Dead Man's Chest
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- For other uses, see Dead Man's Chest (disambiguation).
"Dead Man's Chest" (also known as Fifteen Men On A Dead Man's Chest or Derelict) is a fictional sailor's work song or "sea shanty" from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883), and a later expanded poem by Young E. Allison (1891). It has since been used in many later works of art in various forms. Some researchers believe Stevenson based the shanty on an actual song.
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[edit] Background
In the novel Treasure Island, the full song is not reported. The chorus is given in full:
| "Fifteen men on the dead man's chest-- ...Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! |
The book records only one other phrase from the song, near its end: "But one man of her crew alive, What put to sea with seventy-five."
According to research done by Skip Henderson[1] there is an actual "legend" behind the song. The legend, which was possibly devised by Stevenson himself, says that the rhyme tells the tale of a time when Edward Teach, also known as Blackbeard, marooned a shipload of mutineers on Dead Man's Chest Island, a barren rock in Deadman's Bay on Peter Island near Tortola. The island has high cliffs, no trees, sparse vegetation and no fresh water. The men were equipped with only a single cutlass and a bottle of rum each. The intent was, one would assume, that the men would either starve or kill each other in a drunken brawl. A month later Teach returned to find that despite the blazing Caribbean sun and lack of supplies, fifteen men had survived. The shanty tells in part what became of the rest.
[edit] In the arts
- In 1891 poet Young E. Allison (1853-1932) expanded the original lines from the novel into a poem he named "Derelict" and published in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
- In 1901 music was added to the lyrics of "Derelict" for a Broadway rendition of Treasure Island.
- In 1967 writers for the Walt Disney film company found inspiration in "Derelict" for the sea-song "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)" which was played in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme ride at Disneyland.
- Tom Waits's 1985 album Rain Dogs contains the lyric "Sixteen men on a dead man's chest" and other piratical and sailorly phrases.
- Alan Moore made a play on the song in the 1986 graphic novel Watchmen. In a story-within-a-story, the main character, the only survivor of a ship waylaid by pirates in the open waters, must strap the carcasses of his crew together to form a raft. The chapter is called "One man on fifteen dead men's chests."
- In the 1997 video game Curse of Monkey Island, a chapter in a pamphlet of motivational pirate literature is entitled "How to Get More Than Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest."
- In German, the song is known as "17 Mann auf des Totenmann's Kiste", so it mentions 2 more men.
- The "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme ride was expanded into the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and the eponymous sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006).
- The song appearing in Treasure Island was sung by Gibbs at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.
[edit] Derelict
"Derelict" was a composition by Young E. Allison in 1891, nine years after Treasure Island was published. It is based on Stevenson's 4-line genesis from Treasure Island. "Derelict" is also variously known as Dead Man's Chest, Yo Ho Ho and Fifteen Men On A Dead Man's Chest. It has been so often imitated and derived from that it is often mistaken to be the original song from Treasure Island.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Skip Henderson researches and annotates English language sea shanties and maritime music as a hobby. He also volunteers at Hyde Street Pier, in San Francisco for the National Maritime Historic Park Service[1][2]
[edit] Books
- Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson, ISBN 0-451-52704-6
