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or you can get all of History Daily plus other fantastic history podcasts at into History.com. It's November 13th, 1755 in the Atlantic Ocean.

27 year old British sailor James Cook grips the rail to keep his balance as

HMS Eagle skims through the waves in pursuit of a French warship.

For the past year Britain has been at war with France.

It's not unusual for these two powers to be in conflict, but this time the fighting isn't just

taking place in Europe.

The theater of war has expanded to British and French colonies in North America.

And over the last few weeks, H.M.S. Eagle has been part of a British fleet patrolling the Atlantic

Ocean, and now the ships have sighted the French warship Esperance nearing the end of a transatlantic crossing.

The nearest British ships to the Esperance open fire, but the eagle is still too far away to use its cannons.

So at a signal from his captain, Cook turns to a sailor and tells him to unfurl another sail in an attempt to close the gap.

As Master's mate, Cook is one of the officers on board the eagle and it's his

job to relay the captain's orders to the crew. Soon, Cook feels the ship accelerate as the

extra sail catches wind, but by the time the eagle comes alongside

the Esperance, flames are already consuming the French warships whole. The other British ships

have crippled the enemy vessel.

So Cook watches as French sailors abandoned ship

jumping off the side and into the water.

Without waiting for his captain's orders,

...