HMS Guerriere 38 gun Frigate

Chase of the USS Constitution : July 1812

INTRODUCTION

            After blockading New York City harbor in July  1812 a British Squadron of the North American Station sighted the USS Constitution which had just completed a short patrol down the American coast looking for the British. She found that a large British squadron had arrived from Halifax off New York and it was more than she could handle, so she ran for it. In the fading light of the summer evening the British gave pursuit.

PREVAILING WEATHER CONDITIONS

Sea State: 1

Wind Speed Change: Steady

Wind Direction Change: Coastal

SPECIAL RULES:

Floating Map: Centered on the USS Constitution

British ships that fall off the map before the end of the game are considered disengaged.

Darkness Falling:

On turn one visibility is 30. Visibility drops hex per turn until turn until it is a range of 6 at turn 25.

Anchor Kedge Small Boat Towing:

When the wind state is at zero, ships can be towed by their small boats. This can be farther enhanced by the use of the ships anchor being dropped by the small boast and the ships' crew hauling it in.

      Proceedure: A ship may assign existing crew sections to the "Small Boats" same as if they were forming boarding parties. Place a "Small boat Chit" on the board for each crew section assigned to this task. Small boats have a speed of four when not towing and a maximum speed of the Ship Class it is towing when doing doing so.

Small boats must stay within 4 hexes to tow a ship.

Using Anchor Kedge: An anchor (most ships had two) is assigned to a small boat unit. The towed ship must assign one crew section to "Line Hauling :LH". The small boat can then drop the anchor to a maximum of 6 hexes away and instead of towing the ship that turn the ship may simply "haul in the anchor" to the point of drop. The ship must then decide if they want to haul up the anchor or cut the cable. If anchor is retrieved the anchor maybe assigned to a new small boat unit and sent out again.

Small Boasts as targets: Small boats maybe fired on. All rigging hits are ignored. All other hits are Crew hits. Once the crew section is destroyed, so is the Small Boat unit.

Session victory points awarded as follows: