Sea Adventure: Duncan's bluff (colour litho)

Duncan's bluff. In 1797, when most of the British fleet in home waters was in a state of mutiny, the trouble spread to the force with which Admiral Duncan was blockading a big Dutch fleet in the Texel. Only his flagship the Venerable and the Adamant remained faithful, but he bluffed the Dutch for weeks by constantly making signals which the Adamant passed on to imaginary ships invisible over the horizon while he kept his men loyal. He carefully put his own ship into shallow water, however, so that if the Dutch came out and sank him, as they could easily have done, the British flag would still be flying. Illustration for one of a set of 50 cigarette cards on the subject of Sea Adventure, issued by Hignett Brothers in 1939.