A/N: Okay, let me bang these out one by one:

--Disclaimer: I do not own Scooby Doo.

--This story was not intended to have any relation to my other ones. Right now I can't think of anything that would necessarily be inconsistent... but I want to clarify that if some things don't match up, ignore my other stories.

--I might make mistakes here. I'll try to be reasonably accurate, but try to enjoy the story even if it's not entirely historically correct.

--I'm going to rate this K+ for now; I'm not sure how violent the battle scenes might become. I could change the rating to T later; I don't know.

--Sorry if this story seems kind of one-sided. I mean, I've learned about other views on the American Revolution in history class, and I agree some of them make sense. But try to get past that... I'm not trying to offend anyone... just in case anyone reading this is from the UK or Canada.

--And finally, understand none of the ships I support actually happen in this story, at least not to the historical versions of Mystery Inc... or they do appear but it ends brokenheartedly... just warning you. The reason will dawn on you sooner or later, if it hasn't already. It probably also will occur to you why there must be some ship... I'm not gonna say any more.

Prologue:

"So let's talk a little about your grades for these nine weeks."

Mrs. Bennet's voice snapped the class to attention. Nobody had been paying attention to the slide show, other than Velma Dinkley (of course). Even Velma had been somewhat bored with it. It was seventh period on Friday. What could one expect students to do with a slide show about what happened a century or two ago?

Grades, however, were an entirely different ballpark.

"For the most part, everyone in this class is passing. Unfortunately, there is only one 'A' amongst all of you. And I don't think I need to point out the correlation between that 'A' and the student who actually pays attention in this class and takes notes!"

Velma slumped slightly as the teacher read her name. Then Mrs. Bennet went back to her speech.

"Your junior year is the year you should all be taking schoolwork seriously. College is not far off for any of you. At least, I hope you all make it to college. I have not been seeing as much effort as I would have liked. Frankly, I am disappointed."

The class looked at each other.

"I will, however, give all of you a chance to pull your scores up. Here's a little extra-credit assignment to be handed in Monday. I expect excellence from all of you."

She strode to the back and pulled out a poster. "This," she explained, "is my family tree. Your project is to do some research into your own family histories and learn about your ancestors during any of the events we have discussed in this class. You may write a report, or you may tell the class about it. If you do not hand this in or present on Monday, I will give no extra credit points. And may I warn you, Norville," she said as Shaggy cringed at her use of his "official" name. "If Scooby 'eats' this assignment, I assure you that your grade and the Titanic can keep each other company, understood?"

Shaggy gulped and nodded.

"Good. Have a fun weekend, class!" she told them as the bell rang.

Right. Make someone do a boatload of research over the weekend, then tell him to have fun. Why not just chuck him into the swamp and tell him not to get his feet wet?

Mystery Inc. left and went to their respective houses.

And to their respective attics...

-------------------------------------------------------

Mystery Inc. met at their favorite table in the student lounge before school Monday morning.

"Like, how long did you guys spend working on that thing for Mrs. Bennet?" Shaggy asked Daphne and Fred. Velma hadn't quite arrived yet.

"Well... I was really afraid I'd spend my whole weekend working on it... but then I came across a gold mine in an old trunk my parents inherited and I was done after a couple hours."

"Like, me too!" Shaggy exclaimed.

"Wait... you mean you actually did yours?" Freddie asked, pulling his report out of his backpack.

"Yeah, I did mine."

"Oh, you mean your project?" Velma asked as she wandered in. "I finished mine maybe an hour after I found something really neat in my parents' library."

"Why did you do a project?" Daphne asked. "You've already got an 'A'."

"I've got a ninety-four; that's barely an 'A'," Velma explained. "Anyway, I found this book and I thought I may as well do a project on it, since I came across it so easily."

Freddie smiled. "Wow... looks like we all got lucky. Come on, let's see 'em!"

All at once, each of the four friends plopped his or her findings down on the table.

They gasped.

One could have sworn each lay down a copy of the exact same maroon, leather-bound journal... almost, anyway. The only difference between the books was the names on the first page of each diary.

Norville Rogers.

Frederick Jones.

Daphina Harriot.

Elma Whitefield.

"Jinkies," Velma whispered, as an eerie chill gripped each friend in turn. The others could only nod. There was some connection between the diaries; they just knew it.

Trembling, each turned to the first entry in the journal he or she had contributed.

Each entry contained the same exact date in the upper right-hand corner.

January 4, 1774.