Fan This Spark Into A Flame
Canon Base: Frogs & Lobsters, but in 1708 – 1711
Age: 22-25
Corresponds With: To Free The Sea Of Piracy
The admiralty devises a plan to halt the war by ferrying Habsburg Spaniards to a colonized island in Spain’s possession that – if taken – would grant England a prominent military base to engage the North American theater and pressure Spain through the crippling financial losses to treatise with England to stop the war. The island, naturally, being returned to Spain as part of the arrangements. In order to achieve this, Indefatigable would lead five ships in drawing the Habsburg supporters across, as well as a contingent of redcoats to support the unit in capturing the island by holding a strategic town from intervening or providing aid to the mainland’s fortifications.
Unfortunately, the dispatches detailing these plans to one of the captains set to take part in the endeavor were compromised. Despite this, the admiralty believed the island’s capture too crucial to ignore on account of a possible breach. Pellew – aware of the breach – attempted to exercise caution, which simply lead to the admiralty’s demand that the Indy remain in the bay during the assault in the event of defeat, while the other ships returned for new orders. The mathematics of defeat were clear in the command, and Pellew was forced to make his orders with the intention of success despite this fact. Assigning Horatio to act as liaison between a leader of the Spanish and the English major who would be supporting him in the town, Pellew was left to decide for himself the best course of action in the event defeat proved as imminent as he feared.
Ashore with the Spanish, Horatio found himself less than taken by their leader, who held a deep contempt toward those countrymen who would support France in gaining control over Spain. Due to this, he saw fit to exercise French justice on them, to illustrate the foolishness of supporting France and to further establish his whole control over the region through means Horatio could only describe as a reign of terror. Unfortunately for all, the news of the attempt to take the island had already reached the mainland, which laid a trap for the troops who were set to take on the larger city and her fort. This lead to a catastrophic defeat and the turn of attention to the town Horatio was tasked to hold with the assistance of the redcoats. Realizing that they were about to be surrounded in a place they had never been welcome or needed, Horatio and the major beat a hard retreat and were rescued in the nick of time by the Indy. The island remained in the possession of Spain and her opposition – and the Habsburg allies held no survivors during the assault, either taken out in the trap, or executed in the town on account of their leader’s cruel and vicious tactics.
Ocean Archive 