Captain Flint
Captain J. Flint (sometimes Josuah or John Flint ) was the notorious fictional captain of a pirate ship, the Walrus , in the novel Treasure Island by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894).
Flint was responsible for the fact that an immense treasure was hidden on an island. Flint anchored the Walrus in Skeleton Bay. After the treasure was buried by six of its crew members, he got rid of these now unpopular witnesses by murdering them in cold blood. He placed one of them, the sailor Allardyce, with outstretched arms as a guide to the location of the treasure on the island. He drew the location of the treasure on a treasure map , which later came into the hands of his helmsman William "Billy" Bones and ultimately into the hands of the hero of the novel Jim Hawkins .
The only person Captain Flint is said to have feared was the helmsman's mate John Silver , who later mockingly called his accompanying parrot Captain Flint .
In the 1925 novel Porto Bello Gold (also under the title The Treasure Ship Relocated) by Arthur D. Howden Smith , based on the few anecdotes that are mentioned in Treasure Island , how the treasure came to the island is described in detail in a coherent way The story tells how Flint looted the treasure and only hid it because there was a possibility of robbing another gold transport nearby. A part of his team, especially Allardyce, is against it and wants to be satisfied with the gold that has already been captured. Flint leaves that pretty cold and he gets his way. When he wants to bury the treasure on the island, he takes this part of the insurgents with him, lets them bury the treasure and then murders them, placing each corpse as a guide to the hiding place. With this act he got rid of the insurgents and at the same time made sure that only he knows the hiding place. Shortly before he reached the gold transport, however, he died of a stroke under the influence of alcohol, with which the project was canceled and Bill Bones, much to the horror of John Silver, was named as his successor. He then only escapes a mutiny by fleeing from the ship in good time with the treasure map.
In the US state of Georgia , in an inn in the city of Savannah , the Pirate's House Inn , built in 1734 , the pirate Captain Flint is said to have died asking for " Darby McGraw - more rum ... " and haunted around as a ghost. The way he died is mentioned in the book, but it is not certain that Stevenson designed Captain Flint from a real model.
What is certain is that Stevenson used the book A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pirates (1724) by Captain Charles Johnson for the selection of his motifs and characters .
Although Captain Flint is only mentioned in passing in the novel, he has appeared in various film adaptations of the novel. Captain Flint is also one of the characters in Richard Schuberth's play Just Wait Until Captain Flint Comes! At the Pirate Open Air in Grevesmühlen, Captain Flint is the main character, the open air theater has existed since 2005.
Captain Flint in films
- The Bandit Island of Karabei ( Return to Treasure Island , 1954), played by Dayton Lummis
- The Treasure Island four-part TV series (1966) is only mentioned
- The Adventures of Long John Silver (TV series: Execution Dock , 1959) portrayed by George Simpson-Lyttle
- Muppets - Die Schatzinsel ( Muppet Treasure Island , 1996) is only mentioned
- Treasure Island ( Treasure Iceland , 1999), represented by Peter Rowe
- Relic Hunter (TV series: Treasure Island , 2001), played by Richard Denison
- Treasure Island (TV movie, 2012), Donald Sutherland as Flint
- Black Sails (TV series) (TV series, 2014), played by Toby Stephens , there with the first name James.
- Captain Flint also occurs in the animated film Treasure Planet ( Treasure Planet ) (2002) by Disney in appearance there with the name Nathaniel.
literature
- Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island.
- Captain Charles Johnson , David Cordingly: A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates. London 1724/1728. Reprint: Lyons Press, ISBN 1-58574-558-8 .
- Arthur D. Howden Smith: Porto Bello Gold. Kiepenheuer, Leipzig, Weimar 1984.
- Björn Larsson: Long John Silver. Berlin Verlag, 1996
- Robert Magrite "The Island of Parrots"