El Cisne Blanco (“The White Swan”)
The Ship
| | El Cisno Blanco (The White Swan) was originally a ‘Royal Parade Ship’, used on the rivers of Spain when the King was crossing the country. However, after the destruction of the Armada the Spanish Fleet was dimished considerably, and many river vessels were drafted and converted for sea use. This also happened to this ship, and it was converted to a small merchant vessel. It is one of the more famous ships, because of its distinctive swan-like shape. As a result, the ship is attacked often by pirates because they consider it an irresistable target. (“Arrrrr! Look at that luv’ly ship! Aye mateys, let’s have sum fun!”). But then again, there is no pirate who wants to take over the ship, because no self-respecting pirate will be caught alive sailing that thing. As a result, the ship will be around for a while, unless a pirate sinks it in all enthousiasm when trying to raid it.
Because it is a Spanish merchant, it has two Spanish soldiers in its crew, to give it a minimal defense. This has not proven sufficient, because the previous crew was completely wiped out after a particularly vicious pirate attack; the ship was found empty and damaged floating around. Its new captain, Alejandro Cortez, has used his commercial connections and influences and managed to get a small Armada cutter (El Lagarto Oscuro) as an escort.
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The Crew
| | Alejandro Cortez
The captain of the ship. He’s not much of a fighter, but he’s a great diplomat and cunning businessman. It is because of his connections that he managed to get the cutter El Lagarto Oscuro assigned to his ship as an escort.
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| | Ricardo Cortez
The first mate, who happens to be the captain’s younger brother. He is one of the two soldiers on board, and was transferred to his brother’s ship. He is always nervous and tense, because he feels more comfortable on land, but he endures this because he can be in his brother’s company.
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| | Luis Monreal
The other soldier, who has recently been assigned to this ship. He’s still a rookie, and this is his first assignment, and as a result he takes his duty very seriously. He can often be found guarding the cargo hold door.
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| | Juan Ortega
The ship’s navigator. He knows how to keep the ship on course even in the heaviest of storms. He hopes to be captain of his own ship one day.
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| | Domingo Espinosa
The topman. The ship may not have a crow’s nest, but this sailor can climb the mast and maintain the rigging with no trouble at all. He’s known for climbing into the mast during boardings and shooting at the boarders, because not many people dare to follow him.
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| | Miguel Pérez
Probably the strongest man on board. He is the person who moves and secures the cargo in the cargo hold, and he helps Domingo with the rigging when necessary.
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Evil Stevie’s Pirate Game Stats
El Cisne Blanco is a Class 2 (square-rigged) merchant ship; it’s a regular (12-wide) ship with no center sections, and being a small merchant ship, it has no cannons.
As a merchant ship, it only has a crew of (Class x 2) + 2 = 6 minifigs: 1 Captain, 2 soldiers (treat as redcoats) and 3 sailors. Everybody is armed with a cutlass and a pistol, and there are two addional muskets (the favorite weapon of the soldiers!).
Inspiration
| | I play the Collectible Card Game 7th Sea of AEG (Alderac Entertainment Group) and one of the cards is called Sinking of the Swan, and the illustration is made by Paul Herbert. Now I really don’t know whether the Swan of the game is a ship from Castille (the Spanish equivalent of that gaming world) or Montaigne (the equivalent of France) because the flavor text on the card mentions L’Empereur who is the emperor of Montaigne, but to me, it doesn’t matter, because when I saw the hull pieces of the Armada Flagship (which are white, and it’s a ‘Spanish’ ship), I remembered the card’s image and decided I wanted to build a swan-like shape. While trying to build the ship, I thought that a swan would not be a good shape for a warship, so I decided to make a merchant ship. This meant I needed space to put the cargo, which I put in the front part of the ship. I extended the blue parts of the hull to give the illusion of wings, and a white ‘castle turret’ was used to represent the tail of the swan.
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More Pictures
| | The sail is configured the same way as the sail of set 6271 (Imperial Flagship). That was an easy choice, becasue I used the Armada Flagship sail, which has the same dimensions as the Imperial Flagship sail.
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| | The cargo door can be opened so that the crew can stow the cargo in the cargo space, where it will be secured so that it cannot injure the crew during stormy weather.
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| | However, in real life it’s not easy to put cargo in the cargo hold via the cargo bay; that’s why the front deck can be opened. 2 chests, 1 chest and up to 3 barrels, or 5 barrels can be stowed away in the cargo hold.
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| | The crew of El Cisno Blanco are loading the last piece of cargo and are ready to depart.
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