pirates
Scarlett and Giselle were two wenches who made a living as prostitutes.

Scarlett and Giselle were two wenches who made a living as prostitutes.

"This is a new enemy you be facing, Jack."
"A new one? What'd I ever do to him? Um, her? Him? Do I owe them money? This doesn't have anything to do with that bar wench in Port Royal, does it? Because I had no idea I'd already met her sister. She might have mentioned—"
―Tia Dalma and Jack Sparrow[src]

Prostitution was a type of work that involved an individual employed on a casual basis engaging in sexual activity or services with the customer in exchange for payment, usually a female with a male client. A person who worked in the field was usually called a prostitute, doxy, trollop, painted lady, salty wench or simply wench; the term "wench" also referred to a girl or a young woman of a lower class, especially a buxom or lively one. They were typically seen working in taverns and brothels. Though the term mostly referred to a promiscuous woman, a mistress ("other woman in an extramarital relationship"), or frequent prostitutes. More common in pirate ports like Tortuga, wenches often operated out of houses, owned by a "madame".

History

"What about port?"
"I prefer rum. Rum's good."
"Making port."
"Where we can get rum, and salty wenches, once every ten years."
―Jack Sparrow and his hallucinations[src]

By the time of the Age of Piracy, prostitution was practiced in every society and culture with a tavern or brothel. Calling a woman a wench was a dangerous thing; the term was more or less synonymous with "lady of loose morals," and it was of the lowest character to drop the W-bomb with such an intent. Calling someone a salty wench—salty meaning "coarse and lewd"—was even worse. That said, pirates tend to use salty wench as a unisex, catchall insult that was equally (if not more) offensive to a man as it was to a woman.[1]

Tortuga was a dank and dirty port, where the tides seemed to have swept together the sum of the Caribbean Sea—pirates, privateers, prostitutes, thieves, and drunkards.[2][3][4] Shipwreck City never really slept; there were always places open where a pirate could get a drink, or a wench, or buy a weapon.[5] Money was a powerful thing to a pirate, with shops and mead-hawking wenches to spend their riches on.[6][7] Mistress Ching, the Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean, was a famous runner of prostitution rings.[citation needed]

During the early adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, in a piratical exchange between Arabella Smith and the feared pirate Left-Foot Louis, Louis said to Arabella that her mother, Laura Smith, was "a loud-mouthed wench" while implying he killed her,[8] though Louis left out that Laura was still alive and a pirate captain herself.[9] On the day that Jack Sparrow met Hector Barbossa, who told the assembled Pirate Lords of the attack on the Cobra, Mistress Ching asked Barbossa if the "Polly" he spoke of was his doxy, though a shocked Barbossa responded that it was bad luck to bring a woman aboard a ship.[10] Melinda was a notable trollop in Shipwreck City during Jack Sparrow's early adulthood.[5] When Roger Mortensen was trying to locate Jack, who was hiding with Esmeralda, Edward Teague dismissively said to try the brothels, suggesting that Jack was "probably tumbling some trollop."[11] By the time Jack Sparrow was captain of the Black Pearl, formerly the Wicked Wench, he had an affair with a bar wench in Port Royal, which didn't end well when she realized he already had an affair with her sister.[12] Shortly afterwards, Jack indignantly said that Tia Dalma was a "bossy wench" when regarding her instructions for the quest for the Shadow Gold.[13] After saving Jocard from King Samuel and Sarah, Marcella said Jocard was stupid for falling for a scheming wench like Sarah.[14]

About ten years after Hector Barbossa led the mutiny on the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow met wenches who he would trick into getting married in a wedding only to be deceived and auctioned at Shipwreck City. Scarlett and Giselle were the most notable of the "brides" Sparrow was to marry in a wedding, only for both wenches to figure it out once the auction started with a room filled with wenches of various sizes and shapes, all wearing wedding gowns, and a roomful of love-starved and lusty pirates. A lively four-piece band playing with a "Take a Wench for a Bride" action sign is lifted into place. According to Oona, one wench who sported an eyepatch, "It's the 'appiest day of a girl's life."[15]

During the quest to rescue Elizabeth Swann and reclaim the Black Pearl by Jack Sparrow and Will Turner, they entered Tortuga surrounded by pirates and wenches while looking for Joshamee Gibbs. Gibbs looked over at Will, where some scoundrel was trying to keep a serving wench from chasing him in the Faithful Bride.[2] By the search for the Dead Man's Chest, Scarlett, Giselle, and Cassandra,[16] operated in Tortuga, and each wench owned their own houses.[6][7] Scarlett and Giselle still worked when Will was looking for Jack, only for Giselle to slap Will.[3]

On one occasion, Jack Sparrow and Joshamee Gibbs celebrated the taking of a prize in the infamous Tortugan tavern, the Faithful Bride. After the seventeenth toast, Gibbs fell asleep under the table, drunk, and Sparrow used that opportunity to borrow without permission some of Gibbs' share of the loot so he could use a room and a good wench.[17]

During the bank robbery in Saint Martin, Mayor Dix inadvertently referred to his wife, Frances, as a "trollop" upon seeing the woman lying with Captain Jack Sparrow, now a down-on-his-luck pirate.[18]

Behind the scenes

"Weigh anchor now, ya swabbies. What be I offered for this winsome wench? Stout 'arted and corn fed she be..."
"Hey, are you selling her by the pound?"
"Shift yer cargo, dearie, show 'em your larboard side."
―Auctioneer and a drunk pirate[src]

The concept of prostitution was introduced in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean,[19] though with the term "wench" mainly used in the attraction and its soundtrack.[20] While "prostitute" was mentioned in Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,[21] "wench" would be mentioned in junior novelization,[22] with neither names being mentioned in the film itself.[2] The term "salty wenches" was later used in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,[4] with "doxy" and "trollop" being first used in the 2011 novel The Price of Freedom by A. C. Crispin.[10][5] In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's production draft of The Curse of the Black Pearl, prostitutes were referred to as "painted ladies";[23] this term was also used in a late production draft of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.[24]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's first screenplay draft of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, during Captain Barbossa's meeting with Sao Feng in Singapore the Chinese pirate would have suggested to Barbossa to give him Elizabeth Swann as payment for the charts, with Barbossa replying that "the wench" was not for sale. At the end of the script, Jack Sparrow made his way to the docks of Tortuga with a smiling wench—Scarlett and Veronica—on each arm.[25] Sparrow was with Scarlett and Giselle by the film's late production draft titled Calypso's Fury,[26] as well as the final cut of the film.[4]

Prostitutes appear in Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides, which was used as the basis for the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.[27]

In Jeff Nathanson's early 2013 screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, a wench auction was organized on the island of Coronation Bay, with the Auctioneer selling the imprisoned Carina Smyth to the highest bidder. Later, when Carina appeared before the ghost of Captain Brand and he asked who she was, Jack Sparrow replied that she was a witch or a wench, depending on who was asked.[28]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 The Price of Freedom, Chapter Eight: The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Official Strategy Guide
  8. ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase, p. 77
  9. ↑ Jack Sparrow: Silver, p. 7
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 The Price of Freedom, Chapter Two: Lady Esmeralda
  11. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Ten: Revelations
  12. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean, p. 99
  13. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean, p. 197
  14. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters, p. 167
  15. ↑ Tales of the Code: Wedlocked
  16. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean Online
  17. ↑ The Pirates' Code Guidelines, pp. 78-79
  18. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  19. ↑ Disneyland: From the Pirates of the Caribbean to the World of Tomorrow
  20. ↑ Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Sound Track of the Fabulous Adventure
  21. ↑ Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/Screenplay - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  22. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization)
  23. ↑ PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN Production Draft by Jay Wolpert, Revisions by Stuart Beattie, Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  24. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  25. ↑ PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, original draft
  26. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  27. ↑ On Stranger Tides, Chapter Four
  28. ↑ Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013