pirates
drinking tea, holding a cup and a saucer, with while looks on.

Will Turner drinking tea, holding a cup and a saucer, with Cutler Beckett while Davy Jones looks on.

"I took a very nice schooner that was carrying fabric bound for Charleston, and then a flute loaded with tea and spices."
―Esmeralda to Jack Sparrow[src]

Tea was an aromatic beverage commonly prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured leaves of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis. After water, tea was the most widely consumed beverage in the world. It had a cooling, slightly bitter, astringent flavour which many people enjoyed.

History

"Of course, you'll take the grandest as your flagship...and who's to argue? But what of the Pearl? Make me captain. I sail under your colors. I give you ten percent of my plunder, and you get to introduce yourself at tea parties as Commodore Barbossa."
―Jack Sparrow to Hector Barbossa[src]

The infamous pirate captain Bartholomew Roberts was known to prefer tea over rum.[1][2] During young Jack Sparrow's teenage adventures, when the siren song messed up the minds of the crew of the Barnacle, the cat Constance attempted to drink a cup of tea with her paws.[3]

Despite the hot weather in Calabar, Cutler Beckett was drinking a cup of tea when First Mate Jack Sparrow and Second Mate Robert Greene of the East India Trading Company brig Fair Wind came to report the pirate attack on their ship and the death of their superior, Captain Nathaniel Bainbridge.[4] Before Jack made a deal with Beckett to search for the legendary island of Kerma, Mistress Goodwright served him a cup of tea. Jack, who expected beer or ale, barely managed not to spray the liquid over the wallpaper of Beckett's house.[5] He also carried some tea and sugar in the pantry of his captain's cabin on the EITC merchant ship, the Wicked Wench.[6] When he impersonated Frederick Penwallow in New Avalon, Jack drank a refreshing cup of tea with Tobias Montgomery, the overseer of the Sweet Providence plantation.[7] On one occasion, Lady Esmeralda, the Pirate Lord of the Caribbean, captured a flute loaded with tea and spices. She served some of the tea to Jack after the attack on the Wicked Wench.[8] Cutler Beckett was drinking tea from a delicate porcelain cup when Sparrow returned to Calabar and gave his report about the allegedly failed quest for Kerma.[9]

Within the two years after Jack Sparrow made a deal with the cursed Davy Jones to raise the merchant vessel Wicked Wench from the depths, rechristening her as the pirate ship Black Pearl, the EITC official Barbara Huntington once ordered a wondrous selection of tea and spices from Shanghai but the goods were stolen by Mistress Ching, the Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean.[10] During the quest for the Shadow Gold, when the Black Pearl encountered the Empress, the ship of the notorious Chinese pirate Sao Feng, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, Feng invited Sparrow and a few of his crewmembers into his cabin to parlay, where they were all served tea in delicate china cups. Of all the visitors, Jack was the only one to complain about the lack of rum.[11] A few days later, many pirates in Liang Dao's palace were drinking tea when Sao Feng and the crew of the Black Pearl arrived.[12] When Jack's crew visited Suvarnadurg, the island fortress of the Indian Pirate Lord Sri Sumbhajee, the planned banquet was ruined when the food taster died from a poison. The two female crewmembers, Carolina and Marcella, retreated to the women's quarters of Sri Sumbhajee's palace, where their hosts Parvati and Jhumpa conjured a makeshift dinner out of bread, mangoes, cheese, and tea.[13]

Cutler Beckett drinks tea on the main deck of the HMS Endeavour.

Cutler Beckett drinks tea on the main deck of the HMS Endeavour.

Prior to the battle at Isla de Muerta, Jack Sparrow made a deal with Captain Hector Barbossa in which he offered an alliance,[14] with Sparrow saying that Barbossa would get to introduce himself at tea parties as Commodore Barbossa.[15] At some point after his escape from Port Royal, Jack Sparrow and a group of revolutionaries from the Isle of Lusee broke into the governor's fort. Jack loudly proclaimed to the governor's soldiers that he and his company came for the tea party.[16] On the day of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann's wedding at Port Royal, as well as the arrival of Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company, rain poured down and drenched all the preparations for the nuptial celebration, including a porcelain tea set in the chapel.[17] During the war between the EITC and the Brethren Court, Beckett had tea aboard the HMS Endeavour twice; once with Will Turner in the captain's cabin and later outside on the ship's deck prior to the battle between the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman.[18]

Shansa drinks "tea".

Shansa drinks "tea".

Lady Devonshire was fond of tea,[19] and she would drink it regularly in the morning while reading Galileo Galilei's diary, a book borrowed from her maid Carina Smyth.[20] Years later, when Captain Hector Barbossa visited the witch Shansa she offered him a cup of a thick, bright green substance, which she called tea. However, one look at the 'tea' and the rats coming out of the tea pot convinced the pirate to politely decline. Shansa then drank the liquid alone, seemingly enjoying it.[21][22]

Behind the scenes

"What kind of tea did you say it was?"
"Pirate's tea. Family recipe."
"It has a funny taste. I can't quite figure it out..."
―Carina Smyth and Jack Sparrow[src] (2013 screenplay)

Tea was first mentioned in the souvenir book for Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.[1] Its first in-universe mention was made in Irene Trimble's junior novelization for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,[15] based on Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay,[23] though the line did not appear in the film itself.[14] Tea later made its first appearance in the 2006 book Jack Sparrow: The Siren Song by Rob Kidd.[3]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the original opening scene was aboard the Black Pearl and Captain Jack Sparrow's escape from the Turkish Prison, with Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann's ruined wedding in the chapel at Port Royal following later.[24] The Port Royal chapel became the final version of the film's opening scene, with a rainstorm hammering down a porcelain tea set being the opening shot.[17]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Cutler Beckett and Will Turner had tea in the captain's cabin aboard the HMS Endeavour, but when Will brings up the betrayal between Davy Jones and Calypso, Jones hurls the table out of the way, slaps away Will's tea cup, gets right in his face.[25] The tea drinking scene was omitted in the captain's cabin scene in the film's junior novelization, but in the Special Edition Beckett was sipping tea before the final battle.[26] Both scenes with Beckett drinking tea with Will and later by himself appear in the final cut of the film.[18]

While unconfirmed, the porcelain tea set seen at Will and Elizabeth's ruined wedding in the opening shot of Dead Man's Chest appears to be the same as the one used during the negotiation between Will and Beckett aboard the Endeavour in At World's End.[17][18]

In Jeff Nathanson's early 2013 screenplay draft of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, after escaping from Port Royal aboard the Dying Gull, Jack Sparrow would have convinced Carina Smyth to talk about the Map No Man Can Read by spiking her tea with rum.[27]

The artists who worked on Dead Men Tell No Tales created 88 versions of the Diary of Galileo Galilei before choosing the one that was included in the film. According to prop designer Gabriel Smith, to give it the appearance of an old manuscript, the paper was dipped in hot tea and black coffee, and then left to dry in the Australian sun, where the film was shot.[28][29]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Story of the Robust Adventure in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, p. 13
  2. ↑ The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook, p. 31
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jack Sparrow: The Siren Song, p. 76
  4. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Four: Cutler Beckett
  5. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Nine: Ayisha
  6. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Ten: Revelations
  7. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Twelve: Shabako
  8. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Fourteen: Hard Bargains
  9. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Eighteen: Exodus
  10. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East, p. 7
  11. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East, pp. 79-85
  12. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East, p. 129
  13. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: The Turning Tide, pp. 86-100
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization), p. 104
  16. ↑ Disney Adventures: "A Revolting Development!"
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  19. ↑ The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p. 92
  20. ↑ The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p. 100
  21. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, pp. 100-101
  22. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  23. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  24. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  25. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  26. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization) (Special Edition), p. 198
  27. ↑ Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013
  28. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Behind the Scenes, pp. 8-9
  29. ↑ POTC5 Presskit