MovieChat Forums > Treasure Island (1950) Discussion > A question if you've read the book....

A question if you've read the book....

posted 18 years ago by krock_rules741852963
9 replies | jump to latest

okay.... so i've read the book, and then tried sparknoting it, and i may sound stupid, but who is captain flint? i kept getting him confused for billy bones.

[–] jfc5-1 18 years ago

Captain Flint is the captain of the crew that hid the treasure on Treasure Island. Billy Bones, I believe, was his first mate, and Long John Silver was his gunner. Someone correct me if I'm wrong; it's been a couple of years since I've read it.

[–] GrizlyBear18 18 years ago

One correction. Billy Bones was Flints gunner and Silver was Flints quatermaster. As for Ben Gunn I really don't know but populay myth dictates that he was the ships doctor or more likely the cook.

[–] Vanneau 18 years ago

Ben Gunn was Flint's boatswain. Well, he is in the play at my school, and it follows the book pretty close.

[–] MoviemanCin 8 years ago

Populay myth??

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.

[–] angryangus 18 years ago

Silver also named his parrot Cap'n Flint in memory of him....which leads on to a popular pub quiz trick question, "Who played Captain Flint in the Robert Newton film, Treasure Island?"

[–] scotland46385 18 years ago

Flint's gunner was Israel Hands. He is killed by Jim towards the end of the book. He has his own chapter called "Israel Hands"

[–] timothyhodge 17 years ago

'Twas also the name Silver bestowed upon his parrot!

[–] magolding 10 years ago

There was a real Israel Hands in Blackbeard's crew who later more or less reformed. When I was a child I wondered if he later joined Flint's crew and so on - if so he would have been a pretty old pirate.

Captain Flint in the novel was supposed to be the greatest pirate ever and his crew the scurviest scum who ever sailed. Judging by the size of his treasure, Flint would have been more successful than Samuel Bellamy, Sir Francis Drake, Thomas Tew, John Bowen, "Black Bart" Roberts, Jean Fleury, Thomas White, John Halsey, Sir Henry Morgan, and "Blackbeard" together.

Flint may have been partially based on the dreaded pirates John Taylor and Oliver Levasseur whose ships captured a Portugeuse ship with a treasure estimated at over one hundred million modern pounds, which Long John Silver is said to have mentioned in the novel.

[–] Karl Aksel 9 years ago

'Twas also the name Silver bestowed upon his parrot!

The parrot's name was Captain Flint.