unforum

[ixalon]

[TRAILHEAD] Sullivan's Stories

[geektastic]

Hi! Joined a long time ago and lurked through a few games, but I've always either been too busy to join in or the games were too far along and moved too fast for me to catch up. So I'm really looking forward to being able to participate in one off the ground.

Has anybody tried responding to the Craigslist posting in the latest blog post?

I tried destegging the image, but there's either nothing there or I haven't landed on the right password. I can't compile StegDetect on the machine I'm on currently, so I haven't run it. Anybody else tried and come up with anything?

Anyway, doing a quick search for Francis Drake maps, I haven't seen one that looks like this. However, Francis Drake did die in Panama and was buried off the cost of Portobelo. So it's not entirely unlikely that something he owned would be around that area.

I'm trying to figure out the missing text (on the ribbons) in the upper-left hand corner. Doing a search using the pieces visible, I'm wondering if it might be "nec spe, nec metu" - "not with hope, not with fear." If the lower-left "nec" is the first word, then the middle upper one starts with "s" which might be the "spe, nec" part, and then the lower-right "metu" to close it out.

Not sure if we should move this over to the regular CF forum area yet.

[ixalon]

[piratepwnsninja]

I've taken the 2 minutes to circle (in obnoxious pink btw) the symbols on the map that are obviously there for a reason. Whether they are there as a red herring or not I haven't figured out yet as I am at work.

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c92/hotcoffeeburns/ANTIQUEDRAKEMAPedit.jpg

Oh, and long time lurker who finally decided to sign up.


Edit:

Actually, taking a closer look at the compass in the bottom left, you can see some of the symbols there, as ixalon mentioned and I missed.

[Cross_]

Most symbols occur more than once, except for the
Delta
Wavy line
Two horizontal bars

Also, the latitude is 20 degrees off- it should be 0 at the equator (wide line) instead of 20N as depicted in the overlay. Longitude looks okay though.

Another one for the obvious category: Auxilio Divino (= by divine help) has been added to the lower right. That's Francis Drake's motto.

The official website for the video game is http://www.us.playstation.com/Uncharted/
There we find coordinates 1 S, 71 W (rounded) as well as a link to the webpage http://www.piratecrimes.org/

[godai]

Other Differences:

[godai]

Also:

the I in Islas De Canaria has been replaced with a script I.

[ixalon]

Not that any of this is important, but here's some interesting info:

The source map dates from 1562, drawn by Diego Gutierrez, Antwerp.
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:109:./temp/~ammem_ssmn:

The criss-cross lines radiating from the unseen compass roses are called rhumb lines (or here's a good word, loxodromes!)

They were first discussed by a portugese mathematician Pedro Nunes in 1537 (http://www.mat.uc.pt/~jfqueiro/presentationPNSO.html). Chances are they were in use by the time Drake was going about his business.

See an example here:
http://bell.lib.umn.edu/map/PORTO/CHAR/rhumpix.html
More info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhumb_line

So, as far as the idea that it belonged to Francis Drake - the timing fits (most of his travelling was between roughly 1563 to 1596.

[ixalon]

[Cross_]

@ixalon: the photo you found earlier is also for the same website game. Probably not for the ARG though.

[geektastic]

[Cross_]

[geektastic]

Ah, thanks.

I'm wondering if we need to email about the Craigslist posting to continue. Has anyone tried responding directly to the posting? I don't see an email address for Victor anywhere on the Sullivan's Stories site.

[Cross_]

I have sent a generic reply to the craigslist ad a few hours ago, asking for more info about the map.

[ixalon]

The tattoo photo from http://www.piratecrimes.org/ contains the north-north-east section of the compass rose... (you can just make out the first 2 symbols on the compass match those in the tattoo...)