Audacieux is a short story by Blaine Lee Pardoe.
Plot[]
Two squadrons, the British Black Flag Squadron and the French Steel Coqs Squadron, are both sent to Africa to assert their respective nation's colonial claims. Once they meet, they engage in battle that turns into a humiliating defeat for the British.
The story follows the viewpoints of two men: Travis Bellerose commanding the French destroyer Audacieux, and Peter Banbury commanding the British cruiser HML Hannibal.
Characters[]
British Characters[]
- Oliver Aiken
- Robert Ash
- Captain Atterly
- Peter Banbury
- Royce Benson
- Rear Sky-Admiral Drake
- Drane Hopkins
- Alistair McCullen
- Alistair Prentis
- Admiral Rife
French Characters[]
- Travis Bellerose
- Capitaine Brock
- Henri Delgard
- Andre Dupont
- Admiral Gravois
- Captain LaRue
- Andre Laurent
- Sous-Lieutenant Lefevre
- Baston Lisle
- Enseigne Marten
- Jacque Renard
- Capitaine Russou
Units[]
British Units[]
French Units[]
Leviathans[]
British Leviathans[]
French Leviathans[]
German Leviathans[]
Locations[]
British Locations[]
French Locations[]
Other Locations[]
Notes[]
Captain of the Hannibal[]
Early in the story, Captain Alistair Prentis is presented as the commander of the Hannibal, with Peter Banbury as a friend asking him about the ship's most recent battle. Later and throughout, Banbury is cast as the commanding officer of the Hannibal past and present, with Prentis not mentioned again. It is possible that the names were somehow reversed in that scene.
Intrépide[]
The description of Bellerose's experiences aboard the Cassard very closely matches the plot of the story Intrépide, by the same author. The main character has a different name, and the stories are set in different timeframes, and the opposing forces are different. However, the same basic situation applies in both: heading into the North Sea to answer a merchant's distress call only to be ambushed by two hostile ships, the Captain was killed or incapacitated, and a junior lieutenant takes over and manages to extricate the ship while inflicting significant damage on the other side. Some characters are common to both: Lefevre, Gravois, and Lisle hold similar positions. In Audacieux, Lefevre is noted as having served under Bellerose aboard the Intrépide. That is the only appearance of that name in the story, and the implication otherwise is that it was the Cassard, with Intrépide's mention being an uncaught error in the story.
No official word has come out on the matter, but it would be logical to assume that the story of Intrépide is apocryphal, but with elements preserved in Audacieux.