Fruity liqueur

Usage examples of curacao.

A row of three islands, rather, the beginning of the alphabet - Aruba, Bonaire at each end and Curacao in the middle.

From this it was apparent that the privateers had retreated southwards right across the Caribbean to the coast of the Spanish Main, and Ramage was to patrol that coast for two months, paying particular attention to the island of Curacao, 'and remove the threat'.

There you have the island of Curacao, the middle of the three lying just off the Main.

There's Bonaire to one side and Aruba the other, but Curacao is the only one that matters.

Notice how Curacao is like the centre of a clock - the islands Of St Lucia and Martinique at three o'clock, Guadeloupe, Antigua, St Barts and St Kitts at one o'clock, Puerto Rico and Hispaniola at noon, and Jamaica here way over to the north - west at ten o'clock.

Then he put one point on Curacao and slowly swept the second leg across the chart until the other point finally rested on Grenada, the island at the southern end of the chain.

Sail on Sunday morning, find a prize on Wednesday, and be back in Curacao unloading the prize by Saturday night.

Even then, there might be a few hours of uncertainty because both the Calypso and La Creole were French built and still used French - cut sails which were distinctive with their deep roaches, and with the ships too far off for their ensigns to be distinguished the worthy burgomasters of Curacao might be forgiven for thinking their French allies were sending reinforcements or calling in for water and provisions, for which no doubt they would have to pay cash in advance.

Of all the men on board, the master had most invested in what daylight would reveal today: he had predicted that they would see the land of Curacao broad on the starboard bow, distant fifteen miles, while on the larboard bow would be the much smaller island of Bonaire.

In the meantime the Calypso, now pitching and rolling with the wind and sea on her larboard quarter, headed for the eastern edge of Curacao, followed by La Creole.

He pointed at Curacao, now on the Calypso's starboard bow as she sailed down through the channel separating the larger island from Bonaire to the east.

And Gottlieb van Someren, with his wife and daughter, was left in Curacao as the Governor, the republican king, as it were, of the three islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

Capturing a Dutch merchantman as she arrives off Amsterdam could do the job, and stopping all trade between Curacao and the Main might force the Governor to make the privateers sail to drive us oil.

One of the men had given it enough thought to realize that the Frenchman approaching from the west might see the Calypso against the lighter eastern sky and bolt, and he was relieved when Ramage assured him that in fact they would be hidden against the blackness of Sint Christoffelberg and the hills at the western end of Curacao for that first critical fifteen minutes of the day.

He personally did not think they would see the Frenchman at dawn whichever day she arrived, but there was always a chance that she sailed at the proper time and made a fast passage, which would bring her off Curacao at first light.