pirates
Ian Mercer was quicker with a sword or dagger than anyone Cutler Beckett had ever employed before.

Ian Mercer was quicker with a sword or dagger than anyone Cutler Beckett had ever employed before.

"It was too much to hope for a weapon. We still have our daggers."
―Tarek[src]

A dagger was a fighting knife with a blade, a sharp point and usually one or two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a cutting or thrusting weapon. Most daggers also feature a full crossguard to keep the hand from riding forwards onto the sharpened blade edges. Daggers had been used throughout human history for close-proximity combat confrontations, such as self-defense, assassination or murder, and many cultures had used adorned daggers in ritual and ceremonial contexts.

History

"When I asked him later on how he was managing without the hand, he said that it wasn't so bad, the hook was as good as a dagger in a fight."
―Don Rafael on James[src]

By the Age of Piracy, daggers were knives with much shorter blades than sword, having been used frequently by assassins, spies, sailors, and pirates as weapons that may inflict great bodily injury or death.[1][2]

Stone-Eyed Sam, a pirate captain well known as the pirate king of Isla Esquelética, carried two glittering jeweled daggers on his belt, as delicate as dragonflies, which he would use in battle to spun and slash like a berserker.[3] At the beginning of the quest for the Sword of Cortés, young barmaid Arabella Smith had a dagger hidden in her pocket, notably while waiting for young Jack Sparrow next to the fishing vessel, the Barnacle.[1] When they found the treasure of Stone-Eyed Sam, the crew of the Barnacle found pretty little daggers in golden hilts with amethyst pommels.[4] The First Mate of the pirate ship the Fleur de la Mort Mr. Reece used a dagger during the battle of New Orleans.[5]

The pirate Baldy Malone owned a dagger which he used to attempt to kill Jack Sparrow when the younger pirate couldn't pay him back a loan of fourteen shillings. However, since Malone was drunk and Jack was sober, the younger pirate easily disarmed his opponent with his cutlass.[6] Prior to a meeting of the Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court in the Great Chamber at Shipwreck Cove, the Spanish Pirate Lord Don Rafaell told Captain Edward Teague of an encounter with James, an old friend and a pirate captain who lost a hand, which he replaced it with a hook that was as good as a dagger in a fight. During the meeting, after Hector Barbossa told Captain Teague and the Pirate Lords about the rogue pirates violating the Pirate's Code, the Russian Pirate Lord Boris "Borya" Palachnik slammed his dagger down into the scarred tabletop, so it stood, point-down, quivering, adding that "such evil deserved only death" while speaking to Teague about the Code-breakers.[2]

As Jack Sparrow held the last vial of the Shadow Gold in his hands during the Day of the Shadow, Henry Morgan, the legendary Pirate Lord now known as the alchemist Shadow Lord, grabbed the Spanish princess Carolina, with tendrils of shadow wrapping around her, then pressed his dagger against Carolina's neck, and threatened to kill her if Jack doesn't hand over the vial.[7]

Ian Mercer, who served as Cutler Beckett's assistant for the East India Trading Company, was quicker with a sword or dagger than anyone Beckett had every employed before.[8] As Beckett's clerk, doing his master's dirty work with underhanded tactics, Mercer most notably used a dagger when he killed Captain Hawkins in front of Governor Weatherby Swann at Port Royal.[9][10]

By the fourth meeting of the Brethren Court, the meeting room included figureheads from plundered ships used as decoration as well as used for target practice by the rowdy Pirate Lords, pierced by an amusing array of swords, hatchets and daggers.[11]

Behind the scenes

Daggers first appeared, identified separately along with knives, in the 2006 book Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm by Rob Kidd, which featured young barmaid Arabella Smith having a dagger hidden in her pocket while waiting for young Jack Sparrow next to the fishing vessel Barnacle,[1] as well as the treasure of Stone-Eyed Sam including daggers in golden hilts with amethyst pommels.[4] In addition, while Mercer used a knife in Irene Trimble's junior novelization for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,[9] a dagger instead was used in the film.[10]

For the pistols, swords, daggers and other weaponry, Kris Peck worked closely with armorer Kelly Farrah, an expert in the field who was also quite an historian, as well as historical adviser Peter Twist, who served in the same capacity on the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Regarding the stunt performed more than 30 feet up in the rigging of the high masts of the Edinburgh Trader, Orlando Bloom said he jumped into a sail, slashed it with a dagger and slid down,[12] referring to "Bootstrap Bill" Turner's knife in the film.[10] For the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, on Rick Heinrichs' evocative set, the Brethren Court meeting room included figureheads from plundered ships used as decoration as well as used for target practice by the rowdy Pirate Lords, pierced by an amusing array of swords, hatchets and daggers.[11]

In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, the dagger is one of the available weapon types; there are six types of Daggers: three for fighting (the "simple" Dagger, the Battle Dirk (a well-balanced long knife) and the Main Gauche (a fancy blade that is useful for keeping opponents off guard) and three for throwing (the "simple" Throwing Knife, the Sidewinder (a large curved throwing knife) and the Viper Brace (a brace of special throwing knives meant to be thrown in a set).

There were some small discrepancies between the films and the novelizations. In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay draft for Dead Man's Chest, Mercer wipes the blood of Captain Hawkins from his knife with a handkerchief,[13] a detail adapted in the novelization,[9] whereas Mercer used a dagger in the film.[10] In the novelization for the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Jack Sparrow uses a small dagger to fight Henry Turner, who was possessed by the ghostly Armando Salazar during the final battle,[14] whereas Jack uses his sword in the film.[15] In the tie-in novel The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, Salazar holds a dagger while climbing up the Black Pearl's anchor chain,[16] but in the film he holds a sword.[15]

Appearances

See also

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm, p. 34
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Price of Freedom, Chapter Two: Lady Esmeralda
  3. ↑ Jack Sparrow: Dance of the Hours, p. 114
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm, p. 114
  5. ↑ Jack Sparrow: City of Gold, p. 100
  6. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter One: Fair Winds and Black Ships
  7. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow, Chapter Sixteen
  8. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Four: Cutler Beckett
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization), p. 34
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 POTC3 PressKit FINAL2/potc3 productionnotes.pdf (May 15, 2007) (backup link archived on August 21, 2010)
  12. ↑ POTC2 PressKit Final.pdf (June 26, 2006) (backup link archived on September 2, 2006)
  13. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  14. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, p. 234
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  16. ↑ The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p. 230