Dead Man's Chest

"Dead Man's Chest" (also known as "Fifteen Men on the Dead Man's Chest" or "Yo, Ho, Ho (And a Bottle of Rum)") is a fictional''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 sea song,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). 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. 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 Virgin Island names in a book by Charles Kingsley, possibly in reference to the Dead Chest Island off Peter Island in the British Virgin Islands.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

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''. 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." 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.

Original song

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:

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.

Variations and other usage

The song was expanded into a 3-verse poem by Young E. Allison, titled "Derelict", published in the ''Louisville Courier-Journal'' in 1891.

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. 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" by a group of "old time sailors," who when asked where they learned it, replied "We never learned it nowhere, we allers knowed it." The story was meant as a hoax but some took it seriously. Another appeared in print as "Billy Bones's Fancy", supposedly pieced together from various "fragments," suggesting an antiquated origin, but in fact it was an adaptation of the ''Times-Herald'' piece. As Stevenson's stepson Osbourne once said, "'Fifteen-Men' was wholly original with Stevenson," and as Stevenson himself said, the book ''At Last'' by Kingsley was "the seed" of his invention.

The song has been widely used in the arts for over a century. In 1901, music was added by Henry Waller to the lyrics of Allison's "Derelict" for a Broadway rendition of ''Treasure Island''. In the 1954 film '' Return to Treasure Island'', starring Robert Newton, the song was sung in the opening credits, and instrumentally as the thematic background to the action. In 1956, Ed McCurdy released his version of the song on his Elektra Records album ''Blood, Booze and Bones''.

In the 1959 television series ''The Adventures of Long John Silver''—again starring Robert Newton—it was, although only in instrumental version, the series' theme song played both at the beginning and the end of each episode. 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. 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". A rendition was recorded by the steampunk band Abney Park as "The Derelict". In the second '' Pirates of the Caribbean'' film, Joshamee Gibbs sang the original version from ''Treasure Island''—a fourth wall joke, as the film was called '' Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest''.

In German, the song is sometimes known as either "", mentioning two more men, or "", mentioning two fewer, most prominently in Michael Ende's Jim Knopf stories. Likewise, in the Hungarian translation of ''Treasure Island'', the phrase is "seven (men) on a dead man's chest"; apparently these numbers provided the closest effect to the original regarding rhyme and syllables in English.

Many authors have written prequels and sequels to ''Treasure Island''. One such example is R. F. Delderfield's ''The Adventures of Ben Gunn'' (1956), in which Ben tells Jim Hawkins that the song is a reference to "an island of the Leewards" nicknamed "Dead Man's Chest" which "was little more than a long, high rock, shaped like a coffin." In Delderfield's story, the song is about 15 pirates who shipwrecked there who had salvaged many barrels of rum but almost no food, and were "all raving drunk" upon their rescue.

British electronic music producer Teminite used the chorus as a sample in his song "Raise The Black Flag" in 2021

References

Notes

Citations

External links

Fifteen Men on a Dead Man's Chest
at Everything2

{{POTC

Songs about pirates
Pirates of the Caribbean music
Sea shanties
Treasure Island
Music based on novels