Dead Man's Chest

"Dead Man's Chest" (also known as Fifteen Men On The Dead Man's Chest or Derelict) is a fictional^[1] sea-song^[2] originally from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island (1883). It was expanded in a poem, titled Derelict by Young E. Allison, published in the Louisville Courier-Journal in 1891. It has since been used in many later works of art in various forms.

Background

Stevenson found the name "Dead Man's Chest" among a list of island names in a book by Charles Kingsley in reference to the Dead Chest Island in the British Virgin Islands.^[3][4] As Stevenson once said, "Treasure Island came out of Kingsley's At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies (1871); where I got the 'Dead Man's Chest' - that was the seed"^[5][6] That is, Stevenson saw the three words "Dead Man's Chest" in Kingsley's book among a list of names, germinating in Stevenson's mind it was the "seed" which then grew into the novel.

In Treasure Island Stevenson only wrote the chorus, leaving the remainder of the song unwritten, and to the reader's imagination:

Another lyric in the novel, near its end, is also included in the Allison poem: "But one man of her crew alive, What put to sea with seventy-five;" Stevenson does not make clear if this lyric is part of Dead Man's Chest or another fictional song entirely. Regardless, the words of the lyric help advance the storyline.

Other variations of the poem were printed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that claimed to be folklore, but in reality were nothing more than new extensions from Stevenson's original.^[7] One appeared in the Chicago Times-Herald named "Stevenson's Sailor Song" by an anonymous author, who claimed to hear it being sung on the "wharfs of Chicago"^[7] by a group of "old time sailors",^[7] who when asked where they learned it, replied 'We never learned it nowhere, we allers knowed it.'^[7] The story was meant as a hoax but some took it seriously.^[7] Another appeared in print as "Billy Bones's Fancy",^[3] supposedly pieced together from various "fragments",^[3] suggesting an antiquated origin, but in fact it was an adaptation of the Times-Herald piece.^[7] As Stevenson's stepson Osbourne once said, "'Fifteen-Men' was wholly original with Stevenson,"^[7] and as Stevenson himself said, the book At Last by Kingsley was "the seed"^[5] of his invention.

The song has been widely used in the arts for over a century. 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. Astrid Lindgren expanded Stevenson's couplet differently in the script for the 1969 Pippi Longstocking TV series; the two resulting verses were sung to a West Indian sea shanty. In the 1978 film Revenge of the Pink Panther, Chief Inspector Clouseau, disguised as a "salty Swedish seadog," sings a mangled version of the song. Alan Moore made a play on the song in the 1986 graphic novel Watchmen, the chapter is called "One man on fifteen dead men's chests." In 1993 the contemporary "pirate" vocal group The Jolly Rogers recorded Mark Stahl's arrangement of Young E. Allison's lyrics, re-released in 1997 on their CD titled "Pirate Gold".

In German, the song is known as "17 Mann auf des toten Manns Kiste", so it mentions 2 more men. Likewise in the Hungarian translation of Treasure Island the phrase is "seven (men) on a dead man's chest"; apparently this number provided the closest effect to the original regarding rhyme and syllables.

Notes

1. ^ fictional sea-song - in this sense means a sea-song that first appeared in a work of fiction, and not an authentic sea-song; however, this does not mean the song was not later sung in real life by real sailors. For a full treatment of the fictional origin of the song, "wholly original with Stevenson", see Buried Caesars, 1923. Page 189-204.
2. ^ Many sources call "Dead Man's Chest" a sea chanty, however Stevenson himself never called it that, rather the novel says it's a "sea-song" and a "sailor's song". Sea-song is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as "A song such as is sung by sailors." (sea-song, n.; Second edition, 1989; online version September 2011. http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/174361 - accessed 21 October 2011). The OED defines shanty as "A sailor's song, esp. one sung during heavy work." The OED has no entry for sailor's song. Since the terms Stevenson used are oblique, it is a matter of interpretation if Stevenson meant it to be a shanty, or not.
3. ^ ^{a b c} Hersey, Frank Wilson Cheney, editor, Stevenson's Treasure Island, Boston : Ginn, 1911. Page 214-215. "..the Dead Man's Chest is the name of one of the Virgin Islands in the West Indies." Note: Hersey incorrectly says Stevenson derived the song from Billy Bones's Fancy, rather Billy Bones's Fancy is derived from Stevensons original chorus in Treasure Island.
4. ^ The relevant quote from At Last:

   the first of those numberless isles which Columbus, so goes the tale, discovered on St. Ursula's day, and named them after the Saint and her eleven thousand mythical virgins. Unfortunately, English buccaneers have since then given to most of them less poetic names. The Dutchman's Cap, Broken Jerusalem, The Dead Man's Chest, Rum Island, and so forth, mark a time and a race more prosaic, but still more terrible, though not one whit more wicked and brutal, than the Spanish Conquistadores

5. ^ ^{a b} David Cordingly. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates. ISBN 0679425608.
6. ^ Robert Louis Stevenson. "To Sidney Colvin. Late May 1884", in Selected Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson. Page 263.
7. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Vincent Starrett. Buried Caesars: Essays in Literary Appreciation, 1923. Page 189-204.

External links

• Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest, at Everything2