50 Fun Facts About Black Sails

Black Sails was written as a prequel to which 1883 adventure novel by Robert Louis Stevenson?

Treasure Island takes place roughly two decades after the series, which is why younger versions of Billy Bones and Long John Silver sail in it.

In the Stevenson novel that Black Sails leads into, Long John Silver names which pet after Captain Flint?

A parrot gets the name Captain Flint in the book, in mockery of the captain who was said to fear only Silver himself.

Which Hollywood director, a co-founder of Platinum Dunes, was an executive producer of Black Sails?

Michael Bay shared the executive producer credit with Brad Fuller and Andrew Form, his partners in founding Platinum Dunes in 2001.

Black Sails recreated eighteenth-century Nassau on sets and ships built at a film studio in which country?

South Africa hosted the production at Cape Town Film Studios, where building just one of the show's ships took over 300 workers.

After being tortured in the season two finale of Black Sails, John Silver loses which part of his body?

A leg has to be amputated, setting him on the way to the one-legged Long John Silver of Stevenson's novel.

The real privateer behind Black Sails' governor of Nassau rescued a castaway thought to have inspired which novel?

Robinson Crusoe is generally believed to draw on Alexander Selkirk, the marooned Scottish sailor the future governor found on Juan Fernández in 1709.

Which actor, a son of Dame Maggie Smith and a former James Bond villain, plays Captain Flint in Black Sails?

Toby Stephens was the villain Gustav Graves in the 2002 Bond film Die Another Day, and later starred in the Netflix remake of Lost in Space.

Ray Stevenson joined Black Sails in season three as which real pirate, captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge?

Blackbeard, born Edward Teach, is played by the actor who was the legionary Titus Pullo in Rome and Volstagg in Thor.

Instead of names, every episode of Black Sails from the pilot to the finale is titled with what?

Roman numerals run from I for the pilot to XXXVIII for the finale, so the series never used a worded episode title.

Nassau, the pirate haven at the centre of Black Sails, is the present-day capital of which country?

The Bahamas has its capital at Nassau, where in the early 1700s more than a thousand pirates were said to outnumber the town's hundred or so inhabitants.

Which American premium cable network aired all four seasons of Black Sails between 2014 and 2017?

Starz renewed the pirate drama for a second season six months before the first had even aired.

Which ship does Captain Flint command when John Silver first joins his crew in Black Sails?

Walrus is also the name of Flint's pirate ship in Stevenson's novel, where it is said to have piled up an enormous hoard of captured treasure.

Merchant sailor John Silver joins Captain Flint's crew in the first episode of Black Sails in which job?

Cook is the post Long John Silver holds in Stevenson's novel too, a book its author wanted to title The Sea Cook.

In the first episode of Black Sails, John Silver secretly pockets which item sought by Captain Flint?

A logbook page from his former employer's ship held the schedule of a treasure galleon, which Silver only gave up in the season finale.

Which treasure galleon do Captain Flint and his crew hunt throughout the first season of Black Sails?

Urca de Lima was a real ship that sank in 1715, and the series makes it the main prize its pirates are seeking.

Which English actor, later Luther Hargreeves in The Umbrella Academy, plays Billy Bones in Black Sails?

Tom Hopper was the first actor to join the series, having already played the knight Percival in the BBC's Merlin.

Which real governor, sent from England to end piracy in Nassau, marries Eleanor Guthrie in Black Sails?

Woodes Rogers first makes Eleanor his counsellor for the move on Nassau, and by the opening of the final season the two have married.

In season one of Black Sails, Jack Rackham and Charles Vane become owners of which Nassau business?

A brothel proves harder to run than a ship: Rackham struggles to turn a profit until Max steps in to help manage it.

The real 1715 treasure fleet behind the gold hunt in Black Sails was wrecked by a hurricane off which coast?

Florida's coast holds one of the wrecks near Fort Pierce, which in 1987 became the state's first underwater archaeological preserve.

Which sailor, found marooned in Stevenson's novel, joins Captain Flint's crew late in Black Sails?

Ben Gunn spends three years alone in the book after another ship's crew maroons him for failing to find Flint's treasure.

Eleanor Guthrie holds power over the pirate captains of Nassau in Black Sails through which family business?

Fencing stolen goods turned the pirates' booty into laundered cash, a trade Eleanor conducted on behalf of her father.

In the final season of Black Sails, Captain Flint goes ashore to hide the treasure at which remote place?

Skeleton Island is where Flint sets off to hide the chest with one crewman while John Silver sends six men after them.

Eleanor Guthrie dies in season four of Black Sails during an invasion of Nassau by which nation's forces?

Spain sent a dozen ships into Nassau harbour after the governor himself sailed for Havana to ask for its help.

The sea shanty-inspired theme music of Black Sails is built around which instrument of the period?

The hurdy-gurdy sounds its strings with a hand-cranked rosined wheel, and it was a real instrument of the pirates' era.

Which composer of Battlestar Galactica and The Walking Dead wrote the Emmy-nominated Black Sails theme?

Bear McCreary earned a 2014 Emmy nomination for the main title theme, and the title sequence it accompanies was nominated too.

Which Australian actor, who also portrayed the frontman of INXS, plays John Silver in Black Sails?

Luke Arnold played Michael Hutchence in the miniseries INXS: Never Tear Us Apart in 2014, and he is a published author as well as an actor.

Flashbacks in Black Sails reveal Captain Flint was driven from London after an affair with which nobleman?

Thomas Hamilton was committed to a mental hospital, while Flint was stripped of his rank and expelled from the Royal Navy.

Before turning pirate, Captain Flint of Black Sails served as a Royal Navy officer under which birth name?

James McGraw was a Royal Navy officer and London gentleman, and season two answers how and why such a man turned to piracy.

Which former quartermaster does Captain Flint kill in the season one finale of Black Sails?

Hal Gates had threatened to call off the attack, so Flint killed the man who had only recently been made a captain himself.

At the end of Black Sails, Captain Flint leaves the war for Nassau behind and goes to which colonial town?

Savannah is also where Stevenson's novel says Flint died, many years before that book's central plot takes place.

Which daughter of the Maroon queen helps John Silver while he is held captive in Black Sails?

Madi later urges freed slaves to join the pirates' cause, and in the final season the governor presses her to accept his treaty.

The queen of the hidden Maroon village in Black Sails is secretly the wife of which Nassau figure?

Mr. Scott was Eleanor Guthrie's adviser in Nassau, and he later dies of wounds from a gunfight with two Royal Navy sailors.

In Black Sails, Captain Flint returns the captive Abigail Ashe to her father, governor of which colony?

Carolina was fiercely hostile to pirates, and the visit ended with Flint put on trial in Charles Town.

In Black Sails, Jack Rackham sails to which city to seek help from Eleanor Guthrie's grandfather?

Philadelphia is home to Marion Guthrie, whom Rackham visits again in the finale to discuss her buying out the governor's debts.

Which Stevenson pirate, once a real crewman of Edward Teach, enters Black Sails as a bounty hunter?

Israel Hands was a real sailor before he was a fictional one, and by one early account Teach once shot him in the knee.

Which real pirate holds Nassau's fort as Black Sails begins and later hunts pirates for the governor?

Benjamin Hornigold really did accept a King's Pardon in 1718 and turn pirate hunter, pursuing his former allies.

Black Sails executes Charles Vane in Nassau, but the real Vane was hanged at Gallows Point in which Jamaican town?

Port Royal is where the real Vane went to the gallows in March 1721, a week after a court in Spanish Town found him guilty of piracy.

Charles Vane attacks the Royal Navy fleet arriving at Nassau in Black Sails using which tactic?

A fireship was the real Vane's trick too: in 1718 he set a captured French vessel alight and sailed it at the governor's ships.

A week before its cable premiere, the first episode of Black Sails was released free on which website?

YouTube and other streaming services carried the pilot from January 18, 2014, a week ahead of the television debut.

Black Sails won Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for sound editing and for which other craft?

Visual effects won the pilot an Emmy in 2014, the year the show's main title design and theme music were nominated but lost.

Which actor, known as Jody in Shameless and King Roan in The 100, plays Charles Vane in Black Sails?

Zach McGowan played the pirate captain across the show's first three seasons, from its premiere in January 2014.

Which actress, later Nora West-Allen in The Flash, plays the ambitious Max in Black Sails?

Jessica Parker Kennedy is a Canadian actress who had played Melissa Glaser in The Secret Circle, a series cancelled after one season.

Which British actress, Queen Leila in Disney's Maleficent, stars as Eleanor Guthrie in Black Sails?

Hannah New joined the cast in 2012, two years before the premiere, and later appeared in Bridgerton.

Billy Bones marks an anonymous message to Nassau's rulers with which symbol borrowed from Stevenson's novel?

A black spot is the dreaded pirate summons of that book, where a blind beggar delivers one to Billy Bones himself.

Captain Flint's ship suffers a disastrous accident early in Black Sails during which maintenance task?

Careening cleared growth such as seaweed and barnacles from a ship's hull, and pirates had to manage it without any dry dock.

Which confidant of Captain Flint in Black Sails writes a private letter seeking a pardon for him?

Miranda Barlow asked for a pardon for Flint's killings aboard the Maria Aleyne, and Billy Bones read the letter before the crew learned of it.

Which real pirate arrives in Nassau in season two of Black Sails as the murderous captain of the Fancy?

Ned Low was notorious in life as one of the most vicious pirates of his age, and his real flagship was also named the Fancy.

Which real female pirate has a cameo in the Black Sails finale, joining a crew under a man's name?

Mary Read appears as Mark Read, a nod to accounts that the real woman spent years in male disguise before she turned pirate.

In Black Sails, Captain Flint is left a book bearing a dedication to him and written by which Roman emperor?

Marcus Aurelius wrote the Meditations, and moments after the copy is left with Flint, Charles Vane bursts into the room with a dagger.

Which director of The Descent and the Game of Thrones episode Blackwater directed the Black Sails pilot?

Neil Marshall also directed the third episode, and a later Game of Thrones battle earned him an Emmy nomination for directing.