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Secret of 'The Unicorn': Why did Sir Francis send them to the Island?

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Harrock n roll
Moderator
#11 · Posted: 27 Jan 2012 08:10
mct16:
Francis could easily have added Red Rackham's treasure to the rest of his fortune but instead he kept it hidden, probably as some kind of financial backup.

I'm not so sure. Admittedly I have no idea of what the law was back then, but would Sir Francis have actually had any legal claim to the treasure? The treasure itself was ill-gotten gains, so he might have had good reason to keep it secret. Legally it might have belonged to any number of people, perhaps relatives of Red Rackham, or the people he stole it from, or even the Crown. Even if he'd had any legal claim to it there would have been good reasons not to advertise the fact, such as avoiding unwelcome attention from thieves, or from Rackham's friends or relatives, or of any of the pirates.

With that in mind, it makes sense that Sir Francis should leave out the part about him "stealing" the treasure in the detailed account written in his journal. Instead he left a cryptic instruction to his sons to move the mast of their model ships slightly aft, "thus the truth will out". For reasons we'll never know, they didn't do this.

I really like the idea mentioned here that the brothers may have had some kind of falling out. Indeed, the wording on the parchments seems to suggest it; "three brothers joyned, three unicorns in company sailing in the noonday sun will speak", which might not only have been a coded instruction, but also a metaphor for their strained relationship. So, perhaps Sir Francis set the whole thing up with more than his inheritance in mind, such as a way of reconciling his three feuding sons? It's a nice thought.
mct16
Member
#12 · Posted: 27 Jan 2012 13:20
Harrock n roll:
Admittedly I have no idea of what the law was back then, but would Sir Francis have actually had any legal claim to the treasure?... he might have had good reason to keep it secret

In the original French, Rackham tells Sir Francis that the treasure comes from a Spanish ship. Francis serves Louis XIV and at the time Louis was trying to get the throne of Spain for his grandson. If Francis had declared it when he was rescued from the island, the treasure would quite likely have gone to Spain if only for reasons of diplomacy.
Harrock n roll
Moderator
#13 · Posted: 28 Jan 2012 01:55
mct16:
In the original French, Rackham tells Sir Francis that the treasure comes from a Spanish ship

Ah yes, thanks for reminding me of this. It's the same in the English version too of course. It makes sense, at that time there was a lot of traffic of Spanish flotilla to and from the Americas carrying lots of precious cargo. Rackham might have plundered it from a straggler on the Spanish treasure fleet.

mct16:
Francis serves Louis XIV and at the time Louis was trying to get the throne of Spain for his grandson. If Francis had declared it when he was rescued from the island, the treasure would quite likely have gone to Spain if only for reasons of diplomacy.

That's quite possible, and a good reason for Sir Francis to keep the treasure a secret. In light of this, perhaps we ought to petition for a name change of the book? To King Charles II of Spain's Treasure ;-)
mct16
Member
#14 · Posted: 26 Dec 2012 02:14
I've been reading parts of Benoît Peeters' Hergé - Son of Tintin and he makes the interesting remark that Haddock, Tintin and Calculus settling together at Marlinspike effectively become the "three brothers joyned" as "the knight's children should have been if they had obeyed his will".

That would indicate that Sir Francis was more successful with his descendant rather than his own sons, since Marlinspike and the treasure does make Haddock more friendly towards Calculus, someone towards whom he has previously shown nothing but hostility.

On the other hand, it's possible that one of the brothers would have followed the example of Max Bird and plotted against the other owners of the Unicorn model ships (Tintin and Sakharine) in order to keep the loot for himself.

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