Moro piracy is often linked to the Spanish colonial occupation of the Philippines. In a course of over two and a half centuries, Moro piratical attacks on Christian communities caused "an epoch of wholesale misery for the inhabitants”. After the Spanish arrival in 1521, Moro piratical raids against Christian settlements started in June 1578. These spread all over the archipelago and were conducted with impunity by organized fleets carrying weapons of destruction almost equal to those of the Spaniards.

The Spanish engaged the Moro pirates frequently in the 1840s. Also in the 1840s, James Brooke became the White Rajah of Sarawak and led a series of campaigns against the Moro pirates. But it wasn’t Moro pirates who got away with the real prize. It was a mixed crew of English, Spanish, Nubian & Berber Africans and Antillean Arawak, survivors of the Spanish genocide in the Antilles. This racially integrated crew, lead by Captain Juan Diego Gonsalves-Cabrera “El Tiburon” sailed into the western Pacific waters in search of gold. They established a base at Sangihei Island in Eastern Celebes Sea, Northwest of Western New Guinea and South of the Phillippines.

Captain Cabrera’s crew were not the only pirates operating out of Sangihei, which they referred to as hebilla de oro Island (Gold Buckle Island). There were no fewer than fifteen crews who called Sangihei home, including the infamous Commodore George Thomas Clark also known as “The Wanderer”. George the Wanderer hailed from Portsmouth, England and once sailed under King William IV and Queen Victoria.

The pirates of Gold Buckle Island learned the British were moving a large shipment of gold from Sarawak to England. Knowing there would be pirates in the area, James Brooke ordered four British Frigates to escort the Charles Henshaw back to England. The Frigates were fifth rate ships used by Admiral Nelson to scout ahead of his fleet. They typically were armed with 32 – 40 guns with tonnage ranging from 700 to 1450 and a crew of ~300 men.

Commodore Clark intended to capture the Charles Henshaw, requiring his entire fleet to engage the British frigates then take the prize. On May 15, 1851 the Henshaw left Kuching, Sarawak heading north and east through the Sulu Sea and South of Davao, then into the Pacific Ocean, east towards the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean. This route would place the Henshaw on a direct path with Gold Buckle Island.

Commodore Clark divided his ships into three groups. Seven ships led by Captain Leslie Shaw would attack the Frigates just west of the Sarangani Strait. Another five ships, the fastest in the fleet were prepared to serve either as a pursuit if the British fleet ran or to reinforce Captain Shaw’s attack on the British Frigates. The third group consisted of Commodore Clark and his flagship, “Lazy Susan” as well as Captain Cabrera and his ship, “Castillo del Mar”.

The pirates' plans did not go as intended. Captain Shaw’s flotilla was late arriving at their interdiction point south of Davao. They gave chase to the British, which alerted the other two groups, who flanked far to the south. By the time Shaw was near enough to engage, he lost two ships. At five to four, the engagement was relatively quick, but the Charles Henshaw pushed on without its escorts.

Unfortunately for Captain Shaw, his entire force was destroyed. The captain went down with his ship. The second group grew tired of the chase and returned to Gold Buckle Island. Of the three ships with Commodore Clark, only the Lazy Susan and Castillo del Mar remained. With the four British Frigates more than five miles behind the Henshaw, Clark and Cabrera continued their pursuit. They closed within firing distance on the sixth day. They were roughly 20 miles south of the Marshall Islands.

Both Shaw and Clark requested the Henshaw to lower her sails and prepare to be boarded. The Captain of the Charles Henshaw ignored the request by the pirates and fired its three small brass swivel guns. Which both pirate commanders interpreted as an indication the Henshaw was not going down without a fight.

Cabrera’s Castillo del Mar was the closest ship and unleashed a fusillade of chain shot at the masts. He didn’t want to sink the ship, merely render it incapable of moving. The merchant marine captain continued his useless bombardment of the pirate ship closing in on him. The crew of the Castilo del Mar raised their pieces and responded to the fire with volleys of musket fire and grapeshot.

As the Castillo del Mar bumped hulls with the Charles Henshaw, its merchant crew scurried for cover below decks. The pirates lashed the two ships together, boarded and began a process of systematically slaughtering the crew of the Charles Henshaw. The pirates were blood thirsty, acting without hesitation murdering everyone who stood. Blood coated the decks as Cabrera’s men went about their work.

Captain Juan Diego Gonsalves-Cabrera found the gold they were searching for below decks. At today’s rates, this treasure would be valued at over $117,000,000. But what happened to the Castillo del Mar? It did not return to Gold Buckle Island. The Lazy Susan was sunk by the British Frigates a few hours later. British Captain Henry Thorndike Smith came upon the Charles Henshaw after sinking the pirate ship, finding it thoroughly looted with all hands slain. There was no sign of the Castillo del Mar on the horizon. The British lost the pirates and the gold destined for the Queen Victoria.

That was 170 years ago. Two days ago, a piece of wood washed ashore on the southern tip of Ni’ihau Island in the Hawaiian Island chain. The piece of wood contained the lettering, “Castillo del Mar”. Did the ship sink south of the Hawaiian Islands shortly after securing one of the largest prizes ever captured by a pirate crew? Or did they have time to stash their prize somewhere else after their act of treachery? Only to sink near Hawaii years later?

Captain Cabrera is rumored to have fathered a daughter, Lucinda to an Hawaiian woman named Alonna who lived on Oahu in the latter half of the 19th century. Lucinda eventually mothered three more children, Keilani, Maleah and Nokoa. Not much is known of Keilani and Maleah, but Nokoa rose to prominence in Hawaiian nobility. One of his sons served as an advisor to Liliʻuokalani, the last Queen regent of Hawaii. This son has five living great grandchildren on Ohau and one in San Francisco, CA. Of those six grandchildren between the ages of 46 and 62, only Gregory Hernandez, 51 who lives in California has any information about his lineage and the Castillo del Mar. His great great great grandmother birthed a child of Captain Juan Diego Gonsalves-Cabrera. If anyone knows anything about the ship, its history and where the gold might be found, it is Professor Hernandez of UC San Francisco, CA.

The University of California at San Francisco employs Professor Hernandez in the Humanities Department. He has a PhD in South Pacific Studies from The University of California at San Diego. Mr. Hernandez speaks Spanish, English, Mandarin and several Polynesian dialects. He is a well-respected professor and should be able to retire from his employment within the year.

The participants are modern day treasure hunters. If you have ever seen the movie, "Sahara", similar to the role William H. Macy plays. He owns a ship and scours the planet searching for sunken treasure.

In this Roleplay, your character is a crewman aboard a salvage ship (depicted above) used to scour the earth in search of sunken treasure. The ship is currently on a salvage operation at Lat: 15.3891857108, Long: -158.5181395356 South of Hawaii. There are other hunters searching for some of the same treasures. You are looking for a specific treasure from a pirate ship that sank or was lost 170 years ago.

Your ship is named after the old English ship, “Charles Henshaw” that was boarded by pirates and relieved of her prize. The 21st Century version of the Charles Henshaw is registered in Southampton, England, (UK). Her captain is Captain D. L. Knight and the ship of course flies the Union Jack as well as the Cross of St. George. No one knows what happened to the “Castillo del Mar”. Did it sink somewhere south of Hawaii, or did it evade the British navy to survive and hide its treasure somewhere else?

Will other treasure hunters work with you when it is found, assist with clues as they are discovered leading to its current location or will they impede your progress and make life difficult for you?

In the event our characters enter combat of any sort or engage in an activity providing an element of chance, we will use the FATE Core system. This system uses a dice roll allowing for higher percentage of outcomes in the middle numbers than in the extremes. Achieving the very best or very worst rolls are quite difficult. I like to use 4d3-8. Without the -8, the results would provide rolls of 4 – 12. With the -8, we get outcomes of from -4 to 4. Instead of specific written outcomes or using complicated mathematical equations to determine outcomes we use words. Words that writers like roleplayers can use to write in either a positive or negative manner. FATE Examples

As your character enters combat, roll (4d3-8) plus any Die Roll Modifiers (DRMs) that may apply. Please use RPG’s Dice system for reporting rolls. You can link them into your In Character thread with an explanation of the outcome inside hider tags.

Please keep in mind if you are fighting against other Player Characters (PC), the dice will help to determine the outcome so that your victory or defeat is not completely dependent upon writing skill.

Contests between two PCs are as follows. Both players roll 4d3-8 and add any applicable DRMs. Compare the difference between the two rolls. The difference will determine the result of the contest. As an example: Attacker has a +1 DRM and Defender has no DRM. Attacker rolls a 0 and Defender rolls a 2. The difference between the two rolls is a +2 in favor of the defender or -2 to the Attacker. The Attacker should consult Table A below to determine which word best explains the outcome of their attack. In this case, the Defender (2) has a result that is Fair. It is positive, they won the contest, but it is not decisive. The defender takes some losses but retains the ground regardless. The Attacker (-2) has a result that is terrible. The attacker did not take his objective and took terrible losses forcing him to either go to ground or retreat.

Table A: Die Roll Outcome
Legendary 8
Epic 7
Fantastic 6
Superb 5
Great 4
Good 3
Fair 2
Average 1
Mediocre 0
Poor -1
Terrible -2
Horrendous -3
Catastrophic -4

Table B: Individual Character Traits DRMs You can be creative with this. Please use this list as a guide. It is no way symbolic or representative of what you must use.

The result of a combat roll will provide you with a word. That word could be Good, Average, Poor or any of the other ten options in Table A above. Whatever that word is, that word should describe how you write the outcome of your unit’s actions in combat. People die in action, they become prisoners of war and they run from a fight at inopportune times. Your post should respect the word your dice roll reflects. If you roll a poor, then you know things did not go well for your character.

*This is a guide -- Feel free to remain creative*
Character Sketch
Name:
Position/Occupation:
Description: (what they look like and how they dress)
Personality:
Biography:

DRMs: (bullet points)
Each Character is authorized to allocate a net 15 points. You can use any of the words in Tables B & C above. If you don't see the word you are looking for, please substitute your idea as long as you can define what it covers. You can allocate all 15 points in positive traits with a series of +1 or +2 DRMs. There should be no more than two traits with +3 or +4 DRM. It must be something the character is very good at or has a lot of experience with. If you decide to assign negative DRMs to your character these can benefit your character with additional positive DRMs. If you allocate a total of -4 DRMs to one or more traits, then you can allocate a total of 19 positive DRMs. The positive traits can offset the negatives.