So far I've checked the broadsides and the weirdest thing is the further you go back in time the more corrupt the versions become!! All I can suggest so far is that the later broadsides, even though corrupt to some degree, have gone back to more accurate versions from oral tradition. All earlier printed versions and the 1769 show strong evidence of oral tradition. My guess is that there was a readily available to Naval personnel original version on the go that spawned all of these oral versions that then found their way onto broadsides. We really must be talking about c1750 at the latest, so to our Naval experts, what would the British Navy be doing in Spain in the early 18th century, and presumably under friendly circumstances?

BTW in my previous post, where I put 'much earlier', that was a senior moment on my part, of course Phil Sumaurez (not James) could easily have written it, the Nottingham and Mars incident was 1746.

BTW2, the sloop Nellie in 1769 was on a merchant voyage from Dartmouth to London and the journal was Captain Peter Pease's, so passing though the Channel.