Yes. I agree that this interpretation is the best. The only problem is that Dad also created a timeline in TTFBM where a young Tatton is transported to England by Barnabas Sackett a year or so AFTER Barnabas finds the wreck.

I'm working on a solution but I'm trying to see if anyone can spot a problem with my fix which would be to cut the Barnabas/Tatton scene in TTFBM. I believe this wasn't done because of some editorial chaos that caused a significant amount of trouble between Dad and Bantam.