Hey #WritingCommunity & #ReadingCommunity, here's a sneak peak of "How to Build a Navy without Warships" by #oer4 11 p.m. Heavily salted air served to break up a biting, persistent frost that threatened to cling to every exposed surface. The bitter chill and moisture foretold of a coming notorious English summer – the likes of which had not been experienced for years – a soggy, insufferable season only about a month away. As midnight neared, two small boats lowered from a larger ship, a 308-foot, 313-long ton, sloop-of-war, carrying no fewer than eighteen 6-pounder guns – all of which silent but set at the ready to address possibly harrowing contingencies. A disembarked thirty-person party looked toward their mission, fully prepared to conduct a historical land raid that had not occurred in seven centuries – daring to sneak past numerous ported trade vessels and a half-dozen, much larger, better-armed gunboats anchored not far away to deter any aggressive or exploitive foreign assets. Aboard the two jolly boats, fifteen sailors apiece carefully loaded their pistols and sheathed their sharpened cutlasses, led by a pair of lieutenants and a recently promoted captain – one lieutenant a native Swede, the other a first-generation Massachusettsan, and the senior officer a somewhat infamous character. The commissioned commanders would navigate the waters for more than three hours to reach the harbor, struggling to overcome the tide rolling away from the coast, which left scores of enemy ships stranded in the shallows and tautly bound to giant piers. Those vulnerable vessels were just one set of the intended targets, the others, two forts, and an earl, whose capture would serve as collateral to force the release of prisoners of war. It was a colossal undertaking and a plan so bold, no one dared attempt it, particularly given the perceived limitations of the infiltrators, who were no less than 3,500 nautical miles from their home port. And though the dark of night did much to conceal their creeping presence, it did very little to alleviate their instinctive fears or calm their uneasy nerves. After all, they were headed straight for practically impenetrable… Continue reading: https://lnkd.in/gWqNTeAq
