Built as El Fortuno de Platez and bought from the Spanish Treasure Fleet, the galleon began service to Lord Francesco de Platez, an Italian of the Spanish nobility, it was to be the finest ship his family would own to claim their vast fortune in the New World. It was attacked and captured by Lawrence Roberts during a supply stop in Port Royal bound for Panama. Little life was lost and only minor damages were done, and was commissioned as his flagship throughout the Caribbean, renamed the Fortune General due to the fact that there was a Spanish General aboard the night it was stolen. When de Platez received word of the ship, he spent his fortune in buying a privateering fleet of ten war galleons to hunt it down and sink it if need be. The fleet found the General off the north coast of Cuba