Spanish Arms

Tue 3-Jun-1603 continued...  (23-May)

Roma [Chris] stuck his head over rail.

"They want us all on board," he yelled.

So, each one came up on the bosun's chair: Art [Jeff], Sean [Shane], Ab Siddy [Darryl], Elrick [Ian], Thomas [Kevin], Baron [Deacon] and Patrick (the O'Neill agent).  Elrick [Ian] then secured the shallop to the stern of the Santa Clara - the name of the Spanish frigate - and then he joined them on board.

Captain Augusto Gonzales Corrida gave each of them a big wet kiss, then a bottle of wine.

Roma's gypsy mate was called Matias Garcia Lopez, and everything they said was translated from English through Roma into Romany, spoken to Matias who translated it into Spanish.

"Si!"

Art solemnly gave the order to Roma: "Execute Order 66."

Roma solemnly repeated: "Executați comanda șaizeci și șase."

Matias then repeated to the Captain: "Ejecute el orden sesenta y seis."

"Si!"

Order 66 was given to the group by the O'Neill rebels and it was the secondary landing spot for the arms that the Santa Clara was carrying. This was the village of Fallis.

They spent the night on-board.

Wed 4-Jun

Back in the shallop, they headed to the river Stick and to Fallis.

There was an English packet [small ship; this is the origin of the word "packet"] sailing down the coast. So, they waited out at sea a bit, until it was out of sight - Roma climbed the mast and made a rope harness so he could stay up there - and then entered the Stick's mouth. Fallis was "around the corner", so the packet passing on the open sea could not see up the river. Although the Santa Clara had too deep a draught and could not tie to the Fallis wharf, it could make it up the river a fair way on a high tide. This would allow it to be unloaded into Fallis using jolly boats and tenders.

The group reconnoitered Fallis and Patrick made contact with the O'Neill representative there. The whole village would help with the unload. (There were no English here).

But there was not enough time to do the delivery today, so they left Fallis and headed back out to the Santa Clara.

They stayed on board that night.

Thu 5-Jun

There were storm force winds in the morning and mountainous seas. They were glad they were in a large ship rather than in the shallop (or even a dory).

It was too rough to contemplate anything, so they stayed at sea all day.

Fri 6-Jun

The seas were still mountainous, so they took the risk that the packet would not be sailing today and headed in to the mouth of the Stick, and anchored there late afternoon. The intent was to head up the river in the morning.

Sat 7-Jun

The seas had dropped, so with the help of the shallop and a good sounding-man, the Santa Clara edged up the river and dropped anchor near Fallis. Here, they unloaded the supply of weapons, gunpowder and two bronze cannons.

While this was going on, Elrick and Art stayed out in the mouth of the Stick on the shallop, and watched for the English packets to sail past. They needed to time to gaps between packets - there were two - and the tide, to make sure that the Santa Clara was not seen by the English when it was to leave.
(The risk was, of course, the two English warships at the mouth of the Corke harbour, which could be sailed down to this point in half a day.)

Snaphance mechanism

It all proved successful, the Spanish said their good-byes, and the Santa Clara left undetected. Captain Corrida presented each party member with another bottle of wine.

They stayed the night in Fallis.

Sun 8-Jun

Catriona and a band of O'Neills arrived. She paid the party their agreed reward. Which was a powder keg of gunpowder and 100 musket balls. Art was lent a snaphance (precursor to a flintlock) musket to replace his aged match-lock. The Shallop was now theirs too.