Dead Man's Chest Dead Man's Chest "Dead Man's Chest" (also known as "Fifteen Men On The Dead Man's Chest" or "Derelict") is a fictional sea song, originally from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Treasure Island" (1883). It was expanded in a poem, titled "Derelict" by Young E. Allison, published in the "Louisville Courier-Journal" in 1891. It has since been used in many later works of art in various forms. Stevenson found the name "Dead Man's Chest" among a list of Virgin Island names in a book by Charles Kingsley, possibly in reference to the Dead Chest Island off Peter Island in the British Virgin
Robert Louis Stevenson M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said that Stevenson "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins". Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland on 13 November 1850 to Thomas Stevenson (1818–87), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife Margaret Isabella (born Balfour, 1829–97). He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. At about age 18, he changed the spelling of "Lewis" to "Louis", and he dropped "Balfour" in 1873. Lighthouse design was the family's profession; Thomas's father (Robert's grandfather) was famous civil engineer Robert Stevenson, and Thomas's