"Firing into the Brown" #101 - Warships, submarines, and horse rustling, and stuff

"So Carnehan weeds out the pick of his men, and sets the two of the Army to show them drill and at the end of two weeks the men can manoeuvre about as well as Volunteers. So he marches with the Chief to a great big plain on the top of a mountain, and the Chiefs men rushes into a village and takes it; we three Martinis firing into the brown of the enemy".

Kipling "The Man Who Would Be King"

Time for another update.. the boat is in but I still seem to be too damn busy! 😁

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Cracking days sail last week was rounded off by an international show of might in the dockyard..

Ukrainian minesweepers (here on training I believe), a Portuguese frigate (NRP Dom Francisco de Almeida - F334), the UK Type 45 Destroyer HMS Daring (and unidentified partner), and the German frigate Saschen (lead ship of her class)

The Portuguese one is a veteran of the Dutch navy having been sold to them in 2010, one of a pair of  Karel Doorman class frigates that they bought. In the Dutch navy she was launched in 1992 as HNLMS Van Galen (F834), so in modern warship terms a veteran indeed.. 

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Did someone say submarine? 😏

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_cruiser_L%C3%A9on_Gambetta

How splendid is that picture.. 😁

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In the quiet of the evening, jug at hand, "Old" Tex was sat in his rocking chair on the porch of his cabin, staring morosely at his corral and livery stable...

Lot of hard work had gone in to building it up, and life in Cedar Gulch could be tough at times - not perhaps as tough as riding at the head of the 7th Virginia or hunting down Mexican bandidos - but hard work nonetheless and right at the moment some of the hardest he'd known..

"Old" Tex was short of money.. due to a combination of problems but mostly due to competition from Dexter's Livery at the other end of town, and a bad case of Strangles that had spread like wildfire through his stock causing a number of his best horses to die, and leaving the rest far from healthy and ready for work...

It was not in his nature to sit back and do nothing - and grunting in annoyance at himself, he hauled himself out of the chair and went in side for paper and pencil.. maybe it was time he revisited some of his old Texas Ranger haunts..  with some friends.

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 Laters, as the young people are want to say...