A squadron of the British Royal Navy…

A squadron of the British Royal Navy anchors off the coast of Nauru on September 21, 1881, and the squadron's flagship approaches the island to appraise the local situation.

An acculturated local beachcomber, William Harris, boards the British ship, which summons the rest of the squadron by semaphore that evening, saying that a tribal war is raging, an escaped convict had become king, that all of the islanders are drunk, that the actual king of the island, Aweida, wishes to have missionaries come to the island to help stop the war.