Thre was trade between all of the European countries and it is possible that there was plenty of lusty sailors doing there own form of trading.
I was always amazed on my visits to my US relations to hear them assert there swarthy complexions on the Spanish Armada, it didn`t matter to them that the Spanish ships went down a long way from Armagh.                                                            They were not alone in this as I found most citizens of the US kept telling me of their native american ancestory,there were not pleased when I told them they should have gone easy on the hamburgers, romancing instead of looking at the true picture seemed to be prevelant. Ard Mhacha.