(urth) "Goodbye Old Buddy" -- Pirate Freedom murder mystery, take two

[Mark Millman]

Dear Mr. Tallman,

On Monday 1 December 2008, you wrote:

> I recently posted a theory here that
> Chris/Ignacio murdered Valentin and
> helped Lesage set up Captain Burt for
> betrayal. I now think the truth is more
> complicated than that. . . . There are
> alternatives if other time travelers are
> involved. In particular, Captain Burt
> and Lesage could be time-travelers.

This hypothesis strikes me as unnecessarily complicated, but that's
not the only reason to doubt it.

> Taking the theory a step further, it's
> possible that "Captain Burt" was a
> young criminal associate of Lesage
> taken back in time to play that role.
> There are a few hints:
>
> 1.  Captain Burt is marked as a time
> traveler by his anachronistic use of the
> racial slur "Dago" (p. 39), which wasn't
> used until the 1800's (the age of pirates
> was circa 1650).

I'm afraid that both of these points are factually incorrect.  The
O.E.D. cites "dago" as appearing in print before 1725.  As a slang
word, it's likely to have been in use for a considerable time--several
decades--before its first print citation.  At the time, it was
unlikely to have been considered a slur by its users any more than
Shakespeare would have considered his use of the word "Polack" in
_Hamlet_ to be a slur.  Wolfe's having Burt correct himself when he
first says it to Chris (also on page 39) is probably inaccurate,
historically speaking.  If it was insulting, it's more likely to have
been a class issue than an ethnic one; "dago" might originally have
suggested that the person of whom it was used was a common deckhand,
which would have offended anybody of a superior rank.

The Golden Age of Piracy is generally held to have been between 1680
and 1720.  Your date of 1650 is a generation too early.

> He also translates a ship's name
> ("Saint Charity" p. 39) which a real man
> of the sea would never do (p. 232).

This strikes me as more likely to be Wolfe's way to indicate that
despite his denial ("We've been hours tryin' to get our bearin's.
None of us speaks the lingo, you see," also on 39), Burt understands
some Spanish.  Alternatively, he may be so far from able to speak
Spanish that he doesn't try to pronounce the ship's name, but gives
the closest English equivalent that he can.  (A more correct, and
certainly more idiomatic, translation would be "_Holy Charity_".)
Chris may also feel that the name of the ship that he tells Novia not
to translate--_Castillo Blanco_--may be too funny, as she translates
it to "_White Castle_".

> 2.  He hints that he gets the Jersey/
> New Jersey joke (pp. 39, 138).

I see no reason to believe that Burt thinks Chris is from anywhere
other than the island of Jersey.  It's probably why he asks whether
Chris understands French (page 39 again); as a Channel Islander, he
could easily come into frequent contact with Frenchmen.  His
suggestion that Chris go to New Jersey with his anticipated winnings
(page 138) is probably suggested by (a) his belief that Chris is from
Jersey, which puts him in mind of George Carteret's colony--so named
because Carteret is also a Jerseyman--and (b) the likelihoods that
Chris' money will go further and that he will be less likely to be
discovered and prosecuted as a pirate in the colony.

> 3.  Burt is taller than the average per-
> son of the time, though shorter than
> Chris ("...the deck beams just cleared
> his head. I had to crouch in that cabin,
> just like I crouched in our cabin on
> Sabina" p. 279).

This is irrelevant.  George Washington was born in 1732, just after
the GAoP, and was 6'2" (188 cm) tall.  Burt, as a former midshipman,
is probably of good birth, from the gentry or better, and would have
had adequate nutrition to reach his full height.

> The time paradoxes in all this boggle
> the mind. But this seems far more
> satisfying than the original "evil schem-
> ing Chris" theory.

I do agree that the "evil scheming Chris" approach seems off-kilter for Wolfe.

Best,

Mark Millman