Long John Silver

 1911 illustration by N C Wyeth

To my surprise, following hours of research, I have determined that Long John Silver is really an imaginary character as well as the principal “bad guy” portrayed in the novel Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson, published in May of 1883; it was originally a series of short stories in the children's magazine Young Folks between 1881 and 1882 with the title “Treasure Island”; or, in some cases “the mutiny of the Hispaniola” wherein Stevenson used a pen name, “Captain George North.”

As the story goes, John Silver is a pirate who was quartermaster under the infamous and dishonorable Captain Flint.  A quartermaster on a pirate ship is ranked higher than any other officer except the captain himself; he could even veto the captain's directives when the ship was not in battle.  The quartermaster, you see, was elected by the crew and was therefore often well liked by the majority of his ship mates.  One of his primary tasks was to lead boarding party’s from the quarterdeck during the boarding or attack of another ship.

John Silver claims to have served in the Royal Navy and lost his leg under "the memorable Edward Hawke" who was a very famous and successful Royal Navy Officer who became a well respected Admiral. He (Silver) had a pet parrot, often seen sitting on his shoulder, which he named Captain Flint no less. In addition, Silver always claimed that he was the only man that the ships Captain, Flint was afraid of, which was probably true, in light of the name he gave to his parrot, which was clearly an affront to the Captain.

It is often said that Robert Louis Stevenson’s John Silver character in his novel “Treasure Island” is based upon on the lives of Owen and John Lloyd, who were brothers born in North Wales of the United Kingdom. After all, John Owen did have a wooden leg but I could find no evidence that anyone ever called him “Long”.

The men are believed to have started or carved out there early careers as respected merchant captains, but later turned to piracy when a storm forced a Spanish galleon filled with booty to seek refuge in an American seaport during 1750.  It seems the pair could not resist the opportunity.  Besides they had previously experienced bitterly at the hands of the Spaniards in what was called “King George’s War”.  So they exacted their revenge by sailing away with the treasure after coming upon the ship.

One of the two brothers, Owen, is believed to have sailed to the West Indies where he buried 52 chests of Spanish silver pieces of eight on the deserted Norman Island, which is a part of the British Virgin Islands.

Such claims, contradict another long-held belief that Stevenson’s famous pirate was based on a close friend of his, the poet and editor William Henley, who also had one leg.

Sources …                                                                                http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_Island                                         http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2021178/Treasure-Islands-Long-John-Silver-based-real-man-WELSH.html