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 Peter Hawkins . The series had a memorable sea-shanty style signature tune "Trumpet Hornpipe" written by Johnny Pearson . The last series of Pugwash shorts by Ryan was produced in 1975.

A number of spin-off books were written by John Ryan, and in the 1980s he drew three new Pugwash comic strip storybooks: The Secret of the San Fiasco, The Battle of Bunkum Bay and The Quest for the Golden Handshake.

The rights to Captain Pugwash were purchased 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.

External links

• Pugwash website by HIT Entertainment
• Pugwash urban legend (snopes.com)