Near York Factory, a shore party was still scouting the post when d'Iberville mistook approaching sails for his missing squadron. A shot across Pelican's bow revealed an English force led by the fifty-gun Hampshire, with the thirty-two-gun Hudson's Bay and thirty-six-gun Daring. On 5 September 1697, the three-to-one engagement produced brutal close-range broadsides, with blood running from Pelican and the flagship apparently near defeat. d'Iberville refused Captain Fletcher's demand to surrender, and Fletcher reportedly toasted his opponent's bravery as the action continued. One of Pelican's broadsides detonated Hampshire's magazine. Daring escaped and Hudson's Bay surrendered, while the shattered Pelican was lost before the rest of the French force arrived.
Chapter · 24:10-27:21
Pelican fights three English ships in Hudson Bay
Outnumbered and badly damaged, Pelican reverses the fight when a broadside detonates Hampshire's magazine, though the French flagship is also lost.