Black Pearl Legend

Lore & Background

The Black Pearl was once a merchant ship named Wicked Wench while Jack Sparrow was a merchant sailor for the East India Trading Company. The backstory for the Wicked Wench is further detailed by A.C. Crispin in the 2011 Disney Publishing novel, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom, due to Crispin reading the screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, though the scenes were deleted from the final cut of the film. The Wicked Wench was registered to the East India Trading Company and owned by Cutler Beckett, the EITC Director for West Africa. Jack Sparrow captained the Wicked Wench for Cutler Beckett for about a year, hauling various cargoes, but he refused to haul slaves. After Sparrow double-crossed Beckett and freed slaves, Beckett had Sparrow thrown into jail. After allowing him to languish for a couple of months, Beckett had Sparrow transported to the Wicked Wench's anchorage, about a mile from the coast of West Africa, near Calabar on the Bight of Benin. After personally branding Sparrow with the "P" brand, Cutler Beckett gave the order to fire incendiary carcass charges at the Wicked Wench. Sparrow fought his way free from his guards, dove overboard, and attempted to rescue his burning, foundering ship, but he was too late. The Wicked Wench turned into an inferno, then sank, taking Jack with her. But, while dying, Sparrow called upon 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".

In Their Own Story

In Dead Man's Chest, it was revealed that Davy Jones raised the Black Pearl from the depths and allowed Jack Sparrow to captain the ship for thirteen years in exchange for his soul and servitude aboard the Flying Dutchman. According to Jack, he was only captain for two years until he was viciously mutinied upon. The mutiny occurred two years after the deal with Davy Jones, when Jack sailed the Black Pearl and had his magical compass in search of the mysterious Isla de Muerta, where the legendary Treasure of Cortés was hidden. By this point, Hector Barbossa was Jack's first mate and Bootstrap Bill Turner had joined the crew. However, the other crew members, Pintel and Ragetti, were recruited in Tortuga. 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. 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 proper 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.

Reader's Guide

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. William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner Sr., the only crew member who defended Jack Sparrow during the mutiny, sent a coin to his young son Will Turner in England, believing the crew "deserved to be cursed, and remain cursed". In retaliation, Barbossa (as Pintel put it), "strapped a cannon to old Bootstrap's bootstraps. The last we saw of old Bill Turner... he was sinking to the crushing black oblivion of 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. 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. However, 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. 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 returned 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 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.

Did You Know?

• The Black Pearl was originally a merchant ship named Wicked Wench, owned by Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company.
• Jack Sparrow captained the Wicked Wench for Cutler Beckett for about a year, hauling various cargoes, but he refused to haul slaves.
• The Wicked Wench was sunk by incendiary carcass charges ordered by Cutler Beckett, after which Davy Jones raised the ship from the sea floor.
• The Black Pearl is said to be 'nigh uncatchable' and is 'the only ship that can outrun the Dutchman' as stated in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.
• In the 2017 film Dead Men Tell No Tales, a ship named the Wicked Wench appears during a flashback sequence, though it was never stated whether it was an older version of the Black Pearl.