From PeterD: Esmeralda for Benito's Brook (48 points)

I am schlepping over from Piper's Peak to Benefit's Brook for this post, feeling a bit like Fitzcarraldo as I'm toting some 1/2400 steam ships with me.  Benito's criteria is a feat of arms against long odds.  I am going with the saga of the Chilean wooden corvette Esmeralda from my War of the Pacific project.

Esmeralda captured the Spanish schooner Covadonga in the Chincha Islands War in 1865 (I included the Covadonga in an earlier challenge entry), but met with pure glory against the Peruvian Ironclad Huascar at the Battle of Iquique in 1879.  This was a hopeless contest as Huascar was must faster, much better armed and was armoured against bare wood.  None the less Esmeralda fought her opponent for three hours.  The battle featured multiple ramming attempts and vicious close range fire from Huascar's 10" rifles.  Esmeralda's Captain Arturo Prat's dead body was found on the foredeck of the Huascar after one ramming attempt and the Chileans claimed that he attempted a boarding action before being gunned down.  Eventually Huascar got a solid ram into her opponent and the Esmeralda slipped beneath the waves with the Chilean flag being the last to go down. 

Along with the Esmeralda I have another Chilean Corvette the Abtao.  Actually I've realized the model is wrong for the Abtao as she was about the same size as Esmeralda, but this one will do until I get another model.

And lastly I have 4 torpedo boats, which were used by both sides during the War of the Pacific.   Chile bought 12 British models from Yarrow's and Peru bought 3 American boats from Herreschoff's.  These were all fast, carried spar torpedos and a hotchkiss machine gun.  And they all required an absolute nut case at the helm!  I have left the labels generic on these bases so that I can use them fo either side as required.

Ok by my math, that's 6 1/2400 ships at 3 points each plus 30 for the location.  One of my Challenge goals was to finish off enough ships to run a small campaign, and I've pretty much wound up the Armadas for the War of the Pacific.  David Manley has a nice little campaign that I may be running PBEM this summer with tabletop games played out locally among our group.



Incredibly, Peter tells me this is the first of five posts he is hoping to present today. And what lovely ships they are too.

I'll trust you with your scoring (but maybe not with the spreadsheet and roster!) - 48 points it is.

TamsinP