Kidd-Palmer Treasure Maps SOLVED by Oliver D. Smith

[Carl-NC]

I have a much harder time trying to explain these differences assuming RI is the original.

I find it much easier to explain the differences assuming RI is the original. First, the RI map has far more detail and clarity; there is nothing in there that makes you say, "I wonder what that means?" Second, all of the elements of the RI map are created as they are to fit the storyline. Elements that might not make sense in real life don't have to make sense because this is fiction.

What we have right now is a known version of the map with a publish date of 1903, and other versions of the map that appeared 26 years later with no known provenance. Occam's Razor strongly suggests that the other versions were crude (and cruder) copies of the RI map. Claiming otherwise would mean Louis Tracy had access to those maps and created a far more detailed version for his book based on them. In that scenario, he either put the maps in the furniture or had another copy separate from them. But in the world of fiction, it is way way easier to just make up your own map to fit whatever story you want to tell.

Those wanting to continue believing the KP maps are genuine pirate maps have a really steep hill to climb. Either Tracy had those maps, or he had another copy. Either way, there needs to be undeniable evidence that a map existed before Tracy created his. Right now, that doesn't exist.

 

[Bocaj]

I find it much easier to explain the differences assuming RI is the original. First, the RI map has far more detail and clarity; there is nothing in there that makes you say, "I wonder what that means?" Second, all of the elements of the RI map are created as they are to fit the storyline.

Or he started with the map and created the story around it. That is at least how I would create a fictional story on a small island. Just to imagine the island in the first place. Draw the map and stick to it so there is no contradiction in your story.

My guess is M.P. Shiel was first to create a story around an island and then didn't use it so Tracy took over but he was not good with a sea-based pirate treasure story so he changed it to a castaway story.

Also Shiel wrote a few stories about hidden compartments in furniture. He had to sell his furniture, he lived in Cutlers area. He needed money and was accused of plagiarism etc. My money is on him.

Elements that might not make sense in real life don't have to make sense because this is fiction.

Well good fiction should be based in reality. In any case why would the Palmer maps creator change the map but leave it so similar that it is visible a clear copy?

What we have right now is a known version of the map with a publish date of 1903, and other versions of the map that appeared 26 years later with no known provenance. Occam's Razor strongly suggests that the other versions were crude (and cruder) copies of the RI map. Claiming otherwise would mean Louis Tracy had access to those maps and created a far more detailed version for his book based on them.

I would not call it "far more detailed" - some details like the coastline are but in others the Palmer maps have more details (cliff lines etc). Also why using a map that is published by a known author? Why not inventing it as well?

Those wanting to continue believing the KP maps are genuine pirate maps have a really steep hill to climb. Either Tracy had those maps, or he had another copy. Either way, there needs to be undeniable evidence that a map existed before Tracy created his. Right now, that doesn't exist.

Well the prove is on the one who makes the claim. In this case the claim that the maps are solved. As I suggested there are other interpretations that are at least quite possible and need to be addressed. I don't mind either outcome but I run a hard bargain with everyone who claim to have this solved. Cryptid is closest to the solution I feel. I just think it needs just a bit more to make it stick.

 

[Carl-NC]

Well good fiction should be based in reality.

I dunno, some of the best fiction isn't realistic at all. The whole genre of science fiction, for example.

 

[Cryptid1990]

In Edwardian publishing, it was most common for publishers to commission maps and illustrations from artists or illustrators based on an author's manuscript. The illustrator of the first edition of Rainbow Island (London: Ward, Lock & Co., 1903) was Fred Pegram. The commissioned illustrator i.e., Pegram, would have read the manuscript Tracy submitted to the publisher and from visual descriptions of the island (e.g., "crescent-shaped") formed a mental-picture he then drew.

The first edition was published in September 1903.

The earliest reprint was November 1904 and also used Fred Pegram's illustrations including the map.

The 1910 reprint by The Romance Book Club also contains Pegram's illustrations including the map.

I now own a physical copy of a reprint from 1912.
Ward, Lock & Co.’s reprinted the book as part of their "Sevenpenny Net Novel" series.

Ward, Lock & Co.’s Sevenpenny Net Novels – A Series of Series

The series ran from 1912-1917 but Rainbow Island was published the first year [1912] and was #3 on their list:

This reprint [1912] also has Pegram's illustrations including the map.

Later reprints (mid-late 1910s) also contain the same map.
By the 1920s, there were minor alterations made to the map. Some of these I pointed out in an earlier post.

The sequence of events:
Tracy's manuscript --> Pegram --> Rainbow Island map (1903, reprints: 1904, 1910, 1912, late 1910s) --> minor changes to map (1920s)

There are other reasons to reject the idea that the RI map was copied/was based on the Skeleton Map, when it was the other way around. Carl-NC touched upon one of these: information loss. The hoaxer who drew the Skeleton Map deliberately omitted certain annotated places from the RI map that are specific to the plot/story and those omissions were so people would not easily identify the map template was Rainbow Island. Consistent with this is the hoaxer retained the shape of the island and much of its topography but removed the most plot-specific places annotated on the RI. For example, "Sirdar struck here", "fight with devil fish", "boat thrown on rocks" were removed and do not appear on the Skeleton Map. Instead the annotations that remain (or variants) are much less-plot/story specific. Smuggler's Cove is a generic place name. In the book, this is mentioned five times and described as a "secluded and tiny bay, sandy, tree-lined, sheltered on three sides by cliffs and rocks" and it is the place where Dyak pirates landed on the island.

 

[Bocaj]

In Edwardian publishing, it was most common for publishers to commission maps and illustrations from artists or illustrators based on an author's manuscript. The illustrator of the first edition of Rainbow Island (London: Ward, Lock & Co., 1903) was Fred Pegram. The commissioned illustrator i.e., Pegram, would have read the manuscript Tracy submitted to the publisher and from visual descriptions of the island (e.g., "crescent-shaped") formed a mental-picture he then drew.

I doubt that the author would write the story without making a sketch of that island first. Sketches that is what the Palmer maps are. For what it is worth I guess there never been any other. These are THE sketches and they were first. He (or I rather think M.P. Shiel) created the story but later did some small changes but used the original sketches for the RI version. (None of those maps show any connection to Kidd (apart from the Yunnan parchment) and could be very well drawn for a similar story or an earlier version of it) The wrecks became the two broken halves of the Sirdar, the volcano cone a lake etc. And all of it was taken from a real island - not in China but some place that (I guess Shiel) did know.

View attachment 2256524
The first edition was published in September 1903.

The earliest reprint was November 1904 and also used Fred Pegram's illustrations including the map.

View attachment 2256526

The 1910 reprint by The Romance Book Club also contains Pegram's illustrations including the map.

I now own a physical copy of a reprint from 1912.
Ward, Lock & Co.’s reprinted the book as part of their "Sevenpenny Net Novel" series.

Ward, Lock & Co.’s Sevenpenny Net Novels – A Series of Series

The series ran from 1912-1917 but Rainbow Island was published the first year [1912] and was #3 on their list:

View attachment 2256525

This reprint [1912] also has Pegram's illustrations including the map.

Later reprints (mid-late 1910s) also contain the same map.
By the 1920s, there were minor alterations made to the map. Some of these I pointed out in an earlier post.

The sequence of events:
Tracy's manuscript --> Pegram --> Rainbow Island map (1903, reprints: 1904, 1910, 1912, late 1910s) --> minor changes to map (1920s)

There are other reasons to reject the idea that the RI map was copied/was based on the Skeleton Map, when it was the other way around. Carl-NC touched upon one of these: information loss. The hoaxer who drew the Skeleton Map deliberately omitted certain annotated places from the RI map that are specific to the plot/story and those omissions were so people would not easily identify the map template was Rainbow Island. Consistent with this is the hoaxer retained the shape of the island and much of its topography but removed the most plot-specific places annotated on the RI. For example, "Sirdar struck here", "fight with devil fish", "boat thrown on rocks" were removed and do not appear on the Skeleton Map. Instead the annotations that remain (or variants) are much less-plot/story specific. Smuggler's Cove is a generic place name. In the book, this is mentioned five times and described as a "secluded and tiny bay, sandy, tree-lined, sheltered on three sides by cliffs and rocks" and it is the place where Dyak pirates landed on the island.

The argument is symmetric. Either creator omitted the details in each version that didn't serve his story being Kidd's? treasure or the castaways goldmine. Also as I pointed out there is an information loss/detail gain on both versions. Both versions seem equally valid to me in principle.

Why would the hoaxer omit the smaller details but keep the exact shape? Which from far away identifies it as the same as RI!

And then there is Shiel. Quite a discovery! In a totally different league then Tracy. I can see him behind those maps. Frankly I am reading his "Lord of the Sea" and have difficulties to interrupt my reading (Very much in contrast to RI)

Ps thinking about it both versions could point to that goldmine nothing in the Palmer maps mention buried treasure or pirates (just the WK in the parchment)

 

[Bocaj]

I dunno, some of the best fiction isn't realistic at all. The whole genre of science fiction, for example.

That's why it called "Science" fiction because it is based in real physics if not it would be called "Fantasy" (which just neglect the rules of the physical world but shift the weight to social or other aspects). In any case what makes a good story is how fiction is webbed with reality so that a story doesn't make a knot in your head.

 

[Cryptid1990]

Confirmation that the RI map was printed in the earliest reprint (1904).

Ward, Lock & Co., 1904. Sixpenny paperback edition.

The sixpenny paperback reprint also appeared in the now scarce The Collected Works of Louis Tracy (T. Sealey Clark; Ward, Lock & Co., Limited; F. V. White & Co., Limited; C. Arthur Pearson LTD; Digby, Long & Co 1904-07, London, 1904.)

I asked the seller of the only copy listed online (£2,000) to scan the pages including map (see below).

 

[Bocaj]

Confirmation that the RI map was printed in the earliest reprint (1904).

Ward, Lock & Co., 1904. Sixpenny paperback edition.

The sixpenny paperback reprint also appeared in the now scarce The Collected Works of Louis Tracy (T. Sealey Clark; Ward, Lock & Co., Limited; F. V. White & Co., Limited; C. Arthur Pearson LTD; Digby, Long & Co 1904-07, London, 1904.)

I asked the seller of the only copy listed online (£2,000) to scan the pages including map (see below).

View attachment 2256599
View attachment 2256598

Well at least the island's contour drawing clearly states: "From a Sketch" which fully supports my view that a sketch was first created and the story took the sketch as its base construct. Those sketches could have ended up as "Kidd's treasure maps" without even the need of any modifications (just being copied onto some old parchment and hidden in furniture with inscriptions associating them with Kidd).

As I stated before nothing (apart from the Yunnan Parchment) has anything that associate them with any pirate treasure. They could point really to anything and it is possible that they were even created for an early version of the RI story.

I am still reading the "Lord of the Sea" story by Shiel. Already the protagonist encountered a buried treasure: a big meteorite made of iron and diamonds!

Also Shiel had a fascination with islands: in the above he creates floating islands, another story is even named after a Scottish island.

 

[Bocaj]

NOW if THIS is no prove I don't know what is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The "Sarah W Map" is almost COMPLETELY identical to the RI map

Most of all the Handwriting is undoubtedly the same!

This is same Hand

So at least for the "Sarah W Map" we know who created it (at least the original of which it is a complete copy just added WK 1669): Robert Jenks

It confirms my theory that the Palmer maps are sketches which the RI is based on
Actually I wouldn't be surprised if this map is found in some print of the book...

Ps. I can't find anything about this Robert Jenks - could it be an alias for Shiel?

 

[Carl-NC]

Ps. I can't find anything about this Robert Jenks

Jenks is a character in the story.

 

[Cryptid1990]

Robert Jenks is the main protagonist and one of the two survivors in the book. The commissioned illustrator of Rainbow Island, Fred Pegram, drew a map of the island and another sketch. Robert Jenks is credited at the bottom of both. Why? I presume to give the fictional book verisimilitude and this was a common narrative technique in late 19th and early 20th-century fiction.

I appreciate the following find by Bocaj since it suggests tracing.

 

[Bocaj]

Robert Jenks is the main protagonist and one of the two survivors in the book. The commissioned illustrator of Rainbow Island, Fred Pegram, drew a map of the island and another sketch. Robert Jenks is credited at the bottom of both. Why? I presume to give the fictional book verisimilitude and this was a common narrative technique in late 19th and early 20th-century fiction.

I appreciate the following find by Bocaj since it suggests tracing.

View attachment 2256892

My bad - just shows that that story didn't make any impression on me. Of course I meant the illustrator (Fred Pegram).
What is also notable is that the islet is constantly moving around in all those maps. In the "Sarah Map" it is on top of the lagoon - same as the RI map. In the "Coral Island Map" it is on the inner northern part of the lagoon while in the "Skeleton Island Map" it is in the middle.

More interesting even is the lagoon's southern rocks they are further out in the "Coral Island Map" in the relative middle in the RI map and even further inside in the "Sarah Map".

I have difficulties to find any other answer other than all those "Palmer Maps" are sketches done for the book altered to fit the evolving story finally leading to the printed version (RI map). It seems at least the simplest solution.

Later someone (Cutler? Shiel?) copied them onto old parchment and added "W.K. 1669" in the case of the "Sarah Map". "Sarah ~ W" being just an artifact of the will it was copied onto.

I guess nothing else was added - they were just copies of the original sketches (probably done for the book?)

 

[Crow]

I dunno, some of the best fiction isn't realistic at all. The whole genre of science fiction, for example.

Hello Carl

At the risk of me being seen as a dinosaur.

When I was a young punk kid. We watched science fiction shows. With people with mobile telephones, computers like dick Tracy talking to a wrist watch and all sorts of things that were fiction to us back then. It all looked so fake. Our communication telegrams, or an expensive long-distance call. Or snail mail back then. A lot of what we saw as science fiction back then has become science fact.

I never imagined I would be having a conversation with you, and we are on different continents today. Today, with the internet, smartphones, glasses with a head-up display, and microchips inserted into people's bodies to use as a door key. AI and computing technologies. Use a smartphone to do things like digital licences, etc. Profound changes in products, materials, and information advances in medicine. I do not know, it's me just getting old and senile, but it's getting harder to know what is real anymore.

Science fiction sometimes blurs with factual reality.

Crow

 

[Carl-NC]

Agreed, scifi can be very precient in many cases. I love Jules Verne -- he was way ahead of his time -- yet Journey to the Center of the Earth is full of unrealistic situations.

 

[Bocaj]

Agreed, scifi can be very precient in many cases. I love Jules Verne -- he was way ahead of his time -- yet Journey to the Center of the Earth is full of unrealistic situations.

and Philip K. Dick. That's why I am very surprised with Shiel. I never read anything about or from him. He isn't as good as the former two but on the other hand he is quite a visionary with interesting thoughts and arguments about the ills of civilization.

Reading "Lord of the Sea" I get the idea that it was not just fiction to him but a vision. Somehow the map fits there. I think he was researching the topic of uninhabited islands outside of the three miles zone that he seen as easy to claim for a future sea-based empire. Redonda was just one of many but easier to reach or claim. This is why I think those sketches could be very well based on a real island.

@Cryptid: can you find some letters from Tracy, Pegram and Shiel to compare their handwriting to the maps? This could finally settle the question who created them.

 

[Cryptid1990]

Sadly this was all too predictable. CapnGeorge in another thread is falsely claiming he "knew all about Rainbow Island" and it is not "new" when I was the first person to find it in relation to the Kidd-Palmer maps. He obviously took this from me and this thread.

I was also the first person to upload a digital scan of the Rainbow Island map to the internet.

I know all about Rainbow Island, nothing new there. In the China Seas or thereabouts, it's where Wilkins got some of his clues to put on his maps, The map outline again is that of Juan Fernandez Island. The book ' Wings of the Morning' is totally fiction, a classic adventure story.

 

[Cryptid1990]

Sadly this was all too predictable. CapnGeorge in another thread is now trying to plagiarise my research and falsely claim he "knew all about Rainbow Island" when I was the first person to find it in relation to the Kidd-Palmer maps. He only took this from me and this thread.

As evidence CapnGeorge is falsely claiming he knew about Rainbow Island before me (when he obviously took it from me and now probably wants to take credit for something I actually found and solved), note that CapnGeorge does not mention Rainbow Island or Louis Tracy once in either of his books and neither of his books contain the Rainbow Island map (I checked both). Furthermore, he never once mentioned Rainbow Island or Tracy prior to this thread on this forum, when I first presented the proof the Kidd-Palmer maps were based on Tracy's (1903) map of Rainbow Island. Even worse for him, months ago he criticised me when I said the solution would be found in a fictional map. @CapnGeorge care to explain yourself? I have copied my other comment from other thread:

Rainbow Island is fictional but in the novel it is located in the southern China Sea. It appears in Louis Tracy's book Rainbow Island [aka Wings of the Morning] published in 1903. There is no connection to Juan Fernandez Island. Tracy's book was published in the UK as Rainbow Island and Wings of the Morning in the US. The map does not appear in the US version or reprints, only UK version and reprints (up to the late 1940s). I was the first person to find this map in relation to the Kidd-Palmer maps and I was the first person to upload a digital image of the map of Rainbow Island to the internet. Physical copies of Rainbow Island (the UK title) are a lot more scarce than the US-title Wings of the Morning and the map of Rainbow Island was not digitised anywhere online (before me) hence no one before me found the map the Kidd-Palmer maps were based on and made that connection. If you are claiming otherwise, you are plagiarising my research and trying to take the credit for what I found and the fact I am the person to have solved the Kidd-Palmer maps. This is foolish because in neither of your books or in any of your forum comments or anywhere else you commented about the Kidd-Palmer maps did you mention Rainbow Island/Tracy prior to my thread and months ago you even criticised me for saying the solution would be in a fictional book, so it is obvious you only learnt of Rainbow Island after reading my thread. I have no problem with people quoting or relying on my research but I reasonably request for credit or acknowledgement: "Anyone is free to quote any of my research but please credit me: Oliver D. Smith."

 

[Cryptid1990]

More evidence that @CapnGeorge did not know of Rainbow Island in relation to the Kidd-Palmer maps before me. In none of his posts did he mention Rainbow Island or Louis Tracy prior to this thread in which I presented the proof the Kidd-Palmer maps were copied from/based on Tracy's (1903) Rainbow Island map. The hoaxer used Tracy's map as a template. I was the first person to work this out (no one else before me had ever mentioned Tracy's Rainbow Island map or the book Rainbow Island [US title: Wings of the Morning] in relation to the Kidd-Palmer maps) and I was first person to upload a digital scan of the Rainbow Island map (the book is scarce and prior to me no one had digitised the map online). Here instead is what CapnGeorge was saying about the Kidd-Palmer maps last year and earlier this year:

Why not use your time instead to find out why Wilkins hid certain clues in the fake maps? Why did he want to send you on a goose chase to Hei Ling Chau, the island in the China Sea close to Hong Kong? I used my time to do just that for my later book, and found the answers. Wilkins knew a lot more than he let on. The clues are all over the place when you know what to look for.

It is Hai Ling Chou (I may have incorrectly mentioned Hon Le Tron earlier, thought I was Richard Knight!). The location decodes exactly here, shape and orientation also conforms to the charts. In other words 'Solve the clues first!' Anyone can waste time looking through an atlas, And it's in the China Sea, another deploy, this is where the perpetrator is sending you. Wilkins is having fun sending you all on a wild goose chase.

The charts were meant to be found by someone clever enough to solve the (not so) subtle clues to guide you far away from the island where Wilkins knew there was a real treasure. They take you to Hei Ling Chou Island in the South China Seas, then by following the clues and knowing the bigger picture, - Juan Fernandez Island. B Keiser has been looking here for a long time. Why hasn't he found anything? It's not there! You have to know the bigger picture and what the Shugborough Monument code is all about to get to treasure island. Wilkins has put clues on his Mar Del charts in his book Captain Kidd and his Skeleton Island.

Zero mention of Rainbow Island or Louis Tracy's book. Instead CapGeorge was arguing the shape of the island depicted on the Kidd-Palmer maps was based on a real island - Hai Ling Chau (of course he is wrong, the shape of the island was copied from the fictional Rainbow Island from Tracy's book). He then added to his confusing and far-fetched idea that Hai Ling Chou provides a clue to Juan Fernandez Island (he is wrong about that as well) and the Kidd-Palmer maps depict an old map of Juan Fernandez (wrong again) and even more confusingly argued this is somehow related to some sort of secret code in the Shugborough Monument (more nonsense) and this somehow all relates to a lost "Anson File" and a treasure on Pinaki (a load of codswallop). No mention of Rainbow Island or Tracy in any of his posts until today when he obviously read my thread. The website affiliated with CapnGeorge's book Anson's Gold does not either mention Rainbow Island or Louis Tracy once (nor does his book) despite discussing the Kidd-Palmer maps. In fact, like the book, here is what it says about the maps:

c. The first four are obvious depictions of Juan Fernandez Island with the ‘compass’ pointing to Cumberland Bay.

d. The style of the one from 1934 was copied from the 1897 book ‘Captain Kid’s Millions’.

e. The style of the one from 1942 was a copy of the ‘parchment’ from the 1888 book ‘Captain Kidd’s Gold’.

No mention of Rainbow Island or Louis Tracy at all in any of CapnGeorge's books or on his websites. The Kidd-Palmer maps have nothing to do with "depictions of Juan Fernandez island". Furthermore, CapnGeorge clearly had no idea of Rainbow Island before reading my thread here because if he did, he would not have erroneously claimed the latitude and longitude on the Skeleton Map derived from whatever nonsense and gibberish he said below in February (I cannot even make sense of what he is saying but it bizarrely involves "Pinaki when applying the Cadiz meridian") which he does in his book, and in other comments he made on this forum. In reality, the latitude was copied from the Rainbow Island map (it is identical) and the longitudes on both map are similar (the hoaxer changed or rearranged a few digits).

Cryptid, part quote.....provides no credible evidence and plays around with Lat and Long figures......Far-fetched ideas' Unquote.
Ideas based on fact! And the evidence: I posed the question earlier: where do you think the figures 9.16 and 31.30 come from on the Key chart? Strange that no one could come up with an answer. No one wants to admit that, of course, when you apply Wilkins simple Key code of one, you get the coordinates of Pinaki when applying the Cadiz meridian. We are, of course, dealing with a Spanish treasure, not Kidd's. The longitude relative to London (not Greenwich) is now 138. Easy so far?? More evidence that is not credible? Read on; the Anson/Webb letters.....Latitude thirty degrees eight minutes...Anson obviously meant to recognise 38, Webb was confirming he went to 138. The Figure 19 appears in the same letter. The Scorpious star clue; when you can read a star chart, the figures 112 and 26 come out, adding to; 138! Well, fancy that!

As you can see, 9.16 N was copied from the Rainbow Island map:

This is proof CapnGeorge did not know about this map until I uploaded it here and created this thread.

 

[Cryptid1990]

If CapnGeorge (George Edmunds) knew about Rainbow Island before me, he would have mentioned it on this forum in earlier posts or anywhere else for that matter. Instead, he only mentioned it after he read this thread. Furthermore, we know that CapnGeorge did not know about Rainbow Island before my thread because his own comment history on this forum makes clear he was oblivious to the 9.16 N latitude in Tracy's Rainbow Island map. You can still read his comment history to see in February and March he was falsely claiming a completely different source for the geographical coordinates on the Skeleton Map from "Anson/Webb letters":

More evidence that is not credible? Read on; the Anson/Webb letters.....Latitude thirty degrees eight minutes...Anson obviously meant to recognise 38, Webb was confirming he went to 138. The Figure 19 appears in the same letter. The Scorpious star clue; when you can read a star chart, the figures 112 and 26 come out, adding to; 138! Well, fancy that! And his rubbish Mar del maps, he made the false 'direction' figures different to draw your attention to them (what's your reason? You claim to have all the answers). First lines on both maps are 69, adding up to 138! Well I never, can't believe it! The figure 19 also appears to confirm. (what's your explanation if you don't agree? I can see your mind working overtime to try and find a way of rubbishing everything so far!). and Wilkins 1940 article, what I call the 'Fat Eel Map'. How do you explain the drawing of a ship blowing up? You can't can you. I can. Read Webb's letters, he describes how he had to blow his ship up. Proving Wilkins knew all about it. The Spanish derrotero? If you know what that is. Geometric construction, i appreciate not everyone can work it out. When you can, 131.30 appears twice to confirm Pinaki

He evidently did not know about the latitude (9.16 N) and similar longitude on the Rainbow Island map until I posted it here.

 

[Cryptid1990]

As proof that CapnGeorge did not know about Rainbow Island until reading my thread, below are some of his posts that directly contradict his claim "I knew about Rainbow Island years ago, probably before you" [quote from his private message]:

NO! To understand this treasure hunt you have to open your eyes! The charts undeniably lead you to an inverted map of Juan Fernandez Island (now Robinson Crusoe Island). This leads you to Bernard Keiser, this leads you to Lord Anson and what this whole saga is all about. The answers to all your questions are in 'Anson's Gold'. I am not trying to push the book, a author makes very little money these days out of one, which was written - not to make money (it still owes me) but to tell the true story for the benifit of people like yourself. Treasure Island exists, it's in the South Pacific Ocean.

Zero mention of Rainbow Island. Instead CapnGeorge was claiming the basis of the Kidd-Palmer maps is Juan Fernandez Island (he is wrong of course) and that you have to "invert" an old map of Juan Fernandez Island. No mention of Rainbow Island in his book.

And here is the irrefutable proof that CapnGeorge never knew of the Rainbow Island map (with the 9.16 N) until I posted it:

Nobody knew what that was until my decoding of the Shepherds Monument cipher, second line D---M, or Lat 19. - latitude of the Trinity group of atolls.(coded longitude 138 is in the first line) and 2/ The KEY chart, so back to the beginning, LAT 9.16, LONG 31.30. A simple key, put '1' in front giving Lat 19.16, Long 131.30, add the Cadiz meridian of 6.30 (a Spanish treasure, only Wilkins knew this) and you get 138. So there we have it again;19 and 138, the coordinates of the Pinaki group of atolls. A lot of other decodings give the same answer. Now, could you please explain to me and all our other listeners why this is all rubbish and you know the answer? Perhaps in the meantime, you would like to get somebody to review this!!

As you can see, he was instead claiming a completely different source for latitude 9.16. In reality, the latitude was taken from the Rainbow Island map [see above] (I was the first person to digitise and upload online and the first person to find in relation to the Kidd-Palmer maps to solve the maps). Sadly, however, CapnGeorge appears to be trying to take the credit for the discovery, when I found it and first posted it.