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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tuxgeo" data-source="post: 7116126" data-attributes="member: 61026">A post about the timeline -- From the Introduction: Okay, that's the piece of the timeline I was forgetting. La Gloriosa definitely sank after fleeing the raid on Cartagena 15 years ago; and given that any crew member (other than cabin boy?) would have had to be at least 18 years old (?) to serve aboard her, it seems to follow that any sailor who had been aboard would now have to be at least 33 years old, and likely quite a few years more. That fits for the timeline; but forcing there to have been any survivors of the sinking raises other issues. For "#1" (i.e. having been directly involved with La Gloriosa): Did La Gloriosa escape pursuers long enough to reach sight of land, so survivors could row ashore, or did she sink far offshore? (I don't think we know that yet.) Was she scuttled, in order to keep important secrets (and gold) out of the hands of the pursuing French? If she was scuttled, that might have been delayed by hours until many or most people aboard her had a chance to escape to land (and to later give such conflicting interview answers about where the ship went down that the wreckage of La Gloriosa still hasn't been found). Or maybe she was scuttled because she was no longer sufficiently seaworthy (after the cannon-play and the fires) to be of further service to Spain, in the sense of braving the swells of the deep Atlantic. And furthermore -- "What the H-E-double-toothpicks, De Pointis?" Weren't France and Spain allied during Queen Anne's War? Then why was a Frenchman raiding Spanish Cartagena? Some dire villainy may have been at work.Oops! Fifteen years before 1712 would be a raid on Cartagena in 1697, so that's before Queen Anne's War, and before Charles II favored the Bourbon dynasty to rule Spain. In 1697, Spain and France could have been at war, so the villainy might have been more political than diabolical. (But one can never tell without more facts.)Further timeline: the Coral Curse has now been beached for years. I'm going to reread to be sure, but it sounds as though this 'Beck' was some kind of senior member of the crew aboard the Curse. If he was 30-35 then, he could be 35-45 (or more) now, depending on how long ago the Coral Curse was beached. Oops! again: Must add the number of months (or years?) the Curse was sitting offshore in quarantine while the various people aboard her either died of the yellow fever or recovered. . . .</blockquote>

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