THE Random Chat Thread - AKA "The RCT" - No shirt or shoes required - Open 24 / 7

After a hard night of binge/ I wonder if these words are noted to the reflection of the next morning?

God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and
Wisdom to know the difference.
Did you awake naked or clothed ? ? ?

OR are you STILL awake... and if so... again.... naked or clothed ? ? ?

:)

:P
 

I don't know about easily.
I do believe your ability to research has been well honed.
And how you sift through it is more effective than many others.

An intuition that pays off is far more than merely easy. It's experience /veterans luck.

Being both researcher and field operator on any large scale takes a lot.
But you get to keep more of the rewards too!

Keep at it.
You're well beyond "swing till ya hit" type hunting. But keep swingin anyways.
Reasonably safely preferred.
Let's take a look at another spot....I have, and am always looking for the "source" material to start a search with. First I read the material.....over, and over again. This let's me pick the important parts out. Here is a clip of jan Williams part in the sack of vera Cruz Mexico in MAY 1683.
20220904_111809.jpg

First order of research is to see what sacrificos island looks like today, and if its a good detecting site. I already know that 4000 hostages were brought there. I know a large buccaneer force also was encamped there and that it was there for at least 2 weeks. I know that a large ransom was also brought here.

So large amount of rich Spanish hostages, large amounts of stolen and stripped riches are being divided, and loaded aboard ships, and a lage ransom of money has all been concentrated on the island of sacrificious !! Imagine the gambling amongst pirates also and the enormous logistics it would take to sustain this 4-5000 man operation on this tiny island.

These facts alone make me want to try and detect it if possible, so I must do recon through Google earth....so let's see this island of sacrificious !!
 

Screenshot_20220904-113812_Maps.jpg

Are you kidding me !! This tiny island had all that treasure and activity there ?? !! Well its only a matter if I can get on the island with a detector thats left !! Its definitely gonna produce if im able to get there and make it happen.
 

View attachment 2044816View attachment 2044817

Even better someone else has been there and left me great photos to analyze...(it looks good) and even a shot of the beach, and a boat that takes people there from vera Cruz !!
You get to go on so many cool treasure searches mine only consist of walking distance areas from where I am or whenever I go along with someone somewhere and hope there is a metal detecting opportunity. No expensive finds for me yet. Hoping at some point at least for a decent ring to pay for a Deus 2 I want one so bad lol
 

View attachment 2044812
Are you kidding me !! This tiny island had all that treasure and activity there ?? !! Well its only a matter if I can get on the island with a detector thats left !! Its definitely gonna produce if im able to get there and make it happen.
A population of about 24,000 people.
Money from ransoms and captives. But captives being sold as slaves was money elsewhere. Unless the fleet or part of it returned.

24,000 people . Must have allowed news to spread of the assaults and kidnappings.

Who hid what in advance of being grabbed? And how much was recovered?
Plus of course your wanting to sniff where pirates camped and boarded and deboarded.

[With painstaking planning, the pirates originally took their high-value hostages, including Don Luis de Córdoba, the governor of Veracruz, and members of the Catholic clergy to the nearby tiny Isla de Sacrificios (Island of Sacrifices). Once the ransoms were paid, the pirates returned the hostages to Veracruz. But up to a fourth of the port city’s then small population of about 6,000 people remained captive. The captives—people of African descent, many of whom had intermarried and intermixed with the Spanish and indigenous population, some already Veracruzanos in the second or third generation, were deemed mulatos, pardos, negros and morenos. Regardless, the pirates loaded them up and sold them into slavery.]
 

Some question of the effectiveness ($$ results) of ransoms on Wiki..
[On the second day of plundering, the Spanish plate fleet, composed of numerous warships, appeared on the horizon. The pirates retreated with hostages to the nearby Isla de Sacrificios and waited for ransoms. Impatient that payments did not arrive immediately, Van Hoorn ordered the execution of a dozen prisoners and had their heads sent to Veracruz as a warning. De Graaf was furious; the two argued and then fought a duel.[4] Van Hoorn received a slash across the wrist and was returned to his ship in shackles. The wound soon turned gangrenous and Van Hoorn died shortly thereafter.[5] Finally, giving up on further plunder, the pirates departed, slipping past the Spanish without hindrance.[3]]

And a mention of the fleet being offshore pre attack , but a staged landing "some distance" from the town. Of one ship? Or were the two men put ashore? Were there others with them? This is stuff I don't like to try to decifer thinking it matters.
Maybe one of the two prior captured Spanish ships was "landed". Employed more conspicuously as a ploy to deceive?

[de Graaf and Yankey Willems were landed some distance from the town]
 

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Hmm.
[The governor paid a ransom of 70,000 pesos. About 1,500 prisoners were taken to an island for ten days until a ransom of 150,000 pesos was paid. More than three hundred people were killed in the raid that cost several million pesos in damages. The buccaneers selected the most attractive women and left with them and 1,300 Africans and mulattoes. The booty was divided into 1,200 shares with each getting 800 pesos. Van Horn took eighty shares but quarreled with Laurent over his portion]
 

Some question of the effectiveness ($$ results) of ransoms on Wiki..
[On the second day of plundering, the Spanish plate fleet, composed of numerous warships, appeared on the horizon. The pirates retreated with hostages to the nearby Isla de Sacrificios and waited for ransoms. Impatient that payments did not arrive immediately, Van Hoorn ordered the execution of a dozen prisoners and had their heads sent to Veracruz as a warning. De Graaf was furious; the two argued and then fought a duel.[4] Van Hoorn received a slash across the wrist and was returned to his ship in shackles. The wound soon turned gangrenous and Van Hoorn died shortly thereafter.[5] Finally, giving up on further plunder, the pirates departed, slipping past the Spanish without hindrance.[3]]

And a mention of the fleet being offshore pre attack , but a staged landing "some distance" from the town. Of one ship? Or were the two men put ashore? Were there others with them? This is stuff I don't like to try to decifer thinking it matters.
Maybe one of the two prior captured Spanish ships was "landed". Employed more conspicuously as a ploy to deceive?

[de Graaf and Yankey Willems were landed some distance from the town]
Yes yes !! Thats it.....I have no great expectations when I go somewhere like this....only that a concentration of wealth was brought to the island under harsh conditions. That alone tells me there should be at the least a cobb or two. A best case scenario is there are many great artifacts such as coins, buckles, buttons, pottery, bottles/glass, weapons and shot should all be there. Including my white whale....gold and gemstone spanish colonial era jewelry, and maybe religous artifacts that would definitely have been looted. Just a dream spot I've found on my own that I would love to hit one day. I have many accounts of this event from many sources...including the landing site and path to the city....the city itself is paved over....but isla de sacrificios.....well I would be happy to just walk it and hunt if I could....the tides have been good to me before !!
 

Well , it doesn't look like a ship lounged about at shore pre-sacking then.
[Meanwhile, de Graaf and Yankey Willems slipped ashore with a small force of men.]

But , was the careening site prior , used repeatedly? And did others also do so, or at least spend any time there?


[The buccaneers retired to Bonaco Island to careen.[3] But de Graaf and Andrieszoon had their plans ruined when Nicholas van Hoorn attacked the ships and captured them empty. Having captured the vessels, van Hoorn reached Bonaco Island and proposed to join forces with de Graaf but was turned away. Later de Graaf relented and joined forces with both van Hoorn and Michel de Grammont for an attack on Veracruz. Their raiding party consisted of 5 large vessels, 8 smaller vessels and around 1300 pirates.[5]]
 

Yes yes !! Thats it.....I have no great expectations when I go somewhere like this....only that a concentration of wealth was brought to the island under harsh conditions. That alone tells me there should be at the least a cobb or two. A best case scenario is there are many great artifacts such as coins, buckles, buttons, pottery, bottles/glass, weapons and shot should all be there. Including my white whale....gold and gemstone spanish colonial era jewelry, and maybe religous artifacts that would definitely have been looted. Just a dream spot I've found on my own that I would love to hit one day. I have many accounts of this event from many sources...including the landing site and path to the city....the city itself is paved over....but isla de sacrificios.....well I would be happy to just walk it and hunt if I could....the tides have been good to me before !!
Prisoners could have secreted things too. And re-secreted them on the island when things looked dim.
Maybe a better feeling to tamp a hidden jewel into the sand that let a pirate take it off your dead body later.
 

I grabbed a sweatshirt last night for the last couple outings. Still cool enough this morning for it too.

Been watching the plantain. It's about ready for stripping mature seeds off.
Noticed some leaves falling a week or more ago. Let's pretend they were just tired...
A bit of color on a couple maples on side tops.
Ya , we're winding down a season to up another season.

Ogled the cedar and birch in your gazebo pic. the other day and was reminded of a couple spots up there.
We've similar here in areas. But certain spots in Onterio looks like what I consider Onterio.
Not sure if the flora and fauna are as unique as the memories, but they are all linked for sure.
The white cedars seem to do ok, the birch have a short life.

Built the gazebo, looked up, dead branches up 25 ft on the birch-ready to fall on tin roof.
Pole saw won't reach the branches, so I'm still thinking of a plan.
Climbing the sucker isn't in my resume.
Got most of the gear, just no boot spurs.
 

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