MV Auld Laddie
The MV Auld Laddie was a flat-bottomed merchant steamer, previously known as the SS Bǎochuán. In 1697 AN it masqueraded under the cover name of Salem in an attempt to carry arms from Elluenuueq to the Seishi Clique as part of the Post-Chidao Troubles. Appears concurrently, under different guises, in the shipping registries of a number of nations.
Vessel
The SS Bǎochuán was a 6,165 roseric steam cargo vessel of antique provenance, dating back to the Jing subversion of Kildare when it was built and would sail in the coastal waters of the islands subsequently renamed as Gong. Bǎochuán measured 118 riq in length, with a beam of 19.36 riq and a draught of 7.04 riq. The oil-fired steam turbines of the Bǎochuán could attain a top speed of 18 rixon (11,250 riq) per hour. The flat-bottomed hull of the Bǎochuán rendered it eminently suitable for navigating the mega-rivers of Apollonia and Eura, thereby prolonging its commercial life into the modern era.
The history of the Bǎochuán is largely obscured by the loss of its last Jing captain, who drowned himself by plunging overboard, along with the ship's log strapped to his person, rather than accept the dishonour of surrender. Nonetheless it is known that following the War of Lost Brothers the Bǎochuán became a regular feature in the trade between Punta Santiago and the Gangdiguo Special Economic Zone.
Taken by Sea-Reavers in 1694 AN, the Bǎochuán was auctioned by an admiralty court convened in Arak with the proceeds of the sale being distributed amongst the victims of Bassarid piracy. Purchased by the Apollonian Directorate of the Honourable Company and assigned to the residency at Tirlar. After participating in the 1696 AN SATCo trade fleet to Chryse, the Bǎochuánpaid off its crew and remained at anchor in the harbour. Shown to the delegates attending the Congress of Chryse, the Bǎochuán was purchased by the Union Defence Force and rechristened the MV Auld Laddie.
Sailed into a new anchorage in the Viscounty of Lumenetra during mid-1697 AN, the Auld Laddie was refitted, had its superstructure rebuilt to alter its silhouette and house concealed point-defence systems, and received a fresh-crew of Tiegangese recruited from the International Mandate.
Smuggling operation
According to all records of the period, the Auld Laddie remained laid up at Lumenetra for the remainder of the year. The departure of the Meckelnburghish tramp-steamer, the SS Salem was noted however to have occurred on the night of 11.X.1697 AN. Carried aboard were 7,258 M1581 7.62 mm Machine Carbines, 11,662 M1525 Pistols, 1,000,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 machine guns, and 8 crates of shaped explosive charges.
The ship's crew comprised of 40 Tiegangese sailors, an 8 man UDF security detail, and a half-dozen political officers bearing gifts and letters of introduction from the Congress of Chryse addressed to Emperor Taizong of Seishi. The overall expedition was commanded by Kommendör Oscar Henriksson, with the Salem under the command of Kapten Sharif Darzi.
Making free use of the flags of neutral powers, the International Mandate, Meckelnburgh, and Senya especially, the Salem recrossed the Shire Sea and followed the Apollonian coast northwards from the Shirerithian island of Hawshire to Fort Nider, and thence along the Gotzborg Shore to within sight of the Senyan island of Tiana on 13.XIII.1697 AN. From this point the Salem struck eastwards across the Northern Sea as though heading for the port of Victoria only to disappear from recorded shipping movements shortly thereafter.
On 17.XIV.1697 AN the transponder of a ship calling itself the Salem reactivated off-shore from the Seishi Clique held port of Xiaoxincheng in the province of Naoi. With enemy actions making a direct approach into the port ill-advised the delegation of political officers, along with their gifts, were put ashore in small boats from the edge of international waters, while the Salem departed eastwards towards Tyrador, a covert anchorage favoured by the Honourable Company and the Raspur Pact since the days of the Hammish Civil War. A grave and suspicious man, Kapten Darzi, in command now that Henriksson had gone ashore with the political officers to make contact with representatives of the Sheishi Clique, gave orders that scuttling charges were to be placed whilst the point defence systems were tested and the crew conducted anti-boarding drills.
After a fraught wait of a month at Tyrador, the crew of the Salem, along with the small contingent of ESB employed meteorologists and support personnel who had overwintered in the ruins of the abandoned coastal city, were greeted at dawn on 1.I.1698 AN by the sight of a force in excess of two thousand horsemen coming into view along a ridgeline to the south. Immediately, upon the small horde being spotted by the outlying pickets, the alarm was raised over the command network and the ruins and encampments around the anchorage reverberated to the sound of warming bugles. As the startled defenders of the site awoke and snatched up their rifles this cacophony was however swiftly drowned by the din of pounding kettle-drums and the warlike cries of the advancing host.
The site where the armaments carried by the Salem had been brought ashore was enrounded by a ditch, earthen embankment, palisade, and firing platform, constructed by the crew during their enforced wait. Prudently, all amongst the defenders were of one mind that this was the place to fall back to, and hurriedly the ESB contingent relocated to join the ship's company there. A brief council of war was convened and the option of evacuation to the ship was briefly considered but rejected as it would have entailed abandoning the weapons and munitions that had been brought ashore and part buried and part placed under canvas within the enclosure.
The crew ashore, along with the ESB personnel, had barely taken up their positions along the firing line before the first wave of steppe horsemen were upon them. The attackers, equipped with a confusion of rifles, muskets, and recurved bows, loosed a volley towards the palisade before galloping away whilst taking casualties from the return fire of the defenders. Even as they rode off, those attackers who were able to turned about in their saddles and loosed another volley towards the defenders. No-sooner was the first wave clear than the next group of horsemen came galloping up, this time to the edge of the ditch, firing a salvo once at the turn and once as they rode away. As the second contingent retired the defenders could see the unwelcome sight of the first group galloping in once more to repeat the pattern of attack. A dozen times the two alternating waves of horsemen dashed in, and a dozen times they drew off. After the final charge of the day up to two hundred riders lay dead or dying in the churned mire but set against this twenty-four of the defenders had been wounded, eight seriously. As the attackers drew away for the last time a number of them, their best hunters and marksmen, had dismounted at the gallop - allowing their horses to be led away by their comrades - and gone to ground in the undergrowth. These men, having worked their way into positions of concealment, began to keep up a harassing fire on the palisade, killing five and wounding a further seven.
For two days and nights the defenders endured this harassment, until at dawn on the third day a party of ten volunteers crawled out of the earthworks and began to hunt their concealed assailants. While it cost three men their lives, the remaining seven returned with twenty-six scalps. With the bloody trophies strung along the palisade, there were no further instances of sniper fire.
In spite of this success the raiders continued to lurk outside of effective rifle range. One sizeable party had even taken up residence in the ruins of the old city, ransacking the ESB station, helping themselves to equipment and stores. For this reason the defenders felt obliged to remain within their defences. Both sides were content to wait for the other to make a mistake before risking their lives to force a decisive outcome.
This dismal affair had continued until the 13th day of the month, when the stockade was relieved by a company of ninety Seishi Clique bannermen, accompanied by six armoured cars, led by one of the political officers who had been put ashore previously. The nomad bandits, having no effective answer to the armoured cars, prudently drew off to a safer distance. Another seven days would pass before the convoy of trucks and musk oxen, accompanied by native herdsmen and porters, arrived to load up and retrieve the weapons.
With the weapons and munitions passed into the hands of the Seishi Clique, the shore-party was at long last able to re-join their comrades on the Salem. They were joined by the ESB contingent who had no desire to hang about and experience the wroth of the bandits. Any articles that had not gone with the departing shipment of arms, or which could not be loaded onto the small boats and returned to the ship, was burnt along with the encampment so as to deny it to the hostile steppe-dwellers.
There had been some speculation as to the nature of their unknown assailants. Those of the defenders who had survived going out to dispatch the concealed snipers were the only ones who had gotten close enough, by virtue of the requisite knifework, to make the acquaintance of their enemies. Their dress, language, and the artefacts recovered from their bodies, had given scant clue to their identity however. Primitives, making a living from plunder and scavenging, though they may have been, their horsemanship had been credible and their willingness to persist in an unequal fight on the first day had been to their credit, even if they had not pressed their attack in an especially competent manner. The ESB men, who had by necessity become familiar with the hazards of northern Apollonia, could not venture a positive identification either. The best guess anyone could hazard therefore was that these had been some group of fallen Gralans, perhaps influenced by the ways of the Crandish or Lontinians into the ways of utter barbarism in order to survive in the ruins of their former empire, further to the north.
With the survivors aboard, and the dead buried at sea, the Selim reactivated its transponder, cycling its code back to that of the MV Auld Laddie once a suitable distance one-hundred and twenty kilometres north-north-west of Tyrador and made a new course for the port of Vancona on the island of Tiana.
Subsequent actions
Thereafter, the vessel became something of a ghost ship. Its sightings few and far between.
The Auld Laddie when allegedly spotted was often sailing under the guise of another vessel, with superficial modifications and a spoofing transponder code.
To further muddy the waters, there began to be instances of other vessels using the moniker and transponder code as their own spoofing identity. This was claimed to be the cause of at least one errant sighting in the Guttuli.
After 1728 AN, the vessel was observed as mostly being active in the Northern Sea, serving as a supply ship for the ESB Residency Petrovo, on the island formerly known as Reunion, as well as conducting replenishment-at-sea missions for select contracted partners.
