The Saunders Accord

An important part of the history of The Stepping Stones is the Saunders Accord.

As Ebbing grew into a major stop along the trade routes between Amurin and Camar it naturally began to draw unwanted attention in the form of pirates and raiders preying on merchant ships transiting the area as well as smaller settlements located around Harrow's Island. Besides Ebbing the main victims of this activity were primarily ships sailing under Amurini and Camari flags. As the pirate activity began to expand from an annoyance to an actual problem, the Camari frigate Loosestrife along with her support group simply set up operations in Arno Bay.

This created a great deal of tension in various quarters. The residents of Ebbing feared anything from military occupation to outright annexation by Camar. The pirates operating in the area realized that their more or less unchecked access to the seas around Harrow's Island were now endangered, and most significantly, the military leaders of Amurin saw this as a potential first step by the Camari government in laying claim to some or all of the Stepping Stones, and so they dispatched their own forces led by the man of war Eltham along with its support group.

Tensions moved from a simmer to a full on boil as it seemed that the tiniest misstep could spark a full fledged - and very costly - war with one sure loser no matter what - Ebbing.

Enter Marta Saunders.

Marta Saunders was the granddaughter of Galwell Saunders and Oswynne Lowe, and rose to prominence during the crisis that followed Camar's campaign against piracy at Arno Bay and Amurin's subsequent intervention in the Stepping Stones. Marta was not a professional diplomat, but worked primarily in logistics for her family's commercial interests. In typical Ebbing fashion she largely ignored the political posturing and saber rattling and instead asked the obvious question "what does everyone want?"

Under the Accord, Ebbing provided Camar and Amurin permanent facilities for naval detachments at no cost, along with unrestricted access to the port's commercial and logistical resources and priority access to the Ebbing Ship Works for needed repairs. Personnel stationed in Ebbing are treated much like resident aliens, they may live, trade, provision their ships, and make ordinary use of the town, while remaining subject to Ebbing's laws when outside their own military facilities. The land and facilities provided to the detachments remain part of Ebbing and neither kingdom possesses sovereign territory within the town.

In return, Camar and Amurin agreed not to escalate their rivalry within Ebbing, recognized that the port was more valuable to both nations as an independent trading center than as a possession of either, and agreed not to interfere with its independence. Both also committed roughly equal naval forces to suppressing piracy throughout the surrounding waters. The arrangement left Ebbing with the unusual advantage of two foreign navies protecting its harbor and shipping while neither could dominate the port without upsetting a settlement valuable to the other.

Although relations between the original Camari and Amurini detachments were wary, decades of serving alongside one another have considerably softened them. Their modern contingents share a naval pier, cooperate routinely, and generally maintain cordial relations. The Accord remains one of the foundations of Ebbing's prosperity and Marta Saunders's most celebrated public achievement.

The presence of well staffed war ships in Ebbing's harbor quickly brought pirate activity throughout the central Stepping Stones to its knees as one or two pirate vessels which might be able to take on a heavily laden merchant ship were hopelessly outclassed by the warships of either nation, and in short order things began to return to normal.

At least in the immediate vicinity of Ebbing and Harrow's Island. The pirates, not a group known for their "team spirit" realized that it was no longer feasible to operate as individuals or small groups. Despite their greater numbers and broader experience operating in the waters of the Stepping Stones, they simply could not match trained and well outfitted naval warships. This led ultimately to the formation of The Drowned Men, a loosely organized mutual defense pact among the pirate crews. Rather than challenging either naval contingent directly, the Drowned Men employ diversions and guerrilla tactics to draw the enemy forces away from their intended targets, then concentrate several pirate vessels against a single merchant ship, frequently opting to simply kill all aboard the captured vessel for the sake of expediency, placing their own prize crew aboard, then scattering before one or the other naval contingent arrives.

To date the Drowned Men have not been encountered in the waters around Ebbing or Arno Bay, but their ships have been seen in the vicinity of Port Tallow on the western side of Harrow's Island, and rumors are beginning to spread that some of their ships actually harbor in the port itself.