Flint and Silver (49 page)

    Research is vital to historical novels but it should never show, because nobody wants a history lesson while reading for pleasure. Nonetheless, here are a few points that might be of interest:

CARIBBEAN PIRACY: THE REALITY

    Piracy in the West Indies flourished in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when it was practised under every shade of legality from official, state-licensed "privateering", through bribery of the authorities, to outright criminality.
³
Among this varied company there were indeed some who considered themselves "gentlemen of fortune" and sailed under articles. Long John would have been pleased to know that a set of articles - those of Bartholomew Roberts - is on the internet today for all to see.
⁴

    Likewise there really was a pirate by the name of England,
⁵
namesake of my England who tried to teach Long John the art of navigation. But the real England died in 1720, and in historic fact the various royal navies, especially the British, French and Spanish, had stamped out much of West Indian piracy by the middle of the eighteenth century. In earlier times piracy had flourished because the governments who paid for navies baulked at enforcing their laws on a raw frontier half a world away. Suppressing piracy meant sending out many ships for long periods, and politicians doubtless wept and groaned at the cost

    Lewis, Michael A., editor, Dillon's Narrative Vol I, Navy Records Society, 1953

    Rediker, Marcus, Villains of all Nations: Atlantic Pirates in the Golden Age, Beacon Press, Boston, 2004

    www.geocities.com/2/piratearticles.htm

    Seitz, Don C., Under the Black Flag, Dover Publications, 2002 of this until the pain of piracy grew unbearable, which it did in the early years of the eighteenth century when such fabulous wealth was generated in the region, especially from sugar, that no government would share it with pirates.

    But Stevenson set
Treasure Island
in the second half of the eighteenth century, as can be calculated from the principal date in the book: 20th July 1754, written by Billy Bones on the treasure map. My guess is that the map was at least five years old when Jim Hawkins found it, placing the action of
Treasure Island
in the 1760s. Probably Stevenson did this because his story was about the consequences of
past
piracy: buried treasure, long since lost.

    A final word on the real captain England and those whom he exemplifies: he was regarded as a
gentle
pirate because he used torture only when necessary, other means of persuasion having failed. Most of the rest were not so kind, and all those persons who like horror - real horror - should study contemporary accounts of these pirates.

    And so to the treasure itself…

    WHAT WAS THE VALUE OF THE TREASURE IN MODERN MONEY?

    Long John's estimate was that the treasure was worth about £800,000 in the mighty golden pounds of 1752, representing a truly enormous sum in the miserable paper pounds of the twenty-first century. It was worth all the more in the eighteenth century because then so much was bought on credit via written promises to pay; a system even worse than plastic cards in the slippery ease with which it led into debt and inability to pay. Thus ready gold or silver was warmly welcomed.

    Turning to actual figures, Research Paper 99/20 of the House of Commons Library February 1999 calculates that prices rose by a factor of 118 between 1750 and 1998, which seems seriously too low a figure, reflecting the fact that politicians now, as in the eighteenth century, should never be trusted with money. But even that dubious figure would turn Silver's estimate into £94.4 million.

    Substituting honesty for statistics, an able seaman RN was paid 24 shillings (£1.20) per month in the 1750s, while his modern equivalent, a trained rating, is paid £15,500 to £26,000 per year, say £20,000 on average, or roughly £1,666 a month - approximately 1,400 times inflation.

    Similarly, a dockyard clerk, a middle-ranking, white-collar professional, earned £30-40 per year in the late eighteenth century, while an equivalent, middle-grade, modern administrator might reasonably expect something like £30,000- 40,000.

    Factors such as tax and the relative cost of manufactured goods versus services have turned dizzy cartwheels over the past two hundred and fifty years, but we will not go far wrong in adding three noughts and assuming that, in modern money, the treasure was worth something like £800,000,000.

    Which brings us up to date so far as the value goes. But how do we reckon the date?

   JULIAN AND GREGORIAN CALENDAR

    On Friday, 15th October 1582, enlightened Catholic Europe adopted the new Gregorian calendar proposed by the Calabrian astronomer Aloysius Lilius, and decreed by His Holiness Pope Gregory XIII, after whom it is named.

    This calendar corrected faults in the previous Julian calendar, which had caused natural events like the equinoxes (twice-yearly occasions when the day and night are of equal duration) to "drift backwards" through successive Julian years, occurring later and later as each year passed.

    The change to the Gregorian Calendar required that Thursday, 4th October 1582 be followed by the newly reckoned Friday, 15th October.

    Protestant Europe, including England and its overseas possessions, fiercely resisted anything Catholic - including the Gregorian Calendar - until the stupidity of this policy became too gross to be ignored.

    Finally, grudgingly, one hundred and seventy years late, and with riots by the ignorant, howling:

"Give us back our eleven days!"
the British adopted the Gregorian Calendar, with the result that Wednesday, 2nd September 1752 was followed by Thursday, 14th September.

    Events described in this book - particularly the burying of the treasure - take place both before and after the switchover date. To avoid confusion, all dates are given in the Julian, or old-style reckoning.

    ENDPAPER MAP OF SAO BARTOLOMEO

    This map, made in 1689 by Captain Santos Almeida of the Portuguese Navy, guided Captain Springer to the Island in 1749. It gives the Island's features their original names, and notes the compass variation. It also gives latitude and longitude plus sailing instructions to locate the Island: information later removed by someone else.

    The map also gives several features bearing on future adventures of John Silver and Joe Flint - features integral to
Pieces of Eight:
the sequel to
Flint and Silver.