Ian MacDougall

Biography
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Vital Stats
Full Name: Iain Marcas MacDougall

Career: Naval Officer

Age of Joining the Navy: 13

Current Age: 36

Reason for Joining the Royal Navy: To be on the ships he would see passing the isle of Mull, where he would camp when young.

Notable Quotes: “Damn the guns and damn you, we will not adjust our course!” – To the HMS Dunollie’s Master during the 1721 Battle of Bartica

Aims and Goals: To do his best to his country and the King Over the Water through any means necessary
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Friends and Family
Margaret MacDougall (née Hunter): Ian MacDougall's wife

Malcolm Hunter: Ian MacDougall’s brother-in-law

Record of Achievement
July 21st, 1722: MacDougall joins the Saint George Squadron of the White

August 27th, 1722: MacDougall participates in the successful battle to retake Bridgetown from the Spanish

September 4th, 1722: MacDougall gains the rank of Master in the Saint George Squadron of the White

Clan MacDougall History
The MacDougalls are the sons of Dougall (Gaelic for “Black Stranger”), a son of Somerled. Somerled was a Viking by birth, and was first mentioned in historical record in 1140 as the ruler of Kintyre, a small area in the western Highlands of Scotland. In 1153, upon the deaths of King David I of Scotland and King Olaf of Mann, Somerled moved to conquer Scotland, Mann, and the Western Isles.

Somerled tasked his eldest son, Dougall, to take the Isles so that he may be lord of them. In 1156, when Dougall was only 11 years old, he defeated Goraidh mac Amhlaibh (their rival to the throne of the isles) with a fleet of 80 ships. Goraidh and Somerled partitioned the isles in two, each taking half. However, two year later, Dougall returned with a fleet of 53 ships and defeated Goraidh again, forcing the man to flee to Norway. At this time, Somerled and his sons ruled the isles from Man to the Butt of Lewis.

Upon his father’s death, the men of the Isles chose Dougall to be their king and the MacDougalls became the Lords of the Isles. Dougall’s grandchild, Ewan, built the castles of Dunstaffnage and Dunollie, which would become their chief seat.

The prosperity of the MacDougalls seemed assured for centuries and in the late 13th century Chieftain Alasdair MacDougall married the daughter of John “the Black” Comyn, the most powerful man in Scotland. After King John I of Scotland was forced to abdicate his throne, John’s son, also named John and referred to as the “Red Comyn,” was next in line as King of Scotland. In the Wars of Scottish Independence, the MacDougalls were strong supporters of the William Wallace.

After Wallace’s death, Robert the Bruce made a claim to the crown. To discuss the matter, the Red Comyn invited the Bruce to Greyfriars Church in Dumfries. During the meeting, the treacherous Bruce turned upon the Red Comyn and slew him. With his only rival to the throne lying dead on the floor of the church, the Bruce declared himself King Robert I of Scotland.

The MacDougalls declared war upon King Robert and almost killed the new king at the Battle of Dalrigh, where the King narrowly escaped death. When King Robert made peace with England, he turned his full attention to the MacDougall clan and defeated them at the Battle of Brander Pass. King Robert, then, stripped the MacDougalls of their land and titles and handed them over to the toadying Campbell Clan, who were thereafter the Lords of Argyll.

In the English Civil War, the MacDougalls supported the Royalists and, once the monarchy was restored, regained some of their ancestral lands, including the castle of Dunollie.



Pre-Caribbean Life
Iain was born the second son of the MacDougall Chieftain, Alexander MacDougall, on June 13, 1686. Throughout his childhood, Iain spent many evenings camping under the stars on the Isle of Mull. He was struck, at an early age, by the ships he would see sailing by at night and by the stories of Dougall conquering the Isles with his fleet of ships.

In 1699, with his father’s blessing, he travelled to Portsmouth to enlist with the Royal Navy under the more anglicized name of Ian Mark. MacDougall quickly was noticed for his keen sense of strategy as a Midshipman and was commissioned a Lieutenant in 1703.

In 1704, Ian MacDougall returned home to celebrate his brother’s marriage. At the ceremony, MacDougall met a young lowlands woman named Margaret Hunter. Over the next several years, MacDougall wooed the young Miss Hunter through letters written to her while he was at sea. In 1707, he married her in a small ceremony back in Argyll.

By the time of the first Jacobite Uprising, MacDougall had gained the rank of Commander and captained a small sloop known as the Cricket. Back home, the MacDougalls were Catholic and strong supporters of the Pretender James Stuart. When the Uprising of 1715 occurred, Commander MacDougall was incensed when he heard that his family had taken arms in support of the Jacobite cause. Although MacDougall was himself a Jacobite, he believed in his duty to king and country, even if he served the 'wrong' king. Fearing reprisal against him due to his family, Ian voluntarily signed, along with the entire crew of the Cricket, a declaration of loyalty to the King George and the House of Hanover. MacDougall, then, volunteered for blockade duty of the Jacobite ships.While on blockade duty, MacDougall allowed precious cargo ships and refugees to slip by his net into hidden harbors. His knowledge of the inlets where he grew up would have been invaluable as a blockader, yet he used that knowledge to keep Hanover loyalist ships away from those hideaways.

After his family and the rest of the Jacobites were halted at the Battle of Sherrifmuir by John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll, MacDougall, who had successfully managed to hide his Jacobite loyalty, was made Post Captain and given any assignment he preferred. MacDougall chose the Caribbean, hoping to escape from the celebrations of the Hanover loyalists. And so, the MacDougall family made their way to Port Royal.

1720 to 1721: The Disillusioned Years
Ian MacDougall arrived in the Caribbean in the middle of the summer of 1720 with his wife and newborn son, Alasdair. Upon arrival, he met up with his brother-in-law, Malcolm Hunter, who had established a plantation south of the colony of Carolina in land recently taken from the Spanish. MacDougall found the British disorganized and unhelpful in helping his family acclimate to life in the tropical environment. His Britannic Majesty’s Navy seemed uninterested in the captain, and MacDougall, in turn, felt his Jacobite loyalties surface again in kind. Eventually, MacDougall turned in his commission and turned north to work on a permanent basis for his brother-in-law.

At one point, in the summer of 1721, MacDougall was courted back to his Britannic Majesty’s Navy for a few important battles. Most notably, MacDougall made a name for himself during a battle of the coast of Bartica. In this battle, MacDougall, heedless of the danger to his vessel, cut the enemy line in two, to sink several ships protected by the line of battle. Yet, despite this accomplishment, his deeds went unnoticed and MacDougall returned to work for his brother.

Plantation life was dull and boring compared to life at sea. MacDougall was able to spend more time with his wife and son, but his mind constantly turned to the sea. However, he truly felt that his life on the waves was over.



June 1722: The Georgian Massacre
In the spring months of 1722, the Spanish, eager to reclaim their lost territory north of Florida, began to conspire with area pirates to make the area unsafe for British settlers. With maps obtained from Spanish spies, pirate crews began to make deeper and deeper incursions into the mainland for goods and coin.

During one such incursion, Malcolm Hunter’s plantation was hit in an attack by pirates, Spanish privateers, and discontented Spanish settlers. This was a series of plantation attacks carried out in unison in this area. Such destruction, debauchery, and devastation had not been carried out on civilians at this scale since the days of the pirate, Morgan. Hunter’s plantation, along with many others, was destroyed. Almost everything of value was either taken or destroyed.

However, most important of all, MacDougall’s infant son, Alasdair, was killed during the attack by a stray bullet. Having lost everything, Ian and Margaret MacDougall, along with Malcolm Hunter, vowed that they would avenge their loss.

A society of naval men known as the Saint George Squadron of the White took them in after the massacre, giving them a purpose in their revenge. To enact his revenge, Ian MacDougall took up his commission with the Royal Navy yet again and began basing his operations out of Turtling Bay.

Commissions
Present Commands

HMS Bonnie Prince Charlie, 64-gun fourth-rate, Macedon-class.

HMS King James VIII, 62-gun fourth-rate, Reason-class.

HMS Rob Roy, 50-gun frigate, Capricieux-class.

HMS Black Stranger, 42-gun frigate, Raa-class.

HMS Stuart, 38-gun frigate, Stralsund-class.

HMS Saracen, 30-gun polacre, Algiers-class.

HMS Dunollie, 20-gun frigate, Postillionen-class.