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My review of Marvin Albert’s 1957 book Broadsides & Boarders is available at amazon.com here.
This book is out of print but if you have any love for the history of fighting sail you won’t want to miss it. Check your local used book store or even library sales if they run out on Amazon.
As promised here is the end of the Martha Raye story from Retired Sgt. Major David C. Carden’s book The Army Insider:
Here I was, a country boy from Nebraska playing poker with a movie star. Golly! The game was five card stud. One hole card and four up. Best hand wins. Hole cards were dealt around the table and one card up. My hole card was an Ace. Maggie had a deuce showing. Bets all around. Next card paired my top card and Maggie’s duce. More bets, some people folded. Third card up I had an Ace and Maggie had a face card. This round of betting just left her and me. The last card up didn’t do either of us any good. The last of the $200 went into the pot and I was calculating my winnings. Aces over had her two pair beat. I gingerly turned over my Ace and she said, “Nice hand young Sergeant, but not good enough.” as she turned over her third deuce. That’s how I met Martha Ray.
From what I understand his luck at poker never got better, but it was a different story for his sons. One of the funniest things I ever saw in a poker game were his two oldest sons over my house at a couples poker night with their wives. You never saw two people play such cuthroat poker in your lives. You couldn’t make a bet without them raising each other through the roof and even worse they always managed to get the cards. ALWAYS.
The funniest poker story ever? I’ll save that for next Sunday.
(note the historical information comes primarily from Marvin Albert’s 1957 volume Broadsides and Boarders my review here)
William de la Marck’s or as he was known to his men “Longnail”, primary interest was revenge. Despite the Letter of Marque issued by the Prince of Orange he was driven by beheading of his cousin by the Spanish authorities that ruled the Netherlands and his oath to not cut his hair or nails till he was avenged. His favorite target were Catholics priests and Monks but any ally of Spain was fair game.
He was not planning to begin the fight for Dutch independence when he sailed into the City of Brielle on April 1st 1572, pressure on Elizabeth I of England caused her to order all Dutch privateers to lose their rights in English ports and the wind took them there. He was looking for supplies and booty, the plan was to get what they wanted and get out.
With the Spanish garrison temporarily gone his fleet took the town with ease. With their fellow dutchmen around them the men had a change of heart. Where else had they to go, this was Dutch soil and they were dutchmen, did they really want to give the first Dutch town liberated back to Spain?
De la Marck declared the town taken in the name of the Prince of Orange and raised his banner, he contented himself with the murder of Catholic priests but otherwise left the town alone. They successfully managed to defend the town from the Spanish with the help of the people who rallied behind them and a group of pirates pretending to be patriots were transformed into actual patriots…
…Except for William de la Marck although feeling what the others felt for a while it didn’t distract him from his quest for revenge and his blood lust for Catholic Clergy. His vendetta against Priests and religious was hurting the effort to gain allies against Spain and preventing Catholic Dutchmen from joining the Prince’s cause. He ignored orders from the Prince for religious tolotance and was eventually removed from his command.
He swore revenge and vengeance against his former allies who dared protect the hated Catholic faithful but died shortly afterward from the bite of a mad dog.
Although he had done great service in the past, the Dutch managed to get along without him.
Hmmm a person who sees an atrocity, fights strongly against those who perpetuates it, then puts personal vengeance and dislike of certain religious beliefs over the cause and turns on his allies. I can’t for the life of me see why the story of Charles Johnson William de la Marck would be on my mind these days.
One of the first games I remember playing was called Broadside
It was a game of the war of 1812 and had an unique game system for it’s time (1962).
First of all The players have unequal forces. Half of the British Fleet consist of Ships of the Line and Frigates only 40% of the American fleet consists of Frigates and they have no ships of the line and a further 40% can be sunk with a single broadside.
Next there are different advantages The Americans control shore batteries and know the locations of Shoals that can sink any ship, the British must attack through one of two harbor entrances both swept by guns.
Finally the victory conditions are different: The British must sink the 4 Merchant ships in the harbor. The Americans must sink the ENTIRE British fleet WITHOUT losing their entire merchant fleet. 
The game is a lot of fun and I still play it with my son once in a while. And it also came with a booklet on the Navel history of the War of 1812. This was the first history book I ever read and began a love affair with history that endures to this day and that my youngest has embraced to a lesser degree.
With the exception of Battle Cry (A simply AWFUL Civil war game, turned me off it for decades) all the games in the American Heritage series sparked my interest in history and led me on my path. (I never managed to get Hit the Beach but my Father served in the pacific in WW 2 so I didn’t need prompting there.)
So if you wonder why I’m constantly quoting historical events, now you know.
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