What is the meaning of "you has the wind of me"?

Solution 1:

It means: you've got the better of me. "You has the wind of me" (dialect for: "You have taken the wind from me") refers to the nautical trick of "stealing" another boat's wind. In the days of wind-powered boats (and in modern-day sailing competitions), if you can place your own boat between another boat and the on-coming wind, you can slow the other boat down and overtake it. See also:

Take the wind out of his sails – to take away someone’s initiative, disconcert or frustrate them. This could derive from the art of sailing so that you “steal” the wind from another boat. A boat under sail can be slowed down if another boat sails between it and the wind, preventing their sails from filling.

Nautical Sayings and Phrases

So, yes: it's pronounced [wɪnd], not [waɪnd].

Solution 2:

welcome to EL&U. It's a long time since I read Treasure Island but to me this piece of dialogue sounds like the castaway Ben Gunn. If it isn't him then it's another of the pirates. This means that the dialect is the rather strange "Cornish" one that Stevenson put into the mouths of the pirates. Having passed through TV adaptation in the late 1950's this accent became the origin of the idea that pirates said "aarrrr" all the time.

In addition the dialect is not only supposed to be Cornish but also full of pre-steam maritime terms so the word refers to the flow of air rather than the action of rolling up thread and the 'i' is short.

Having the wind of someone refers to the tactical advantage one sailing ship would have over another in naval conflict by being upwind of the the other. This is also called having the 'weather gage' of it.

The piece of dialogue uses you have the wind of me as a metaphor for someone having a powerful advantage over the speaker.

Solution 3:

It is, unsurprisingly considering the source, a sailing term. Scroll down to Taking the wind out of his sails. The idea is, if you can get your sail upwind of another boat, you can cause the other boat to be in your wind shadow. So they lose wind and get becalmed. Read more about this in this Wiki article relating to sailing nearly upwind. What it means is, if two boats are sailing nearly into the wind, the boat in the lead can take a commanding lead and be very difficult to catch.

Note that it only works upwind. If you are sailing downwind, then the back boat can steal wind from the front boat, meaning the back boat can catch up, and they will tend to switch off again and again who is in front.