2015 Solo Scenario “Who fired the first shot….?”

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Its been nigh-on fifty years since that fateful day but I remember it as if it were yesterday. I’m writing of it now at the request of my grandson who is quite eager upon his enlistment in the Marines as I once was so many years ago. We had been at war with France for the better part of the century but when I first came aboard the HMS Superb, it was one of those rare times of peace between the two countries, albeit an uneasy peace. We had been on blockade duty off the Irish coast when the Superb was summoned back to England. Captain Jason Barlow, the Superb’s hard-driving captain, showed uncharacteristic excitement at the summons. We spent less than 24 hours in Plymouth, only long enough to replenish our water supply and the powder and ammunition we had expended during drills while on station off Ireland. Captain Barlow was the only one that went ashore and when he came back aboard, he immediately called the officers to his cabin, the door of which I had the honor of guarding.

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Once outside the harbor, Captain Barlow assembled the company and announced, “Lads, we are at war once again with the French.” A great cheer broke out amongst the crew, but he held up his hand to silence us. “The sloop HMS Mercury has been sent to inform the fleet watching the French-Dutch coastline and we will join them as soon as the winds allow.”

It wasn’t but a few days later that we came across two longboats of seamen from the Mercury adrift in the Channel. A French frigate had intercepted their ship before they could get word to the fleet. There was a new urgency to find our fleet and warn them.