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

Dave Tallman · 01 Dec 2008, 21:28 · from 2008-December.txt.gz

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From: davetallman at msn.com (Dave Tallman)
Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2008 14:28:47 -0700
Subject: (urth) "Goodbye Old Buddy" -- Pirate Freedom murder mystery,
	take two
Message-ID: <1bf4dd40812011328q10702e1fidc2ae18413c6b15b at mail.gmail.com>

Mark Millman wrote:

> 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...
> The Golden Age of Piracy is generally held to have been between 1680
> and 1720. Your date of 1650 is a generation too early.
>
Thank you for the date corrections. There's still enough of a gap
between 1680 and 1725 that Wolfe may have intended a clue, but it's
not as clear as I first thought.

...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...
>

By the way, Burt refers to George Carteret as if still alive on p.
138, and Carteret died in 1680. That tends to limit how late the story
can be set,

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.
>
He says of himself on p. 55, "We weren't rich, you twig? My pa's a
grocer."  Still, a grocer's son might have access to better food than
most.

It may be that Captain Burt was a pirate of that time who was duped by
Lesage, perhaps believing the man had oracular powers. The idea that
Lesage is a time-traveler who read Chris's manuscript can stand
independently.
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