3rd July 1745
Rumour is rife that the usurper Prince shall be trying to land in this great kingdom over the next few weeks. As such I have been assigned by his gracious majesty to board his majesty’s ship ‘HMS Neptune’ to record in a true and exact manner the progress of his forces against the Usurper.
Today we are at sea in the English Channel searching for any contraband vessels that might be aiding the usurper Prince or his allies the French. All to no avail and the master of the ship tells of his orders to sail west on the morrow to continue the search.
4th July 1745
The squadron consists of the ‘Neptune’, ‘Apollo’, ‘Venus’ and ‘Zeus’ all of which are rated as frigates, The crews are good and hearty in their eagerness to be a part in the capture of the Stuart Prince. No sightings of the enemy today.
5th July 1745
The weather gets worse as we move north and into the Irish Sea, spirits are high but it is increasingly difficult to see any great distance in the squawls that arise in this area of the ocean.
6th July 1745
The squadron passes into the Atlantic Ocean, I believe that the strategy is to belay the usurper Prince at the very point that he might intend to land. What a cruel trick on such a fellow, but a joyous celebration to us if we should succeed in such a cunning and cleaver plan.
7th July 1745
The weather eases as we sail into the shelter of the Western Isles, the area is covered in many small islands. From my position on the deck I can see many villages on the islands as we pass by, the folk here are by all accounts accommodating of the usurper but all seem to hard at work in their fishing vessels to make time for such ill conceived ideas of rebellion. Still no sightings of the enemy, I begin to believe that they may have given us the slip!
8th July 1745
The die is cast, the ‘Neptune’ determines to head towards the island of Mull, on approaching the main port it becomes clear that there is unusual activity. At first I think it is one of the Royal Navy’s squadrons re-supplying but on closer inspection we have stumbled upon the usurper Prince and his fleet.
The ship’s Captain quickly accessed the situation and determined a course of action – namely that two shore parties would be placed upon the island of Mull, both to consist of an officer, two marines and three ratings of good repute from this very vessel. The first party under Lieutenant Connor, an energetic and experienced man, is to be dropped at the north point of the island, a second party under Ensign Muir, a young man from these very shores but loyal in the extreme to our glorious king. Muir is an officer in the Marine contingent and is to be dropped at the south point of the island. The two parties are to observe the goings-on on the island and report back to the ‘Neptune’ on its return.
For our part we are to sail south west and link-up with the rest of our squadron and return in haste to force battle on the rebel fleet. With the plan made we set sail, heading north to drop the first party, we then sailed south circumnavigating the island and dropping the second party at the southern most point of the island before we move away to rendez-vous with our sister ships.
9th July 1745
Over night the we had little success in finding our squadron but at first light we met with the ‘Venus’, later in the morning we were able to rendez-vous with the ‘Apollo’ and the ‘Zeus’. After a ‘Council of War’ the squadron headed north east to meet the rebel fleet. The ‘Zeus’ was sent further north to seek out the Campbelltown and 2nd Plymouth Squadrons that were patrolling there.
By three o’clock our squadron is approaching the island of Coll and as they do so a lookout on the ‘Venus’ notices three other vessels anchored to the north east. It is the rebel fleet and off to the east is a fourth vessel rapidly approaching, clearly a naval action is about to take place.
