The Urca de Lima was the largest Spanish treasure galleon in the New World, carrying a cargo of five million pieces worth of gold. It was the target of the pirate Captain Flint and many others, all of whom had their own particular wishes for it.
History[]
Season One[]
Due to the size of the cargo she was carrying (5 million Spanish dollars worth of gold), King Philip V of Spain was very anxious to see it launched. However, no escort could be found and storm season was approaching. Vazquez, a member of the Casa de Contratación of Seville, was tasked with plotting a course for the ship known only to himself and the captain of the ship, and it was considered a state secret. The schedule includes a stop for water off the coast of Florida in Division Bay. However, Vazquez was still concerned over the risk of hurricanes and the lack of escort. He was stabbed by his employers. Before he died, he stumbled into a tavern in Port Royal and told an English merchant captain named Parrish about the Urca, and details her schedule to him. The conversation is overheard by a spy in the employ of the pirate Captain Flint.
After learning it is unprotected, it became Captain Flint's ambition to take the heavily laden galleon for himself, unbeknownst to his crew, eventually leading them to capture Parrish’s Ship in search of the schedule, which ended up being torn from the log during the battle by one of the merchant sailors, John Silver, who joined Flint’s crew. In order to piece together the schedule, Flint and Billy Bones go to Richard Guthrie to try and get him to use his contacts in Havana to get the schedule. Flint tries to persuade him by promising him a large share of the profits. However, they are interrupted when the Royal Navy arrives and attempts to arrest the three of them, forcing them to flee. In order to defeat a challenge to his captaincy, Flint frames Singleton for the theft of the page and kills him in a duel before revealing to the crew their true quarry, prompting them to cheer and reelect Flint as captain.
The crew then returns to shore to celebrate, despite Dufresne’s attempts to remind them that the crew’s accounts are running low. Ashore, Flint meets with Eleanor Guthrie, where he reveals that he plans to use the money from the Urca to make Nassau a sustainable Nation of Thieves.
Flint and Gates sit down with Charles Vane and Jack Rackham of the Ranger and Eleanor Guthrie in order to work out a partnership deal to take the Urca. Eventually they reach a deal where the Ranger Crew gets a share per man, one for the ship, one and a half for the captain, and priority over unique items.
After Randall accuses Silver of being a thief, nearly exposing the whole charade with Singleton and the schedule, Silver tries to get him to recant by warning him that the crew might just choose to kill him to keep him quiet in order to get a chance at the Urca treasure. Meanwhile, Flint reveals to Gates that he plans to sequester a portion of the Urca gold to use for his own ends.
The Walrus and the Ranger finally set sail for the Urca, however they find Division Bay empty. A Spanish Man O’ War is spotted nearby, and the pirates decide to give battle, which ends in disaster for the pirates. However, the Walrus survivors find the Urca nearby, having been wrecked on the shore in the hurricane the previous night. The surviving Spaniards are reinforced by men from the Man O’ War, and they work on salvaging and guarding the gold.
Season Two[]
After the disastrous Battle in Division Bay, Dufresne tells Flint that if he comes up with a plan that would allow the crew to take the gold, he will be spared. Instead, Flint comes up with a plan for the crew to take the Spanish Man O’ War, as they are too depleted to take the well-guarded gold. Over 100 Spanish soldiers guard the gold on the beach, reinforced by 18-pounder batteries and the warship guarding the beach. The crew accepts the plan, and it is successful. In Nassau, Vane asks Eleanor what she would do if he used his position in the fort to force Flint to hand the gold over.
John Silver reveals to Flint that he is helping him because he thinks Flint represents the best way to get the gold, which would be one big prize for him that would allow him to live out his days as a wealthy man.
After Flint is reelected, he plans to convince Captain Benjamin Hornigold to lend him his ship and the bulk of the Royal Lion Crew in order to take the gold. While he is ashore, he orders Dufresne to prevent the crew from going ashore, out of fear that they would share the Urca’s location and that its defenses are weakened, which would mean dealing with a dozen other crews for the gold. He also sends Vincent and Nicholas to watch over the gold and its guards, so when they return to Florida they will know about the Spanish defenses in more detail. After learning that Vane has seized the fort from Hornigold from the fort, he joins forces with Hornigold to oust Vane and then retrieve the gold. After breaching the fort walls, Eleanor convinces Flint to call off the final assault, causing Hornigold to call for an election.
During the election, Vincent and Nicholas return with the news that Spanish reinforcements arrived and carried away all the gold. Flint is able to win reelection by focusing the crew’s efforts on reconciling Nassau with England. In truth however, the Spanish soldiers guarding the gold had largely fell victim to a plague, and Silver, the lookouts and Max conspired to sell the location to a smaller crew, that of the Colonial Dawn, in exchange for larger shares.
Eleanor eventually catches wind of this plan, and Frasier urges her to kill those who know the gold’s location, as it would embolden the pirates, dooming any chance of reconciliation. While reluctant at first, she sends two assassins after the Colonial Dawn’s officers after learning that her father was killed by Vane. The assassins kill two high ranking members of the crew, but are in turn killed by Anne Bonny before they can finish off Captain Jack Rackham and Augustus Featherstone, his quartermaster.
After setting sail, Featherstone reveals to the crew that their intended prize is the Urca de Lima. After a fierce battle, the crew is successful, and they repair the Walrus in order to bring all the gold back to Nassau.
Season Three[]
After returning form Charles Town, Flint, Vane and Rackham work out a pact over possession of the gold, which is kept in the vaults below Fort Nassau. Rackham uses money from the prize in order to secure other crews’ allegiance in the event of a threat to the island, as well as to fund fort repairs. In the event of an attack, Vane would lead the militia on the beach, while Flint would lead their naval forces.
However, the men paid to work on fort repairs refuse to work, forcing Rackham to rely on slave labor. Meanwhile, his crew recklessly spends large sums of money. Max tries to convince him that Anne and them should set aside a portion of the gold for themselves, which they would convert into more easily transportable commodities, such as pearls and gems. Rackham refuses at first, but after Max tells him to do it for Anne’s sake, combined with the arrival of Edward Teach to the island, Rackham agrees.
Max arranges for various deals that convert a significant amount of the gold into aforementioned commodities, which is then split into two separate caches, one for Max and the other for Jack and Anne. They then learn that a new governor is sailing to Nassau, with a fleet of eight ships and 700 soldiers.
Newly appointed Governor Woodes Rogers sails to Nassau with Eleanor Guthrie at his side as an advisor, due to her intimate knowledge of Nassau and its workings. In order to defeat any resistance, Rogers plans on offering a universal pardon. Eleanor eventually learns that as part of deal with Spain to lend him money for his expedition, Rogers had to promise to return all of the prize gold within eight weeks, or a fleet of ten ships and 1,500 soldiers would be sent from Havana to raze Nassau. When they arrive, they find a fleet of ships guarding the bay and men assembled on the beach. Hornigold, now a privateer in the service of the Crown, is sent to read Rogers’s address, promising pardons for all save for Charles Vane, upon whom they place a £10,000 bounty. The address works, the majority of the pirates surrender.
With the success of Hornigold’s speech, the only holdouts are the Pirate Fleet under Teach’s command and the Colonial Dawn Crew in the fort. After Jack’s men vote to expel Vane in the hopes that it would ingratiate them with Rogers, allowing them to keep the fort and the gold. In order to facilitate their escape, they blow up the powder magazine, allowing Vane to escape to the jetty and Jack and Anne to run away with their cache. With the fort walls destroyed yet again, Hornigold is able to take over the fort.
After the Pirate Fleet escapes, Rogers and his men take full control over Nassau Town. Hornigold informs him that the entirety of the gold has been secured, and Rogers orders it to be handed over to Commodore Chamberlain and prepped to be shipped to Havana.
In order to get a seat on the Governor’s Council and ingratiate herself with the new regime, Max offers her share of the gems to Rogers. Eleanor realizes it’s from the Urca gold, but Max tells them that no one knows that it was originally part of the Urca treasure. Rogers seems poised to accept the deal, remarking that it is equivalent to five years’ worth of tax revenue without any of the resentment that usually comes with it. However, Mrs. Hudson, Rogers’s chambermaid, admits being a spy for the Colonial Intelligence wing of the Casa de Contratacion, and that Spain knows about the exchanges of gold for gems and is furious about them. Rogers agrees to send over the gems, but Hudson warns that based on their calculations, Max’s cache represents only half of it.
Quotes[]
"With the money I strip from the Hulk, we could add 50 guns to the fort. We could build ships to defend our shores and train new men to sail them. We could work the land, grow crops and raise cattle. Then whoever arrives on our shores first, be it England or Spain, will be in for a most unwelcome surprise. A nation of thieves."
- James Flint to Eleanor Guthrie in II.
"I've wanted to give you the time you needed to deliberate, but now I'm concerned you may not appreciate how precarious things will be here should that gold reach our shores. Ma'am, pirates flush with Spanish gold will be encouraged. They will be empowered. But what they will never be, under any circumstances, is partners in a plan to reconcile with England."
"What we're doing here, sitting on Spain's gold on England's island, demands a response."
- Charles Vane to Jack Rackham in XIX.
Trivia[]
- In real life, the Urca de Lima was part of the 12 ship 1715 Treasure Fleet, which was wrecked in a storm off the coast of Florida. However, she did not carry any gold or silver for the Spanish crown but mostly goods such as cowhides, chocolate, sassafras, incense and vanilla. In addition she also carried a few chests of private silver.