Long John Silver
Silver's pub in Bristol was the Spy-Glass Inn and Jim had orders to meet him there "he followed the line of the quayside ." At the inn he realised with horror that the pub landlord had only one leg. Could this be the man he was warned about so often?
Silver could ingratiate himself with just about anybody and before long not only Jim befriended him, but Trelawney confided in him as well. Jim was also fascinated by Silver's "bumboat" parrot, Captain Flint, who in no time Jim got to cry out "Pieces of Eight, Pieces of Eight".
Despite Jim spotting Black Dog again (actually in the Spy-Glass), he was still unaware of Silver 's dark side.
Silver's choice of crew led to a row between Cap'n Smollett and Squire Trelawney. The Captain said he didn't like the cruise or the crew and that everyone in Bristol knew the vessel's destination, except him. Even so, Smollett still put to sea with some provisos - locking the arms in the aft cabin for safekeeping for instance.
Many an inn has claimed to be the Spy-Glass, but the only surviving Bristol example that fully fits the description in Treasure Island is The Hole in the Wall. Situated along the quayside, with an entrance to two different streets and even its own spy-hole feature (originally used to keep a look-out for the press gang), the pub offers everything, even a superb view across the river to Blackbeard's alleged birth place in Redcliffe.
The objectives of the trust are to to raise sufficient funds to commission a statue of the literary figure Long John Silver, a character in the classic fictional work by Robert Louis Stevenson, “Treasure Island ”: To retain sufficient funds to maintain the work, and to further promote the knowledge and understanding of literature as it particularly relates to the city of Bristol, using Long John Silver as a figurehead. Activities under development include a “Treasure Island Trail” around the city highlighting various landmarks relating to Bristol ’s maritime past, visits and trips around Bristol and its Harbourside for fit and disabled schoolchildren and if funds permit, additional statuettes or plaques of other characters from the book.
Inspiration for the statue came from Britain’s first Great Reading Adventure, sponsored by Penguin Books, which was held in Bristol in 2003. Treasure Island was chosen as the launch book, and public readings were held around the city. Many thousands of children and adults were introduced to the book.
The idea of a statue had been mooted previously, but the Great Reading Adventure spurred a number of individuals to take the matter forward. A well-known local maritime artist, Frank Shipsides, was commissioned to produce a painting of the Bristol Harbourside, showing what an imagined statue might look like, standing in front of the ‘Hole in the Wall’ inn. The trust started operations in September 2004 with a limited edition print run of the painting.