Bartholomew Roberts - Popular Culture

Popular Culture

Bartholomew Roberts is one of four pirate captains mentioned in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. In it, Long John Silver says that the surgeon who amputated his leg was one of Roberts' men:

It was a master surgeon, him that ampytated me - out of college and all - Latin by the bucket, and what not; but he was hanged like a dog, and sun-dried like the rest, at Corso Castle. That was Roberts' men, that was, and comed of changing names of their ships - Royal Fortune and so on. —Robert Louis Stevensen, Treasure Island

Historical novels with Bartholomew Roberts as the main character include The Devil's Captain by Philip Shea (1992), The Requiem Shark by Nicholas Griffin (1999) and The Devil's Captain by Frank Sherry (2000).

A number of novels and poems featuring Bartholomew Roberts have been published in Welsh, notably a ballad by I. D. Hooson, for which a vocal score was later composed by Alun Hoddinott, and a novel by T. Llew Jones.

Roberts is the subject of the song "Bartholomew Roberts (The Pirate Song)" by David Grossman released on the CD Graffiti (1984)

In the novel The Princess Bride and its film adaptation Westley takes a turn at being the Dread Pirate Roberts.

In the manga series, One Piece, a character named Bartholomew Kuma is based after him.