been anything suspicious about the two French ships, if he had been totally honest, but weeks running at half the speed his frigate could achieve had dulled his crew and he wanted to get their edge back.

The French ships had moored off a small island, about a day from the Swift’s intended port and Butler had landed a party on the other side of the island and sent men ashore to see what they were up to. He convinced himself that they were probably taking on water but it was strange that they would do so when they were so close to port; even a port that only months ago would have given them a different kind of welcome. He was also curious to discover what the strange contraptions they carried were for. Butler had been too far away to get a good look but the French had certainly loaded something bulky into their launches before going ashore.

While his men were ashore, the sloop had come around the island and had fired upon them. The French frigate had come around the other side of the island in what should have been a devastating attack. Luckily for them the Sloop had not allowed for their greater speed over their sister frigate and had attacked thirty minutes too soon. Butler had engaged the Sloop and, though they had been damaged, had managed to cripple the smaller ship and still turn in time to face the oncoming frigate.

The Captain of the frigate had obviously thought better of a sustained battle and had veered off. The sloop had received a cannon ball below the water line and was now slowly sinking. Faced with being marooned on the island they were quick to surrender and Butler received the prisoners, sending the wounded to sickbay and the healthy to work. He had sent Lieutenant Fowler over in the jolly boat before the ship disappeared and he had come back with despatches but little else of value.

The dispatches had been in French, of course, and Butler had put them aside to be delivered to the Admiralty when the opportunity presented itself. The Sloop’s officers had been killed, except for their first Lieutenant who professed to know no English.

Butler had ordered them back to their merchant charges it had been on their way that the incident with the French prisoner had occurred. After the incident, he had interrogated the French Lieutenant quite rigorously and it was then that they had started to piece together the abominable French plan.

Butler shuddered as he remembered the sneer on the Frenchman’s face as he had eventually broken and laid out the plan in surprisingly good English.

The French had discovered the Island recently, having laid anchor some months ago for water. They had been attacked by dead creatures almost immediately and had sustained some injuries. They had lost an entire ship to the dead on their return home but their sister ship had returned home with a full account. This had been late in the war and resources had been too limited to take advantage of this knowledge at the time.