La Grande Gazelle when it was owned by Marquis de Bullion
- Bullion: "She is a beauté!"
- Callum Kerr: "A what?"
- Bullion: "What do you English-speakers call it … em … beauty! She is a beauty."
- Callum Kerr: "Well there is no doubt on that, monsieur (sir)."
- —Bullion to Callum Kerr about La Grande Gazelle, 1776
La Grande Gazelle was a ship owned by Louis-Dominique, marquis de Bullion. She sailed under a Spanish Flag, before it was taken by Charles Avon during the Golden Age of piracy. At one point it was taken into the French Army. When it was supposed to be discarded, it was bought by Bullion – where it served as a ship for trading. Later he gave it to his crush: Callum Kerr. Later, Callum placed it into the Knights Fleet, where it was used as trading- and military-ship. It was sent to the bottom of the sea – with tons of gold, token by the Templars (the ship was sunk to ensure that the Templars did not got any money to make more operations).
Names[]
La Grande Gazelle carried many names before she was sunk by Gabriel Kerr:
- Santa Maria de Sevilla (Spanish Army)
- Courtesan (Charles Avon)
- Victoire/Valérie (French Army)
- La Grande Gazelle (Bullion)
- The Marquess (Callum Kerr)
History[]
Golden Age of piracy[]
January 12, 1719
I, Captain Hernando Mendez, write something that maybe would be my last. But, then again: We will maybe survive this. Santa Maria de Sevilla have survived storms, hurricanes and pirates. The Spanish gold need to reach the governor of Cuba. We need it if we want to kill these damn pirates, Torres need this.
Captain Mendez put down his pen. It was time to turn this frigate up to Havana. If they stayed in this fish-town anymore, they would loose their job. Governor Torres needed the gold, and now he would get it. Captain Mendez took his place by the helm, and led the the ship out from the cove. Skies rumbled, and rain was about to fill the ship.
Battle between Santa Maria and the pirate-ship
When the Santa Maria turned at the Cape Bonavista, the lookout spotted a frigate in the storm. The flag was black, and now the ship had located Santa Maria as their new target. All Spanier got to their posts, and was ready to fire. Captain Mendez gave order to shoot, but the pirate-ship was fast and soon the broadsides was bombarded. Mendez did not managed to prevent the ship to be boarded. The Captain of the pirate ship – a man in a white and red outfit – came from nowhere, and killed Mendez. The pirate ship was hit by a lightning during the boarding, and the pirate-captain chose to take over Santa Maria and renamed the ship as the Courtesan. The soldiers who did not wanted to join the pirates, was shot and given to the sharks.
Under the Golden Age of Piracy, Courtesan was responsible for the sinking of several Spanish, English, French and Portuguese ships. She defended the rights of pirates in the way of joining Edward Kenway on his missions. She sailed to other parts of the world as a trading-ship; she did also go after forts in the Caribbean sea. When the Jackdaw traveled to a new fort, Captain Kenway did often asked for Captain Avon to meet him.
In 1736, Courtesan was attacked by Frenchmen. She followed the Experto Crede on her ways in freeing the slaves. Haitian government was tired of the Courtesan's fuss, and put a bounty on her. François LePoullitièr was the master behind the bounty; under a mission from Nassau to Charles-Towne, LePoullitièr's ship, Gracieuse, surrounded her with three other bounty hunters. Courtesan sinked two of the bounty hunters and the ship sent of LePoullitièr, Gracieuse. The last ship boarded the Courtesan, and LePoullitièr and his men killed the crew (the white ones was killed, the black was sold as slaves later). In the captain's cabin, LePoullitièr and his quartermaster found two girls and a woman, protected by the captain; LePoullitièr thought that the woman and the girls was his family. He gave an offer: "If you surrender, I will spare your family." The captain accepted, and he was brought to the prison at LePoullitièr's ship. The family of the Courtesan-captain was sold as slaves to men in Africa. Now Courtesan was under the control of the Frenchmen, and renamed to Victoire – for the victory over the captain.
In 1740, LePoullitièr had bad finances, and was forced to sell his ship. The French Navy got Victoire and renamed her again. Now she carried the name Valérie.
[]
After financial problems, François LePoullitièr sold the ship to the French Navy, where it was named Valérie
It is unsaid what the role for Valérie was in the French Navy, but from diverse transactions from Le Havre, Calais and La Rochelle (all in France) could tell that it mostly was used as a trading-ship for the French Navy – and for the Templars. At some point, Valérie traveled to as far as India – where it (as it could say from the captain's diary) said that Templars had found some strange artifacts.
The captain was usually always a man from the French Templar Order; by doing this, the Templars managed to control the high seas in all of the world: from Canada in West to India in East. The Templars managed to locate diverse allies, and Valérie was a powerful weapon.
Years passing, and in 1773, a French admiral told the captain at the time being that it was time to retire Valérie. Marquis de Bullion meant it was a terrible idea to squander such a beautiful ship, so he bought it.
Services of Bullion[]
When Bullion bought Valérie he named after an animal he had seen one time when he was in services of the French Army: A giant gazelle, La Grande Gazelle. In the services of Marquis de Bullion, La Gazelle was used as his personal cruise and trading-ship. It traveled long distances – from France to South America (mostly Rio de Janeiro, since this was under control of the Templar Order).
In 1774, Bullion was tasked to travel to the colonies – where he was supposed to meet a Templar member named Callum Kerr. The Templar had so far only had one task: kill a Native American with close affiliations with the Assassins Order. Bullion's task was to teach Callum about what to do right now. Boston had recently been lost tea – and other values – in the sea. Bullion owned a plantation in Port-au-Prince, where Callum was supposed to travel to – where Madeleine now lived, as a concubine with her lover: Charlotte LeFay (the duke she had been married to, had divorced with her and was now married to an Austrian princess). Madeleine – a Caribbean Templar – owned her own company, which Callum would be tasked to execute diverse contracts.
Upon the arrival in Boston, Callum wanted to know what all this was about, and the Marquis simply replied that he had come to teach Callum in what it meant to serve the Templars; it was the Templars' task to make sure that men and women could make their future come true. So far, Callum had been given one target: to kill a man that had close affiliations with the Assassins; now Callum was tasked by Bullion to sail to the Caribbean, where he was supposed to find mixtures for the people in Boston. To get to the Caribbean, he was given the ship La Grande Gazelle.
Caribbean sea[]
Under the guidance of the French aristocrat Madeleine François de Bullion, Callum Kerr was tasked to execute five contracts. The Templars' grip in the Caribbean had been weakened thanked to the now dead Assassin-Mentor Edward Kenway. Five Assassins had to be dealt with. The Assassins ran their own operations which worked against their own cause. Callum's five targets was: Rhona Dinsmore, Antó, Opía Apito, Upton Traversand a woman known as Lady Concord – a Templar-turncoat.
The Caribbean
Callum located Rhona in Havana. To disguise himself from the Spanier, Madeleine had bought him sails and a flag that would give the ship a Spanish-lookalike style. When Callum anchored in Havana, he was welcomed by the Cuban Governor. While he was in Havana, he used his time to locate the Assassins and their bureau. He found Dinsmore in the southern part of the city. Callum led an assault on her and her acolytes of Assassins, making the old woman take her own life – refusing to make a Templar make claim on her and her bureau.
Great Inagua
Callum proceeded in the same way when was suppose to locate the other targets. When the four first targets was dealt with, Callum found lady Concord in a mansion located at Great Inagua. Since lady Concord was an important pawn of the Assassins, she was heavily protected. Madeleine wanted self to come to the battle, along with an armada of French ships. La Grande Gazelle was the first ship to entering the cove, and send mortars to the village. Great Inagua was used as the new main-location for the Caribbean Assassins, and if the Templars managed to take over the island, they would manage to weaken the Assassins drastically.
La Gazelle destroyed everything the Assassins had built, and when the French Navy anchored in the harbour, they killed every pirate that still lived there. Madeleine and Callum ran to the mansion, where they located lady Concord – with many Assassins. Callum wanted Madeleine to wait for the soldiers, which she did not agreed to. She followed Callum into the gardens of Kenway's old mansion – which had seen it's better days. Callum knew where the Assassins hid, and Madeleine shot them.
Inside the manor, Madeleine and Callum was attacked by lady Concord and three skilled Assassins. While Callum fought against the Assassins, lady Concord managed to escape – Madeleine followed her. At the cliff where the guest house was located. Lady Concord draw her sword, and Madeleine her's. The fighting went on for minutes, with the one lunge more lethal than the other one. At the same time, La Gazelle roared. She shot mortars up to the mansion and to the guest house (the crew did not saw Madeleine fighting up there). The result was that lady Concord was hurt, and Madeleine grabbed her. She dragged the woman to the edge of the cliff, where she threw the Assassin down. If lady Concord did not died of the fall, she died of the piranhas that waited at the end. Madeleine watched at the little village. La Gazelle had managed to destroy the town, and the Assassins' home.
After the contracts and the teaching Madeleine had given Callum, she made him a Master Templar, harbinger of a New World. Returning to Boston in 1776, marquis de Bullion had been given the task to return to France. At the eve of the marquis's arrival, Bullion kissed Callum on his cheeks and said that he could keep La Grande Gazelle. Callum knew that the Colonial Grand Master would never say yes for a French ship in his army of Templars. Callum did therefore named her The Marquess (but in his mind, the ship would always carry the name La Grande Gazelle, as a memory of his time in the Caribbean, where he became a Master Templar). She was transformed in style one last time.
Knights Fleet[]
Last fight of La Gazelle (now named The Marquess)
In the Knights Fleet, The Marquess was lead by Callum Kerr on ways to other parts of hte world, aiding the Templars. The Templar made their paths to different parts of the world to spread the Templars' influence.
The Marquess was not only the ship for trading, but also for military use. During the Seven Years War and The American revolution, The Marquess was used to aiding the Templar Cause and the Colonial Rite. After the death of Callum in 1814, the ship passed under the command of Marie-Jean LeFay de Bullion.
One of the many missions Marie-Jean did for the Knights Fleet, was to escort tons of gold from a cove in Kingston, to the Templars' hideouts in Ireland (this order came from Shay Cormac himself). Marie-Jean and his wife traveled across the Atlantic Ocean when their ship was attacked by the Assassins Fleet. She put up a hard fight, but with all the gold for the Templars, she was hard to maneuver. The ship from the Assassins Fleet made La Gazelle/The Marquess suffer. The old lady was no match, and was sunk by the Assassins. The gold sank to the bottom of the sea, and the once great and feared ship was no more.
Crew[]
Crew of Charles Avon[]
- Charles Avon (Captain; 12 January 1719–1736)
- Lucy Avon (Quartermaster; 1724–1736)
- Unnamed Assassins
- Unnamed pirates
[]
- Unnamed French Captains
- Unnamed French Templar-Captains
- Unnamed French soldiers
Crew of Bullion []
- Marquis de Bullion, holder
- Unnamed Templar Captain (hired by Bullion; 1773–1774)
- Unnamed French sailors (1773–1774)
Crew of Callum Kerr[]
- Callum Kerr (Captain; January 1774–1776)
- Bullion's Captain (Quartermaster; 1774–1776)
- Madeleine de Bullion (Coxswain 1776)
- Bullion's French sailors (1774–1776)
- Haitian sailors (1774–1776)
Crew in Knights Fleet[]
- Callum Kerr (Captain; January 1776–28 November 1814)
- Callum's wife (Coxswain; 1806–28 November 1814)
- Bullion's Captain (Quartermaster; 1776–28 November 1814)
- Unnamed colonial sailors (1776–28 November 1814)
Trivia[]
- La Grande Gazelle is French and meaning The Giant Gazelle
- Even though La Gazelle had been used in many time periods, her days of glory was in the Caribbean in 1774–1776 and her time in the Knights Fleet.