# Dumb Pirate Questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 20, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458 "2005-09-20T00:55:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/1 "2005-09-20T00:55:42Z")
Arrr, I’m a dum pirate and I’ve gots a question for ye. [sub]just kidding[/sub] Is it “fifteen men with a dead man’s chest” or “fifteen men on a dead man’s chest” If its on, why are they sitting on his chest? What type of chest is it, treasure or body? ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/2 "2005-09-20T01:03:56Z")
According to this: [http://sailorsongs.com/yo\_ho\_ho\_and\_a\_bottle\_of\_rum\_\_\_\_.htm](http://sailorsongs.com/yo_ho_ho_and_a_bottle_of_rum ____.htm) It was written in the 1880s by Robert Louis Stevenson and it contains both lines - 15 men ON a dead man’s chest and 15 men OF a dead man’s chest. Which clears nothing up. Neither do the lyrics which have plenty of descriptions of anatomy (torn asunder) so chest could be “torso” but they also talk about chests full of treasure. ---
**Author:** ![Valgard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7feea3/32.png) [@Valgard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valgard)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/3 "2005-09-20T01:09:19Z")
Hm, a few more links makes that first one look like it has a typo and the line really is “15 men on a dead’s man chest” (not “of”). But they don’t clear up the rest too well. Lyrics from song inspired by “Treasure Island”, so perhaps not totally penned by RLS himself. ---
**Author:** ![NadaHappyCamper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/278dde/32.png) [@NadaHappyCamper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NadaHappyCamper)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/4 "2005-09-20T01:09:47Z")
If i remember correctly the song goes something like this, " Fifteen men on a Deadman’s chest, Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Rum. Drink and the Devil have done for the rest, Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of Rum." As to the meaning of the words i haven’t a clue. Tho someone else will surely be posting a more accurate answer soonly. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/5 "2005-09-20T01:31:10Z")
The “Deadman’s Chest” or “Dead Chest” is allegedly a small island forming part of the British Virgin Islands. But I don’t know if that name is attested before or only after Stevenson wrote _Treasure Island_. ---
**Author:** ![Yumblie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/76d3ee/32.png) [@Yumblie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yumblie)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/6 "2005-09-20T02:09:23Z")
Another pirate related question while this is here… The typical comedy pirate accent is some sort of twisted northern-european accent, but what about in other languages? How do people in, say, France, or Spain, talk if they want to talk like a stereotypical pirate? Is it the same accent, just with words of their own language? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/7 "2005-09-20T02:42:19Z")
Ooooh, I was wondering the same thing today with respect to Dutch, as I was trying to get some Dutch colleagues to understand International Talk Like a Pirate Day. I mean, every English speaker knows that typical pirate talk involves a bunch of cheesy stagey sea-doggy early modern English cliches, but is there a Dutch equivalent? The Dutch certainly **had** pirates (“vrijbuiters”, freebooters) in the old days, so what did they sound like? Did they say “Arrrrr”? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/8 "2005-09-20T02:47:35Z")
Might as well get the “[Deadman’s Chest](http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=642753)” issue out of the way while we wait for the European and other non-Anglophone pirates to show up: > [@](#): > > Young E. Allison (1853-1932), of Louisville published his long and gory impression of a rhyme from a popular novel of the day in the Louisville Courier-Journal. He promoted _Derelict_ as “a reminiscence of Treasure Island” the adventure novel penned by Robert Louis Stevenson. […] > > Fifteen Men on the Dead Man’s Chest was a poem …describing the fate of the crew on a ship wrecked on the infamous Dead Man’s Chest, a reef close to the island of Tortola in the eastern Caribbean, east of Puerto Rico, in the British Virgin Islands. Allison used the lines from Stevenson’s Treasure Island story to retell the folk legend. The tune was used by several professional musical organizations recording an approximate melody, most notably the Roger Wagner Chorale on a cassette tape called SEA CHANTIES (RW 029-C). The most accurate tune from the early San Francisco shanty days was performed by A.L.Ekstrom of Sausalito, CA. > > During the 1500’s Dead Man’s Chest was an island rendezvous in the Caribbean of buccaneers and smugglers and it’s where Stevenson set the scene for Treasure Island. It was while drawing a map with a young boy named Lloyd that Stevenson came up with the idea of writing the novel and whether this was a traditional sea shanty or a fictional creation by Robert Louis Stevenson remains uncertain. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2005, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dumb-pirate-questions/322458/9 "2005-09-20T03:18:09Z")
> [@](#): > > The typical comedy pirate accent is some sort of twisted northern-european accent More specifically, it’s a highly exaggerated and butchered version of the English southwestern dialects, that region being where two of England’s most important ports, Bristol and Plymouth, were located. Two sample audio files of the dialects, one from [Bristol](http://www.ku.edu/~idea/europe/england/england52.mp3), and one from [Devon](http://www.ku.edu/~idea/europe/england/england32.mp3) (warning: mp3).