The Vampirates Timeline
As requested on the Simon Mayo Show (20th September 2007) by the Book Panel here is an attempt at a timeline for the Vampirate books. Sorry I have lost the podcast. As Justin wrote in a blog entry "you asked why, though my story is set in the future, they are using swords and traditional sailing ships rather than more futuristic tec. The reason is that VAMPIRATES paints a rather dystopian view of the future – it’s a brutal world which has been altered by serious flooding and a lot of technology has been lost, causing the world to turn backwards."
The events in black are historical events and those in red are found in the Vampirate books.
100 BC - Roma
Julius Caesar was born
75 BC - Aegean Sea
Julius Caesar was kidnapped by Cilician pirates and held prisoner in the Dodecanese islet of Pharmacusa. He maintained an attitude of superiority throughout his captivity. When the pirates thought to demand a ransom of twenty talents of gold, he insisted they ask for fifty. After the ransom was paid, Caesar raised a fleet, pursued and captured the pirates, and imprisoned them in Pergamon. The governor of Asia refused to execute them as Caesar demanded, preferring to sell them as slaves, but Caesar returned to the coast and had them crucified on his own authority, as he had promised to when in captivity – a promise the pirates had taken as a joke.
75 to 72 BC - Pergamon
Julius Caesar killed Sidorio
72 BC - Mediterranean
The pirate Isidorus (Cilician) raided eastern Mediterranean, killed in battle with Roman Lucullus.
1776 - England
The british prison ship or prison hulk came into being.
1801 - Canton
Cheng I Sao (Ching Shih) was working as a prostitute on one of Canton's floating brothels before marring Cheng (Zheng Yi), later on the same year.
1803 - Connemara
Lorcan Furey was born.
1807 - Chinese Coast and South to Malaysia
Cheng died in 1807, Cheng I Sao took charge as a sort of admiral and placed Chang Pao, formerly her husband’s right-hand man, in command of the operation of the fleet.
