Captain Pugwash is a fictional pirate in a series of British children's comic strips and books created by John Ryan. The character's adventures were adapted into a British animated TV series, also called Captain Pugwash, first shown on the BBC in 1957.

The eponymous hero - Captain Horatio Pugwash - sails the high seas near New Zealand 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 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 produced by Gordon Murray. Ryan produced a total of 86 five-minute-long episodes for the BBC, shot in black-and-white film, but later transferring to colour.

Ryan used a real-time technique of animation in which cardboard cutouts of the characters were laid on painted backgrounds and moved with levers. The characters' voices were provided by Peter Hawkins. The last series of Pugwash shorts by Ryan was produced in 1975.

Although there are many anachronisms in the series, the book The Battle of Bunkum Bay gives some useful clues as to the era in which the stories are set. In this book, the King of England strongly resembles George I and the King of France resembles Louis XIV, suggesting that this story took place in 1714-15. However, one of the few direct references to a date is in the original TV series is the episode 'Pirate of the Year' where Pugwash enters the "Pirate of the Year contest 1775"

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". Peter Hawkins did not provide the voices, HIT Entertainment instead employing character actor James Saxon.

A DVD containing 'ALL 30 heroic high sea adventures from the classic 70s TV series' filmed in colour (156 minutes running time) was given away with the Sunday Times on 20 January 2008.

A related book by John Ryan was Admiral Fatso Fitzpugwash, in which it is revealed that Pugwash had a medieval ancestor who was First Sea Lord, but who was terrified of water.

There is a persistent urban legend, originating in the now-defunct UK newspaper the Sunday Correspondent, which ascribes sexually suggestive names - such as Master Bates (masturbates), Seaman Staines (semen stains), and Roger (meaning to have sex with) the Cabin Boy - to Captain Pugwash 's characters. John Ryan successfully sued both the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian newspapers in 1991 for printing this legend as fact.

According to another version, "Pugwash" also had sexual connotations e.g. it could be a term for oral sex used in Australia, but no evidence to back this up has ever been found. In fact the name was believed to have been taken from a newspaper article about the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, an international organisation that brings together scholars and public figures to work towards reducing the danger of armed conflict, which had its first conference in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in 1955.

The wide acceptance of this falsehood probably owes something to the long standing associations in people's minds between sailors and ribaldry, as in the song, "'Twas on the Good Ship Venus". This legend may also have been subconsciously reinforced in some people's minds by the fact that there actually were fictional nautical characters with names a bit like these suggestive names.

Swallows and Amazons, a very well-known British children's novel, really did have a male character called "Roger" and a female character called "Titty". In The Onedin Line, a very popular BBC television programme in the 1970s, the ship's mate was called "Mister Baines", which in some people's minds could become merged with "Master Mate" to create "Master Bates", and Charles Dickens regularly refers to The Artful Dodgers accomplice Charley Bates as "Master Bates" in the literary classic Oliver Twist.

This legend may also owe something to the fact that it was shown on the 5.35pm or 5.40pm slot on BBC1. Scheduling has since changed, but for many years the children's programmes on BBC1 would end with a 5-minute programme immediately before the early evening news, and these shows could sometimes achieve a cult following among adult viewers. They could end up reading more than was there into some of them e.g. the alleged drug references in The Magic Roundabout.

It has also been suggested that the pronunciation of "Master Mate" was slurred at times thanks to Pugwash's rather nasal voice, and some people could mishear it. Popular industry screenwriting website Scriptmania, presenting a feature on UK Children's television, have produced a soundbite which they claim is taken directly from an episode of the show, containing the words "I certainly did, Master Mate". Additionally in the episode "a shot across the bows" , the Captain frequently calls for "Master Mate", and the potential for mishearing is clear.