Black Sails
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50 free Black Sails trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Black Sails ran for four seasons and turned a famous pirate story inside out, asking how Captain Flint and John Silver became the men readers already feared. It mixed invented characters with real figures from the Golden Age of Piracy, and it rewarded viewers who followed every scheme and betrayal in Nassau. This quiz covers the whole voyage: the hunt for a treasure galleon, the war for Nassau, the actors behind the crew, how the series was made, and where its pirates part ways with the historical record. It is written for fans who have finished the series, so expect spoilers through the finale. Newcomers who know their pirate history will find plenty they can reason out.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Black Sails was written as a prequel to which 1883 adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson?
Treasure Island
Treasure Island takes place roughly two decades after the series, which is why younger versions of Billy Bones and Long John Silver sail in it.
Q 02In the Stevenson novel that Black Sails leads into, Long John Silver names which pet after Captain Flint?
A parrot
A parrot gets the name Captain Flint in the book, in mockery of the captain who was said to fear only Silver himself.
Q 03Which Hollywood director, a co-founder of Platinum Dunes, was an executive producer of Black Sails?
Michael Bay
Michael Bay shared the executive producer credit with Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, his partners in founding Platinum Dunes in 2001.
Q 04Black Sails recreated eighteenth-century Nassau on sets and ships built at a film studio in which country?
South Africa
South Africa hosted the production at Cape Town Film Studios, where building just one of the show's ships took over 300 workers.
Q 05After being tortured in the season two finale of Black Sails, John Silver loses which part of his body?
A leg
A leg has to be amputated, setting him on the way to the one-legged Long John Silver of Stevenson's novel.
Q 06The real privateer behind Black Sails' governor of Nassau rescued a castaway thought to have inspired which novel?
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is generally believed to draw on Alexander Selkirk, the marooned Scottish sailor the future governor found on Juan Fernández in 1709.
Q 07Which actor, a son of Dame Maggie Smith and a former James Bond villain, plays Captain Flint in Black Sails?
Toby Stephens
Toby Stephens was the villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day, and later starred in the Netflix remake of Lost in Space.
Q 08Ray Stevenson joined Black Sails in season three as which real pirate, captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge?
Blackbeard
Blackbeard, born Edward Teach, is played by the actor who was the legionary Titus Pullo in Rome and Volstagg in Thor.
Q 09Instead of names, every episode of Black Sails from the pilot to the finale is titled with what?
Roman numerals
Roman numerals run from I for the pilot to XXXVIII for the finale, so the series never used a worded episode title.
Q 10Nassau, the pirate haven at the centre of Black Sails, is the present-day capital of which country?
Bahamas
The Bahamas has its capital at Nassau, where in the early 1700s more than a thousand pirates were said to outnumber the town's hundred or so inhabitants.
Q 11Which American premium cable network aired all four seasons of Black Sails between 2014 and 2017?
Starz
Starz renewed the pirate drama for a second season six months before the first had even aired.
Q 12Which ship does Captain Flint command when John Silver first joins his crew in Black Sails?
Walrus
Walrus is also the name of Flint's pirate ship in Stevenson's novel, where it is said to have piled up an enormous hoard of captured treasure.
Q 13Merchant sailor John Silver joins Captain Flint's crew in the first episode of Black Sails in which job?
Cook
Cook is the post Long John Silver holds in Stevenson's novel too, a book its author wanted to title The Sea Cook.
Q 21Eleanor Guthrie holds power over the pirate captains of Nassau in Black Sails through which family business?
Fencing stolen goods
Fencing stolen goods turned the pirates' booty into laundered cash, a trade Eleanor conducted on behalf of her father.
Q 22In the final season of Black Sails, Captain Flint goes ashore to hide the treasure at which remote place?
Skeleton Island
Skeleton Island is where Flint sets off to hide the chest with one crewman while John Silver sends six men after them.
Q 23Eleanor Guthrie dies in season four of Black Sails during an invasion of Nassau by which nation's forces?
Spain
Q 14In the first episode of Black Sails, John Silver secretly pockets which item sought by Captain Flint?
A logbook page
A logbook page from his former employer's ship held the schedule of a treasure galleon, which Silver only gave up in the season finale.
Q 15Which treasure galleon do Captain Flint and his crew hunt throughout the first season of Black Sails?
Urca de Lima
Urca de Lima was a real ship that sank in 1715, and the series makes it the main prize its pirates are seeking.
Q 16Which English actor, later Luther Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, plays Billy Bones in Black Sails?
Tom Hopper
Tom Hopper was the first actor to join the series, having already played the knight Percival in the BBC's Merlin.
Q 17Which real governor, sent from England to end piracy in Nassau, marries Eleanor Guthrie in Black Sails?
Woodes Rogers
Woodes Rogers first makes Eleanor his counsellor for the move on Nassau, and by the opening of the final season the two have married.
Q 18In season one of Black Sails, Jack Rackham and Charles Vane become owners of which Nassau business?
A brothel
A brothel proves harder to run than a ship: Rackham struggles to turn a profit until Max steps in to help manage it.
Q 19The real 1715 treasure fleet behind the gold hunt in Black Sails was wrecked by a hurricane off which coast?
Florida
Florida's coast holds one of the wrecks near Fort Pierce, which in 1987 became the state's first underwater archaeological preserve.
Q 20Which sailor, found marooned in Stevenson's novel, joins Captain Flint's crew late in Black Sails?
Ben Gunn
Ben Gunn spends three years alone in the book after another ship's crew maroons him for failing to find Flint's treasure.
Spain sent a dozen ships into Nassau harbour after the governor himself sailed for Havana to ask for its help.
Q 24The sea shanty-inspired theme music of Black Sails is built around which instrument of the period?
Hurdy-gurdy
The hurdy-gurdy sounds its strings with a hand-cranked rosined wheel, and it was a real instrument of the pirates' era.
Q 25Which composer of Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead wrote the Emmy-nominated Black Sails theme?
Bear McCreary
Bear McCreary earned a 2014 Emmy nomination for the main title theme, and the title sequence it accompanies was nominated too.
Q 26Which Australian actor, who also portrayed the frontman of INXS, plays John Silver in Black Sails?
Luke Arnold
Luke Arnold played Michael Hutchence in the miniseries INXS: Never Tear Us Apart in 2014, and he is a published author as well as an actor.
Q 27Flashbacks in Black Sails reveal Captain Flint was driven from London after an affair with which nobleman?
Thomas Hamilton
Thomas Hamilton was committed to a mental hospital, while Flint was stripped of his rank and expelled from the Royal Navy.
Q 28Before turning pirate, Captain Flint of Black Sails served as a Royal Navy officer under which birth name?
James McGraw
James McGraw was a Royal Navy officer and London gentleman, and season two answers how and why such a man turned to piracy.
Q 29Which former quartermaster does Captain Flint kill in the season one finale of Black Sails?
Hal Gates
Hal Gates had threatened to call off the attack, so Flint killed the man who had only recently been made a captain himself.
Q 30At the end of Black Sails, Captain Flint leaves the war for Nassau behind and goes to which colonial town?
Savannah
Savannah is also where Stevenson's novel says Flint died, many years before that book's central plot takes place.