Thanks for the reply TJ.
I enjoyed this little game. As a micro manager I pass on big games with a fixed long game length. I passed on your 40 year inheritence scenario cos it would take me months of real time to complete.
Yet this Escape scenario took me an evening. Careful squeezing every last bit of productive effort out of the tiny workforce in order to beat the racing clock and the constant countdown on the hoard. And all the while wondering if the 5 slop would be enough or not.
My score above was actually my third attempt. My second attempt ended in failure when a scam I tried failed to work and left me stranded. I remembered somewhere on these boards and in previous games, that when I have no ship and ransom the only shipwright, that a replacement shipwright arrives next month. Presumably a game mechanism to prevent players getting stuck on an island without any means of beuilding a ship or replacing a killed shipwright. I tried that in this scenario in order to gain 25% of the ransom to boost my hoard for a better score but also to rid my island of a food eating captive who I thought would reappear fully refreshed and not needing to eat my precious slop. Any way... the hoard went up $50 (25% of $200) well enough and getting rid of him stopped him eating the slop....but with no replacement shipwright the next month I had to restart.

Another 'cheat' I did which did work was immediately restarting the scenario if I didnt like the starting mix of male/female workers. With so few workers I needed the right sex workers to do the critical jobs.