Narrator: So the good ship Hispaniola strikes out westward across the Atlantic insearch of adventure - and treasure! There’s fair weather and foul, and acouple of hands are lost overboard, but life is cheap at sea and apart fromthat the voyage is uneventful. The sails go up, the sails are trimmed, the sailscome down, and the waters of the deep blue carve shapes along the goodship’s hull. Jim makes great friends with Silver and visits him often in thegalley:
Parrot: It’ll end in tears! It’ll end in tears! Who’s the parrot now then? Who’s theparrot now then? Silver and gold! Silver and gold!
Jim: I’ve cleared the captain’s cabin and ground the coffee for breakfast. Just thepots now.
Long John Silver: Come away, Jim Hawkins, and have a yarn with me. Sit you down now andhear the news. Cap’n Flint here was just predicting success to our voyage.Wasn’t you cap’n?
Parrot: Stand by to go about!! Pieces of Eight! Pieces of Eight!
Long John Silver: I can’t disagree with him, Jim, he’s never been wrong afore. Here you go…
Jim: Why do you call him Captain Flint?
Long John Silver: Ah, well now. I named him Flint after the famous buccaneer…
Jim: I thought Captain Flint was an evil man, a monster.
Long John Silver: A monster? Damn your eyes, Jim, you’d be a lucky whelk to say that and liveif Flint could hear you. Though - he was a monster right enough. Most wickedpirate that ever lived. Cut more throats than I’ve cooked hot dinners. Struckterror across the whole Caribbee. Pass me that other knife. Ta. Flint wore outthe plank he made so many walk off it to their deaths. So I’m told, mind. Notthat I’d know.
Jim: You met him?
Long John Silver: Never had the pleasure, I’m sure. Now come on, you little scallywag, I’ll helpyou with those pots.
Narrator: Such is the atmosphere on the voyage, such the spirit, that neither Jim, norSquire Trelawney, nor Dr Livesey himself suspects the terrible truth about thecrew. The awful secret they are all concealing. The discovery is only madeat the last minute, by chance - by young Jim himself - on the last day of theoutward journey…
The Hispaniola has arrived by night in the very seas where the island ismarked on the treasure map. A hush fills the ship as each man scours thehorizon, searching for land, and thinking of the possibilities of the morrow.Jim heads up on deck to grab an apple from the big barrel. He reaches in toofar - and falls to the very bottom. Then he hears voices - and what he hearsstops his scrabbling dead.
Sailor 1: I think we should do it tonight.
Sailor 2: You’ll stay quiet till I give the word. And not till we spy land.
Narrator: What he hears makes his heart sink and his breath race and his bodytremble.
Long John Silver: When the time comes boys, we’ll let her rip! We’ll take the ship, kill them asain’t square with us, and dig up old Flint’s treasure.
Narrator: Silver is talking mutiny with a bunch of the crew. Arguing over when theyshould take over. Arguing over who gets to kill Trelawney and who gets to killCaptain Smollet. And Silver himself is the one in charge…
Jim: …the blood thirstiest pirate of them all…
Long John Silver: Only one thing I claim - Squire Trelawney! I’ll rip his calf’s head off his bodywith these here hands boys! Now then young Dick, you jump up like a goodlad and get me an apple from that barrel…
Narrator: As the footsteps approach the barrel, Jim’s eyes bulge in fear, he takes abreath, ready to leap and run when -
Sailor: Land ahoy! Land ahoy!
Narrator: The men on deck all rush to the side to peer into the gloom. Jim pops out ofthe barrel unseen and slips away.
Sailor 1: It’s Skeleton Island all right!
Sailor 2 We’re here!
Sailor 3: Treasure Island, me lads!
Narrator: A great cheer fills the ship. In the darkness, Jim finds Captain Smollett, DrLivesey and the Squire in the cabin and tells them his terrible news. Theywork out the numbers - there are only seven sailors including themselvesthey can trust. Which leaves nineteen pirates against them.
Sailors singing: ‘Yo ho ho and up she rises, yo ho ho and up she rises…’
Jim: What’s happening?
Smollett: That, I may believe, is the sound of the Jolly Roger being raised.
Jim: What are we going to do?
Dr Livesey: A very good question my boy. A very good question indeed.
4. The voyage and the apple barrel
The Hispaniola sets sail for the Caribbean and the voyage is largely uneventful.
Jim becomes firm friends with Long John Silver and his parrot, which is named Captain Flint after the infamous pirate.
Neither Jim, Squire Trelawney, Dr Livesey or Captain Smollett has any inkling of the terrible truth about Long John Silver and his crew.
On the very evening that the Hispaniola arrives near the island marked by the treasure map, Jim reaches into an apple barrel on deck and then falls inside. Jim then listens in horror as Silver and the crew discuss how they intend to take control of the ship that night and murder Squire Trelawney.
At that moment the sailors spy land and in the commotion Jim slips away to warn the others that they are in immediate danger.
Teacher Notes
This series can be used to increase pupils' familiarity with a broad range of texts and narratives, including myths, legends and traditional stories and to make connections between these and other stories they are familiar with.
It will also support a broad range of writing objectives.
This series is relevant for teaching English at KS2, in England and Wales and Northern Ireland, and at First and Second Level in Scotland.
5. Escape to the island and Ben Gunn. video
The Squire, Doctor and Captain escape the Hispaniola... under attack from the pirates.
6. The stockade and the pirates attack. video
Jim's friends have taken refuge in an old stockade...but the pirates are advancing.
7. A fight and the Hispaniola captured. video
Jim slips away at night, sets the Hispaniola adrift and in the morning boards the ship
