15/06/55 - Prince of Wales

Few artwork depicting navy ship from the 14th century
has survived. This is a painting of the battle
of Sluys, 1340. 

Personal Situation
The Prince of Wales is currently based at the tower of London, where war supplies are piling up. He is preparing to travel to Plymouth where he will reside in a local Castle and oversee the pre-embarkation maneuvers.

Situation
The Prince of Wales personally has devised a network of counter spies to monitor the troops in Plymouth. Normal practice is to forbid all outbound maritime traffic from all English ports until the army sails. Therefore there are some counter-intelligence agents on site already, but this plan is novel. It seems that it will be effective, mainly because it was implemented long before Plymouth is teeming with bored soldiers. Here is the report from various aides:

The response from the shires is extremely positive. We should meet or exceed our targets in archers, knights and their retinues of men-at-arms. The tower of London is filled to the brim with grosses of arrows and spindles of strings as well as bow sticks. We are, however, unable to source enough horses, either destriers, palfreys or sumpters, from the coastal areas. We are going to scour the hinterland, but the price to get them to Plymouth will be greater. This is the same story with all kinds of victuals. This isn't a problem because we are running a surplus for now. However, if we don't provision Plymouth and find enough billeting space, we are going to have a troop morale problem.     

 More worrisome is the poor reports from the King's agents recruiting merchant shipping into the navy. The prediction are that we may not be able to ferry everyone. We may have to allow some of the men to purchase their horses in France from the base in Bordeaux. Prioritizing horses from the Nobility is also an option, although a foot-borne body of archers would make us very slow.

Mobilization outlook

1. Troops
1. Archers (3000) : Enthusiastic response
2. Welsh Spearmen (1000) : No news yet.
3. Knights and retinues (6000) : Enthusiastic response
2. Victuals
1. Food : shortage
2. Wine/beer : shortage
3. Fodder : shortage
3. Supply
1. Archery (bows, arrows, strings, heads) : On target.
2. Horses : shortage
4. Navy
1. Acquire shipping : Dire reports from the Admirals
2. Staff ships : Slow, lack of ships to staff.
3. Retrofit ships (gangways, hurdles.) : Order sent, no news. 
5. Embarkation
1. Billet troops : Not enough billeting space found.
2. Discipline : Shortages and space: signs of troubles.
3. ETA : Sept 1, 1355
6. Funds
1. Level : Suitable
2. Creditors : The investors have contributed. 
3. King's funds : Will be on time (ETA: July 1)
4. War tax : Excellent forecast (ETA: Aug 1)

Instructions
There is a difficult decision to make: source what is missing from afar and pay a higher price in shipping or be more aggressive with what can be found in the coastal areas. Surplus of funds will attract even more men to the venture, but we have to be careful to ensure that we can feed them, keep them from mischiefs and get them into boats on time. Once the men arrive in Plymouth, we must pay 6 months of service in advance: this is mostly where the funds will go in the coming few weeks.

To address the shortage of ships, we may want to raid the French coast for shipping: after all, the ships have to be somewhere out in the channel. The downside to this is that some of the civilian ships would have to be used as raiders instead of being retrofitted for transportation. This is a gamble, but an option.