Dark Tides:Ship

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The Rover is a light and nimble 70 ton Jamaican sloop, able to navigate shallow waters and fast enough to outrun any Royal Navy vessel.

The rover does not have cannons mounted to broadsides. It only has chase guns. Three four-pounder guns aft, and another two fore.

The Rover regularly sails from Port Tobacco to New Orleans with black market cargo, mostly tobacco, and then with sugar, rum and cotton back to Maryland.

Masts	Passengers	Minimum Crew	Cargo Spaces	Guns	Sea Worthy	Hull Points	Repair Bonus	Miles per Day	Combat Move
1	6	3	4	6	12	5	6	72	7

Positive Trait

Low Draft

The ship has been built with a hull and keel that allows it to sail into areas many would think too shallow. Ships with this trait gains a +1 TN to avoid running aground. In addition, the ship is able to sail up rivers, on lakes, and berth at shallow ports.

Negative Trait

Under Armed

Either on purpose or due to the shipwright’s negligence, the ship is unable to carry as many cannons as similar ships of this type is able too. As such the ship has half the guns it can carry. The ship is able to mount more, but it requires cargo space to be given up.

NPC Crew

Sailing Master - Charlotte

Charlotte is her entire name, she has no family name to call her own. A bastard daughter of a widowed plantation owner and one of his house slaves. She would probably have been left for her mother to raise, but the woman died giving birth to her.

Charlotte’s father had his flaws, but he was not a completely heartless man. When Charlotte’s mother died, he took the baby girl to live in his house. She was not allowed to leave the plantation for she was a mark of shame on her father, but the estate was large so she did not feel confined as a child. Her father taught her letters, and introduced her to his hobby. He was interested in both astronomy and astrology, and had a private observatory on his plantation. He taught Charlotte the names of stars and constellations, explaining how to find her way by them. He also taught her how to craft a horoscope, divine information by studying the movements and relative positions of celestial objects, and how the Maya people far to the south had developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations.

Charlotte also had free access to the plantation’s private library, but most books were related to her father’s interests. The stars. From various historical documents about the beliefs related to them through star charts to navigation manuals.

Charlotte grew into a young woman on the plantation, but then old age claimed her father. Her older half brother had never come to accept his half sister, and after the old man’s death, he threw her out of the house. Charlotte walked into Port Tobacco with just the clothes on her back, but with a valuable skill – what she had learned at the plantation had made her a passable navigator.

Charlotte is a young woman with dark curls hanging to her shoulders. Her complexion is fair enough that in the right circumstances or with make-up she could pass for a white person, but she does not like to pretend anything.