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Silver's Pirates

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Silver's Pirates

Members

See Below

First Appearance

Treasure Island (1883)

Original Publisher

Cassell and Company

Created by

Robert Louis Stevenson

Origin[]

Silver's Pirates are group of sailors among the Hispaniola's crew who plan to mutiny after the salvage of the treasure, and to murder the captain and the few remaining loyal crew. Many of them are pirates who had served on Captain Flint's ship, the Walrus, and Long John Silver now leads them.

The mutineers arm themselves and take the ship, while Jim Hawkins and Smollett's loyal band take refuge in an abandoned stockade on the island. After a brief truce, the mutineers attack the stockade, with casualties on both sides of the battle. Jim makes his way to the Hispaniola and cuts the ship from its anchor, drifting it along the ebb tide. He boards the ship and encounters the pirate Israel Hands, who had been injured in a drunken dispute with one of his companions. Hands helps Jim beach the schooner in the northern bay, then attempts to kill Jim with a dagger, but Jim shoots him dead with two pistols.

Jim goes ashore and returns to the stockade, where he is horrified to find only Silver and the pirates. Silver tells Jim that when everyone found the ship was gone, Captain Smollett's party had agreed to a truce whereby the pirates take the map and allow the besieged party to leave. In the morning, Livesey arrives to treat the wounded and sick pirates, and tells Silver to look out for trouble once he's found the site of the treasure.

After a dispute over leadership, Silver and the others set out with the map, taking Jim along as a hostage. They find a skeleton with its arms oriented toward the treasure, unnerving the party. Ben Gunn shouts Captain Flint's last words from the forest, making the superstitious pirates believe that Flint's ghost is haunting the island. They eventually find a treasure cache, but it is empty. The pirates prepare to kill Silver and Jim, but they are driven off by the doctor's party, including Gunn.

Livesey explains that Gunn had already found the bulk of the treasure and taken it to his cave, long ago. The expedition members load this portion of the treasure onto the Hispaniola and depart the island, with Silver as their only prisoner.

Members[]

  • Job Anderson: The ship's boatswain and one of the leaders of the mutiny. He participates in the storming of the blockhouse and is killed by Gray while attacking Jim. He is probably one of Flint's old pirate hands, though this is never stated. Along with Hands and Merry, he tipped a Black Spot on Silver and forced Silver to start the mutiny before the treasure was found.
  • Israel Hands: The ship's coxswain and Flint's old gunner. He tries to murder Jim Hawkins, who shoots him in self-defence.
  • John: A mutineer who is injured while trying to storm the blockhouse. Throughout the latter narrative he is primarily referred to by Hawkins as 'the man with the bandaged head' and ends up being killed at the rifled treasure cache. He is probably one of Flint's old pirate hands, as his name is called by Blind Pew before Pew was killed at the Inn.
  • Dick Johnson: The youngest of the mutineers, who has a Bible. The pirates use one of its pages to make a Black Spot for Silver, only to have him predict bad luck on Dick for sacrilege. Soon becoming mortally ill with malaria, Dick ends up being marooned on the island after the deaths of George Merry and John.
  • George Merry: A mutinous and hostile member of Silver's crew, who disobeys orders and occasionally challenges Silver's authority. With Anderson and Hands he launches the mutiny prematurely; he forces Silver to attack the blockhouse instead of waiting for the treasure to be found. He almost overthrew Silver rule's and forced Long John to take Jim as a hostage. Later killed at the empty cache just as he is about to kill both Silver and Hawkins.
  • Tom Morgan: An ex-pirate from Flint's old crew. He ends up marooned on the island with Dick and one other mutineer.
  • O'Brien: A mutineer who survives the attack on the blockhouse and escapes. He is later killed by Israel Hands in a drunken fight on the Hispaniola. He is referred to by Hawkins as the pirate 'with the red nightcap' throughout most of the narrative, until Hands reveals to Hawkins that the fellow was an Irishman named O'Brien.

Among other minor characters whose names are not revealed are the four pirates who were killed in an attack on the stockade along with Job Anderson; the pirate killed by the honest men minus Jim Hawkins the day before the attack on the stockade; the pirate killed by Ben Gunn the night before the attack; the pirate shot by Squire Trelawney when aiming at Israel Hands, who later died of his injuries; and the pirate marooned on the island along with Tom Morgan and Dick Johnson.

Public Domain Appearances[]

All published appearances of Silver's Pirates from before January 1, 1930 are public domain in the US.

Public Domain Literary Appearances[]

  • Young Folks Magazine 1881-1882 (Serialized as Treasure Island or, the mutiny of the Hispaniola)
  • Treasure Island (1883)
  • Porto Bello Gold (1924) by Arthur D. Howden Smith.

Public Domain Film Appearances[]

Public Domain Stage Appearances[]

  • Treasure Island (1915)

Public Domain Comic Book Appearances[]

  • Famous Stories #1
  • Long John Silver & the Pirates #30-32
  • Catholic Comics vol. 3 #1-10
  • Robin Hood & His Merry Men #36
  • Four Color #624
  • Sparkie #1
  • More Fun Comics vol. 1 #6, 10-11
  • Thriller Comics #3
  • Target Comics vol. 2 #2-10
  • Real Life Comics #33

See Also[]

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