Paracel Islands

The Paracel Islands is an archipelago in the South China Sea, located southeast of Macau. During the early 18th century, the islands were a trading spot for the Dutch East India Company, and were often used by fishermen to anchor their boats.

History[]

In 1725, the islands became overrun with pirates which led to a loss of trade for the Dutch East India Company. Jan van Aert, the company's chief navigator, requested the aid of the British Assassin Edward Kenway and his organization, the Zhang Wei Union, to rid the islands of the pirates, having been aware of Edward's former activities in the Caribbean. Jan offered Edward the opportunity to keep any valuables he looted from the pirates and promised to secure a five-year partnership between his company and Edward's upon the job's completion, which led Edward to accept his proposal.^[1]

To rid the island of the pirates, Edward devised a plan to infiltrate their stronghold by hiding in a rowboat alongside his mate John Young, while their ally Mustafa, an acquaintance of the pirates, distracted them. While Mustafa went to party with his former comrades and got them drunk, Edward and John planted explosives around the pirates' stronghold and liberated their prisoners. However, this attracted the attention of the pirates, initiating a gunfight.^[2]

After the pirates' compound was destroyed in an explosion, Edward, John and the prisoners managed to flee the island aboard Mustafa's ship, in part thanks to a bomb thrown by John, which destroyed the pirates' dock and slowed them down. However, the pirates eventually caught up to them after Mustafa inadvertently sailed to the "Boneyard of Sails", a rough patch of the sea infamous for the number of ships that had sunk there. Edward devised a plan to eliminate their pursuers and lured them into a trap where all the pirates were ultimately killed by hwachas built by Yun Pyeong-Gyu, the Zhang Wei Union's engineer.^[3]