Name:
Age:
Gender:
Nationality: (English, Spanish, French, Dutch)
Home port: (can be a port in the Caribbean or a city in Europe)†
Drinking Habits:
Appearance:
Desired position: (
Alignment: (one of nine combinations)
Biography:
RP Example:
† List of home ports (choose according to nationality)
Spanish, Dutch, English, or French. † = Prominently pirate (i.e. the "fun" ports)
Antigua
Colonized in the 1640s, this island is a small pleasant backwater with a classic plantation economy. In the 18th Century it will become one of the two great navel base for the British Royal Navy in the Caribbean.
Barbados
The first major English colony in the Caribbean (in the 1620s), Barbados is the economic capital of the Caribbee Islands (Lesser Antilles) throughout the middle and later parts of the 17th Century. Caribbean traders will find European goods numerous and the selling price of tobacco and sugar quite good.
Campeche
A well-established "old" Spanish city with aristocratic tastes, Campeche is an important port serving the inland provinces of southern New Spain and Yucatan. European goods fetch good prices here.
Caracas
This city rises to prominence at the end of the 16th Century. It is the main port for inland farms and plantations, and home of many important Spanish families, who have expensive tastes in European goods.
Cartagena
This is the largest port city of the Spanish Main, and after the 1590s a supposedly impregnable fortress. Here the treasure fleet winters before its return voyage via Havana and the Florida Channel. It has a powerful garrison of troops and a thriving economy with little need for illegal trade and smuggling.
Cumana
The main port city of New Andalusia, it forms the eastern anchor of the Spanish Main, the last major harbor and fortress. It is a good market for European goods. This does not prevent it from indulging in smuggling and other nefarious pursuits from time to time.
Curacao
First used in the 1620s, this island becomes a great free port under Dutch control. Spanish produce smuggled from everywhere along the Main are bought here by Dutch merchants, who happily exchange them for European products that can be profitable smuggled to the Spanish.
Eleuthera †
At first just an anchorage for privateers, Eleuthera becomes and English colony eventually. In the 17th Century it really never grows, remaining a backwater haven for pirates, privateers, and the other riff-raff who hide among the Bahamas.
Gran Granada
Situated on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, this is the largest and wealthiest city of the Honduran provinces.
Grand Bahama †
This island in the northern Bahamas is used periodically as a privateering anchorage. It does not become an English colony until the very end of the era.
Guadeloupe
Colonized by the French, Guadeloupe becomes economically viable in the 1640s. Along with Martinique it is the cornerstone of French power in the eastern Caribbean. In the 1660s its fortress and garrison are increased as part of France's new interest in overseas colonization.
Havana
One of the old cities of Cuba, during the middle 16th Century it grew rapidly because the Treasure Fleet used its harbor for a last provisioning before the dangerous journey back to Spain. Havana is a rich town where all mercantile activity is done strictly according to law. Prices are extremely high.
Maracaibo
This is the chief port on the Gulf of Venezuela and guardian of the Maracaibo Lagoon (also known as Lake Maracaibo). As such it has more than its share of aristocratic families, with expensive tastes in European fashion.
Martinique
Colonized by the French, Martinique becomes economically viable in the 1640s. With Guadeloupe it is the cornerstone of French power in the eastern Caribbean. In the 1660s its fortress and garrison are increased as part of France's new interest in overseas colonization.
Montserrat
This English colony, founded around 1640, remains one of small plantations and gentleman farming, a pleasant port of call with no especially important characteristics save low prices.
Nassau †
Since the mid 16th Century this Bahaman island has been a pirate anchorage. An English colony, officially begun in the 1680s, soon degenerates into a loud, squalid pirate haven full of verminous and evil men. The port is named "New Providence," to distinguish it from Providence Island ("Old Providence").
Nevis
This pleasant island, separated from St. Kitts by a narrow channel, was populated by the English at about the same time - the 1620s. While St. Kitts becomes a port of some importance, Nevis remains more agricultural, with pleasant plantations rolling across sun-drenched mountainsides.
Panama
This large city links the wealth Spanish realms of Peru with the Caribbean. All trade with Peru is by ship on the Pacific coast, with Panama the terminus. Panama is linked to a Caribbean port (Nombre de Dios in the 16th Century, Puerto Bello in the 17th) by a mule train over the mountains of the Darien Isthmus.
Petit Goave
Among the many small and informal French Huguenot settlements on the Western Hispaniola, this is the first (in the 1620s) to gain repute as an important port. but as the 17th Century continues, planters and plantation lords push out the rude buccaneers, gradually civilizing the raw colonial frontier.
Port-de-Paix
This later French Huguenot settlement becomes a significant port in the 1660s, and by the 1680s is the informal capital of the French colonies in the Western Hispaniola.
Port Royale †
In a natural harbor on southeast Jamaica lies a curving spit and sandbar. By 1660, just five years after the English conquest of Jamaica, the spit is covered by Port Royale, a booming, rollicking, buccaneer town. Its reputation was so evil that when an earthquake destroyed it at the end of the Century, colonials and Europeans alike considered it an act of divine justice.
Puerto Principe
This was one of the first cities on Cuba. It represents the strengths of Spanish America: a wealthy city surrounded by ranches and a cattle economy.
Puerto Bello
By 1600 this city replaces abandoned Nombre de Dios as the Caribbean port for Panama and the Viceroyalty of Peru. Each year, when the Treasure Fleet arrives to pick up the Peruvian silver, Puerto Bello becomes a rich boom town. Weeks later, when the fleet departs for Cartagena, it lapses into malarial somnolence once more.
Rio de la Hacha
This is one of the two major ports for the Colombian highlands (Santa Marta is the other). It does a thriving trade in export goods: first hides, then tobacco.
San Juan
This is the great port city of Puerto Rico, and one of the most powerfully fortified of all cities in Spanish America. San Juan was settled early and remains a bastion of old Spanish aristocracy. Prices for all goods except food are high, and most times Spanish law is vigorously enforced. Ultimately it becomes a base for Costa Guarda raids on the Caribees.
Santo Domingo
This is the great capital city of Hispaniola, one of the largest and oldest in the entire American Empire of Spain. In the 17th Century its power and importance are fading, but the Spanish aristocrats and ranchers remain vigorous enough to defeat an English invasion in 1655 (disappointed, the English invade and conquer Jamaica instead).
Santa Marta
Along with Rio de la Hacha, this is the other principal port serving the Colombian highlands. Large farmsteads nearby mean this city has low food prices, as well as reasonably priced hides and tobacco.
Santiago
This is the original capital city of Cuba, and remains a large, strong city until very late in the era. Like all the great Spanish cities, prices are high while Spanish trade law is vigorously enforced.
St. Eustatius †
Settled in the 1640s by the Dutch, this island becomes one of the great free trade ports in the heyday of Dutch mercantilism. Unfortunately, its poor defenses and powerful English and French neighbors make it one of the most fought-over islands. The political and military turmoil badly damage the economy.
St. Kitts
By the 1640s the English gain the upper hand on St. Christophe. When the English are predominant, this English name for the island is commonly used. The island develops a significant port that does a thriving trade with all nationalities.
St. Martin
This island is colonized by the Dutch in the 1640s. It remains a quiet, peaceful plantation isle for the remainder of the 17th Century.
Tortuga †
First settled by French buccaneers and Huguenots in the 1620s, it is built up and fortified into a great pirate base of the 1640s and '60s. Despite Spanish attacks, it survives as long as the buccaneers and pirates remained strong, but disappears as their power wanes.
Trinidad
Theoretically a Spanish colony, this island never has a large population, nor much of a Spanish government and garrison. Its heyday as a smuggler's paradise is in the first years of the 1600s.
Villa Hermosa
This inland city is the capital of Tobasco province, a southerly but nonetheless rich region of New Spain.
Antigua
Colonized in the 1640s, this island is a small pleasant backwater with a classic plantation economy. In the 18th Century it will become one of the two great navel base for the British Royal Navy in the Caribbean.
Barbados
The first major English colony in the Caribbean (in the 1620s), Barbados is the economic capital of the Caribbee Islands (Lesser Antilles) throughout the middle and later parts of the 17th Century. Caribbean traders will find European goods numerous and the selling price of tobacco and sugar quite good.
Campeche
A well-established "old" Spanish city with aristocratic tastes, Campeche is an important port serving the inland provinces of southern New Spain and Yucatan. European goods fetch good prices here.
Caracas
This city rises to prominence at the end of the 16th Century. It is the main port for inland farms and plantations, and home of many important Spanish families, who have expensive tastes in European goods.
Cartagena
This is the largest port city of the Spanish Main, and after the 1590s a supposedly impregnable fortress. Here the treasure fleet winters before its return voyage via Havana and the Florida Channel. It has a powerful garrison of troops and a thriving economy with little need for illegal trade and smuggling.
Cumana
The main port city of New Andalusia, it forms the eastern anchor of the Spanish Main, the last major harbor and fortress. It is a good market for European goods. This does not prevent it from indulging in smuggling and other nefarious pursuits from time to time.
Curacao
First used in the 1620s, this island becomes a great free port under Dutch control. Spanish produce smuggled from everywhere along the Main are bought here by Dutch merchants, who happily exchange them for European products that can be profitable smuggled to the Spanish.
Eleuthera †
At first just an anchorage for privateers, Eleuthera becomes and English colony eventually. In the 17th Century it really never grows, remaining a backwater haven for pirates, privateers, and the other riff-raff who hide among the Bahamas.
Gran Granada
Situated on the shores of Lake Nicaragua, this is the largest and wealthiest city of the Honduran provinces.
Grand Bahama †
This island in the northern Bahamas is used periodically as a privateering anchorage. It does not become an English colony until the very end of the era.
Guadeloupe
Colonized by the French, Guadeloupe becomes economically viable in the 1640s. Along with Martinique it is the cornerstone of French power in the eastern Caribbean. In the 1660s its fortress and garrison are increased as part of France's new interest in overseas colonization.
Havana
One of the old cities of Cuba, during the middle 16th Century it grew rapidly because the Treasure Fleet used its harbor for a last provisioning before the dangerous journey back to Spain. Havana is a rich town where all mercantile activity is done strictly according to law. Prices are extremely high.
Maracaibo
This is the chief port on the Gulf of Venezuela and guardian of the Maracaibo Lagoon (also known as Lake Maracaibo). As such it has more than its share of aristocratic families, with expensive tastes in European fashion.
Martinique
Colonized by the French, Martinique becomes economically viable in the 1640s. With Guadeloupe it is the cornerstone of French power in the eastern Caribbean. In the 1660s its fortress and garrison are increased as part of France's new interest in overseas colonization.
Montserrat
This English colony, founded around 1640, remains one of small plantations and gentleman farming, a pleasant port of call with no especially important characteristics save low prices.
Nassau †
Since the mid 16th Century this Bahaman island has been a pirate anchorage. An English colony, officially begun in the 1680s, soon degenerates into a loud, squalid pirate haven full of verminous and evil men. The port is named "New Providence," to distinguish it from Providence Island ("Old Providence").
Nevis
This pleasant island, separated from St. Kitts by a narrow channel, was populated by the English at about the same time - the 1620s. While St. Kitts becomes a port of some importance, Nevis remains more agricultural, with pleasant plantations rolling across sun-drenched mountainsides.
Panama
This large city links the wealth Spanish realms of Peru with the Caribbean. All trade with Peru is by ship on the Pacific coast, with Panama the terminus. Panama is linked to a Caribbean port (Nombre de Dios in the 16th Century, Puerto Bello in the 17th) by a mule train over the mountains of the Darien Isthmus.
Petit Goave
Among the many small and informal French Huguenot settlements on the Western Hispaniola, this is the first (in the 1620s) to gain repute as an important port. but as the 17th Century continues, planters and plantation lords push out the rude buccaneers, gradually civilizing the raw colonial frontier.
Port-de-Paix
This later French Huguenot settlement becomes a significant port in the 1660s, and by the 1680s is the informal capital of the French colonies in the Western Hispaniola.
Port Royale †
In a natural harbor on southeast Jamaica lies a curving spit and sandbar. By 1660, just five years after the English conquest of Jamaica, the spit is covered by Port Royale, a booming, rollicking, buccaneer town. Its reputation was so evil that when an earthquake destroyed it at the end of the Century, colonials and Europeans alike considered it an act of divine justice.
Puerto Principe
This was one of the first cities on Cuba. It represents the strengths of Spanish America: a wealthy city surrounded by ranches and a cattle economy.
Puerto Bello
By 1600 this city replaces abandoned Nombre de Dios as the Caribbean port for Panama and the Viceroyalty of Peru. Each year, when the Treasure Fleet arrives to pick up the Peruvian silver, Puerto Bello becomes a rich boom town. Weeks later, when the fleet departs for Cartagena, it lapses into malarial somnolence once more.
Rio de la Hacha
This is one of the two major ports for the Colombian highlands (Santa Marta is the other). It does a thriving trade in export goods: first hides, then tobacco.
San Juan
This is the great port city of Puerto Rico, and one of the most powerfully fortified of all cities in Spanish America. San Juan was settled early and remains a bastion of old Spanish aristocracy. Prices for all goods except food are high, and most times Spanish law is vigorously enforced. Ultimately it becomes a base for Costa Guarda raids on the Caribees.
Santo Domingo
This is the great capital city of Hispaniola, one of the largest and oldest in the entire American Empire of Spain. In the 17th Century its power and importance are fading, but the Spanish aristocrats and ranchers remain vigorous enough to defeat an English invasion in 1655 (disappointed, the English invade and conquer Jamaica instead).
Santa Marta
Along with Rio de la Hacha, this is the other principal port serving the Colombian highlands. Large farmsteads nearby mean this city has low food prices, as well as reasonably priced hides and tobacco.
Santiago
This is the original capital city of Cuba, and remains a large, strong city until very late in the era. Like all the great Spanish cities, prices are high while Spanish trade law is vigorously enforced.
St. Eustatius †
Settled in the 1640s by the Dutch, this island becomes one of the great free trade ports in the heyday of Dutch mercantilism. Unfortunately, its poor defenses and powerful English and French neighbors make it one of the most fought-over islands. The political and military turmoil badly damage the economy.
St. Kitts
By the 1640s the English gain the upper hand on St. Christophe. When the English are predominant, this English name for the island is commonly used. The island develops a significant port that does a thriving trade with all nationalities.
St. Martin
This island is colonized by the Dutch in the 1640s. It remains a quiet, peaceful plantation isle for the remainder of the 17th Century.
Tortuga †
First settled by French buccaneers and Huguenots in the 1620s, it is built up and fortified into a great pirate base of the 1640s and '60s. Despite Spanish attacks, it survives as long as the buccaneers and pirates remained strong, but disappears as their power wanes.
Trinidad
Theoretically a Spanish colony, this island never has a large population, nor much of a Spanish government and garrison. Its heyday as a smuggler's paradise is in the first years of the 1600s.
Villa Hermosa
This inland city is the capital of Tobasco province, a southerly but nonetheless rich region of New Spain.
Remember, you're allowed to choose any port or city you want to, including cities in Europe, but this is a list of many major ports in the Caribbean and I'm sure you'll be able to enjoy deciding which port sounds best to suit your home. If your biography mentions where you are presently or where you are residing, make sure to somehow end up in Port Royale as to be a part of the crew.
