Fleet 1715

Scheduled for Essen 2006 release, this is Stephan Riedel's card version of his deduction board game, Old Town, albeit with a different theme: the discovery of a lost Spanish fleet.

At dawn on July 24, 1715, a fleet of eleven ships lifted anchor in Havana. For fear of raids, the Spaniards hadn't dared to send a single one of their silver ships over to the motherland. The War of the Spanish Succession with Great Britain and the Netherlands had made shipping routes too unsafe.

What was now being transported on the ships of this armada was the most precious cargo that has ever been entrusted to the seas: the ships had loaded gold and silver bars worth the equivalent of 86 million dollars. The ships also had three iron-studded chests on board, filled to the brim with priceless jewels.

The chests were intended for the future wife of the Spanish king, Duchess Isabella of Parma.

On July 29th, the fleet passed the Bahamas and headed for what is now Cape Kennedy. During the night the waves suddenly increased and a hurricane drove the ships towards the reef-strewn coast. On the morning of July 31, 1715 the storm was over. Hundreds of corpses lay among gold bars, silver coins and cannons on the Florida coast.

Using cards and a log puzzle deduction grid, players try to match , the captain, ship, cargo and depth of wreck for ships from the fleet.