Captain Hook by halitosis, beady black eyes, a pock-marked face, and perpetual filth of his person and surroundings, contrasting strongly with J. M. Barrie's Etonian gentleman. The novel, which takes place before the Captain meets Peter Pan, calls Hook "Black Stache" for his prominent moustache, and his ship is called the "Sea Devil"; he captures the "Jolly Roger", originally a British ship called the "Wasp", later. Black Stache is renamed 'Captain Hook' in the second instalment, "Peter and the Shadow Thieves". In Barry and Pearson's book, his left hand is accidentally cut off by Peter. In Rick Ellis' theatrical adaptation of the
Captain Hook productions of the Peter Pan story. According to A.N. Wilson, Barrie "openly acknowledged Hook and his obsession with the crocodile was an English version of Ahab", and there are other borrowings from Melville. Barrie states in the novel that "Hook was not his true name. To reveal who he really was would even at this date set the country in a blaze". He is said to be "Blackbeard's bo'sun" and "the only man of whom Barbecue was afraid". (In Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island", one of the names Long John Silver goes by is "Barbecue".) In the play, it is