dead man's chest

Buried treasure container

Dead man's chest appears in the pirate shanty "Fifteen men on a dead man's chest, yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum," popularized by Robert Louis Stevenson's *Treasure Island*.

The phrase likely refers to Dead Chest Island in the Virgin Islands, where Blackbeard supposedly marooned sailors.

A dead man's chest can also mean a coffin or, in gaming contexts, a treasure chest containing a corpse.

Related

yo-ho-ho · rum · bottle · sea · coffin · shipwreck · buried treasure · skull · bones · buried · skull and crossbones · gold · doubloons · treasure map · island · plank · Blackbeard · galleon

Categories
Opposites
ownership/possession status

dead man's chestpersonal effects

Individual's portable possessions

morbid vs. vital connotation

dead man's chesthope chest

Trunk for marriage preparations

trousseau · wedding chest

pirate/outlaw vs. legitimate maritime

dead man's chestship's log

Vessel's official record

Family

dead, chest, deadly, deaden, deadness, deadened, deadening, man's, manliness

Familiarity
Top 200,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Negative · Everyday, not technical · Rated PG