Canadian illustrator Kenn Brown’s latest illo for a very cool feature in the August issue of Wired Magazine:
In 1694, an 80-gun British warship called the HMS Sussex set sail for southern France loaded with as much as 3 million pounds sterling and 6 tons of gold. The bounty was intended for the Duke of Savoy, a bribe to keep him allied with England in its war against Louis XIV. The Duke never did get the money. Severe gales whipped up off the north coast of Africa. The Sussex foundered along with a dozen other ships in the British fleet, taking all its riches (and the lives of 1,200 crew members) to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. Ultimately, the Duke threw his support to Louis XIV, and England’s battle with France raged for seven more years before ending in a stalemate.
The plight of the Sussex left behind two huge questions, the first for historians: What if the mission had been successful? It’s conceivable that England would have beaten back Louis XIV and annexed parts or all of France. If so, the British government might have been less concerned with a group of 13 rebellious colonies across the Atlantic and allowed them to split off to form a commonwealth – like Canada. The other question, for the rest of us: What happened to all that loot?
Link,
Discuss Read the amazing article this illustration accompanied, by Jeffrey O’Brien, here.