The Legacy Riddle

Included with the maps that were discovered at the estate sale (which had
been intended for the original Pyratlas nearly 250 years ago) was a riddle
created by Eliot McGee, Ernest McGee, and Daniel Defoe. In the spring of 2006
the compilers of the book took possession of the legacy maps of the McGees
and with them, the responsibility for the greatest secret of all: There is a
fourteenth map. A secret map. The last map made by Ernest McGee. Only
those who solve the riddle will be allowed to see the map. The keys to solving
the riddle are within the pages of the book. Every story, and every map, and
every page contains a clue—but the riddle itself is a pirate song:

****
Though death may have claimed us, our treasure be hid,
The last of their duties our mapmakers' bid,
To secret away from the bright eyes a-prying,
From scoundrels a-seeking and fear'd foes trying
To claim as their own the treasure unshared,
With cannon a-blazing and scimitar bared.
Following footsteps from ages gone past,
A pirate at heart may find it at last:
First, to the city that fell in the sea; and second, the home of Calico Jack;
Third, Turtle Island is where you must be; fourth, east, to Algiers, before turning back;
Fifth finds both Port Royal and Great Turkle Bay;
and by Bonny and Read the next lands were plundered;
Last comes a fair mermaid who's pointing the way; seek quickly
now, pirates—before what's hidd'n be sundered.

****

Drawn on the back of each original map was a key that represented one of two
letters. Those keys and their corresponding letters have been reproduced
across from the maps in the book. The riddle holds the clues to the maps that
will lead to the seven-letter answer that unlocks the secret fourteenth map.

Follow in the footsteps of Ernest McGee. Discover the secrets of the pirates.
And maybe you’ll be the one to discover the lost treasures of the pirates of
the Caribbean.

So—are you pirate enough?