Pirates: Myths vs Reality

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 29 June 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When it comes to our perception of pirates, Treasure Island has a lot to answer for. They didn't make their enemies walk the plank, they didn't keep parrots as pets, and they didn't bury their treasure. But that doesn't mean the golden age of piracy wasn't an era of swashbuckling rogues and sword fights on the high seas...

In the first episode of our 'Pirates' mini-series, Dan explores the facts behind the fiction behind the likes of Blackbeard and Captain Kidd with Sophie Nibbs, the curator of the new Pirates exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

You can discover more about the exhibition and book tickets here.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.

Archive:

Treasure Island, RKO Pictures, 1950

Muppets Treasure Island, Walt Disney Pictures, 1996

Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt Disney Pictures, 2007

Treasure Island, Mercury Theatre, 1938

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Transcript

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0:00.0	When I was a child, I was given a beautiful blue hardback book with a wonderful illustration on the cover.
0:09.5	Inside was the story of a boy who finds himself on a ship, seeking a distant island with a map and a promise of treasure.
0:21.9	He was befriended on that journey by a charismatic veteran sailor, an old sea dog.
0:27.7	His name was Long John Silver.
0:31.6	I loved it.
0:33.7	The allure of the unknown.
0:35.8	Talkative parrots.
0:40.3	Hushed conversations on the o'erlock deck.
0:45.2	Briggins on the high seas terrorising other mariners.
0:49.2	Friendship and loyalty between lovable rogues, danger and discovery. I disappeared into that world so far beyond my everyday. I first heard words like
0:57.3	Fauxhall and Musket and Stockade and Mutiny and Marooned. I fell in love with 18th century history.
1:05.5	I fell in love with the sea. The book that captured me, of course, well, it was Treasure Island.
1:12.1	I'll say this, sir, I know every seaman in these ear parts like the palm of his hand.
1:18.2	Did you know Captain Billy Bones?
1:20.5	Bones?
1:21.5	He was a pirate.
1:26.4	From Orson Wells to Cermit the Frog, Treasure Island has been adapted over 50 times for the silver screen and countless radio dramas.
1:35.3	I play many of them in the car to my kids to this day. I've seen wonderful theatre productions most recently in Lancaster, an outdoor theatre.
1:43.3	And that's not surprising because since it was published over 180 years ago,
1:46.8	we have been obsessed with pirates.
1:50.0	This ship cannot be crewed by two men.
1:53.2	You'll never make it out of the bay.
	...

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