the Tigre, next advanced, but would not come fairly alongside: notwithstanding which, the Alexander, in about half an hour, shot away the head of the Tigre's main topmast, her main yard in the slings, and her mizen topmast. A third ship now took the latter's place, and used her endeavours to compel the Alexander to surrender.

The Launch of HMS Alexander at Deptford in 1778 - John Cleveley the younger.
Alexander can be seen in the background still on the stocks on the slipway.

This unequal conflict the British 74 sustained until some minutes past 1 p.m.; by which time she had her main yard, spanker-boom, and three topgallant yards shot away, her three lower masts shot through in many places, all the other masts and yards more or less wounded, nearly the whole of the standing and running rigging cut to pieces, her sails torn into ribands, her hull shattered, and on fire in several places, and her hold nearly filled with water. The other ships, also, which had quitted her consort, were rapidly advancing, and the French admiral already threw his shot over her.

Captain Bligh, therefore, justly deemed any further efforts as a needless waste of lives, and ordered the colours of the Alexander to be hauled down.

As far as could be ascertained, the Alexander's loss amounted to about 40 men in killed and wounded; including, among the latter, one lieutenant of marines, the boatswain, and pilot. The Canada, owing to the high firing of the French, sustained very little damage and no loss, and reached a home-port in safety. 

According to the French papers, the Alexander's two principal opponents were very much disabled, and sustained between them a loss in killed and wounded amounting to 450 officers and men.'

This scenario is one of over fifty I have written up for use with Kiss Me Hardy (KMH) and To Covet Glory (TCG) that provides rules for actions involving ships and vessels under the rate.

Each scenario adds rules to define the action as a chase or a meeting engagement, with the possibility for the action to change from one to the other dependent on the situation and player-commander decisions to stand and fight or to cut and run.

The cover page to my fifty plus scenarios for KMH a TCG. My thoughts on the design of this specific scenario and others in the series can be found here on JJ's Wargames.
JJ's Wargames - All at Sea, Scenario Design Thoughts

As the scenarios are written up, I look to playtest them and complete the notes around them based on that test, finally adding the ship record sheets that are designed to capture the statistics of the ships involved, together with their respective commanders and crew.

If you would like to know more about my thoughts about this latest addition to the collection and the aspects that drove the situational set-up design then you can follow the link above to my personal blog, JJ's Wargames, where I have composed a post covering my planning decisions around this particular game, and the label at the top of the page entitled 'All at Sea' will take you to other posts covering other scenarios, the models and other stuff linked to this project.

The table-plan that informs the positioning of our models prior to play

The table-plan map above sets up the situation recounted by James at about 10.30am which sees Captain Bligh aboard the Alexander fast realising that flight to the north and the Channel approaches is not a viable option, given the poor sailing qualities of his ship, and the fact that the French, with the leading Droits de l'Homme in the three ships pursuing the Alexander, have now closed to extreme gunnery range allowing the bow-chasers to bear, and prompting Bligh to signal Captain Hamilton on the Canada to close with and support him as he prepares to fight his way out of the situation.

The table set up ready to play with both British ships, Alexander and Canada, being pursued by three and two French 74's respectively, now closed to extreme gunnery range and ready to open fire and with the respective ship's orders cards placed face down in eager anticipation.

With the models placed and the players briefed about the situation that is about to change from a chase scenario to a meeting engagement, and with the Alexander signalling the Canada to support the flagship, the players had to decide what the orders were for each ship, given that the chase situation had disrupted any attempt to fight in formation and that the ensuing melee would see each captain attempting to attack and support as best he could in the days before ship to ship radio would help coordinate such an attack.

Thus to reflect this lack of coordinated manoeuvre forced by the situation each commander would place a directional order face down for his ship prior to the drawing of a movement chit for that specific model; a mechanic designed to avoid the need to write orders, but, with the chit draw activation in KMH, beautifully randomising the order of movement and firing, sees the players committed to their direction of movement, whilst having to anticipate that of their comrades and the enemy.

The situation recreates a chase and pursuit where formation has given way to all out pursuit at the fastest possible pace and thus we are using order cards seen placed close to each model committing the commander to move either 'straight ahead', 'turn larboard', 'turn starboard' or 'tack' before the respective movement chits, one for each model have been randomly drawn. 

Realising the need to turn and give battle, it was not long into our game that the Alexander swung her bow to larboard in preparation to deliver a medium range broadside on the fast approaching Droits de l'Homme, whilst looking to get close enough to bring on a boarding action to try and quickly knock out the lead French protagonist.

However nature was to have the first of several says in how our little action was to pan out, in the form of Tom rolling the 'die of doom' following the drawing of the 'Getting Choppy' chit, requiring a d10 roll to see if the sea state had changed to cause an increase in the swell that would require the closing of lower gun ports, this being and action fought in the notoriously rough Bay of Biscay.

Needless to say Tom rose to the occasion by rolling a '0' that required said lower gun ports to be closed and halving everyone's broadside total of fire dice as a consequence.

The Alexander turns to larboard, filling her sails and closes in on the Droits de l'Homme as the Jean Bart's smoke disperses from her previous fire, a despairing long range broadside, at the turning British third rate, in support of her comrade ahead.

As nature was taking a hand in restricting the amount of iron that was being flung across the briny, Captain Bligh was pulling out what remaining hair he had left under his perfectly powdered wig as his crew spurned two chances to grapple the Droit's de l'Homme before the third attempt brought a sigh of relief from the British commodore and a cheer from his Royal Marines boarding party when the grapples held firm bringing on the first stage of boarding as the British attempted to get onto the Frenchman's top deck.

Likewise the Canada tacked round in compliance with the signal from the commodore's flagship, doing a bit of a 'show-pony' to the French as her crew pulled off a perfect tack allowing the British third rate to turn through the wind and head off at bow wind speed as she bore down on the French flagship Tigre and grapple her opponent by the bows.

The Tigre (centre-back) turns in towards the Alexander and Droits de l'Homme with the Canada out of picture (top right) coming about to intercept the French flagship.

With the opposing ships at the head of the French chase columns wheeling around like frigates, it made it more difficult for the rearward French 74's to guess where to head to bring their guns and boarding parties to bear, and the British were more than aware that their only chance to stop the French from bringing overwhelming numbers to bear was to knock out, or force to strike, at least two of the enemy ships thus forcing a squadron breakoff test, preferably before one of them was taken forcing a similar test on the British.

This added a really nice tension to the game as players eagerly looked for their respective movement and fire chits together with those important 'strike test' and 'boarding resolution' chits.

The Canada swings her helm to starboard in preparing to tack and come about in support of the Alexander

As the Alexander attempted to deal with the Droit's de l'Homme she found the French crew fiercely belligerent in their resistance, throwing the British off their top deck in the second round of melee; whilst another 'Getting Choppy' die roll from Tom suddenly brought the swell to more respectable heights and allowed the lower gun ports to reopen and the two grappled opponents to pummel each other below at point blank range.

However things started to get complicated for the Alexander as Bligh suddenly found the Jean Bart across his stern gallery delivering a point blank stern rake whilst throwing over grapples and preparing to board as a follow up.

The Alexander has grappled the Droits'de l'Homme as the Canada, (bottom right) closes in on the French flagship, Tigre

Being in a boarding fight with two opponents is not a good place to be and Bligh was forced to choose where he would continue to fight whilst relinquishing a boarding action round to the other opponent.

His decision paid off as the choice to continue the fight with the Droits de l'Homme on the Frenchman's gun deck forced his opponent to strike, whilst allowing the boarders from the Jeaan Bart to clamber over the Alexander's bulwarks unopposed.

All formation lost as individual French captains try to manoeuvre in support of one another as the British 3rd-rates turn to fight, seeing 74's wheeling in melee like frigates.

Meanwhile the Canada was locked in a desperate struggle with the Tigre who, with her admiral aboard, had a crew very determined to be seen giving the fight everything they had, and thus a couple of boarding rounds ended up within a point of each other leaving both sides stalemated and condemned to resume the round on the top deck of the French flagship.

However with a more moderate sea and gun ports reopened the point black British gunnery started to reduce the ability of the French to fight the boarding actions above the gun decks as British round-shot took its toll below.

The Alexander locked in battle with Droits de l'Homme and the Jean Bart that has crossed her stern and raked her whilst grappling to board. Meanwhile the Canada and Tigre can be seen in the background engaged in and equally fierce struggle. 

Nature was to have one last word in our game thanks to Tom who in response to the 'Wind Change' chit being drawn, managed to conjure up the die scores that saw a three point change in the wind from west to the the north-east, that completely caught out the two other French ships trying to come up in support of their hard pressed comrades, forcing the Pelletier to test for being 'caught in irons' by the dramatic change in wind direction, but managing not to lose any masts in the process.

However the game had unknowingly reached its dramatic climax just as we were thinking the British flagship was looking very likely to lose its struggle with the Jean Bart after having successfully dealt with the Droits de l'Homme, this in the most surprising way as Captain Sebire-Beauchene rolled the dice secure in the knowledge that his crew would only strike on the unlikely score of 91% or more, only to see the dice score of 96% settle at the bottom of the dice tower, forcing the Droits de l'Homme to strike.

The Alexanders seemingly emboldened by their unlikely victory over Droits de l'Homme then followed up in the next turn to come storming back with a loud 'hurrah', to retake their top deck, forcing the Jean Bart to subsequently test following the loss of a round in a boarding action and strike; not helped by a friend, (Droits de l'Homme), struck and in sight, or by a lost mizzen mast and damage suffered in the previous rounds firing, but worse still, with this second French ship forced to strike forcing a French Squadron Break Off test that they subsequently failed.

This would see the Marat and Pelletier break contact and head home, leaving the result of the Canada, Tigre fight to conclude, which it did, remarkably the next turn, as Admiral Nielly struck his colours following the loss of his lower gundeck and also not helped with struck friends close by.

Alexander bears her battle scars, pummelled below decks by the point blank stern rakes from the Jean Bart but fighting back to take her opponent and the Droits de l'Homme in an amazing series of boarding fights that had all of us expecting her to be the first to strike at any turn. Note her basic speed of 10cm, no faster that a big three-decker, reflecting her inability to out run her pursuers and her medium damage likely requiring a stay in dry dock to put things right.

As always the numbers tell another part of the tale with the individual ship stat cards showing the damage inflicted during this close in bar-brawl of a fight brought on by the British needing to win and win quick.

The Canada showing a 'Worn' damage rating with several guns knocked out on her starboard battery following her tough fight with the French flagship Tigre.

The Droits de l'Homme with only 'Worn' damage and her gun decks relatively intact, should make a fine addition to the British fleet. Her critical hit of High Officer Casualties suffered in the early exchanges of gunfire came back to haunt her when it came to testing to strike following her loss in the boarding battle with Alexander

The Jean Bart took a bit of beating in the gunnery phase whilst running in against the Alexander and crossing her stern and in the subsequent boarding fight, with the mizzen mast being taken out by some very accurate stern chaser fire from the Alexander as she closed. That and the lost mast, plus a friend, the Droits de l'Homme, struck close by caused her crew to loose heart in the struggle with the Alexander and dramatically affected the French squadron's will to maintain the fight overall.

As can be seen from the relatively intact state of both the Marat and Pelletier, the Canada and Alexander would have been very unlikely to have survived their combined assaults had they not been forced to break contact.

In the historical action the Canada broke off on seeing the Alexander strike, and had Alexander struck in our game, the British would most likely have tested before the French which with the Canada locked in a boarding action of her own with the Tigre would have most likely seen both British third-rates captured, a fact that makes this scenario a challenge for both sides and with fortune favouring the brave.

 

The last French ship to strike was Neilly's Tigre following the Canada's successful attack to take her lower gundeck forcing the French admiral to proffer his sword to Captain Hamilton.

Historically it is worth noting that during the actual action the Alexander fought fiercely for two hours and took on attacks by three French 74's in succession until damage to her rigging made escape impossible, forcing Bligh to concede and haul down his Colours.

Additionally the capture of a British 74 was a rare event during the wars, with only five lost and four, including the Alexander being recaptured, compared with eighty-seven French ships of the same rate taken or destroyed by the British. 

However, the one sided nature of the conflict was not apparent in 1794, and what has been called the Royal Navy's 'Habit of Victory' was not yet established.

My thanks to Mr Steve, Paul, Lawrence, Nathan, Tom and new member Mark for being the guinea pigs for this particular playtest, played in the usual spirit with plenty of laughs to go with the drama, and a game that has helped me to really firm up another scenario for the collection.