[B]THE BATTLE OF ORKNEYJAR[/B]

To my beloved Helga, 

I must remain away from you a little while longer while I oversee the detention of our new Bogan slaves. Our victory was most glorious! Not a single soul of ours was lost! I attach with this letter a copy of the battle report I wrote for the biographer (and the poets, for truly this was a battle worthy of song). I hope you can forgive the detached, objective nature of it. I intend to tell all I felt when I return home, but I am a Lord; my feelings are not to be common knowledge. I wouldn’t dare let on to my men that at the very beginning of the engagement that I thought it would be a bloody battle that we were likely going to lose. Oh, how my pessimism was unfounded! 

Ever at your service,
Haraldr

“On New Year’s Eve, I received word of a Bogan fleet of nine to eleven ships heading towards the vicinity of the Jarldom. Thus informed, I called forth all the Leidangr and the Bogamathurar and all the ships I had. Within 13 days they were all assembled on the isle of Orkneyjar, I was thus presented with a decision. I could receive the Bogans on land, or sea. Each choice had its advantages and disadvantages. If I met them on land, I would relying on the fact they would be making a contested landing under longbow fire to secure victory. But if we failed, it was always possible to retreat behind the walls of Orkneyjar and await further reinforcement. If I engaged them at sea, I would have the immense advantage of numbers and the ballistae of the war galleys, giving our men supremacy at all ranges except boarding. Boarding was the greatest reason I might choose to engage the enemy on land, for I had few soldiers on each ship. Should the Bogans manage to begin a mass boarding action, all could be lost. In summary, land was offered a small reward and a small risk, while at sea we could achieve any result, from winning spectacularly or facing destruction. I trusted in the courage and skill of our men, and faced them at sea. 

The formation we assumed was well suited to our superiority in number. Four great galleys escorted one war galley, preventing an unwanted boarding action by threatening any Bogan vessel with a ramming strike to its flank if it engaged the war galley hastily. If the Bogans focused on the escorts, they would have to do so under withering fire from the war galley. The remaining galleys (for I summoned thirty great galleys, twelve of which were engaged in escorting the war galleys) were organized in linear groups of three in a U formation around the central war galley battle groups. 

I held fire and allowed the Bogans, who were nine in number to advance until they were within 35 fathmrar; the ballistae were our most formidable weapon, and I did not want to use them until the Bogans were close, when they would be most effective. When they did, I gave the order. Disappointingly, 11 of our bolts either missed or had no effect, but one hit home on a Bogan mast, sending down the sails and the rigging on top of the crew and rendering the ship immobile. 

The Bogans attempted to retain their boar’s snout formation charging at us, but the advance of our trios of ships along their flanks, aiming at a double envelopment, must have frightened them into losing all sense of military discipline and manly virtue. A pair of ships headed west towards a group of three, while another ship headed east. Three Bogan vessels, for whatever reason, decided to congregate in a large group directly in front of a war galley, perhaps intending to ram it all at once. The other three headed towards the escorts.

I must commend our captains, for they executed a naval maneuver with exactness. The twirling scissors, where one ship goes at ramming speed at the attackers while two others sail in wide arcs around to the enemy so that if the enemy ship either remains or diverts, it risks an oblique strike at high speed, was executed with perfect timing on all the ships charging our flanking forces. All three of them were sent to the bottom of the sea with only one significant incident of damage.

Regarding the ships charging the escorts, they too were sent to the bottom of the sea with only one incident of damage. 

The Bogans proved their true colors at this moment, and the two untouched ships among the three that grouped together in front of the war galley attempted to flee. Fire from the war galleys dealt a mortal blow to one, while I allowed the other to escape to relay to their people that the Jarl of Jorvik was not to be trifled with. The two crippled ships were both offered towing back to shore, which one accepted and one refused. The ship that refused soon sunk and only a handful of survivors managed to disembark on a lifeboat, while the rest joined their villainous comrades in our icy waters.

From the captured ship, we secured the following booty:
~234 Bogan captives
~250 Sabers
~250 Daggers
~150 Bullis in miscellaneous valuables
And of course, the ship, which could be repaired.

We lost:
~Not a single soul (Praise be to God!)
~A ship, which I plan to replace with the captured Bogan vessel
~Significant hull integrity to another ship, necessitating repairs."