"Please, I need your help. Come on!" This article is in need of referencing per sourcing guidelines. This article needs appropriate citations. Help us improve this article by referencing valid resource material. Remove this notice when finished.

"Set topsails and clear up this mess." This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality. Please follow the article standards laid out in the Layout Guide and the Manual of Style and complete this article to the highest level of quality before continuing on other articles. Remove this message when finished.

Nassau, originally named Charles Town and sometimes referred to as Nassau Port, was a town and the only port on the island of New Providence. It was the largest commercial center in the Bahamas, a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean close to the Caribbean Sea. Prior to becoming a British colony, during the early 18th century, Nassau served as the main base and stronghold of pirates, including such infamous individuals like Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham. In one of the many legendary adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, as read about by Elizabeth Swann, the infamous pirate reportedly sacked Nassau Port without firing a shot. An exaggerated version of the story, as told by Jack himself, saw Elizabeth by Sparrow's side as the town of Nassau came under siege by Black Smoke James, who tried to appoint himself magistrate of the island from the man who held the position.

History

Originally a privateer anchorage named Charles Town, it was burned down by the Spaniards in 1684 and renamed Nassau in 1695 once it had been rebuilt. Nassau was named in honor of King William III, who was from the House of Orange-Nassau.^{[citation needed]}

Nassau played a larger role throughout the 1700s, during the Golden Age of Piracy. Anne Bonny married a sailor called Jack Bonny, who was a rather useless sailor but took her out to Nassau, where she fell in love with a much more dashing Calico Jack.^[2] The town became known as a pirate's nest and was the home of many notorious pirates. The ex-privateer Henry Jennings was an unofficial leader of the community. When New Providence became a British colony in 1717, the first governor, a former privateer named Woodes Rogers, established law and order in 1718, when he hunted down and expelled the pirates who had used the island as base. Rogers famously called for the arrest of pirates Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and Mary Reade, who were later captured by Jamaican authorities.^{[citation needed]}

In one of his many legendary adventures, Captain Jack Sparrow reportedly sacked the port of Nassau without firing a single shot.^[3] An exaggerated version of this legend had Elizabeth Swann by Jack Sparrow's side as they battled Black Smoke James. This story of Nassau was allegedly told by Jack himself to Hector Barbossa in the captain's cabin aboard the Black Pearl, which itself was also part of a story Sparrow told as "his last words" while facing the gallows in Fort Alvo Grande.^[1]

Behind the scenes

Nassau was first mentioned in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, in which Elizabeth Swann said that Jack Sparrow "sacked Nassau port without firing a shot."^[3]

The 2006 video game Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow featured the levels "Sacked Without A Shot" and "Where There's Fire, There's Blacksmoke" which focused on Nassau. However, as Jack Sparrow was telling storied versions of his adventures as his last words while facing the gallows in Fort Alvo Grande, the sacking of Nassau was a more fictionalized or inaccurate version of a tale told by Sparrow to Captain Barbossa in the captain's cabin aboard the Black Pearl, itself taking place during The Curse of the Black Pearl. Sparrow's retelling included the involvement of Elizabeth and a siege by Black Smoke James.^[1] When screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were asked regarding character background information, notably one detail from one game about Jack Sparrow, Elliott responded that nothing about Jack that is not in the movies should be considered canon, "The stuff in the games is just another story about him, like the sea turtles."^[4] Rossio concurred, despite having checked the screenplays for some of the X-Box and PlayStation games for discrepancies and dialogue polishes to keep characters in voice and give it more of the flavor of the movies.^[5][6]

Appearances

• The Shanghai Tigers (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (First mentioned)
  • Fluch der Karibik (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow (First appearance) (In flashback(s))

Sources

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: "Below Deck: An Interactive History Of Pirates"

External links

• Nassau on Wikipedia

Notes and references

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: "Below Deck: An Interactive History Of Pirates"
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
4. ↑ Wordplayer.com: MOVIES Message Board: Re: Questions for T&T:Character backgrounds, posted by Ted Elliott (August 14, 2006): "Nothing about Jack that is not in the movies should be considered canon. The stuff in the games is just another story about him, like the sea turtles."
5. ↑ Wordplayer.com: MOVIES Message Board: Videogame dialogue, posted by Terry Rossio (August 14, 2006): "As a favor to the game developers I've been checking their screenplays for discrepencies and dialogue polishes to keep characters in voice. Thing is, though, the reality of some of the games is just not the same reality of the movie, by necessity."
6. ↑ Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/"Nine Pieces of Eight" by Terry Rossio: "Time is such a valuable commodity. Along with the movie, we're trying to help with the various video game platforms. I spend evenings going over the scripts for the X-Box and PlayStation games, trying to punch up the dialogue, give it more of the a flavor of the movie. All the more annoying that Disney pays no royalties on that whole sector."

Locations in Pirates of the Caribbean
Africa Barbary Coast – Calabar – Egypt – Kerma – Slave Coast – Tripoli The Americas Boston – Canada – Florida – Louisiana – Mexico – New Orleans – North Carolina Panama – Peru – Savannah – Virginia – Yucatán Peninsula Asia Bombay – China – Hong Kong – India – Nippon – Shanghai – Singapore – Suvarnadurg The Bahamas Andros – Nassau – New Avalon – New Providence The Caribbean Antigua – Barbados – Black rock island – Cuba – Devil's Triangle – Dominica – Guadeloupe – Hangman's Bay – Hispaniola – Ile d'Etable de Porc – Isla De La Avaricia – Isla Cruces – Isla de Muerta – Isla de Pelegostos – Martinique – Padres Del Fuego – Port Royal – Poseidon's Tomb – Puerto Rico – Saint Martin – San Silvestre –Shipwreck Island – St. Lucia – Tortuga – Unnamed Island Europe Barcelona – Bristol – Cádiz – Cartagena – France – Gibraltar – Great Britain – Holland London – Marseille – Paris – Portugal – Scotland – Seville – Spain – Other locations Davy Jones' Locker – Farthest Gate – Ice Passage – Isla Sirena
[edit]