High Seas Arithmetic
A free, printable Grade 5 multi-step word problem worksheet themed around Pirates. Each problem takes two or three steps to solve. Work them on screen or print the PDF — a teacher/parent answer key is included.
Show answer key (for grown-ups)
1.Captain Redbeard finds a chest with 120 gold doubloons. He gives 1/4 of them to his first mate and 2/5 of them to the rest of the crew. How many doubloons does Redbeard keep for himself?42
2.The Jolly Roger pirate ship has 8 cannons on the port side and 8 cannons on the starboard side. Each cannon requires 5 pounds of gunpowder per shot. If the pirates have a barrel with 100 pounds of gunpowder, how many pounds will they have left after firing every cannon once?20
3.Barnaby the pirate cartographer is decoding a secret coordinate. He multiplies the value of the digit in the thousands place of the number 7,452 by 3, and then subtracts 5 times the value of the digit in the tens place. What number does he get?20750
4.A pirate crew of 15 sailors finds 308 ruby gems and shares them equally. The captain takes all the remaining leftover gems and sells them to a merchant for 20 gold coins each. How many gold coins does the captain earn from the leftover gems?160
5.A pirate captain wants to buy new cutlasses for his 18 crew members. Each cutlass costs 25 gold pieces. The captain currently has 300 gold pieces, but he must first pay a harbor tax of 48 gold pieces. After paying the tax, how many more gold pieces does he need to buy all the cutlasses?198
6.The ship's cook prepared 16 barrels of salt beef, with each barrel holding 30 pieces of beef. During a storm, seawater leaks into the pantry and ruins 1/8 of the total pieces of beef. How many pieces of beef are still safe to eat?420