Black Pearl

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This article is about the fictional ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. For other uses, see Black Pearl (disambiguation).
Black Pearl
Pirates of the Caribbean vehicle
The Black Pearl on location
First appearanceThe Curse of the Black Pearl
Captain
General characteristics
Type
Armaments12-pound cannons x32
Length165 ft (50.292 m)

The Black Pearl (formerly known as the Wicked Wench) is a fictional ship in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. In the screenplay, the ship is easily recognized by her distinctive black hull and sails. Captained by Captain Jack Sparrow, the Black Pearl is said to be "nigh uncatchable". In the first three films, she either overtakes or flees all other ships, including both the Interceptor, which is regarded as the fastest ship in the Caribbean, and the Flying Dutchman, which is faster than the wind. Her speed is derived from several factors such as the large number of sails she carries and being partly supernatural. As stated in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, the Black Pearl is "the only ship that can outrun the Dutchman" and this is evidenced in the maelstrom battle between the two ships in the movies.

Background

The Black Pearl is the titular pirate ship that appears in

Disneyland Park, which is shown shelling a fort.[2]

The backstory for the Wicked Wench is further detailed by

Davy Jones, and struck a bargain with him: his soul and one hundred years of service aboard the Flying Dutchman, in return for continued human existence of thirteen years as captain, plus saving the Wicked Wench and transforming her into the fastest, most dangerous pirate ship on the seven seas. Jones agreed and raised the ship from the sea floor, now a charred vessel with an angel figurehead. In keeping with her scorched appearance, Jack painted his ship black and added black sails, rechristening her "the Black Pearl".[3]

In the 2017 film

Armando Salazar
, the Silent Mary attacked pirate ships in battle until Captain Morgan died aboard the Wicked Wench, giving captaincy to young "Jack the Sparrow". Sparrow outmaneuvers Salazar while being chased into the Devil's Triangle, in which the pirate crew of the Wicked Wench throw ropes around nearby reefs off the port side and use the rigging to slingshot the ship in the opposite direction. Jack steers the ship through the reef, saving the crew and the ship by changing the ship's course at the last second. Afterward, on the deck of the Wicked Wench, the crew rewards Sparrow with "tribute" and bestows Jack with his famous hat and other personal effects.

Appearances

Before the films

In Dead Man's Chest, it was revealed that

Pintel and Ragetti, were recruited in Tortuga[disambiguation needed]. Captain and crew agreed to equal shares of the treasure, but devious Barbossa persuaded Jack that equal shares included knowing the treasure's location. Jack complied, and soon after Barbossa led a mutiny and marooned Jack on an island with nothing but a pistol containing one shot.[4]

Barbossa's crew sailed the Black Pearl to Isla de Muerta and found the

Aztec gold, which was spent very quickly, not believing in the curse placed on it: that anyone who stole the coins would become an undead being, unable to feel anything but insatiable hunger, and that only moonlight
would reveal their true form. This curse being real, the pirates were soon hideous living skeletons with tattered flesh and clothing clinging to their bones, unable to eat or drink, though still suffering hunger and thirst. Even the Black Pearl was affected by the curse upon its crew, becoming constantly shrouded in an eerie mist and operating with tattered sails ripped in many places.

The Curse of the Black Pearl

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Jolly Roger of Barbossa's Crew, which was originally the flag of pirate Calico Jack

The curse could only be lifted when all eight hundred and eighty-two coins were returned to the chest along with a trace of blood from each pirate who stole one.

Davy Jones' locker". Only then did Barbossa's crew learn that they also needed Bootstrap's blood to break the curse, and by throwing him overboard they had doomed themselves to continued damnation.[4]

Over the next decade, the Black Pearl menaced the Caribbean as the pirates searched tirelessly for the Aztec gold until all but one piece was found. As a boy, William "Will" Turner Jr. brought the gold medallion with him on his journey to the Caribbean, although Elizabeth Swann, Governor Weatherby Swann's daughter, came into possession of it and kept it hidden for eight years. The Pearl later attacked Port Royal and abducted Elizabeth, believing she was Bootstrap's child and thus their only remaining source of Turner's blood.[4]

The Pearl was eventually commandeered by Sparrow with a new crew. While most of Barbossa's crew were battling the Royal Navy aboard HMS Dauntless, Barbossa, Monk, and Jacoby fight Elizabeth, Will, and a now-cursed Jack Sparrow at Isla de Muerta. After Will and Jack put their blood on their respective pieces and return them to the chest of Cortés, the Aztec curse was lifted. With the crew no longer immortal, Jack used his single shot - which he had carried for ten years - to kill Barbossa. During the battle, Jack's crew can commandeer the Pearl, leaving Jack behind at Isla de Muerta. However, they later rescue him after he escapes execution in Port Royal, and he again takes command of the ship.

Between the first and second installments

The Black Pearl was pursued by

James Norrington and the Royal Navy. Off of Tripoli
, a large hurricane battered the Pearl (though it survived), and HMS Dauntless sank, along with most of its crew. Norrington survived and later resigned from the Navy.

Dead Man's Chest

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

One year later, the Black Pearl is still being captained by

the Locker
.

Jack has the ship sailed to the nearest land - Pelegosto, an island inhabited by a cannibal tribe. Jack and the surviving crew escape the cannibals with Will Turner, Pintel, and Ragetti, and visit the voodoo priestess Tia Dalma for advice. Dalma details how Davy Jones cut out his own heart and locked it in the hidden "Dead Man's Chest". The crew learns that if Jones' heart is stabbed, he will die, so whoever controls Jones' heart can command Jones himself. Dalma then helps the crew of the Pearl track down the Flying Dutchman. When Jack sends Will over to the Dutchman, the Pearl is boarded by Jones' cursed crew. Jack makes a deal with Davy Jones; he will deliver Jones 100 souls in three days in exchange for his own. Jones agrees, temporarily removing the Black Spot from Jack's palm. Jones and his crew then depart aboard the Dutchman with Will (who is "a good-faith payment"), while the Pearl travels to Tortuga to "recruit" the remaining 99 souls.

In Tortuga, Jack runs into

Davy Jones' Locker as the surviving crew watches. Mourning the loss of Sparrow, the crew returns to Tia Dalma's shack. There, Dalma asks them if they would "sail to the ends of the Earth and beyond, to fetch back 'witty Jack' and him precious Pearl". Gibbs, Pintel, Ragetti, Cotton's parrot (who speaks for both itself and its master), Elizabeth, and Will all agree. Tia Dalma then announces their new captain, Hector Barbossa
, who asks what's become of "his" ship.

At World's End

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Led by the newly resurrected Captain Barbossa, Tia Dalma and the crew of the Black Pearl vow to rescue Jack Sparrow and his ship from Davy Jones' Locker. Using Chinese navigational charts from the Pirate Lord of Singapore, Sao Feng, they find themselves in the Locker. Jack and the Pearl are stranded in a seemingly-endless desert, but Tia Dalma can use the Locker's mysterious crustaceans (crabs that look like rocks) to transport Jack and the Pearl to the nearby shore. Jack deciphers a clue from the navigational charts, and the crew capsizes the ship at sunset. The Black Pearl then returns to the living world at sunrise.

Back in the realm of the living, the Black Pearl resupplies at an island, but is ambushed by Sao Feng (aboard his vessel Empress) and Jack's old enemy Cutler Beckett (aboard his flagship HMS Endeavour). Disputes mean that the Pearl is now desired by multiple characters. Captain Sparrow claims that it is his ship; Captain Barbossa is that it was his ship; Will needs the Pearl to free his father from Davy Jones; Sao Feng covets the fastest ship in the Caribbean, and Cutler Beckett won't "give up the only ship that can outrun the Dutchman". After Elizabeth joins Sao Feng on the Empress, the Pearl and the Empress launch a surprise attack on the Endeavour and flee. In response, Beckett sends the Flying Dutchman to track down the Empress. Sao Feng is mortally wounded in the ensuing attack and dies after naming Elizabeth his successor as captain. Meanwhile, the Black Pearl escapes to "Shipwreck Cove", a secret pirate rendezvous, where the fourth meeting of the Brethren Court is then convened. After Captain Elizabeth Swann arrives, the Pearl becomes the flagship of the Pirate Armada, led by the elected Pirate King, Elizabeth Swann.

Captain Sparrow, Captain Barbossa, and Captain Swann take a parley with Lord Beckett, Davy Jones, and Will Turner (who was pushed overboard by Sparrow for his attempted mutiny on the crew of the Pearl). After Beckett reveals that Jack purposefully used Will's betrayal to try to save himself from Jones' wrath, Captains Swann and Barbossa trade Jack for Will; Jack is then imprisoned in the brig of the Dutchman. Helmed by Captain Barbossa, the Black Pearl then engages in a sea battle around a

Cutler Beckett
and forcing the now-leaderless EITC armada to flee.

In Tortuga, Jack again loses the Black Pearl to Barbossa, leaving only him and Gibbs on Tortuga, Gibbs decides to stay and they part ways with Jack saying "Take What You Can" and Gibbs replying "Give Nothing Back", though the crew of the Pearl (including Pintel, Ragetti, Marty, Murtogg, and Mullroy), "are unsettled about leaving Captain Jack behind - again", indeed they all leave the Black Pearl and Barbossa recruits a new crew. However, Sparrow has secretly stolen the critical portion of Barbossa's navigational charts, and so goes back to searching for the Pearl and the Fountain of Youth so he can gain immortality.

Between the third and fourth installments

One night, sometime after leaving Tortuga, the Black Pearl was attacked by the pirate ship

ship into a bottle for good measure, then added it to a collection of other conquered ships inside a cabinet found in the captain's quarters of the Queen Anne's Revenge.[5][unreliable source?
]

On Stranger Tides

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

During the quest for the Fountain of Youth, Jack Sparrow met Hector Barbossa, now a privateer serving King George II's expedition for the Fountain, who insisted that his beloved Pearl was sunk, though Jack told Barbossa he should've been sunk with it. However, after being shanghaied aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, Jack was shown the current state of the Black Pearl by Blackbeard's daughter, Angelica, who revealed Blackbeard kept each ship in a bottle as a prize. Angelica also told that Blackbeard was after the Fountain of Youth to save himself from getting killed by a "one-leg man" "At fortnight, Blackbeard will meet his death...". While Jack learned about the ships in bottles, Barbossa still believed the Pearl to be sunk as his true agenda for revenge against Blackbeard was revealed. As Barbossa mortally wounded Blackbeard with a poisoned sword, he says, "For the Pearl."

Before Blackbeard's death at the Fountain, Sparrow sent Gibbs to retrieve the Pearl, though Gibbs fills a large sack with the bottles of other fallen ships from Queen Anne's Revenge. As the film concludes, Jack suggests a way of getting the Pearl out of the bottle and back to full size, but it will require "a crossbow, an hourglass, three goats, one of [them] must learn to play the trumpet, whilst the other one goes like this" to which Gibbs says he knows someone who owns a goat and Sparrow replies "good and I can go like this" ("this" being a wiggling of the fingers). Meanwhile, Barbosa was made captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge and holds the Sword of Triton.

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

The Black Pearl appears once again in the fifth installment of the movie franchise. A ship named the Wicked Wench makes its appearance during a flashback sequence, although it was never stated that it was an older version of the Black Pearl nor that the two ships were one and the same vessel. In the flashback, as reminisced upon by

Armando Salazar, the Silent Mary attacked pirate ships in battle until Captain Morgan died aboard the Wicked Wench, giving captaincy to young "Jack the Sparrow". Sparrow outmaneuvers Salazar while being chased into the Devil's Triangle, in which the crew of the Wicked Wench throw ropes around nearby reefs off the port side and use the rigging to slingshot the ship in the opposite direction. Jack steers the ship through the reef, saving the crew and the ship by changing the ship's course at the last second. Afterward, on the deck of the Wicked Wench, the crew rewards Sparrow with "tribute" and bestows Jack with his famous hat and other personal effects.[6]

In the present day, the Black Pearl is revealed to have remained trapped in its bottle for 'five winters', Jack keeping it in his pocket even as he is forced to use a smaller ship known as the Dying Gull to go to sea. Later in the film, Barbossa is shown to be aware of the ship in a bottle and restores the Pearl to its former glory; stabbing the bottle with Blackbeard's sword cracks it, the bottle subsequently breaking as the Pearl grows to the size of a larger model, only regaining its full size when it returns to the sea. Barbossa then claims the ship for himself to battle the undead Captain Salazar, tying Jack to the rear of the ship, however, Jack managed to escape thanks to the help of Henry Turner, son of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, who has allied with him to find the Trident of Poseidon. After tracking down the island where the Trident is located, triggering a mystical convergence that opens a trench in the ocean, Salazar claims the Trident for himself, but Henry and Carina Smyth destroy the Trident when Salazar attempts to use it to kill Jack. The destruction of the Trident restores Salazar and his men to a full life but also causes the sea trench to collapse, with the Pearl's crew lowering its anchor to pull Jack, Henry, and Carina to safety. Salazar attempts to climb up the anchor to attack Jack, but Barbossa sacrifices himself to stab Salazar and save the others (Carina having been identified as his daughter). At the film's conclusion, Carina and Henry watch Will Turner's reunion with Elizabeth Swan due to the destruction of the Trident also freeing Will from his role as captain of the Flying Dutchman. Jack departs as he is restored to his traditional role as the captain of the Black Pearl with both his crew from the Dying Gull and Barbossa's crew from the Queen Anne's Revenge joining him.

Armament

The Black Pearl is moderately armed and carries 32 twelve-pound

bow or stern
, giving her a grave tactical disadvantage during a chase as the Pearl cannot shoot a ship it is chasing or return fire at a pursuer; her high speed only partially negates this handicap. In Dead Man's Chest another advantage the Black Pearl has over her enemies is her ability to hide in the sea at night since if all the ship's lamps are blown out the ship is no longer visible thanks to her black hull and sails. This is also seen in Curse of the Black Pearl where she can sneak unhindered into Port Royal under the cover of darkness.

Filming

In the first movie, the Black Pearl was a steel barge with wooden structures built on top to resemble a real ship. In addition, a

Bayou La Batre in Alabama on the hull of the cargo ship Sunset to serve as the set, though it is not an authentic tall ship.[7][8][9] Another version, mounted on a gimbal, was built for filming the Maelstrom battle. In 2010, the Sunset, which played the Black Pearl in most of the films, was reconstructed to portray the Queen Anne's Revenge in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
.

References

  1. ^ Lanigan, Dan; Byrkit, Jim (May 2020). "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the BLack Pearl". Prop Culture. Disney+.
  2. ^ Foster, Tim (2018-08-19). "Ten Things You May Not Know About the Black Pearl". Celebrations Press. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  3. ^ "The Legend of the Black Pearl". Pirate Show Cancun. 2017-04-11. Retrieved 2022-06-09.
  4. ^ a b c Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Stuart Beattie, Jay Wolpert (2003). Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Audio Commentary (DVD). Buena Vista.
  5. ^ Critical analysis - SCRIPTS Message Board - Wordplayer.com
  6. ^ "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" – via pirates.Disney.com.
  7. ^ Pirates of the Caribbean presskit, accessed Dec 9, 2006
  8. ^ Pirates of the Caribbean page at the-bahama-islands.com Archived December 6, 2006, at the Wayback Machine, accessed Dec 9, 2006
  9. ^ Pirates 2: Welcome Aboard the Black Pearl - IGN, 11 July 2006, retrieved 2020-07-30

External links

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