Captain Flint
Encyclopedia
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
, the Walrus, in the novel Treasure Island
Treasure Island
Treasure Island is an adventure novel by Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, narrating a tale of "pirates and buried gold". First published as a book on May 23, 1883, it was originally serialized in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881–82 under the title Treasure Island; or, the...
of the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
(1850-1894). It is a certainty that Stevenson knew the book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates (1724) by Captain Charles Johnson and that he used some themes and characters from it.
Flint was responsible for burying an enormous treasure (approximately £700,000) on an island located in the Spanish Main
Spanish Main
In the days of the Spanish New World Empire, the mainland of the American continent enclosing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico was referred to as the Spanish Main. It included present-day Florida, the east shore of the Gulf of Mexico in Texas, Mexico, Central America and the north coast of...
in which he was assisted by six of his crew-members. After the treasure was buried, he murdered all six of them and left the corpse of Allardyce with outstretched arms pointing to the location of the treasure.
The location of the treasure was marked by Flint on a map dated 1750 that was entrusted to his first mate William "Billy" Bones
Billy Bones
Billy Bones or Captain William Bones is a fictional character, a pirate in the first section of Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island....
, and later into the hands of the hero of the novel, Jim Hawkins
Jim Hawkins (character)
James "Jim" Hawkins is a fictional character in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island. He is both the protagonist and narrator of the story.-Appearances:...
.
The only person Flint was said to fear was his quartermaster John Silver
Long John Silver
Long John Silver is a fictional character and the primary antagonist of the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Silver is also known by the nicknames "Barbecue" and the "Sea-Cook".- Profile :...
, who later even called his parrot "Captain Flint" in mockery.
Flint is said to have died in Savannah
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah is the largest city and the county seat of Chatham County, in the U.S. state of Georgia. Established in 1733, the city of Savannah was the colonial capital of the Province of Georgia and later the first state capital of Georgia. Today Savannah is an industrial center and an important...
, shouting "Darby M'Graw - fetch aft the rum...." His death was said in the book to have been caused by the effects of rum. The inscription on the map suggests that he died in 1754.
In other works
Although Flint was only ever mentioned in the novel "Katie Losee", he was shown several times in film versions of the story.Flint has a major part in the 1924 prequel
Prequel
A prequel is a work that supplements a previously completed one, and has an earlier time setting.The widely recognized term was a 20th-century neologism, and a portmanteau from pre- and sequel...
Porto Bello Gold, by A. D. Howden Smith, which depicts the way that the treasure was captured from a Spanish galleon. In this version, Flint is described as having started his piratical career as the junior partner of Andrew Murray, an idealistic Jacobite
Jacobitism
Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...
turned pirate, who is not referenced in Stevenson's original book.Flint gradually becomes the dominant partner. The book describes how Flint secretly buries the treasure which would be recovered a generation later by the protagonists of Treasure Island.
Flint is mentioned in the novel Peter and Wendy
Peter and Wendy
Peter and Wendy, published in 1911, is the novelisation by J. M. Barrie of his most famous play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up...
by J. M. Barrie
J. M. Barrie
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM was a Scottish author and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright...
, a friend of Stevenson. The first mention is in a passage introducing Captain Hook
Captain Hook
Captain James Hook is the main antagonist of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up and its various adaptations. The character is a villainous pirate captain of the Jolly Roger brig, and lord of the pirate village/harbour in Neverland, where he is widely feared. Most...
's pirate crew: "Here is Bill Jukes, every inch of him tattooed, the same Bill Jukes who got six dozen on the WALRUS from Flint before he would drop the bag of moidores." The second mention is as Hook is attempting to intimidate the Darling children and the Lost Boys, but is heckled by his inner demons: "'I am the only man whom Barbecue feared,' he urged, 'and Flint feared Barbecue.' 'Barbecue, Flint—what house?' came the cutting retort."
In Arthur Ransome
Arthur Ransome
Arthur Michell Ransome was an English author and journalist, best known for writing the Swallows and Amazons series of children's books. These tell of school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads. Many of the books involve sailing; other common subjects...
's book Swallows and Amazons
Swallows and Amazons
Swallows and Amazons is the first book in the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome; it was first published in 1930, with the action taking place in the summer of 1929 in the Lake District...
, the Blacketts' uncle James Turner is nickname
Nickname
A nickname is "a usually familiar or humorous but sometimes pointed or cruel name given to a person or place, as a supposedly appropriate replacement for or addition to the proper name.", or a name similar in origin and pronunciation from the original name....
d Captain Flint by the Swallows. This is because they believed that he looked like a retired pirate and took the name from Treasure Island. He is nearly always referred to by this name in the rest of the books.
Captain Flint was shown briefly in the animated feature film Treasure Planet
Treasure Planet
Treasure Planet is a 2002 animated science fiction film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, and released by Walt Disney Pictures on November 27, 2002...
by Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
. In this film, the character was known as Nathaniel Flint, a space pirate of non-human origins whose reputation was legendary for leading his ship and crew to plundering merchant ships, infamously appearing and disappearing without a trace, and eventually burying his treasure (called by many 'Flint's Trove' and/or 'the loot of a thousand worlds') inside the giant alien mechanism known as Treasure Planet.