But these British merchant captains were as clever as they were brave. Take the following incident, which occurred at the end of January 1797 off the east end of Java. Here the French Rear-Admiral Sercey, with a squadron of six frigates, was at sea when five homeward-bound British East Indiamen came in sight. These five were all richly laden, and their first duty was certainly to get their cargoes to England and fight only if inevitable. The names of the British ships were the _Woodford_, _Ocean_, _Taunton Castle_, _Canton_ and the _Boddam_. These five were in charge of the senior officer, Captain Charles Lennox. The latter took the situation in at once, and realised that it would be useless to run away. Moreover the mere act of so doing would indicate the inferiority of his squadron; so he did a very smart thing. He hoisted the flag of Rear-Admiral Rainier at the mizzen, and made the other four ships hoist pendants and ensigns as if they were men-of-war. Furthermore, in order to maintain this gigantic piece of bluff, he actually detached two of his ships to give chase and reconnoitre the French squadron, and as these daring craft approached the _Cybèle_, the latter crowded on sail to join her consorts and made the signal at her masthead: “L’ennemi est supérieur aux forces Françaises.” Thereupon the French Admiral also made sail. He certainly thought it curious that when another of his frigates, the _Forte_, carried away her maintopmast the British did not continue the chase, but the captain of _Cybèle_ hailed him, whilst passing, that he had made out the enemy to consist of two line-of-battle ships and four frigates! Admiral Sercey therefore continued his retreat, and the East Indiamen were never engaged. It was not till a month later that he realised how he had been fooled.