Treasure Island

**Treasure Island**, formerly titled **The Sea Cook: A Story for Boys** and also known as ***Treasure Island or the mutiny of the Hispaniola*** is an 1883 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson.

## Adaptations

### Disney Parks

#### Discovery Island

The abandoned Discovery Island of Bay Lake was originally named Treasure Island and was opened with a Treasure Island motif. Areas included Buccaneer's Cove, Lookout Point, and Rum Point with unrealized plans to create the Blockhouse, Spyglass Hill, Ben Gunn's Cave, Billy Bones' Dilemma. Most notably featured was the shipwreck of *The Walrus*, the ship of Captain Flint. The island later took up more of an ecological theme under the name Discovery Island and had a large number of parrots.

## Connections

### The Little Mermaid

In the queue for Voyage of the Little Mermaid at Disney's Hollywood Studios is a variety of objects implied to be part of Ariel's collection. One of them is a peg-leg belonging to one, "L.J. Silver".

### Oceaneer Lab

Captain Mary Oceaneer has framed concept-artwork of the *RLS Legacy* from Treasure Planet aboard her ship the RV Oceaneer Lab. Mary is also in possession of the Dead Man's Chest, the titular object from the sea shanty, "Dead Man's Chest" originating from Treasure Island. In Miss Adventure Falls she is also shown to own artifacts from Ariel's collection, the same collection previously inferred to contain Long John Silver's peg-leg.

### Peter Pan

In J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy, Captain Hook's late-captain is identified as having been Long John Silver. Silver was killed by Peter Pan on Neverland with Hook taking his place afterwards.

### Pirates of the Caribbean

The shanty, "*Dead Man's Chest*" originating from Treasure Island is a sea-song sung by pirates in the pirates of the Caribbean films. In this series, the shanty and its lyrics are about the *Dead Man's Chest* which Davy Jones placed his still beating heart in and hid on Isla Cruces. Additionally, the Black Spot which Davy Jones gives his debtors so that they can be tracked down by the Kraken is a reimagining of the Black Spot created for Treasure Island. In the book however, the Black Spot is not supernatural but rather a black ink-spot made on a bible-page or playing card which is used by pirates to signify guilt or judgment from their peers.

Also in *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest* (2006) there is a minor character in the form of an English sailor named Captain Hawkins. This captain is an ally to Jamaican governor Weatherby Swann and agrees to smuggle his daughter Elizabeth to London when she is arrested for piracy by the *East India Trading Company*. This man is ultimately killed by EITC agent Ian Mercer before he can assist the Swanns. In the DVD commentary of the film, the screenwriters identified Captain Hawkins as being the deceased father of Treasure Island protagonist Jim Hawkins.

In the prequel books detailing Jack Sparrow's early life, Jack sparrow tells Arabella Smith the legend of the pirate Left-Foot Louis. Louis is described as having known an equally infamous pirate named, "Silver" who was a cook that was an expert in amputation following having sailed with, "A certain doctor". Silver aided Louis in a leg reattachment surgery only to have grafted on the wrong food; all of this being a reference to the one-legged sea-cook Long John Silver. This question is however disputed by Arabella who claims Louis was simply born with his foot mutation.

The pirates of the Caribbean franchise also has a variety of parallels and influenced elements from Treasure Island. Looser influences include the frequency of talking pirate parrots, importance of treasure maps, and Barbossa speaking with a derivative infection to Robert Newton's portrayal of Long John Silver. Barbossa naming his pet monkey Jack after Jack Sparrow after deposing of Jack is a reference to how Long John Silver named his pet parrot Captain Flint following Flint's death. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Blackbeard being deathly afraid of Barbossa being a, "One-legged man" who heralds death is a reference to how in Treasure Island, Billy Bones considered the, "One-legged man" Long John Silver to herald his own death.

The name of Isla Tesoro in the original ride is a likely tribute to Treasure Island as its name translates from Spanish directly into, "Treasure Island". The lost cursed treasure itself is also likely influenced by Captain Flint's stash of gold. In real-life, the song Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me), was inspired by the song Dead Man's Chest from Treasure Island. In Treasure Planet, B.E.N. can be heard singing Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me).

### Swiss Family Treehouse

On the Southern Isle of *Adventure Isle* in Disneyland Paris is Ben Gunn's Cave, named for the pirate Ben Gunn from the book. Ben Gunn having been a crew-mate aboard *The Walrus* who was marooned on the titular island by his captain Flint and who safeguarded the island's treasure for decades as he lost his sanity. While due to Adventureland's anachronisms it is very likely that this is supposed to not be geographically located near the Swiss Family Robinson's isle of New Switzerland, the pirate skeletons under the treehouse and isle's past affiliation with Kuala lend credence to the idea that the southern island might exist in the park lore as an addition to New Switzerland.

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

Trader Sam has a hardback edition of Treasure Island in his collection, next to Mola Ram's kryta of Indiana Jones.

## References

1. ↑ http://www.omniluxe.net/wyw/trislnd.htm
2. ↑ http://www.mainstgazette.com/2012/05/peg-leg.html
3. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/disneyindiana/38977357552
4. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/CQBjIeVAK8a/