Captain Flint

• Name — Captain Flint • Series — Treasure Island • Creator — Robert Louis Stevenson • Portrayer — * Valery Chiglyayev • & Yuri Nevgamonny • (Return to Treasure Island) • Toby Stephens (Black Sails) • Voice — Peter Cullen (Treasure Planet) • Species — Human • Full Name — J. Flint • Occupation — Pirate • Gender — Male • Title — Pirate Captain • Nationality — English • Illustration — Map created by Robert Louis Stevenson

Captain Flint is a fictional character in the book Treasure Island, created by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883. In Stevenson's book, Flint, whose first name is not given, was the captain of a pirate ship, the Walrus, which accumulated an enormous amount of captured treasure, approximately £700,000. On 1 August 1750, Flint and seven members of his crew bury the plunder on an island located somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. Flint then murders all his assistants, leaving the body of one, Allardyce, with its legs outstretched in the direction of "E.S.E. and by E." with arms opposite. The only person Flint was said to fear was his quartermaster John Silver, who later even called his parrot "Captain Flint" in mockery. Flint is said to have died in Pirates' House in Savannah, Georgia, many years before the book's central plot takes place. His last words were, "Darby M'Graw - fetch aft the rum...." His death was said to have been caused by the effects of drinking too much rum. The location of the treasure had been marked by Flint on a map entrusted to his first mate William "Billy" Bones. The inscription on the map suggests that Flint died on 28 July 1754. With the exception of Long John Silver, many of Flint's crew spend their ill-gotten booty and end up begging (e.g. Blind Pew). Bones is too much of a drunk to find the rest of the treasure and too miserly to give up the map. He becomes a marked man three years after Flint's death, pursued by Flint's old crew, including Blind Pew, Black Dog, Job Anderson, and Israel Hands, led by Long John Silver. They track down Bones (who, like Flint, dies of the effects of alcoholism). Before they can get the map, it falls into the hands of the protagonist of the novel, Jim Hawkins.

Flint has a major part in the 1924 prequel Porto Bello Gold, by A. D. Howden Smith, which describes how the treasure was captured from a Spanish galleon. In this version, Flint is described as having started his piracy career as the junior partner of Andrew Murray, an idealistic Jacobite turned pirate, who is not referenced in Stevenson's original book. Flint gradually becomes the dominant partner. The book describes how Flint secretly buries the treasure which would be recovered a generation later by the protagonists of Treasure Island. John Drake's prequels, Flint and Silver (2008), Pieces of Eight (2009), and Skull and Bones (2010), all heavily feature Captain Flint and give his Christian name as Joseph. Flint is mentioned in the novel Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, a friend of Stevenson. The first mention is in a passage introducing Captain Hook's pirate crew: "Here is Bill Jukes, every inch of him tattooed, the same Bill Jukes who got six dozen on the WALRUS from Flint before he would drop the bag of moidores." The second mention is as Hook is attempting to intimidate the Darling children and the Lost Boys, but is heckled by his inner demons: "'I am the only man whom Barbecue feared,' he urged, 'and Flint feared Barbecue.' 'Barbecue, Flint—what house?' came the cutting retort." In Arthur Ransome's book Swallows and Amazons, the Blacketts' uncle James Turner is nicknamed Captain Flint by the Walkers. This is because they believed that he looked like a retired pirate and took the name from Treasure Island. He is nearly always referred to by this name in the rest of the books.

• Illustration — Pirate flag of J. Flint's ship, the Walrus. Set roughly four decades before the events of Treasure Island, the 2014 televised series Black Sails follows the adventures of Captain Flint and his pirate crew. His first name is given as James in episode "VI". Episodes "IX" and "XIII" reveal that he is a disgraced former Royal Navy lieutenant named James McGraw, dismissed from service for falling in love and having affairs with Lord Thomas Hamilton and with his wife. He was exiled from England with Thomas's wife, Miranda Barlow, who had since hidden herself as a lowly Puritan lady on the trading island of New Providence. Lord Thomas Hamilton was the son of Lord Alfred Hamilton, lord proprietor of the Bahama Islands. McGraw adopted the name "Flint" after a mysterious man who boarded his grandfather's ship while anchored and then disappeared. He is portrayed by Toby Stephens.