The Schedule of the Urca de Lima was the secret course of the largest Spanish treasure galleon in the New World.
History[]
Background[]
Vazquez, an agent of the Casa de Contratación, is charged with plotting a route for the Urca de Lima, the largest Spanish treasure galleon in the Americas, carrying a cargo of five million dollars with of gold. Despite his misgivings about the lack of escort available, and the fact that storm season was approaching, Vazquez was ordered by his superiors to plot a course known only to him and the captain of the ship, and that route would be considered a state secret. Vazquez did as he was bid, but after bringing his concerns to his employers yet again, he was stabbed in the stomach.
Vazquez then made his way to a tavern in Port Royal, where he told his story and the schedule of the ship to an English merchant captain named Parrish, who wrote the story and schedule down on his log. A spy in the employ of the pirate Captain Flint overheard the conversation and notified him, and Flint began hunting Parrish’s Ship.
Season One[]
Flint finally hunts down Parrish’s Ship. As he closes in on the ship, which Parrish refuses to surrender, the Merchant Ship’s Cook goes into Parrish’s cabin and rips the page containing the schedule out of the log. He then flees to the armory, and tries to lock the door but another crew member, John Silver, barges in and locks the door behind him. When the ship is hit by the Walrus’ cannon fire, the schedule, which the Cook had wrapped in oilskin, falls out of the Cook’s shirt. The Cook scrambles to pick it up, making his Silver curious. When the Cook refuses to divulge what it is, Silver says he’ll just have to ask Captain Flint. The Cook then tries to kill Silver.
After the boarding is complete and the merchant crew subdued, Gates finds the door to the armory locked. He has his men break it down and Gates finds Silver standing over the dead body of the cook, who Silver says committed suicide out of fear. Silver then offers to join their crew, saying he is a very good cook, and they accept. Back in the cabin, Flint finds the logbook with Vazquez’s story, but Gates points out that the page with the schedule is missing. Flint tries to get the information on its whereabouts out of Captain Parrish, who is about to be tortured by Singleton and his cronies. Parrish says he doesn’t know who took it, and says it must have been one of his men, but Flint says they were all searched. Before they can continue, His Majesty’s Ship the Scarborough, of the British Royal Navy, is spotted sailing towards them, and the pirates flee to Nassau. Flint then informs Gates of his plan to enlist the aid of Richard Guthrie in piecing together the schedule.
En route to Nassau, Silver examines the schedule in private, but cannot discern its meaning. Once ashore, Silver is brought to the Inn for an initiation orgy. As it happens, Silver’s gaze is drawn to his fallen coat, which contains the schedule, which Max notices. Afterwards, she confronts him about it, and manages to make him agree for her to be his partner. She correctly realizes he plans on selling it, but is dismayed when he says he does not know what it is.
That night, Silver and Max row out to the Walrus, which is anchored out in the bay. Silver is able to sneak into the cabin, where he finds Parrish’s log, and realizes that the page is the schedule for the Spanish treasure galleon, L’Urca de Lima.
At Richard Guthrie’s mansion on Harbour Island, Flint and Billy meet with him in his study. There, Flint explains the story of the Urca and its unusual schedule, and asks for Richard’s help in learning the Urca’s final schedule by inquiring with his contacts in Havana. Richard refuses, saying that if Spanish Colonial Intelligence learned of it they would have him killed. Flint then violently restrains Richard and tries to force him to reveal the name of his contact. The meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Captain Francis Hume of the Scarborough, who tries to arrest all three of them, forcing them to flee.
When they return to the Walrus, Singleton challenges Flint to a vote for the captaincy. Flint goes into his cabin for a moment and enters a rage, when he notices a feather on the floor, making him realize that someone on the crew has the schedule. When he exits, he explains that the reason for their poor prizes lately is that he has been tracking a massive prize, and that they are close to catching their quarry, but Singleton has chosen the page from the log necessary to do so, and then stoked the crew's resentment against him to cover his tracks.
Gates says that they can either hold a trial for Singleton with him as judge, or Flint and Singleton can duel. Singleton chooses the latter, and the two fight. Ultimately, Flint wins, and hands Billy a blank page that he makes it seem as if he took it off Singleton's body. Billy lies and says it's the stolen page, and Flint then reveals to his crew that it is the schedule of the Urca de Lima, and he intends to hunt the treasure galleon and take her cargo. The crew then cheers and unanimously votes to reelect Flint.
Meanwhile, Max approaches Jack Rackham and offers to sell him the schedule.
As the crew prepares to go ashore to party in celebration of their new quest, Flint reveals to Gates and Billy that the schedule is somewhere on the island, because someone snuck into his cabin to read the log. The three then realize that Silver is in possession of it. They try to discreetly apprehend him, but he jumps overboard and is taken ashore by a departing longboat.
Silver flees to the Inn after successfully sending his pursuers on a wild goose chase. Meanwhile, Max meets with Jack, where she has Frasier appraise the 5,000 pesos worth of pearls that Jack brought as payment. Silver hides in the room next door watching through a peephole. However, Vane overhears from the Walrus men that Flint has the schedule, and he barges into the room and begins choking Max, while Jack tries to calm him down and tell him that Flint is lying about the page in order to remove Singleton.
Jack then notices that Silver is watching and tries to sneak towards the peephole, which he rams his dagger through. He then runs to the other side, where he sees Silver's blood on the blade, it having only grazed his cheek. He then tells Vane that he scared the real thief off.
After they leave, Flint, Gates and Eleanor arrive. After realizing that Eleanor wouldn't stop them from torturing her in order to find out where the deal will be completed, she tells them that it will take place at The Wrecks at sundown, and breaks down crying.
Jack and Vane arrive at the Wrecks, and Vane bellows out for Silver to come out and show himself. Silver sends an Old Man to retrieve the pearls, but Vane kills him and demands Silver show himself. Silver sends another Old Man, but before anything more can happen, Billy spots Silver and tries to shoot him but misses. A chase then ensues as Flint, Billy, Vane and Rackham all try to catch Silver. Eventually, Silver hides by a fire and memorizes the schedule before burning it. Meanwhile, Rackham falls over a cliff into the ocean, losing the pearls in the process. When Flint and Billy do finally catch Silver, he reveals that he destroyed the schedule, so they are forced to keep him alive to rely on his memory.
The next day, Silver writes down the schedule in Eleanor's office, surrounded by her, Scott and the Walrus leadership. Flint takes a look and tells him that the schedule isn't complete, knowing that the Urca will stop somewhere on the Florida coast to take on water, where she will be most vulnerable to attack. The course Silver provided ends miles short of that coast, and Silver then explains that he will keep the final coordinates to himself until they set sail, to prevent Flint from killing him before they do.
Billy continues to worry that Silver's information is inaccurate. When the Walrus sets off after the Andromache to obtain her 12 pounder cannons, Silver is left behind to prevent him from getting killed in the battle.
When the crew returns, they vote to expel Randall, believing him to be a fire hazard now that he only has one leg. Randall accuses Silver of being a thief and having stolen the schedule.
After the Walrus and the Ranger set sail to capture the Urca, Silver is summoned to the great cabin to give Flint the final coordinates. As he does so, Flint produces his own reconnaissance. He has written down the coordinates for a dozen bays and inlets near the course Silver gave, and if the final coordinates match one of Flint's the odds are that his information is correct. The coordinates Silver provides lead to Division Bay. Silver passes the information to De Groot, who still has doubts about Silver's trustworthiness.
When the pirates arrive in Division Bay, the Urca is nowhere to be found. The pirates then do battle with a Spanish Man O' War, and are defeated. The Ranger goes down with all hands while half the Walrus crew is killed, though the survivors manage to beach the half destroyed ship on the Florida shore. The wreck of the Urca is found nearby, having been dashed by the storm the night before.
Season Two[]
Flint and Silver orchestrate a plan where the remaining crew takes the Spanish Man O' War guarding the wreck of the Urca, restore Flint to his captaincy and regroup and refit in Nassau and then take the gold. However, the crew is sidetracked after having to deal with the fact that Charles Vane had gained command of Fort Nassau and Flint's plans to reconcile Nassau with England using Vane's captive Abigail Ashe as a bargaining chip.
After Vincent and Nicholas return with the news that most of the Spanish soldiers guarding the gold had died of a plague, Silver devises a plan. They tell the rest of the crew that the gold is gone and sell it to Jack Rackham, captain of a smaller crew that would net larger shares for the three of them. En route, Featherstone reveals to the crew their true prey, beginning with the story of Vazquez. Rackham does succeed in capturing the gold, but by that time the two lookouts had been killed and Silver forfeited his share.
Text[]
V had some acute observations to make viz the proposed homebound journey of the L’Urca. While all he had to say did not make sense, his pain befuddled ramblings needed some clarifying on my part- I deem the following to be fairly accurate distillation of his garbled mumbling: to whit
L’Urca is to weigh anchor from 23\Lat. N on the Feast Day of San Isidro. I surmise departure therefore to be from Havana on the 15th of May. From there, the usual course NE via the F. Straits with course set SE and E to harness the trades winds across the North Sea, destination Cadiz.
NOTE: Deviation from usual Flota route acc. to V. a break in the sea journey to take water aboard Havana by the charted course.
NNE, 29 leagues / 124 \ Lat N°
NNE, 37 leagues / 25 \ Lat N then NE & holding* —> course ref 26\ Lat N, 28 leagues . 27° lat N, 46 leagues at 30° lat N*.
I surmise St. Augustine. Following this stop, L’U must depart for C. no later than the F. day of San Fernando de Castile.
My knowledge of Spanish Saint days is sketchy but as I recall the calendar date would be May 30th?
Trivia[]
- The Feast Day of San Isidro is on May 15, and the Feast day of San Fernando de Castile is May 30 in real life.
- The deviation from the regular course the author describes in the middle section (beside the drawn chart) tries to estimate where the Urca is to be found. He guesses it is in St. Augustine / at 30 deg lat N. At least relative to the real life location of the Urca wreck he is off by the last leg. The real wreck is at 27 deg lat N. This makes sense as the ship wasn’t found in the location it was supposed to be because it was wrecked on the shores of Florida in a storm, both in universe and in real life.
- The transcript of the schedule and research on the dates and locations was done on this Reddit thread, all credit goes to them: https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackSails/comments/fxhzs6/can_some_fill_in_the_blanks_on_lurcas_schedule_i/