Captain Pugwash
Captain Pugwash is a fictional pirate character in a series of British children's comic strips, books and animated films created by John Ryan.
He famously appeared in a British animated TV series, first shown on the BBC in 1957.
The eponymous hero - Captain Horatio Pugwash - sails the high seas in his ship the Black Pig, ably assisted by cabin boy Tom, pirates Willy and Barnabas, and Master Mate. His mortal enemy is Cut-Throat Jake, captain of the Flying Dustman.
Captain Horatio Pugwash made his debut appearance in a comic strip format in the first issue of The Eagle in 1950, then appeared regularly as a strip in Radio Times. In 1957 the BBC commissioned a series of short cartoon films made using stop-frame animation. Ryan produced a total of 86 five-minute-long episodes for the BBC, shot in black-and-white film. The characters' voices were provided by Hit Entertainment, who from 1997 have issued a number of digital and part computer-animated cartoon films based on the Pugwash character, set on the island of "Montebuffo", "somewhere in the Spanish Main".
Characters
- Captain Pugwash
- Master Mate
- Pirate Barnabas
- Pirate Willy
- Tom the Cabin Boy
- Cut-Throat Jake
Additional characters post-1997
- Governor of Portobello
- Maggie Lafayette
Pugwashisms
Captain Pugwash is renowned for his exclamations, owing something to the style of Captain Haddock in The Adventures of Tintin:
- "Dollopping doubloons!"
- "Coddling catfish!"
- "Lolloping landlubbers!"
- "Staggering stalactites!"
- "Nautical nitwits!"
- "Plundering porpoises!"
- "Kipper me capstans!"
- "Tottering turtles!"
Captain Pugwash Books
- Captain Pugwash: A Pirate Story (1957)
- Pugwash Aloft (1960)
- Pugwash and the Ghost Ship (1962)
- Pugwash in the Pacific (1963)
- Pugwash and the Sea Monster (1976)
- Captain Pugwash and the Ruby (1976)
- Captain Pugwash and the Treasure Chest (1976)
- Captain Pugwash and the New Ship (1976)
- Captain Pugwash and the Elephant (1976)
- The Captain Pugwash Cartoon Book (1977)
- Pugwash and the Buried Treasure (1980)
- Pugwash the Smuggler (1982)
- Captain Pugwash and the Fancy Dress Party (1982)
- Captain Pugwash and the Mutiny (1982)
- Pugwash and the Wreckers (1984)
- Pugwash and the Midnight Feast (1984)
- The Battle of Bunkum Bay (1985)
- The Quest of the Golden Handshake (1985)
- The Secret of the San Fiasco (1985)
- Captain Pugwash and the Pigwig (1991)
- Captain Pugwash and the Huge Reward (1991)
Urban Myth
There is a persistent urban legend which ascribes sexually suggestive names - such as Master Bates, Seaman Staines, and Roger the Cabin Boy - to Captain Pugwash 's characters.
John Ryan successfully sued The Guardian newspaper in 1991 for printing this legend as fact.
