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Red Rackham: True location of the treasure?

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yamilah
Member
#11 · Posted: 21 Mar 2005 12:03
One thing was a mainland map, using a local meridian for accuracy purposes, another thing was a maritime map: in "Tintin, Haddock et les bateaux" (Ed. Moulinsart, 1999), Yves Horeau confirms the information given on Nicolas Sabourin's site that the Ferro meridian was in use in 1698, and says the real location according to the parchments' data would have been in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico...

In the original French version, the Unicorn is a French ship under French command, owned by Louis XIV... Hence the following rule should be applied: "In the year 1634, France (...) decided that Ferro meridian should be used as the reference on maps", a meridian located "17 degrees 39' 46" west of the Greenwich meridian", according to this.

Useful to check out by yourself these 3 different possible locations.

In case you don't have Red Rackham's Treasure to hand, let me just remind you the data given by the three united parchments:
latitude: 20 degrees 37' 42" North
longitude: 70 degrees 52' 15" West
finlay
Member
#12 · Posted: 24 Mar 2005 22:32
I think the globe is only inaccurate because it's just a few squiggles, because it's so small on the page.
Richard
UK Correspondent
#13 · Posted: 25 Mar 2005 10:57
Hmm ... what do the figures on the parchments actually refer to ? If you assume it relates to the rest of the text - "and then shines forth ... the Eagle's cross" then it pinpoints the cross itself on the island, which isn't much help finding the treasure (although interesting to see how long Daddy spent on the island).

However, they could also refer to the globe in the chapel at Marlinspike, although if there are such gaping errors as the complete loss of the UK, then finding the treasure would have been even more difficult !
tintinuk
Moderator Emeritus
#14 · Posted: 25 Mar 2005 10:59
I'd never thought of that ! If there were such gaping errors, finding the treasure would have been well-neigh impossible, especially if you tried to refer to the Marlinspike globe !
yamilah
Member
#15 · Posted: 27 Mar 2005 17:42
To make the parchments' geographical data more clear:

Latitude is 20 degrees 37' 42" N(orth) ...please fill in the 3 upper boxes of the site hinted above on the 21st of March, i.e. http://geography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mapquest.com%2Fmaps%2Flatlon g.adp

Longitude is 70 degrees 52' 15" W(est) ...please fill in the boxes just below in three different ways:
1. For the Greenwich meridian, write -70 degrees 52' 15" (minus means W of Greenwich) then zoom out to see where the Unicorn was not.

2. For the Paris one, write -68 degrees 32' 01" (i.e. 2 degrees 20' 14" more to the east) then zoom out to see where the Unicorn was.

3. For the Ferro meridian used in 1698 by the French navy, please write -88 degrees 32' 01" (Ferro meridian was conventionnally 20 degrees west of the Paris one): is that place somewhere 'in the Gulf of Mexico', as asserted in the official book above mentioned on the 21st of March?
Comments are welcome...
jockosjungle
Member
#16 · Posted: 27 Mar 2005 19:02
At the end of Red Rackham's Treasure when Tintin finds the globe is there any significance in the fact that the island is moving?
When I was younger I always wondered if this was a reason they had trouble finding it and it was a floating island?

Rik
yamilah
Member
#17 · Posted: 27 Mar 2005 20:21
jockosjungle
Yes, the island has been 'moved' indeed, but don't you think the meridian can be 'moved' too ??
BlackIsland
Member
#18 · Posted: 28 Mar 2005 23:33
It was just the fact he was into that sort of thing and really did not have any real validity.
yamilah
Member
#19 · Posted: 2 Apr 2005 15:12
Err... as some data have just become ...invisible on Mapquest, please see directly

http://academic.evergreen.edu/k/knodev02/world-dir.-chichen-itza.jpg

to have some idea about the 1698 (parchments' time) Hierro longitude (see above), nowadays 88 deg 32' 01" W of Greenwich.
The 2nd horizontal line is latitude 20 deg 40' N (about)...

Is this place 'somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico', as written in the 'official' book 'Tintin Haddock et les bateaux'?
Has this funny information been modified in "Tintin at sea" ?

NB: to print this map, you might have to save it first in your images, then print it as a photo...

Try http://128.250.125.178/world.html as well.
Richard
UK Correspondent
#20 · Posted: 2 Apr 2005 18:53
Yes, the Gulf of Mexico reference is retained. The passage from Tintin at Sea reads :
"However, Sir Francis could well have used the 'first meridian' drawn through the Canary Isles, which dated from the ancient Egyptians and was still in use during the seventeenth century. This would have placed the island somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico !"

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