pirates
This article is about a deceased person's spirit in visible form.
You may be looking for the non-corporeal essence of a being or entity.
For other uses, see Ghost (disambiguation)
The ghostly crew of the Silent Mary.

The ghostly crew of the Silent Mary.

"A ghost sir. A revenant, that's what they calls 'em. Came out of that haunted fogbank. Must have, sir. That fogbank, it was haunted right enough. My friend, Etienne de Ver, he said that there's an old fortress near where he grew up in France that was haunted. He said that he—"
"Mr. Featherstone, I asked you about this apparition that came aboard that same night. Can you please describe it, and then tell me you why you believe it was not simply a man?"
―Lucius Featherstone and Cutler Beckett[src]

A ghost was the soul or spirit of a dead human or animal that is believed to be capable of appearing or otherwise manifesting itself to the living. According to folklore and traditional belief, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions or forms. Other terms associated with it are revenant, apparition, haunt, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul.

The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences though stories of ghostly armies, ghosts of animals other than humans, and ghost ships have also been recounted. They are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. Historically, despite centuries of investigation, in which the overwhelming consensus of science is that there is no proof that ghosts exist, their existence is impossible to falsify.

History

The Ghost captain.

The Ghost captain.

"It's not like that, sir. This ship is haunted."
"Is it, now? And you?"
"There's a female presence amongst us here, sir. All the men, they can feel it."
"It's the ghost of a lady widowed before her marriage, I figure it, searching for her husband, lost at sea."
―Bursar, Captain Bellamy, Quartermaster, Sailor, and Cook[src]

By the Age of Piracy, ghosts became legendary and mythical beings, eldritch creatures and weird manifestations that existed in ghost stories told by sailors and pirates of the Seven Seas.[1][2]

When the young adventurer Captain Jack Sparrow and the crew of the Barnacle found the legendary Sword of Cortés on Isla Fortuna, Sparrow unintentionally summoned the spirit of Hernán Cortés, the corrosive conquistador who destroyed the Aztec Empire and the original owner of the Sword, risen from the dead.[3] The ghostly Cortés tried to trick Sparrow into doing his bidding, so the spirit could make himself ruler of the Seven Seas, but with some advice from the mystic Tia Dalma, the young adventurer was able to summon the spirit of the Aztec Emperor Montecuhzoma, who attacked and destroyed Cortés.[4]

During a sea battle off the coast of the mysterious Devil's Triangle, Jack Sparrow tricked the notorious pirate hunter Capitán Armando Salazar of the Spanish Navy into steering the Silent Mary in pursuit of the Wicked Wench into the Triangle, where the Spanish ship was destroyed and Salazar's crew killed. Salazar's crew became cursed into undead ghosts, unable to escape from the Triangle, and were forced to spend several decades in it.[5]

Several years later, at the end of his quest for the island of Kerma, the East India Trading Company merchant seaman Jack Sparrow dueled and killed the rogue pirate Christophe-Julien de Rapièr on the deck of his ship, the EITC merchant vessel Wicked Wench. When Sparrow returned to Calabar and had to give his report to Cutler Beckett, he lied that he had actually fought against the ghost of his old fencing master from Marseilles.[2]

When the crew of the Black Pearl was on a quest to lift the Aztec curse, Captain Hector Barbossa told Elizabeth Swann a "ghost story" about the cursed treasure of Cortés, which she didn't believe. As Barbossa stepped from his cabin onto the moonlit deck, Elizabeth at last saw him as the phantom that he really was. The living corpse told her to "start believing in ghost stories" because now she was in one.[1][6][7]

The ghosts on Raven's Cove.

The ghosts on Raven's Cove.

Shortly after the battle of the Isla de Muerta, a mysterious ghost ship sailed into the Port Royal harbor. The ship's crew of ghosts terrorized the inhabitants of the city until the blacksmith Will Turner made a sword and gave it to the ship's ghostly captain.[8]

By the War of Jolly Roger, legends told of the ghostly Spanish conquistador Humbert "El Patron" Diaz. When Diaz forced the inhabitants of Raven's Cove to forge weapons for him, they sealed him, his crew, and his ship, inside his mines in the Cove. When the crew mutinied against him, El Patron and his men were cursed to remain inside the mines as ghosts and haunt them for all eternity. When the forces of the East India Trading Company and the undead army of Jolly Roger fought a battle over El Patron's weapons left on Raven's Cove, the entire population of the island was wiped out. However, their ghosts soon began appearing to pirates who came to the island. Some ghosts were friendly, but others were hostile.[9]

When Elizabeth Swann sneaked aboard the merchant ship Edinburgh Trader, disguised as a sailor, she tricked the superstitious crewmen into thinking that her wedding dress was a spirit to force them to sail the ship to Tortuga.[10] Later, during the quest to rescue Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl from Davy Jones' Locker, they sailed through sea of lost souls, a stream of bodies of the dead; old men, young women, vigorous sailors, small children in the ghostly depths.[11][12] Joshamee Gibbs prepared to shoot them, but Will Turner believed they were not a threat to them, and Tia Dalma said they were "nothing but ghosts" to them.[13]

After a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow betrayed his compass, Captain Armando Salazar and his ghostly crew were released from the Devil's Triangle. After the Trident of Poseidon was destroyed by Henry Turner, all the curses of the sea were broken, which resulted in the ghostly Salazar and his crew becoming human and mortal once again.[5]

Behind the scenes

"Looks like you've seen a ghost."
―Will Turner to Jack Sparrow[src]

In Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, a ghost voice repeatedly says "Dead men tell no tales" regarding the cursed treasure. The ghost voice was credited as "Echo" in the 1967 final draft of the attraction narration script,[14] and the show's signature warning was provided by legendary voice actor Paul Frees.[15] Frees' ghost voice was re-used in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.[13]

Each scene in the ride's Grotto sequence originally featured ghostly narration and even witty dialogue for its skeletal performers, performed by Paul Frees and Pat O'Malley, in what was to be a ghostly counterpoint to Frees's recurring warning "Dead men tell no tales." Walt and his Imagineers ultimately concluded that the moody visuals spoke for themselves and packed more punch without the dialogue. Years later, the dialogue was released, specifically in Jason Surrell's book Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies, "We finally let these involuntarily mute pirates have their say now, proving once and for all that perhaps dead men do tell tales!"[15]

When the filmmakers made the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, based on screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's addition of the supernatural,[1][15] they made a ghost story at the same time in making an epic pirate period film, which by itself would have been one thing. In a later interview, Rossio said the Pirates films were really "ghost stories set in a world of pirates."[16]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay draft of The Curse of the Black Pearl, the Black Pearl was first described as "moving through the fog, silent as a ghost." Later, when Will Turner asked Joshamee Gibbs how Captain Jack Sparrow got off the desert island, Jack replied: "I didn't! My body's still there, rotting away, and I am but a ghost!"[17]

While developing the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio originally conceived of Davy Jones and his crew as ghostlike creatures. Determined to come up with never-before-seen fantastical characters, director Gore Verbinski wanted them to be more specifically of the sea, with gravity and weight, as if the souls of shipwrecked sailors had fused with the detritus of the ocean floor,[18] which became the curse of the Flying Dutchman,[7] as seen in Dead Man's Chest and At World's End.[10][13] Despite this change, Bootstrap Bill Turner was described as a "ghostly comrade" in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide,[6] as well as appearing as a ghostly spirit in the Dead Man's Chest video game adaptation.[19]

The three-part comic "The Buccaneer's Heart!" from Disney Adventures, published in 2004, featured Jack Sparrow and Will Turner meeting the "spirits of the pirates of the Caribbean" consisting of the ghosts of Edward "Blackbeard" Teach, Captain Bartholomew Roberts, Captain Henry Morgan, and Mary Reade.[20] However, "The Buccaneer's Heart!" has since been considered non-canon due to the appearance of a still-living Blackbeard in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,[21] suggested by Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides, which also featured ghosts.[22] Despite not appearing in the final version of the film,[21] the Disney Second Screen feature detailed that there were originally going to be ghosts in the film's story.[23]

In A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas, an interactive treasure hunt in the Magic Kingdom, the treasure in "The King's Ransom" quest was kept inside the fort that is haunted by the ghosts of Spanish Conquistadors.[24]

Ghosts ended up being featured in the development of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. In Terry Rossio's original 2012 screenplay draft, Jack Sparrow and Scrum entered Fort San Cristobal's dungeon, where they become aware of skeletal bodies of dead children scattered about the chamber. The annotations detail how there is the implication the Sea Widow is "a haunted spirit, otherworldly, with mystical powers and all that" and could command these child-sized skeletons. In an effort to push the ghost story nature of the tale, and to create distinctive minions, a draft of this scene was written establishing "ghosts of children who mostly drowned, bloated and horrific" flitting in and about the abandoned Fort. The town square of Georgetown was also described as a ghost town.[25] Jeff Nathanson's early 2013 screenplay draft featured Captain John Brand of the British Navy, a ghost who dwelled in the haunted waters of the Devil's Triangle with the crew of the Silent Mary and was described as a spirit who would not rest until he had his revenge on Jack Sparrow for the death of his brother Eric. The young girl Olivia Cole died in their captivity and became a ghost. During the final battle the destruction of the Trident of Poseidon caused the ghosts of Brand's victims, led by his brother Eric, to appear in the sunken Poseidon's Tomb, and drag their killers to Hell.[26] By the final version of the film, released in 2017, the ghost of the Captain John Brand was developed into Armando Salazar, a pirate hunter for the Spanish Navy and a cursed ghost.[5]

The ghost of Captain Morgan in a sketch idea by Chris Schweizer and Joe Flood.

The ghost of Captain Morgan in a sketch idea by Chris Schweizer and Joe Flood.

Ghosts were originally developed for the Pirates of the Caribbean comic book series, written by Chris Schweizer, with art from Joe Flood, that was published on by Joe Books. At least one sketch and cover proposal for the story was drawn with the idea for an issue where Jack Sparrow was forced to serve as a "wingman for a boy's night out" in Tortuga with the "ghost of Captain Morgan"; Morgan would cause trouble and Jack had to face the consequences. The idea was discarded because of Dead Men Tell No Tales,[27] which had the ghost element with Salazar's crew as well as a character named "Captain Morgan" in the film's credits.[5]

Hector Barbossa died at the end of The Curse of the Black Pearl, but was resurrected by the end of Dead Man's Chest. When asked if something like this could happen again in a possible sixth movie, following the character's selfless sacrifice at the end of Dead Men Tell No Tales, producer Jerry Bruckheimer stated: "You never know with us. We always bring characters back because we love them". Actor Geoffrey Rush did not seem completely opposed to returning to the series because he said, "[Barbossa] could come back like Hamlet's father, as a ghost. Just to annoy Jack".[28][29]

In July 2017 the Funko POP "Ghost of Will Turner" toy figure was released, modeled after the character's design in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.[30] However, while the film did feature ghosts, Will Turner was not a ghost, but rather the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman.[5]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Price of Freedom
  3. ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase
  4. ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  8. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Ghost Ship
  9. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean Online
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  11. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 73
  12. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization) (Special Edition), pp. 74-76
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  14. ↑ Attraction narration script, final draft 1967 featured in A Pirate's Life for Me: Disney’s Rascals, Scoundrels, Really Bad Eggs
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies
  16. ↑ Original 'Pirates of the Caribbean' Screenwriter on How a Budget Crisis Changed the Villains
  17. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  18. ↑ Bring Me That Horizon: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean, p. 165
  19. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (video game)
  20. ↑ Disney Adventures: "The Buccaneer's Heart!"
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  22. ↑ On Stranger Tides
  23. ↑ Disney Second Screen: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  24. ↑ A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas
  25. ↑ Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/Screenplay - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES by Terry Rossio
  26. ↑ Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013
  27. ↑ Interview with Chris Schweizer 2019 | Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki | Fandom
  28. ↑ What's next for the 'Pirates of the Caribbean 6' and beyond? (Major spoilers!) - Hypable (May 29, 2017) (backup link)
  29. ↑ Geoffrey Rush: I'm done playing 'Pirates of the Caribbean's' Captain Barbossa | KCBY (backup link archived on May 31, 2017)
  30. ↑ Funko POP Disney Pirates of The Caribbean Ghost Will Turner Action Figure