Benedict Arnold

FTFY o7

This seems like something I could get into.

I should like to confirm that the Letter of Marque granted me by His Royal Majesty, King George III, leaves the disposition of my patrol area entirely to my own discretion and initiative. I have been instructed to seize as prizes of war any vessels found to be aiding and abetting those rebellious traitors that have taken up arms against the Crown's authority in the American Colonies. As such, I patrol wheresoever and howsoever I best see fit, assisting the Royal Navy when the opportunity arises, as it did last night. And for weeks now, I've found operations in US waters quite comfortable, having secured some of my most lucrative prizes off the coast of Charleston itself.

Yes, Spain never saw you coming. Congrats on those courageous victories versus undefended ports.

While sailing my Basic Cutter on routine trade interdiction duties on behalf of His Royal Majesty, King George III, I encountered a large American assault fleet just north of Xpu Ha on the Yucatan peninsula. The fleet was sailing south towards British territory, and their bellicose motives were self-evident. As a loyal subject of the Crown, I immediately notified British national chat of my observations and proceeded to shadow the fleet, comprised of three Victory-class 1st rates, two Bellona-class 3rd rates, a Constitution, two Trincomalee-class 5th rates, and multiple Frigates and Surprises. The fleet, aware of my presence, made for Xpu Ha and entered the port, leaving a single Trincomalee outside with sails down to keep an eye on me. After standing off upwind for a few minutes, me watching him, and he watching me, I observed additional USA ships sailing down from the Tumbado area to join the rest of the assault fleet in port. Before long, I intuited that the Trincomalee was waiting for me to sail away so that he could give a signal to the rest of the fleet that it was clear to move out. In a maneuver that I can only describe as somewhat inspired, I spotted some NPC fleets just south of the port and quickly raised my own sails and maneuvered to intercept them. As I sailed in front of an NPC Constitution, blocking my Cutter's view from the Trincomalee back in Xpu Ha, I quickly dropped my sails, confident my small profile would be invisible from the port. Within seconds of this ruse, I was proved right, as the entire US assault fleet spilled out of Xpa Ha and veritably filled the channel with their sails. I immediately raised my own sails and gave chase. The wind had shifted to my favor, so despite the fact that I was south of them, I was able to sail on a comfortable beam reach while maintaining a position well upwind of them, completely preventing them from engaging me as their square rigged ships could not sail up to reach me. And they had no fore-and-aft rigged ships to deal with such a situation. I continued to give position and status updates to my British compatriots in national chat, where a plan of defense was quickly formulated. As the assault fleet approached Chinchorro, the wind was shifting to the east and I moved to the head of the column to obtain a more advantageous position. Due to the nearby presence of land, this allowed one of the Surprises to engage me in battle, though I was able to bear off and ensure that he'd be nowhere near me once the battle instance loaded. Once in the instance, I set off on a close reach and easily sailed away from the Surprise, but while doing so, the captain of one of the Victory-class ships purchased a conquest flag for Brewers - a ways south of Chinchorro. However, because of my shadowing of the fleet, and my reporting to British national chat, it was obvious to all that Brewers was almost certainly a ruse, so one of my compatriots immediately purchased a conquest flag for Asuncion - a USA port nearby Chinchorro - in the hopes of tricking the assault fleet into switching to defense. As I dropped out of the battle instance, none the worse for wear, I saw that a rainstorm had set in. Despite the reduced visibility, I spotted sails in the distance and quickly identified one of the fleet ships I'd seen previously. They had completely reversed direction and were headed towards Congrios / Asuncion for what they thought was a counterstrike. Our plan had worked. I continued to shadow the fleet and found them anchored off the estuary between Congrios and Asuncion, sails down, waiting for a British assault fleet that was, unbeknownst to them, never going to materialize. After sending a NavyBrig to engage me, which I again easily sailed away from, it became clear that they'd fallen for a trick and with the last few minutes of their conquest timer slipping through their fingers, they relented and dispersed. I shadowed the three Victory-class 1st rates to what appeared to be their home port in Tumbado, exchanging a bit of goodnatured ribaldry via PM with the conquest flag holder. Hats off to my British countrymen who, through subterfuge and misdirection, were able to completely stymie a US assault fleet, preventing a British port in the Yucatan from being lost, with no losses of their own and absolutely minimal cost. A lovely evening, indeed!