Peter Blood was a surgeon and sailor who took part in Monmouth's Rebellion in 1685. For his part in the uprising against James II, Blood was transported to the Caribbean to work as a slave, but managed to escape and turned pirate. For his actions at sea against the French and Spanish, Captain Blood is ultimately appointed governor of one of the British colonies in the Caribbean following the Glorious Revolution, and marries the previous governor's daughter Arabella.
Blood's career is described by Rafael Sabatini in his novel Captain Blood; a pair of sequels chronicle side-incidents in his time as a pirate.
Sabatini noted that Peter Blood's father was an Irish doctor who settled in Somerset and married one of the locals, "in whose
veins ran the rover blood of the Frobishers, which may account for a
certain wildness that had early manifested itself in his disposition." Philip José Farmer has published further details about Blood's background in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, suggesting that Mrs. Blood was a niece of another sailor from somewhat further north, the Yorkshireman Sir Martin Frobisher. He also identifies Mrs. Blood as a relative of Sarah Frobisher Clarke, and both women as descendents of Sir Nigel Loring. Farmer also traces the descent of such figures as Doc Savage from Blood's daughter Arabella.