A closer look
Thomas Cochrane was the Royal Navy's absolute chaos merchant. Commanding a tiny sloop called the Speedy, he once encountered a massive Spanish frigate outgunning him five-to-one. Instead of fleeing, Cochrane hoisted an American flag to confuse them, sailed in so close that the Spanish cannons fired right over his ship's short masts, and boarded the enemy vessel with sailors whose faces he had covered in soot to make them look like demons. The Spanish surrendered almost immediately.
