Camoflage is a legitimate war tactic. So long as you didn’t fire before raising your actual flag, it was a legitimate ruse-de-guerre to get closer to an enemy.
Also where the phrase “showing your true colors” comes from. It’s pretty neat how phrases centuries or decades removed from relevance still have a place in language!
If you suspect them, you could demand they surrender and prepare to be boarded, and legally give them warning shot, and then shoot them if they don’t comply.
If the ship sailing under false colors began to shoot under another flag, that’s a War Crime.
Camoflage is a legitimate war tactic. So long as you didn’t fire before raising your actual flag, it was a legitimate ruse-de-guerre to get closer to an enemy.
Also where the phrase “showing your true colors” comes from. It’s pretty neat how phrases centuries or decades removed from relevance still have a place in language!
and what if you started cannoning before they change flag
If you suspect them, you could demand they surrender and prepare to be boarded, and legally give them warning shot, and then shoot them if they don’t comply.
If the ship sailing under false colors began to shoot under another flag, that’s a War Crime.