Post BRISTOLTIMES Tuesday, May 23, 2017 Dark secrets, dirty deeds

• Gerard Cooke and doubloons and Nadia Williamsof Show of If it's half term, it's spot to be ship 's cook. Long John Strength's Silver, he is called, and has lost a leg Treasure time to introduce the Island Story "She lies at anchor, ready for sea Walk. The kids to Bristol's ..." If you're a true son or daughter of Merchant piratical heritage, and the port of Bristol, Squire Tre­ Venturers' lawney 's letter from Bristol's Old An­ Almshouses in help is at hand, as chor Inn should send a shiver along the yer timbers, belike. background Eugene Byrne With half-term bearing up on us to are the walk's discovers. starboard, you may be looking about starting point. for fun and (sort of) educational Photograph: EAR Livesey things to do with the kids. Zuleika Henry The ship is bought and fitted . Obviously all young Bristol land­ She lies at anchor, ready for sea. lubbers need to be told of their city's DYou never imagined a sweeter piratical history sooner or later, and and where young Jim Hawkins Supported by Bristol Festival of urday, June 4 every day at 2pm and schooner - a child might sail her ­ one port of call this time is the Treas­ stepped off the coach from Devon to Ideas and part of Bristol Walking 4pm, and is suitable for families with two hundred tons; name, Hispaniola ure Island Story Walk, courtesy of set sail on the greatest adventure of Festival , the walk has been created children aged eight and over. Price: ... only the crew troubled me until the shipshape and copper-bottomed his life - the search for Captain by Show of Strength in association £8adult/£5 under 16/£20 (2adults + 2 the most remarkable stroke cf for­ Show of Strength theatre company. Flint's buried treasure. with the Long John Silver Trust, children), duration one hour. No tune brought me the very man that I In 's classic Led by a professional actor in peri­ creators of Bristol's booking required; meet at the start required ... an old sailor who keeps a yarn, Bristol is where Squire Tre­ od costume , the walk promises "pir­ Trail (www.longjohnsilver­ time at the Merchant Venturers public-house, knows all the seafaring lawney found and fitted out the good ates and buccaneers, hidden spy trust.co.uk) Almshouses at the junction of King men in Bristol, and had lost his ship Hispaniola, where Long John holes, dark secrets, dirty deeds and The Treasure Island Story Walk Street and Prince Street (BS1 4DT). health ashore. I engaged him on the Silver ran a pub called The Spyglass, lashings of doubloons." runs from Saturday, May 27 to Sat- Ffi: showofstrength.org.uk

Ten things you (probably) didnt know about Bristol and Treasure Island

JUST to set the scene, we asked Show for Treasure Island , Charles Kings­ 8. Ben Gunn of Strength and the Long John Silver ley stayed in the city where , at the age The 'Treasure Island ' castaway Trust to tell us some of their fa­ of 12, he witnessed the Bristol Riots Ben Gunn is based on another fic­ vourite 'Treasure Island ' facts, and in Queen Square in 1831. tional castaway - Daniel Defoe's here they are : Robinson Crusoe. Crusoe in turn was 1. The Admiral Benbow 5. The Spyglass based on a real castaway : Alexander 'Treasure Island ' starts in Devon, Long John Silver was a Bristol Selkirk , a marooned sailor rescued at the Admiral Benbow inn , the home man who kept an inn called The by Woodes Rogers, a (that of young Jim Hawkins. But it's a Spyglass, in the docks. Stevenson is polite word for pirate again) who name with roots in a real person . thought to have based The Spyglass lived in Queen Square. Woodes Ro­ Admiral John Benbow was a 17th on the Hole in the Wallon Welsh Back gers' ship brought Selkirk back to century naval officer and privateer ­ - still there today. The Hole in the Bristol , and tradition has it Daniel the polite word for a pirate - who Wall has a sort of spy hole, or abut­ Defoemet him in the Llandoger Trow sailed from Bristol. And in the 21st ment, that allows you to look out where he told his story. And the rest , century there are still Admiral Ben­ without being seen. Ports were dan­ as they say, is history. (Curiously the bows around - there 's one in Pen­ gerous places then, and the spy hole first landlord of the Llandoger Trow, zance. -which is unique to Bristol- allowed in 1664, was called Hawkins ...) you to keep a watch for the press gang 2. Trelawney or slave traders who frequently 9. The Parrot In the book, Squire Trelawney dragged away likely suspects and Captain Flint is Long John Silver 's comes to Bristol from Devon, to find a forced them on board to work as parrot, and her favourite words are , ship and fit it out for the voyage to crew. "Pieces of Eight! Pieces of Eight!". Treasure Island . A real Jonathan But she must have heard plenty of Trelawney, from Cornwall , became 6. Barbecue good Bristolian from the sailors in Bishop of Bristol in 1685.Three years Bristol's Long John Silver leaves The Spyglass. If Robert Louis Steven­ later he was one of seven bishops . 1911 The Spyglass to join the Hispaniola son had spent time in Bristol he imprisoned in the Tower of illustration as ship's cook - where his nickname might have given her some Bristol by the Catholic James H."And shall of Long is 'Barbecue'. Stevenson wrote the lingo - maybe, 'Alright my lubber?' Trelawney die, and shall Trelawney John Silver, book in the 1880s, but set it over a die, then 20,000 Cornishmen will Cap'n Flint century earlier. Surely the mid- 10. The Admiral Benbow (again) want to know the reason why..." they and Jim were a bit early for barbecues? But The Bristol locations in Treasure sang in Cornwall. But the Cornish Hawkins no:'barbecue' was pirate slang for Island are clear - but where was the were still exhausted from the Civil meat , so Stevenson got it right ­ Admiral Benbow? Stevenson says War, and there was no march on although he doesn't mention what Jim Hawkins ' home was by the sea in London. The Bishops were charged kind of meat. 'Barbecue' didn 't mean Devon, and he travels overnight to with seditious libel- and acquitted. teriously vanishes on the voyage. idea for this song from Charles sausages, and it didn 't mean burgers Bristol in the mail coach. The Ad­ The church bells rang in Bristol ,fires Israel Hands was a real pirate, a Kingsley, author of The Water Babies. - or at last not the usual kind .'Bar­ miral Benbow Inn, he tells us, was in were lit, and in Cornwall they fired shipmate of Blackbeard's - and may In another book, Kingsley included becue' was pirate lingo for human Black Hill Cove, near the hamlet of canon . Soon after William of Orange also have come from Bristol. Dead Man's Chest as an island in the meat - what you might be reduced to Kitt's Hole. There are two Black Hills took over the throne and James H . Stevenson later said , if you were cast adrift and starving. on Dartmoor - both some distance fled, never to return. 4. Dead man's chest "Treasure Island came out of Kings­ from the sea. Dartmoor also has a In Treasure Island the pirates ley's At Last: A Christmas in the West 7. The Captain Kitt's Hole, near Lydford Gorge, 3. Blackbeard sing: Indies (1871); where I got the 'Dead Squire Trelawney appoints Cap­ again some miles inland. So it looks There 's even a link with Black­ Fifteen men on the dead man's chest Man's Chest' - that was the seed." tain Smollett to sail the Hispaniola. like the Devon location was fictional , beard , the most infamous pirate in Yo-ho-hoand a bottle of rum! Charles Kingsley, like Jim Robert Louis Stevenson 's hero was like his 'Treasure Island ' - although the world - who came from Bristol. Drink and the devil had done for the Hawkins, came from Devon and later another writer, Tobias Smollett , Stevenson later said the Admiral Israel Hands is a pirate in 'Treasure rest moved to Bristol - where he was whose novel 'Humphry Clinker' be­ Benbow was not far from Barnstaple Island' - he's the coxswain who takes Yo-ho-hoand a bottle of rum! educated at Bristol Grammar School. gins with letters from Hotwells to - so somewhere on the North Devon over when the mate, Mr Arrow, mys- Robert Louis Stevenson got the And while Jim Hawkins left Bristol Bath. Coast.