Eight Months Later.
February 7th, 1873, Oamaru Bay, Queen Charlotte Sounds, New Zealand, aboard the Russian Warship Petropavlovsk.
Ship-of-the-line Captain, Grigoriy Ivanovich Butackov, of the Imperial Russian Navy's ironclad frigate Petropavlovsk, paced the teak deck with growing impatience. Hands clasped behind his back, he reached the rail, swung his six-foot frame around, and began his return journey for the umpteenth time that hour. Crewmembers and officers unlucky enough to be on duty avoided his steely gaze and kept their heads down under pretence of their duties.
As the dying storm raged overhead, Butackov's ship, safely moored in the lee of Oamaru Bay in the north of New Zealand's South Island, tugged restlessly at the single anchor holding her firmly in position. The biting s
