The French Bombardment of Cocktown, 1794.

With no formal communications with the outside world, Tamba- Tamba was slow to learn of significant developments.
When, in the spring of 1794, two rogue French warships, L'Orient and St.Lo, launched a bombardment on Cocktown, it must have seemed that the world had been turned upside down. Three islanders were killed in the bombardment.
French Marines landed on the island unopposed, and Cocktown was plundered.
The French left after a week of terrorising the islanders. The first that the outside world knew of this outrage when an American whaler, The Benedict, stopped at the island a month later.
The Council, under the guidance of Citizen Rowley Rowley, knew that in order to survive they must seek help...