60 Fun Facts About Treasure Island

Although published in the 1880s, Treasure Island is set in which period?

The narrator dates his account to 'the year of grace 17—', so Treasure Island is set in the 1700s, a generation after the golden age of piracy.

Under what working title did Stevenson originally write Treasure Island?

Stevenson's working title was The Sea Cook, subtitled 'A Story for Boys', before the tale was renamed Treasure Island for its magazine serial.

Treasure Island was first serialised in 1881–82 in which children's magazine?

Young Folks, a penny weekly for children, ran Treasure Island in seventeen instalments from October 1881 to January 1882.

Under what pseudonym was the serialised Treasure Island credited?

The serial was credited to 'Captain George North'; Stevenson, then little known, put his own name on the later book edition.

In what year was Treasure Island first published as a book, by Cassell & Co.?

Cassell & Co. issued Treasure Island in book form on 14 November 1883, two years after its magazine serial began.

Where was Stevenson holidaying in 1881 when he drew the treasure map that started the story for his stepson?

At Braemar, Scotland, during the wet summer of 1881, Stevenson painted the map of an island that grew into the novel; his father chipped in details.

What was the name of Stevenson's stepson, for whom the story was invented?

Lloyd Osbourne, Stevenson's teenage stepson, watched the map being drawn and later co-wrote The Wrong Box and The Ebb-Tide with him.

Stevenson found the seed phrase 'Dead Man's Chest' in a travel book by which author?

Charles Kingsley's travel book At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies (1871) mentions Dead Chest Island, which Stevenson turned into the 'Dead Man's Chest' of the pirate song.

What is the name of the inn on the English coast where the story opens?

The Admiral Benbow inn, run by the narrator's parents near Black Hill Cove, is where the old seaman with the sea-chest takes a room.

Who narrates most of Treasure Island?

Jim Hawkins, the innkeeper's son, narrates the book in the first person apart from three chapters told by another member of the treasure party.

The old seaman lodging at the inn as 'The Captain' is really which former first mate of Flint's?

Billy Bones, once Flint's mate, pays Jim to watch for 'a seafaring man with one leg' and dies of apoplexy after the black spot is served.

Which blind beggar delivers the dreaded 'black spot' to the old seaman at the inn?

Blind Pew taps his way to the inn, forces the black spot into the old seaman's hand and gives him until ten o'clock; Silver says Pew once blew £1,200 a year.

The rogue Black Dog, who confronts the old captain at the inn, is missing what?

Jim notices Black Dog is missing two fingers of his left hand; in the fight that follows, the captain's cutlass gashes his shoulder before he flees.

When handed the black spot, Silver points out the paper was torn from what, bringing bad luck?

Silver sneers that the spot was cut out of a Bible — Dick's — and warns that a crew which mutilates scripture has thrown away its luck.

The expedition sails from which English port aboard the Hispaniola?

Squire Trelawney buys and fits out the Hispaniola at Bristol, where he also blabs about the treasure and lets Silver help pick the crew.

What is Long John Silver's job aboard the Hispaniola?

Silver signs on as ship's cook, nicknamed 'Barbecue' by the crew, having once been quartermaster aboard Flint's ship.

What is the name of Long John Silver's parrot?

Silver's parrot is called Captain Flint, after the dead pirate captain he sailed under, and is said by Silver to be two hundred years old.

What phrase is Silver's parrot famous for squawking?

The parrot screams 'Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!' until out of breath; a piece of eight was a Spanish silver dollar worth eight reales.

Which leg has Long John Silver lost?

Silver has lost his left leg, near the hip — Jim notes it was 'cut off close by the hip' — yet he hops about on his crutch 'like a bird'.

Long John Silver was partly modelled on which one-legged, red-bearded editor friend of Stevenson?

Stevenson confessed in a letter to William Ernest Henley that 'the sight of your maimed strength and masterfulness' had begotten Long John Silver.

Hiding in what does Jim overhear Silver plotting the mutiny?

Jim climbs into an apple barrel for a snack and hears Silver recruiting hands for a mutiny; he then warns the captain, the squire and the doctor.

Who is the captain of the Hispaniola?

Captain Alexander Smollett, a stickler for discipline, distrusts the crew from the start and later tells Jim the two of them should never sail together again.

What happens to Mr Arrow, the Hispaniola's alcoholic first mate?

Mr Arrow, drunk throughout the voyage from some secret supply, vanishes one dark night; the crew conclude he is lost overboard, and nobody mourns him.

Ben Gunn, the castaway Jim meets on the island, had been marooned there for how long?

Ben Gunn tells Jim he was marooned three years earlier by shipmates who failed to find the treasure, living since on goats, berries and oysters.

What food does the marooned Ben Gunn crave above all else?

Ben Gunn dreams of cheese, 'toasted, mostly'; the ship's doctor later gives him a piece of Parmesan he carries in his snuffbox.

Where does the bulk of Flint's treasure turn out to be when the pirates dig?

The gold was already moved to Ben Gunn's cave — he had dug it up months before — so the pirates find only an empty pit and a broken pick-shaft.

After getting his £1,000 share, Ben Gunn was back begging on which day?

Ben Gunn spent or lost his thousand pounds in nineteen days and was back begging on day 20, so the squire gave him a lodge to keep.

Which pirate does Jim fight aboard the drifting Hispaniola after cutting her anchor cable?

Israel Hands, the coxswain, pins Jim's shoulder to the mast with a thrown dirk before Jim's pistols fire; Stevenson took the name from a real pirate in Blackbeard's crew.

What was the name of Flint's pirate ship?

Flint's ship was the Walrus; Silver, once her quartermaster, remembers her 'amuck with the red blood and fit to sink with gold'.

How does Ben Gunn scare the superstitious pirates during the treasure hunt?

Ben Gunn, shouting Flint's last words from the trees — 'Darby M'Graw, fetch aft the rum!' — convinces the pirates that Flint's ghost walks.

How does Long John Silver end the novel?

With Ben Gunn's connivance, he slips away at the first port with some money — three or four hundred guineas of the treasure — and Silver is never heard of again.

Squire Trelawney's gamekeeper, shot dead by the mutineers while moving to the stockade, is named what?

Tom Redruth, the squire's old gamekeeper, takes a musket ball through the body as the party reaches the stockade and dies there that evening.

The desert-island adventure genre of Treasure Island is usually traced back to which 1719 novel?

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe (1719) founded the castaway genre; Stevenson borrowed its device of a marooned man, Ben Gunn, surviving alone on an island.

Which island with its own Spyglass Hill is often claimed as Treasure Island's model?

Norman Island (BVI) has a Spyglass Hill and a pirate-treasure legend of its own, though Unst in Shetland and Fidra in the Forth are also claimed as models.

Roughly how many film and television adaptations of Treasure Island have there been?

Over 50 screen versions exist, from silent films of the 1910s and MGM's 1934 talkie to Disney's space-set Treasure Planet (2002).

Who played the first speaking Long John Silver, in the 1934 MGM film?

Wallace Beery, fresh from an Oscar for The Champ, played Silver opposite Jackie Cooper's Jim in MGM's 1934 talkie; Lionel Barrymore was the old seaman.

Disney's 1950 Treasure Island, starring Robert Newton, was a landmark for the studio for what reason?

For Disney, Treasure Island (1950) was its first completely live-action film, with no animated sequences; it was shot in Technicolor in England with Bobby Driscoll as Jim.

Robert Newton's stereotypical pirate accent exaggerated the speech of which English region?

Newton broadened the West Country burr of his native Dorset into the 'Arrr' pirate voice, earning him the title of patron saint of Talk Like a Pirate Day.

What problem cut short Bobby Driscoll's shoot on Disney's 1950 film in England?

Driscoll was 12 and he had no permit to work in the UK; when the Ministry of Labour refused one, Disney hurried his remaining scenes and sent him home.

Which screen legend played Long John Silver in the 1972 film version?

Orson Welles played Silver in the 1972 international co-production, having voiced the role on radio in the Mercury Theatre's 1938 Treasure Island.

Who played Long John Silver in 'Muppet Treasure Island' (1996)?

Tim Curry played a roaring Long John Silver in Muppet Treasure Island (1996), with Kevin Bishop as Jim and Miss Piggy as the castaway Benjamina Gunn.

In 'Muppet Treasure Island', which Muppet plays the Hispaniola's captain?

Kermit the Frog captains the Hispaniola, with Fozzie Bear as the dim Squire Trelawney and Sam Eagle as the stiff first mate Mr Arrow.

Disney's 2002 animated 'Treasure Planet' reimagined Long John Silver as what?

Treasure Planet makes Silver a cyborg with a mechanical arm, leg and eye; a dying old pirate's warning to Jim is to 'beware the cyborg'.

Who directed 'Treasure Planet', the same duo behind 'The Little Mermaid' and 'Aladdin'?

Ron Clements and John Musker, the team behind The Little Mermaid and Aladdin, directed Treasure Planet, which grossed about $110 million on a $140 million budget.

Which 2014–2017 Starz drama was a prequel to Treasure Island?

Black Sails, set about twenty years before the novel, starred Toby Stephens as Flint and Luke Arnold as a young John Silver.

Which former UK Poet Laureate wrote the 2012 sequel 'Silver: Return to Treasure Island'?

Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate from 1999 to 2009, published Silver: Return to Treasure Island in 2012, sending Jim's son and Silver's daughter back to the island.

The 1990 TNT film of Treasure Island starred Charlton Heston as Silver and which future Batman as Jim?

Christian Bale, then a teenager, played Jim in Fraser Heston's 1990 TNT film, alongside Oliver Reed as the old seaman and Christopher Lee as the blind beggar.

Which 2024 Disney+ series is a loose adaptation of Treasure Island set in the Star Wars universe?

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew (2024) follows four children lost in space with Jude Law as a Silver-like rogue; the show's pirates are hunting a legendary treasure world.

Herman Toothrot, a half-crazed marooned hermit inspired by Ben Gunn, appears in which video game series?

Herman Toothrot, the ragged castaway of The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), is modelled on Ben Gunn; like Gunn, he has been stuck on his island for years.

Robert Louis Stevenson came from a family famous in which profession?

The Stevensons were the great dynasty of Scottish lighthouse engineering: grandfather Robert built the Bell Rock light and father Thomas many more, though Louis abandoned engineering for law, then writing.

Where did Stevenson die in 1894, aged 44?

Stevenson died of a brain haemorrhage at Vailima, his estate on Samoa, in December 1894; Samoans called him Tusitala, 'teller of tales'.

How does the blind beggar die during the pirates' raid on the inn?

Deserted by his gang, the blind man is trampled by an excise officer's horse as Supervisor Dance's revenue riders thunder into the cove.

Which loyal carpenter's mate kills the boatswain Job Anderson, saving Jim's life at the stockade?

Abraham Gray, the carpenter's mate who stayed loyal, cuts down the boatswain at the stockade; he later saves his money and ends as mate and part-owner of a ship.

Which mutineer in a red nightcap is killed in a drunken fight aboard the Hispaniola?

Jim learns the dead Irishman was O'Brien only when the wounded coxswain names him aboard the drifting ship.

Which real pirate named in the novel buried treasure on Gardiners Island?

William Kidd really did bury treasure on Gardiners Island in 1699 before his arrest in Boston; Stevenson's map of the island marks a 'Kidd's Anchorage'.

The expedition's doctor mentions having served at which 1745 battle?

The doctor mentions having served at Fontenoy, where in May 1745 the Duke of Cumberland's army was beaten by the French in the Austrian Netherlands.

Stevenson's epigraph name-checks Kingston, Cooper and which author of The Coral Island?

Stevenson's verse 'To the Hesitating Purchaser' invokes 'Kingston, or Ballantyne the brave, or Cooper of the wood and wave'; R. M. Ballantyne wrote The Coral Island (1857).

The doctor's surname may come from Joseph Livesey, a 19th-century campaigner for what cause?

Joseph Livesey of Preston founded the 1830s teetotal temperance movement; fittingly, the doctor tells the rum-soaked old captain that 'the name of rum for you is death'.

A 1980s Soviet Ukrainian animated version became a 2022 meme for its portrayal of which character?

The doctor, Livesey, with his swaggering walk and booming laugh in David Cherkassky's 1986–88 Kyivnaukfilm cartoon, became the 'Dr Livesey walk' meme in 2022.

Which comedian starred as Long John Silver in the two-part 2012 Sky1 adaptation?

Eddie Izzard played Silver opposite Elijah Wood's Ben Gunn and Donald Sutherland's Flint in Sky1's Treasure Island, shown on 1 and 2 January 2012.