A Buccaneer’s Story:
Without a doubt Ambrose McCuill is one of history’s most notorious privateers. His career spans 20 years, a period in which there was hardly a soul on 4 continents that wasn’t touched by his actions. In the course of two decades he netted an approximate sum of 400,000 gold pieces, 700 ships sunk or captured, and sacked 4 cities. He was a wanted criminal by nearly every empire of the day and hailed as a national hero by his own people.
Ambrose was born on August 24, 1681 in Lemonum (the provincial capital of Aquitania) to a barmaid by the name of Ann McCuill. Littlie is known about his father though it is suspect that he was indeed the progeny of General Lucius Cornelius Brutus who was himself made famous by his Rhine Campaign of 1665. Most of this supposition stems from circumstantial evidence. General Brutus family villa was outside of Lemonum and it is rumored that the General frequented the inn where Ann McCuill worked and lived (so certainly they must have met at some point) however Ambrose’s hypothesized lineage comes from the fact that Ann was said to have died clutching a worn picture of general Brutus.
It seems that even from early childhood Ambrose was drawn to the dark and dangerous world of crime. Magistrate records from 1690 have the young Ambrose facing two months in a work camp and ten lashes from the punitive whip. Two years later in 1692 he was again brought to the magistrate and sentenced to six months in a work camp. Petty theft and burglary would only be stepping stones to a much bloodier career. At the age of seventeen he and twelve over youths commandeered a ten gun Sloop-of-war with plans of raiding the lucrative shipping lanes off the Iberian coast. They had the unfortunate pleasure however of running into the Lions Heart which was captained by the already famous Akil Asad ibn Al Hasan. The Lions Heart was a sixteen gun Egyptian Brig and although the sloop was slightly more maneuverable Ambrose and his crew were poor sailors and so their ship was captured rather quickly. The boarding party sent to secure the sloop would find the task of holding the vessel much harder. Inept as Ambrose and the others were at sailing, the young McCuill was very adept at fencing. Though hopelessly out numbered by the Lions Heart’s crew Ambrose killed ten men before being wounded and captured. So impressed by Ambrose’s skill with a sword and general gall Akil had the young man spared – killing the few others that remained alive aboard the sloop.
Ambrose became Akil’s protégé and between 1698 and 1700 served on the Lions Heart eventually rising to become one of Akil’s most trusted lieutenants. Soon after they meet Akil set sail for his home port of Alexandria. It was during this time that Ambrose grew to hate anyone of Carthaginian blood. Egypt was and still is very much a subject of the Greater Carthaginian Khanate and it was probably Akil’s influence and tendency to purposefully hunt down ships flying Carthage’s colors that planted this seed of hate within Ambrose. After spending two years raiding the shipping lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea the Lions Heart would finally meet its end. In September of 1700 a floundering coastal barque near Malta caught Akil’s attention. What he didn’t know was that the barque was bait and while Akil and the crew of the Lions Heart looted the ship two Carthaginian war ships approached. Though the war ships would fire the first rounds they would not launch the last volley. For more than an hour the three ships maneuvered around each other, in the end a boarding part would decide the match. With one enemy ship sunk and the Lions Heart heavily damaged and taking on water Ambrose convinced captain Akil to draw in close to the last ship and take the fight to her deck. The boarding action was successful although not without casualties. Captain Akil was mortally wounded. The Lions Heart would limp to Cyrene (Syracuse was closer but both Ambrose and Akil were wanted men in the Roman Republic) where the bounty would be divided and the crew would be put off. Akil would die the next day. Using Akil’s share of the loot (as well as most of the Egyptian’s accumulated wealth) the Lions Heart would be refitted over the next year; some of the changes included copper plating to the hull, cotton sails, iron scantlings, and upgrading from iron to bronze cannons.
When Ambrose set sail in 1701 the ship had been renamed the Thunderclap and he was now the captain. He would spend most of the next four years raiding Carthage’s West African coast. He would face near mutiny a year into this voyage. Ambrose had been waging his own personal war against Carthage, sinking ships, or capturing ships only to massacre its crew then blasting the empty husk from afar (he was responsible for the deaths of over 2000 Carthaginian officers, sailors, and citizens during this rampage). His angry crew eventually leveled a stern ultimatum – Ambrose was given three days to lead them to a major haul or he would be put overboard without a paddle. Ambrose set sail for the mouth of the Niger River. Guarding the delta was the rich trading city of Hanno. Ambrose left the Thunderclap with 30 men and landed in secret west of the city. While the Thunderclap began its bombardment Ambrose lead his crew into the town, making Hanno the first of four cities McCuill would sack. It is estimated that nearly 600 people lost their lives in the attack and over 6000 gold pieces worth of goods and material was stolen.
Ambrose left a smoldering mess behind and set sail for home. He arrived in Lemonum and to his surprise he was hailed as minor hero (though he was saddened to hear about his mother’s death several months earlier). A week after his arrival he must have assumed the worst when a full legion of imperial guards appeared one morning. They came with a formal request from the Gallic Emperor – even Ambrose couldn’t turn down an invitation from the Emperor. Emperor Marius III welcomed Ambrose with the same open arms he had been surprisingly greeted with in Lemonum. Though there are no records of their conversation one can fairly assume from the events of 1703-05 what was said between the two of them. We do know that Emperor Marius III gave Ambrose a Letter of Saint George and that soon after arriving back in Lemonum he set sail for Italy. In May the war that had been in the wings for almost two years finally erupted between the Roman Republic and the Gallic Empire. Over the next two years the only ships Ambrose sunk more often than Carthaginian were Roman. Troop ships, war ships, merchant vessels were all targeted, though by far the most prized were the payroll convoys. The Thunderclap captured three of these in less than a year. In April of 1705 Ambrose and the crew of the Thunderclap would fall victim to a chance of fate. Having just sunk a mail runner and heading for the safe heaven of Marsalis the Thunderclap was approached by a Roman frigate. Already laden with gold and goods Ambrose gave orders to ignore the war ship and make with all speed for port. A single round shot fired from extremely long range struck the Thunderclap, piercing the hull and setting the magazine ablaze. All hands were assumed to have been lost.
It is not known how Ambrose survived the explosion or what happened to him over the next three years but he next appears on a Hibernian navy registry in 1708. He served as a crewman aboard the HMS Ceridwen (a frigate) sailing out of New Dub Linn in New Hibernia for 8 months. In August the HMS Ceridwen was in the port city of Shannon along the banks of the Lenape River (OTL Delaware). The Ceridwen had just helped suppress a recent revolt by the native population and most of the crew was on shore leave celebrating the victory. With the support of a dozen loyal men Ambrose captured the captain – in the midst of entertaining a local girl – and commandeered the ship. He traveled less than a hundred kilometers down the coast, put up a white flag, and held a conference with the new chief of the clan that had just been suppressed. By morning Ambrose had a full crew of loyal and eager sailors.
His first call the following day was Shannon. In the early hours of the morning it had been finally discovered that the Ceridwen had been stolen, Captain Myer (who was later jailed) was found unconscious tied to a piece of drift wood. The HMS Esos, the Ceridwen’s sister ship, which was also in port took on many of the homeless crew of the Ceridwen and set sail to find Ambrose. Luck was back with Ambrose because the ships past in the night without seeing one another and the Ceridwen pulled into Shannon without firing a shot and sacked the town. Though the Hibernians were allies with the Gallic Empire this did not stop them however from rocketing Ambrose to the top of their most wanted list.
It is not clear why but Ambrose began sinking Hibernian ships with the same ferocity it was thought he only held for Carthage. Hibernia wasn’t the only nation to feel the sting of Ambrose’s steal or the heat of his broadsides; from the cold waters of the White North to the beaches of Brazil he hunted ships (occasionally even sinking those flying the Gallic colors). Over the next twelve years, not counting the periods of refit and his two year campaign against the Aztecs during their war with the Gallic Empire (which is when he sacked his next two cities), Ambrose raided shipping throughout the Atlantic. He became the stuff of legends, the type of stories parents told to young children to make sure they were good – “Be good or I’ll sell you to Ambrose.”
The last mention of Ambrose McCuill was in a gazette printed out of New Caledonia dated April 20, 1720. The article interviews a survivor from the HMS Dun the ship was stripped of sail and everything valuable then set adrift where this poor sailor had to endure two weeks of watching his mates rot under the summer sun – the young officer was vehemently sure that he had been left alive on purpose. He said Ambrose was personal torturing him for stabbing the pirate in the foot during the boarding scuffle. No more is heard of McCuill after this event. He could have been swamped in a storm or perhaps retired and returned home to live out his days. The most colorful of stories still have him out there – waiting to unleash his villainous rage on his enemies.
Without a doubt Ambrose McCuill is one of history’s most notorious privateers. His career spans 20 years, a period in which there was hardly a soul on 4 continents that wasn’t touched by his actions. In the course of two decades he netted an approximate sum of 400,000 gold pieces, 700 ships sunk or captured, and sacked 4 cities. He was a wanted criminal by nearly every empire of the day and hailed as a national hero by his own people.
Ambrose was born on August 24, 1681 in Lemonum (the provincial capital of Aquitania) to a barmaid by the name of Ann McCuill. Littlie is known about his father though it is suspect that he was indeed the progeny of General Lucius Cornelius Brutus who was himself made famous by his Rhine Campaign of 1665. Most of this supposition stems from circumstantial evidence. General Brutus family villa was outside of Lemonum and it is rumored that the General frequented the inn where Ann McCuill worked and lived (so certainly they must have met at some point) however Ambrose’s hypothesized lineage comes from the fact that Ann was said to have died clutching a worn picture of general Brutus.
It seems that even from early childhood Ambrose was drawn to the dark and dangerous world of crime. Magistrate records from 1690 have the young Ambrose facing two months in a work camp and ten lashes from the punitive whip. Two years later in 1692 he was again brought to the magistrate and sentenced to six months in a work camp. Petty theft and burglary would only be stepping stones to a much bloodier career. At the age of seventeen he and twelve over youths commandeered a ten gun Sloop-of-war with plans of raiding the lucrative shipping lanes off the Iberian coast. They had the unfortunate pleasure however of running into the Lions Heart which was captained by the already famous Akil Asad ibn Al Hasan. The Lions Heart was a sixteen gun Egyptian Brig and although the sloop was slightly more maneuverable Ambrose and his crew were poor sailors and so their ship was captured rather quickly. The boarding party sent to secure the sloop would find the task of holding the vessel much harder. Inept as Ambrose and the others were at sailing, the young McCuill was very adept at fencing. Though hopelessly out numbered by the Lions Heart’s crew Ambrose killed ten men before being wounded and captured. So impressed by Ambrose’s skill with a sword and general gall Akil had the young man spared – killing the few others that remained alive aboard the sloop.
Ambrose became Akil’s protégé and between 1698 and 1700 served on the Lions Heart eventually rising to become one of Akil’s most trusted lieutenants. Soon after they meet Akil set sail for his home port of Alexandria. It was during this time that Ambrose grew to hate anyone of Carthaginian blood. Egypt was and still is very much a subject of the Greater Carthaginian Khanate and it was probably Akil’s influence and tendency to purposefully hunt down ships flying Carthage’s colors that planted this seed of hate within Ambrose. After spending two years raiding the shipping lanes of the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea the Lions Heart would finally meet its end. In September of 1700 a floundering coastal barque near Malta caught Akil’s attention. What he didn’t know was that the barque was bait and while Akil and the crew of the Lions Heart looted the ship two Carthaginian war ships approached. Though the war ships would fire the first rounds they would not launch the last volley. For more than an hour the three ships maneuvered around each other, in the end a boarding part would decide the match. With one enemy ship sunk and the Lions Heart heavily damaged and taking on water Ambrose convinced captain Akil to draw in close to the last ship and take the fight to her deck. The boarding action was successful although not without casualties. Captain Akil was mortally wounded. The Lions Heart would limp to Cyrene (Syracuse was closer but both Ambrose and Akil were wanted men in the Roman Republic) where the bounty would be divided and the crew would be put off. Akil would die the next day. Using Akil’s share of the loot (as well as most of the Egyptian’s accumulated wealth) the Lions Heart would be refitted over the next year; some of the changes included copper plating to the hull, cotton sails, iron scantlings, and upgrading from iron to bronze cannons.
When Ambrose set sail in 1701 the ship had been renamed the Thunderclap and he was now the captain. He would spend most of the next four years raiding Carthage’s West African coast. He would face near mutiny a year into this voyage. Ambrose had been waging his own personal war against Carthage, sinking ships, or capturing ships only to massacre its crew then blasting the empty husk from afar (he was responsible for the deaths of over 2000 Carthaginian officers, sailors, and citizens during this rampage). His angry crew eventually leveled a stern ultimatum – Ambrose was given three days to lead them to a major haul or he would be put overboard without a paddle. Ambrose set sail for the mouth of the Niger River. Guarding the delta was the rich trading city of Hanno. Ambrose left the Thunderclap with 30 men and landed in secret west of the city. While the Thunderclap began its bombardment Ambrose lead his crew into the town, making Hanno the first of four cities McCuill would sack. It is estimated that nearly 600 people lost their lives in the attack and over 6000 gold pieces worth of goods and material was stolen.
Ambrose left a smoldering mess behind and set sail for home. He arrived in Lemonum and to his surprise he was hailed as minor hero (though he was saddened to hear about his mother’s death several months earlier). A week after his arrival he must have assumed the worst when a full legion of imperial guards appeared one morning. They came with a formal request from the Gallic Emperor – even Ambrose couldn’t turn down an invitation from the Emperor. Emperor Marius III welcomed Ambrose with the same open arms he had been surprisingly greeted with in Lemonum. Though there are no records of their conversation one can fairly assume from the events of 1703-05 what was said between the two of them. We do know that Emperor Marius III gave Ambrose a Letter of Saint George and that soon after arriving back in Lemonum he set sail for Italy. In May the war that had been in the wings for almost two years finally erupted between the Roman Republic and the Gallic Empire. Over the next two years the only ships Ambrose sunk more often than Carthaginian were Roman. Troop ships, war ships, merchant vessels were all targeted, though by far the most prized were the payroll convoys. The Thunderclap captured three of these in less than a year. In April of 1705 Ambrose and the crew of the Thunderclap would fall victim to a chance of fate. Having just sunk a mail runner and heading for the safe heaven of Marsalis the Thunderclap was approached by a Roman frigate. Already laden with gold and goods Ambrose gave orders to ignore the war ship and make with all speed for port. A single round shot fired from extremely long range struck the Thunderclap, piercing the hull and setting the magazine ablaze. All hands were assumed to have been lost.
It is not known how Ambrose survived the explosion or what happened to him over the next three years but he next appears on a Hibernian navy registry in 1708. He served as a crewman aboard the HMS Ceridwen (a frigate) sailing out of New Dub Linn in New Hibernia for 8 months. In August the HMS Ceridwen was in the port city of Shannon along the banks of the Lenape River (OTL Delaware). The Ceridwen had just helped suppress a recent revolt by the native population and most of the crew was on shore leave celebrating the victory. With the support of a dozen loyal men Ambrose captured the captain – in the midst of entertaining a local girl – and commandeered the ship. He traveled less than a hundred kilometers down the coast, put up a white flag, and held a conference with the new chief of the clan that had just been suppressed. By morning Ambrose had a full crew of loyal and eager sailors.
His first call the following day was Shannon. In the early hours of the morning it had been finally discovered that the Ceridwen had been stolen, Captain Myer (who was later jailed) was found unconscious tied to a piece of drift wood. The HMS Esos, the Ceridwen’s sister ship, which was also in port took on many of the homeless crew of the Ceridwen and set sail to find Ambrose. Luck was back with Ambrose because the ships past in the night without seeing one another and the Ceridwen pulled into Shannon without firing a shot and sacked the town. Though the Hibernians were allies with the Gallic Empire this did not stop them however from rocketing Ambrose to the top of their most wanted list.
It is not clear why but Ambrose began sinking Hibernian ships with the same ferocity it was thought he only held for Carthage. Hibernia wasn’t the only nation to feel the sting of Ambrose’s steal or the heat of his broadsides; from the cold waters of the White North to the beaches of Brazil he hunted ships (occasionally even sinking those flying the Gallic colors). Over the next twelve years, not counting the periods of refit and his two year campaign against the Aztecs during their war with the Gallic Empire (which is when he sacked his next two cities), Ambrose raided shipping throughout the Atlantic. He became the stuff of legends, the type of stories parents told to young children to make sure they were good – “Be good or I’ll sell you to Ambrose.”
The last mention of Ambrose McCuill was in a gazette printed out of New Caledonia dated April 20, 1720. The article interviews a survivor from the HMS Dun the ship was stripped of sail and everything valuable then set adrift where this poor sailor had to endure two weeks of watching his mates rot under the summer sun – the young officer was vehemently sure that he had been left alive on purpose. He said Ambrose was personal torturing him for stabbing the pirate in the foot during the boarding scuffle. No more is heard of McCuill after this event. He could have been swamped in a storm or perhaps retired and returned home to live out his days. The most colorful of stories still have him out there – waiting to unleash his villainous rage on his enemies.
. Okay, I was actually working with a couple PODs. The first probably being a draw or a less Roman successful Punic Wars. The second POD is c.260AD – Postumus and his heirs successfully establish the Gallic Empire (afterwards I was picturing a slight to a total collapse of the Roman Empire, only to be reformed back under the Republic). Ann and Ambrose are anglicized due to the melding of the Latin, Gaelic, and Anglo-Saxon from invasion, migration, and conquest. Northern Africa, much like Europe repeatedly suffered from, was overrun by waves of migrating, conquesting hordes – culminating in the Mongol invasion. In essence, Carthage and Egypt were obviously able to survive, Carthage was even able to thrive, but both had a shift in the ruling class. Egypt was eventually able to overthrow its Khan and revert to more or less their traditional ways, but they are still very much the whipping boy of the Greater Carthaginian Khanate. As for Hibernia, your guess is as good as mine. I have them in control of the British Isles and colonizing the New World but I never really thought about when or how this came about (as far as I’m concerned the Irish should rule the world