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Captain J. Flint is a golden age Piracy Sea captain who features in a number of novels, television series, and films. The original character was created by the Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894). Flint first appears in the classic adventure yarn Treasure Island, which was first serialised in a children's magazine in 1881, and later published as a novel in 1883.
The only person Flint was said to fear was his quartermaster John Silver, who later even called his parrot "Captain Flint" in mockery.
Flint is said to have died in Pirates' House in Savannah, Georgia, many years before the book's central plot takes place. His last words were, "Darby M'Graw - fetch aft the rum...." His death was said to have been caused by the effects of drinking too much rum. The location of the treasure had been marked by Flint on a map entrusted to his first mate Billy Bones. The inscription on the map suggests that Flint died on 28 July 1754. With the exception of Long John Silver, many of Flint's crew spend their ill-gotten booty and end up begging (e.g. Blind Pew). Bones is too much of a drunk to find the rest of the treasure and too miserly to give up the map. He becomes a marked man three years after Flint's death, pursued by Flint's old crew: Blind Pew, Black Dog, Job Anderson, Israel Hands and Dirk, led by Long John Silver. They track down Bones (who, like Flint, dies of the effects of alcoholism). Before they can get the map, it falls into the hands of the protagonist of the novel, Jim Hawkins.
John Drake's prequels, Flint and Silver (2008), Pieces of Eight (2009), and Skull and Bones (2010), all heavily feature Captain Flint and give his Christian name as Joseph.
Flint is mentioned in the novel Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie, a friend of Stevenson. The first mention is in a passage introducing Captain Hook's pirate crew: "Here is Bill Jukes, every inch of him tattooed, the same Bill Jukes who got six dozen on the WALRUS from Flint before he would drop the bag of ." The second mention is as Hook is attempting to intimidate the Darling children and the Lost Boys, but is heckled by his inner demons: "'I am the only man whom Barbecue feared,' he urged, 'and Flint feared Barbecue.' 'Barbecue, Flint—what house?' came the cutting retort."
In Arthur Ransome's book Swallows and Amazons, the Blacketts' uncle James Turner is Captain Flint by the Walkers. This is because they believed that he looked like a retired pirate and took the name from Treasure Island. He is nearly always referred to by this name in the rest of the books.Hardyment, Christina (1984) Arthur Ransome and Capt. Flint's Trunk. London: Jonathan Cape
In the film Muppet Treasure Island, a loose adaptation of the Stevenson story, Captain Flint is shown at the opening scene burying the treasure and subsequently killing all the crew who buried it for him. He then sails away from the location and gives his map to Billy Bones, who takes it with him. Flint has fifteen crew members to dig the treasure pit in this version instead of six, and treasure itself is guineas and pieces of eight. In the film, Miss Piggy mentions he is known as Bernie Flint.
Captain Flint was shown briefly in the animated feature film Treasure Planet by Disney. In this film, the character was voiced by Peter Cullen and known as Nathaniel Flint, a space pirate of non-human origins whose reputation was legendary for leading his ship and his crew to plunder merchant ships, infamously appearing and disappearing without a trace, and eventually burying his treasure (called by many "Flint's Trove" and/or "the loot of a thousand worlds") inside the giant alien mechanism known as Treasure Planet. To make sure nobody would steal his treasure, he rigged the planet to explode should anyone set off the booby trap and stole the memory of navigational robot B.E.N so he would not tell anyone about it.
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