In the 1990 movie version of Treasure Island, Captain Smollet is depicted as a red-headed (ex-)Navy Captain. Silver canonically has a parrot named Flint. He's working with other former Walrus men, too. Also, in the movie, it seems like Silver respects Smollet as an enemy - if nothing else. Smollet runs a tight ship, has a big personality, is coolly logical, and loyal to those he respects.
Furthermore, the outfit the Captain wears isn't dissimilar to the 1705 Navy uniform of Lieutenant James McGraw | (future) Captain Flint. See below (Flint, BS, left; Smollet,TI, right):
All I'm saying is that there's an underrated and not ill-fitting opportunity to write some angsty and fucked-up psychosexual situationship nonsense going on between an older post-BS John Silver and the younger firebrand (ex-)Navy Captain Smollet... Who totally isn't a stand-in for the man who was his closest companion once, before Silver betrayed him.
