Liner Notes for An Admirable Engagement
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The series started with a sea battle then gave us the aftermath; it now ends with a sea battle prefixed by the preparation. It’s almost as though I consider the Platonic Ideal of an Age of Sail story is one that is bracketed by ships fighting!
But let’s talk about the important thing in this story: cannon. I wanted some really big cannon for the Admirable. The period I was modelling the ships and weapons from had some pretty big guns. But entertainingly the largest guns in common use were 32-pounders, and they were rarely used on land. Too big and heavy to move! Most cannon that size ended up on ships, and if they were already on a ship, why build a new ship, which was what I wanted. (I didn’t want to put ships-of-the-line up against each other, because an asymmetric fight seemed more interesting). The largest usual size of siege cannon in the French army were 24-pounders. Bigger ones were rare and why would such huge and expensive guns be sent (or cast) on the far side of the world.
Hence the great beasts of King Filip’s Land. The interior is filled with giant monsters. The Gigantarachnid, the most feared of them, apex-predator of stupidly over-sized creatures, returns having previously appeared in the Space Opera adventures of the Deep Patrol, and also in one of the flash fiction pieces on my Patreon. Looks like I’m going to have to put big spiders in everything from now on.
Chekov (the playwright) suggests that if you put a gun on the mantelpiece at the start, then it’s got to go off by the end. Here I shoot them off like there’s no tomorrow. The curse of the Ice Witch from the story of the same name is the most obvious. That the elves' most powerful magic is that of time I’ve hinted at before. Carstairs' followers, introduced in the last story, each get their moment. Even worm-leaf, as a sovereign cure for impotence appeared in On The Rock.
Talking of each getting their moment, the structure of the series required each of the four characters to have something important to do. I’m not sure how well I succeeded – John Toris as senior officer of the flotilla, captain of the Bridgeford, the curse-carrier and the one who takes down Carstairs at the climax of the fight somewhat dominates. But it doesn’t have to be perfectly balanced.
Some things I don’t bring back are Dr O’Leary’s gifts, the finest pistols in the world that the Generalissimo (NOT-Napoleon) gave her and the needles from Maisie May, immortal friend to sailors. Carstairs, who had the pistols, didn’t know what he had. A couple of sailors undoubtedly lost their lives to them, but he concentrated his resources on the hand of Antipodea, so ignored the tools that might have saved him.
For a variety of reasons the scenes of explicit surgery that might have heavily featured the needles doing their good work were not written. I don’t really feel the need to apologise for that.
The title of the story has more than one meaning. This may make it a pun, in which case I will apologise for that.
Although I leave the ending open to other adventures, this is the end of Tapping The Admiral; the story that starts with the battle of Cape Laurel has finished. I hope you’ve enjoyed this Age of Sail Fantasy.
