Captain's Log SMS Emden Part III

When we last saw SMS Emden, she was tied up in a Thai cove when three British warships were sighted.   Here's the rough sketch map that I received from our GM, with my proposed response in red.  As you can see Mike spares no expense in providing high quality game aids!  Most of our crew was busy hefting coal from Sophie while a prize crew tended to civilian prisoners on the captured liner St Osmond.  FYI, St. Osmond was William the Conqueror's chancellor (which I would've thought eliminated him from sainthood) and a patron saint of the insane.  

How the heck did we escape this bottleneck, I still have no idea but it was mostly luck  possibly aided by a large tot of scotch sacrificed to Poseidon.  I'll let Mike tell the story.

Well Peter you were unfortunate. And then fortunate. I rolled 4d6 to determine how many minutes it would take for Emden could get under way (the enemy would be on you in 25 minutes) and the result was ten! Your crack crew came through for you. Anyone who was free ran down to the engine room to shovel coal. Two ensigns, your clerk, and a rating got the anchor up. As you got under way you saw your Torpedo officer and two cooks tearing the canvas off the port torpedo tube in case they had a shot. Your Royal Navy prisoners, who were lounging under guard on the fantail, were rushed below, but one of the midshipman took the opportunity to leap over the side and swim for shore.

The guard aimed his rifle briefly, then shrugged and pushed the others below.  Just before you left the cove you saw your two lookouts stumbling out of the trees, still with their red flag, and a launch putting off from St Osmund.

As you leave the cove, you see to port the menacing shape of a Town class cruiser approaching at full speed, her battle ensign flying. You know she is well out of range of your 4.1” guns. As you turn hard to starboard, she fires her bow gun and the splash is astern, but uncomfortably close. A few more shots, both misses, and you realize she is out of range also.

By now you’re at full revs. Your navigator has his head in the charts, which aren’t terribly detailed, but they do warn of reefs in the area. The English cruiser is at flank speed and you order the same. The deck is shaking, smoke and sparks pouring out of your funnels.

After an hour of chasing, it begins to rain and the visibility thickens. You order more sea room in case of the damned reefs, and as it begins to get dark, you realize that you’ve shaken the Englishman.

That night in the wardroom, your Second Officer and an ensign are missing, among the dozen men of the prize crew.

You toast their absence. Your Leutnant Georg smiles sadly. “Will the show go on, Herr Kapitan? It’s only that Ensign Moller, whose absence we have toasted tonight, had a lovely falsetto.” 

I did a quick Google and found out that the Kingdom of Siam was neutral in 1914, before joining the allies in 1917 and sending  a contingent to the Western Front in 1918.   I had signalled my prize and shore crews to go ashore and take their changes with the Siam authorities.  I hope that they got a ship to Manilla and then to the Americas. 

That’s two escapes for Emden. At least you have your grandfather clock.

I burned a point of your coal escaping the cruiser, leaving you with 11 of 18 remaining.

The light cruiser appeared to be accompanied by an armoured cruiser and an armed merchant cruiser.

So having had a second close shave, we decided to put some distance between ourselves and the Allies.  Turn eight was spent moving from the Gulf of Thailand to the Dutch East Indies, where we spotted an American merchantman that we let sail on.  Sparks told us that there was wireless chatter nearby in RN code.  Therefore, on nine we moved from the Dutch East Indies to the Philippine Sea, meeting only local fishermen.

Also on turn nine we received the following signals from SMS Scharnhorst.

Engaging at least three enemy warships in Strait of Macassar, position follows. Will do our duty.  The Makassar Strait lies in the Dutch East Indies, southwest of Borneo and east of Sulawesi.   There was a WW2 air naval battle here in 1942.

Scharnhorst sinking. Have fought the good fight. God save Kaiser and Fatherland. 

By the end of turn nine, things were looking grim for the Emden.  We had lost three prizes and two prize crews, and our coal was at 7 out of 18 max.  We'd had two close scapes with Allied ships, and had news that another of our squadron mates was sunk, possibly by the ships that nearly caught us in the Gulf of Thailand.  

Hopefully, things turn around on turn 10.

Captain's Log SMS Emden 1914 Part II

Continuing with the Emden's voyage.

Escape From the Sydney

As SMS Emden and her prize sailed from the Dutch East Indies to the Timor Sea, she encountered her historical nemesis HMAS Sydney, a ship which was both faster and better armed.  We abandoned our prize and its prize crew to its fate and fled at top speed.  Fortunately the British player chose the easier target, allowing Emden to escape northwards and around some islands. By evening there was no sign of pursuit. Our wireless office heard transmissions in RN naval code, doubtless coming from the Sydney.  I was given the choice of trying to steam into the Timor Sea or returning to the Dutch East Indies.  Not wanting to tempt fate, I chose to return to the Dutch East Indies.  The loss of the prize crew was regrettable and would have repercussions later in the campaign.

While in the Indies, we obtained some "intelligence" from the Campaign blog, the Singapore Sling apparently written by some drunken sot in a bar.

Adventures in the Gulf of Thailand

For turn 5, I needed to put some distance between Emden and those chasing her.  With multiple options, I somehow decided to go into the Gulf of Thailand which was a rich hunting ground but also a cul-de-sac.  

As Emden slipped out of the Dutch East Indies, our wireless office indicated that we left at least  two ships transmitting in RN code.    The WT officer could tell because there one ship who was transmitting much more slowly than the other.  Best to leave those behind us.

As we entered the Gulf of Thailand, we came across a heavy laden large steam merchant ship flying the Red Ensign.    She obeyed your message to stop engines and not use her wireless.    Her papers show her as the SS Linney, out of London, carrying a load of American made farm equipment and locomotives from San Francisco bound for South Africa.  She has 11 coal points in her bunkers.  This was welcome since we had only 8/18 coal remaining, enough for only 4 more turns.  We put a prize crew aboard and kept her in company as we steamed on.

We spent Turn 6 commerce raiding in the Gulf of Thailand, and had pretty mazing results with the following encounters.

1. A British flagged steamer, the Sophie, out of Southampton and bound for Sydney, Australia.    She obediently stopped her engines as per our signal and did not use her wireless.   Our boarding party was incredulous as she was laden with luxury goods - grandfather clocks, fine furniture, crates of whiskey, caviar, silk dresses.   She had 13 points of coal and has a crew of 25, mostly British.
2. A small passenger ship, also flying the red ensign, and she was likewise obedient.   She is the SS Saint Osmund, and she is carrying 44 passengers of both sexes, including children.  She is also bound for Australia,  The manifest says that there are four Royal Navy officers on board.  She has 10 points of coal and a crew of 30, a mix of Indian, Chinese, and British.
3. While our boarding party was investigating the St Osmund we spotted the steamer Ulvon approaches, flying the Swedish flag, with a load of heavy machinery bound for the Philippines.
4. The SS Zephyr, another British steamer,  carrying a load of livestock from South Africa bound for Hong Kong.    Her crew were mostly Africans with British officers, and she had 10 coal points aboard.   She did not stop at first, but a warning shot convinced her to stop engines.  Fortunately, she does not try to send any wireless messages.
5. The British flagged merchant sailing ship, the Hilda ,  carrying rice and other foodstuffs out of India bound for Singapore.    Her crew of 15 are mostly Asian with British officers.    She has no wireless aboard.
6. American flagged steamer, the Chautauqua, with a load of rice bound for San Francisco.   Her captain was courteous and made no complaints about being hailed.   He told us  that there are rumours in India of another German cruiser operating in the Bay of Bengal and that the British weren't very good at finding her.  Sparks from WT confirmed this rumour, indicating that he picked up a wireless from the British Jupiter, under attack in the Bay of Bengal.

That was a total of 6 ships, all merchants and 4 of them fair targets.  Quite an improvement from our earlier encounters, but we will likely pay for this good luck (cue the sinister foreshadowing music).  We also had some problems to work out with what to do with the ships, cargos and human cargo.  We could only afford a few prize crew before we lost our elite crew status, and we'd lost one already on the Diplomat.  Plus we had only three turns of coal left.

Logistics

Our orders for Turn 7 dealt with logistic issues, as follows.

• We liberated some whiskey, caviar and a grandfather clock (for our wardroom) from the Sophie.  On second thought we went back and gathered up the silk dresses too, having hatched a plan.
• We sent our American friends off with a case of whisky and the Swedes on with a case of caviar.
• We put the British officers on the St Osmond in the Emden's brig.  We transferred all of the other crew and passengers  to the St Osmond along with a prize crew.
• We sank the Hilda Zephyr and Linney by opening seacocks.
• We tied up alongside the Sophie in a secluded cove and began transferring coal to our low coal bunkers.
• I visited the St Osmund to reassure her passengers, crew and other captives  of our good intentions towards them.  We planned to let them sail on their journey once we are in a safer location.

Meanwhile, I had time to deal with our guests from the Royal Navy.  These include 2 British midshipmen not old enough to shave and an Australian Lt Cdr, a paymaster on his way to a posting in Sydney and an English Commander on his way to a posting in Admiral Patey’s Australia squadron.  He is the Rt Hon Geoffrey Sykes-Willoughby and he demanded proper officer’s quarters for the four prisoners. 

I entertained Sykes-Willoughby in our wardroom with some liberated whisky.   I was willing to allow them better quarters and limited amounts of freedom on promise of good behaviour.  They shared two cabins with limited deck access while under armed guard.  I indicated that any suspected sabotage or other bad behaviours would result in them being returned to the brig.  I discreetly pointed out that the Emden has fine lifeboats and muse that I admired RN officers such as Shackleton and Bligh who navigated long sea journeys in similar craft.  I enquired if  Sykes-Willoughby thought that he could do the same.  

Recognizing that coaling is a dirty, hard job, I decided that the crew needed a morale booster.  I charged a junior officer Georg with putting on a musical farce to entertain the crew.  I told him make use of the talents of the sailmaker and the silk dresses to create suitable costumes.  He could also work with the carpenter for scenery and the bandmaster.

This admin was exhausting, and I took some personal time in my cabin with some fine Scotch liberated from the Sophie.

Action Stations

Having had stellar luck with encounters on Turn 6, we pretty much much rolled snake eyes on Turn 7.  I received this communication from the GM

    

Hello Peter:

I’m afraid that the dice have generated an encounter and a decision for you.

It’s about 3pm on a day early in Turn 7 when you are engaged in coaling. The weather is overcast, there is a chance of rain later in the afternoon/evening. You are in a secluded cove on the Siamese coast. Bags of coal are being slung by crane from the SS Sophie which is tied up alongside - it’s early in the process. Your deck and men are covered in coal dust but the crew is cheerful from their recent piratical exploits. St Osmund rides at anchor nearby, her passengers taking the air on deck watched by a few guards from your prize crew.

As you survey the scene you are startled by a loud blast from a trumpet, it’s from the two sailors you’ve placed on a small headland to scan the coast to the north of the cove, which is cut off from your view in the cove. As you turn your binoculars in their direction you see a frantically waved red flag, the sign for enemy ships sighted, and the flag dipped three times to indicate three ships.

It’s probably four hours until sunset. Fortunately your chief engineer has kept steam up, just in case of emergencies such as this.

Captain, what will you do?

Talk about getting caught with our pants down!  Since Emden is an anchor in Valparaiso and we are enjoying Rioja and empanadas, obviously we escaped to tell the tale, but I'm still not sure how.

Captain's Log SMS Emden 1914 Part I

After months of dormancy, I've decided to give this blogging thing a go again.

Overview

This Summer and Fall I took part in an PBEM Naval Campaign run by the Mad Padre covering the German Far East and East African squadron's.   I was assigned the role of Captain Muller of the SMS Emden.  After a tense campaign and several very narrow escapes, I emerged as the last German ship afloat and steamed out of the Campaign area to wind up the Campaign.

Here's the map of the Campaign that I worked with, cobbled together from images sent on my Mike.  Lower trade numbers indicated better hunting for raiders, I can't recall if higher hurricane numbers correspond to higher chances of storms or vice versa, but we never had a storm.  The map extends east to Africa, but Emden never got that far.  The Germans have bases at Tsingtao, Rabaul and Das Es Salaam in East Africa.  The Royal Navy has bases (I assumed) in Hong Kong, Singapore, Cape Town and Sydney.  There were other Allies with bases in Vietnam (French), Japan, Vladivostok and probably others.

Emden started in Tsingtao along with the converted liner Prinz Eitel Frederich.  Admiral Von Spee had the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Nurnberg in Rabaul (although I missed that detail, see below), and Kongisberg was in Das Es Salaam.

Operational Orders for SMS Emden

I received the following from Von Sped

Your designated area of operations is to the West of the Caroline Islands. Your designated resupply area is the South China Sea, where you will find a depot of coal and ammunition, to be used once.

Your area of operations is where the most merchant traffic is to be expected, which also means that this will be the area where the most enemy warships will hunt for you. I trust in your judgement and prudence.

The Kaiser counts on you. Good hunting!

That's all she wrote, plus some generally good instructions for good behaviour and keeping safe.  I had a lot of freedom, but no idea what any other German ships were doing.

I made an initial blunder making a single to Von Spee with suggestions, thinking that he was in the same port.  Instead it went by wireless and the response was basically "stay in your lane and off the airwaves"!  Fair enough, I wouldn't have sent it if I had realized that it could be overheard.

I therefore took our steam pinnace to visit the Prinz Eitel Frederich and confer with her captain.  He had similar orders to operate West of the Carolines.  We agreed to meet up in the Coral Sea onTurn 12 if possible.

Early Moves

First order of operations was to get out to sea before Tsingtao became blockaded!  We sailed in company with Prinz Eitel Frederich into the Bonin Islands sea zone on turn 1.  We arrived with 16 of 18 coal points remaining.  Our transit was uneventful, calm weather, no encounters. 

On Turn 2 we parted company with Prinz Eitel Frederich and steamed into the rich hunting grounds of the Dutch East Indies, meeting our first encounter.  Our lookouts spotted smoke and judge it to be a merchant steamer. She is riding heavy with cargo, steaming north, and is flying the Japanese flag. Tempting, but since our last intel indicated that Germany was not at war with Japan we let her sail on untouched.

Also on Turn 2 we received two wireless signals.  

• From Port Commander, Tsingtao: under blockade by at least four ships.
• From Kriegsmarine Command to all ships: be advised that Japan has declared war on Germany. All Japanese ships to be considered hostile.

Our GM Mike confirmed that our encounter was before Japan's declaration of war, so we did avoid committing war crimes by attacking a Neutral.

Turn 3 Hunting in the Dutch East Indies

We had three encounters, but sadly not quite the ships that I wanted to meet.

1. The Brazilian merchant steamship SS Araraquara transporting a cargo of textiles from Madras, India, to South America. Her captain politely noted that his country was neutral and requested that he be allowed to proceed.  We wished our Brazilian friends a safe journey.
2. The Dutch warship De Ruyter, and her captain noted that we were not welcome in Dutch waters and invited us to be careful of our navigation. She spent the better part of the day shadowing us but broke off at sunset.   We sent a bottle of schnapps and a case of Tsingtao beer to the Captain and informed him that would be leaving Dutch East Indies waters.
3. The British SS Diplomat, carrying a cargo of cured beef and pork from Australia for a military port in Madras.  We put a prize crew on her and had them accompany us with a view to transferring her coal to Emden.

Sparks picked up another two signals as follow.

• A German coded message from port commander, Dar Es Salaam, port blockaded by at least one hostie warship, believed to be a cruiser.
• Late in the turn we detected a strong wireless signal, a short message in what is believed to be a British code. Sparks indicated the sending ship was within the Dutch East Indies sea zone.

So after three turns and using up 1/3 of our coal we have encountered four ships, three os them neutrals and one of those a warship telling us to PFO.  Not the best results, but not the worst either.

Turn 4 Encounter in the Timor Sea

With the Royal Navy breathing down our necks and the Dutch anxiously watching us, it was time to sail on to new seas.  I figured that we could emulate Emden's historic path and sail south into the Timor Sea, and then on to the Indian Ocean.  I planned to take our prize along and transfer coal from her a suitable quiet point.  

However, this was not to be.  The early morning was showery but the clouds had cleared somewhat and visibility was several miles.  As we came into the open sea our lookouts first spotted smoke, and then a ship.

According to Jane's she. looks like a British Town Class, both faster and better armed than Emden.  Later we learned that she was in fact HMAS Sydney, Emden's historical nemeses. 

Our gunnery officer estimated that it was at least several hundred metres outside of extreme long range.  The ship was off your port bow, steering left to right across your path, and signal lamp sent “WHAT SHIP?”

Ironclad Naval Game

 

Myself with British commanders Jeremy and Sylvain

Cropped photo of French admiral Curt

It’s been five months since my last post…but I’ve been regularly gaming.  Last Friday I tried out Long Face Games Barbette and Battery (B&B) rules using my scratch built 1870s era ironclads. As with all of LFGs rules, B&B were quick to learn  and play and gave a fun game, with reasonably historic results.  I don’t know what more one could want I a set of rules.

I set out the following forces based on what I had available (French) or felt like fielding (RN).

British Devastation, Monarch, Hercules, Achilles, Shah

French Redoutable, Colbert, Marengo, Fabert, Champlain

French ironclads Redoutable, Marengo and Colbert 

HMSs Monarch, Shah and Achilles

HMS Devastation

The two French had some lucky early hits that caused heavy damage to Hercules and Monarch, but ultimately the heavier British guns took their revenge and sank Marengo.

All in all a satisfying nights entertainment.

Happy Boxing Day

 I didn’t get a Christmas Day post up, so I’ll go a day late.  Had a busy day yesterday but looking forward to getting the brushes working today.

Carisbrooke Castle

 One of the best sites we went to in the UK was Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight, a place known to anyone who has ever played Kingmaker. The full history can be found here but key moments of wargaming interest are:

• Successfully fought off a French siege in 1377 (hurrah for the home team).
• Rebuilt with Italian bastions in the 16th century and used as a base in case the Spanish armada landed.
• The gaol of Charles the first prior to trial and execution.

Photos from our visit.

Medieval walls in the background, Italian bastions in the foreground

The Gatehouse

There was a late 17th century reenactment group on site.  Looked like a good show, but we only saw them from afar.

Redcoats, floppy hats and big cuffs, what's not to love

The wall walk was in pretty good nick.  In the first half of teh 20th century the Castle was the home of Queen Victoria's youngest Princess Beatrice who did it up nicely. 

Looking down on the height of 16th century military engineering.

There's donkey powered well on site, with several donkeys to work it.  They weren't at work when we were there due to the reenactment event, but we got to meet a couple.

The view from the top

No need for the stair master, we had our leg workout.

Well worth a visit if you're on the Isle of Wight.  It's good place to drag the family too, kids love castles and donkeys and there's non-military history to boot.

Visit to the UK Summer 2024

I am late on posting this of course, but my wife and I traveled to England for a couple weeks in July and August.  It was family centred visit, for a family week at a Caravan site on the Isle of Wight.  This is essentially the UK equivalent of renting a cabin at the lake for the week, but for us involved long flights and expensive airfare.  Three were 20 off family members there at the peak, and we were glad that we went as it will almost certainly be the last of the annual caravan vacations (we ended to go every second year our so due to cost and other plans etc).

On the whole a great visit but it was a short due to the heat of a strike by my faculty union (resolved just before we left).  My wife came down with COVID while on the Isle but I waited til we had been back home for two days before getting it.  On the whole a lot better than our trip two years ago, which involved me upchucking all over a Waterstone's bookstore, spending the night in Casualty, missing our flight and having to rebook and then fighting an insurance company for months to get reimbursed.

We spent a few days in London either side of our caravan trip.  Highlights included poking around, a visit to the London Transport Museum and seeing Hello Dolly with Imelda Staunton (Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter).  It's a great musical and well recommended.

It being the UK you can't go anywhere without running into history so I'll post some shots of some sites of wargaming interest in the next few days.