The Badger and the Marblehead

In 1927 Arransia laid down a pair of ships to match the 8-inch gun “treaty cruisers” being built by foreign navies. Named the Badger and the Wildcat, they were completed in 1931 and 1932, in the midst of the recession. Like most Arransian warships, they placed the emphasis on protection and seaworthiness at the expense of speed, but nevertheless they were considered a good match for their foreign contemporaries. They had 8x8" guns in four twin turrets, displaced 9,800 tons and had a maximum speed of 30½ knots.

At the outbreak of war in 1942, the Badger, commanded by Captain Patrick Scullion (1898-1995) – a highly regarded officer who was seen as a future Admiral of the Fleet – was dispatched to the Southern Ocean to carry out commerce raiding activities. In the early stages of the war, the situation at sea was fairly fluid and far from the Brunswickian domination that was achieved in 1948 and 1949. Scullion was perhaps too gentlemanly to be a highly successful commerce raider, but nevertheless the Badger captured or sank 18 merchant ships totalling 115,000 tons (none of their crews losing their lives) and successfully evaded detection and capture for many months. The Brunswickians were very stretched in home waters and were unable to allocate sufficient ships to hunt down the Badger and other Arransian and Mayonnaise commerce raiders.

In May 1943, the Brunswickian cruiser Marblehead, under the command of Captain Harry Paxton (1889-1967), sighted the Badger and gave chase. The two ships were a very close match – the Marblehead, completed in 1929, had a two-knot margin in speed, and one extra 8" gun, but was not as heavily armoured. Both ships were also the last pre-war winners of the gunnery prizes in their respective navies. Paxton knew that his objective had to be to achieve the destruction of the Badger even at the expense of his own ship, and so he did not hesitate to seek action. There were no other Brunswickian warships within a day’s steaming distance, so he had to do it single-handed.

Initially, Scullion tried to escape to preserve his ship, but when it became clear the Marblehead was overhauling the Badger and coming within range he knew he would have to turn and fight. There is a famous photograph, taken from the Marblehead at extreme telephoto range, showing the oncoming Badger heeled over in a tight turn, with her battle ensign proudly flying and smoke billowing from her funnels. A five-hour long-range gun battle ensued. At first, the Marblehead appeared to be getting the upper hand, and put one of the Badger’s turrets out of action, but then the Badger managed to inflict a hit on the Marblehead’s steering gear and prevented her manoeuvring properly. At this stage, Scullion could probably have escaped, but he knew that his ship was too badly damaged to be able to continue her commerce-raiding activities without dockyard repair, so he decided to finish the job. The Marblehead continued to achieve occasional hits on the Badger until the end, but eventually Paxton had no alternative but to give the order to abandon ship. In total, 37 Arransians and 224 Brunswickians lost their lives in the battle.

Although holed below the waterline, and with her pumps barely able to cope, the Badger remained on the scene and was able to rescue over 450 of the Marblehead’s 700 crew, including her captain. Scullion then headed for the Orestinian port of Puerto Nachos, which the Badger reached twenty hours later with only four feet of freeboard remaining at the bow. Without enlisting the help of the prisoners of war the ship would probably have sunk. Scullion had no alternative but to intern his ship, and so in a sense, although he had narrowly lost the battle, Paxton had achieved his objective and removed the Badger from the war. However, there can be no doubt that Scullion and his crew fought very bravely and skilfully and the 16th of May – two days after Ugglesby Head Day – is celebrated by the Arransians as a stirring victory. Had the Badger been able to reach a friendly port she would have been in fighting condition again within a few months. Scullion and Paxton had known each other from before the war and after this battle became firm friends, two of the old generation of gentleman sea officers. In the immediate post-war years, Paxton was somewhat unjustly vilified in Brunswick and never received another seagoing command. However, his grandson, Oliver Paxton (b 1948), is currently the Commander-in-Chief of the Brunswickian Navy, and one of Brunswick’s newest ballistic missile submarines has been named Harry Paxton.

The Orestinians did not really want over a thousand interned foreign sailors on their territory and did not stand in the way of them drifting back to their home countries. Scullion and his core officers and engineering staff stayed with the ship to ensure she remained in reasonable condition and could be returned to service after the war. He was criticised for making no attempt to return to Arransia, but he pointed out that so many ships had been lost that his chances of going to sea again would have been limited, and preserving the ship was an important objective in its own right. After the war, of course, he was praised for his foresight and dedication. The Badger’s sister ship, the Wildcat, was involved in various actions in home waters and was eventually sunk in 1948. Interestingly, the Badger’s second lieutenant, James Cochrane (1915-88), married a local woman, took Orestinian citizenship and eventually in the 1970s became C-in-C of the Orestianian navy.

Immediately after the war ended, Scullion returned to Arransia and was fêted as a national hero, as about the only Arransian commander who had achieved a clear victory in a stand-up battle. Before long, he had become Minister of Defence in Wolfenden’s coalition government, and started to make arrangements to bring his ship home. She was in no condition to make the journey under her own power, so had to be towed by a pair of ocean-going tugs, the 6,500-mile voyage taking 36 days, and at one point it was touch and go whether the tug crews would have to abandon her in a storm. Nevertheless, she was successfully brought home, and on a bright April day in 1950 the Badger was towed into Beadnell through a flotilla of virtually every yacht and pleasure craft Arransia could muster. She was restored to fighting condition and in May 1951 took pride of place at the celebration on the 300th anniversary of the Battle of Ugglesby Head. Given the circumstances of the time, this event was inevitably somewhat subdued and reflective, but Scullion, a distant descendent of Admiral John Brodie, delivered a memorable set-piece speech on the Badger’s quarterdeck which many feel was a major influence on his becoming Chancellor two years later.

Until the Queen Margaret entered service in 1954, the Badger was the flagship of the Arransian Navy, and remained in commission until 1969, shortly after Scullion ceased to be Chancellor, eventually being scrapped in 1975 when the Rostron government carried out a purge of the rusting reserve warships that were clogging up Arransia’s anchorages. There were some moves to preserve her as a national monument but these came to nothing, and indeed were not supported by Patrick Scullion, who did not want to see his ship as a slowly decaying museum piece. There is a superbly detailed 1:72 scale model in the entrance hall of the Royal Naval Museum in Beadnell.

Obviously this story is loosely based on the Battle of the River Plate, with Paxton as Henry Harwood and Scullion as Hans Langsdorff, although in this case both representing democratic countries. Ironically, the Badger was less heavily damaged than the Exeter, but the Arransians were in no position to get her to a friendly port. After the Battle of the River Plate, the Exeter was taken to the Falkland Islands and there was some talk of not repairing her. She eventually spent thirteen months at Devonport being refitted, and was sunk by the Japanese in 1942.

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