pirates
Davy Jones and his cursed crew had the ability to teleport, usually to move instantly from one ship to get aboard another ship.

Davy Jones and his cursed crew had the ability to teleport, usually to move instantly from one ship to get aboard another ship.

"There is a great possibility that Left-Foot Louis is still alive."
"How do you know?"
"Because—think of what Arabella said last. Right before Louis did that spiffy vanishing thing. She said, 'May justice be done.'"
―Jack Sparrow and Tumen[src]

Teleportation, also referred through the use of the term transport, was the transfer of matter or movement of material objects from one point to another without traversing the physical space and distance between them. It was a phenomenon that happened at any given time also paired with time travel, being that the traveling between the two points took an unknown period of time, sometimes being immediate. During the Age of Piracy, teleportation was achieved through magical or supernatural means, in addition to some physical mechanisms that would allow for teleportation. Individuals most notably having possessed or showed proficiency to use this ability include the cursed captain Davy Jones, the voodoo mystic Tia Dalma, and the undead pirate Jolly Roger.

History

Arabella Smith inadvertently teleported Left-Foot Louis to her mother's ship, the Fleur de la Mort, with the Sword of Cortés.

Arabella Smith inadvertently teleported Left-Foot Louis to her mother's ship, the Fleur de la Mort, with the Sword of Cortés.

"Silverback used his devilish powers and magicked me away. Before the mutiny got underway, I suppose. But his range isn't very far. I think he meant to drown me—I suddenly found myself several feet underwater. I kicked to the surface and clung to the side of the ship."
―Reece to Laura Smith[src]

The Sword of Cortés, a legendary magical and cursed blade of the corrosive conquistador, had the power to teleport people from one place to another. When it fell into the hands of the infamous pirate Left-Foot Louis, he used the blade to make all honest inhabitants of Isla Fortuna disappear. After he was defeated and captured by the young adventurer Jack Sparrow and the crew of the Barnacle,[1] Arabella Smith used the Sword to teleport Louis onboard the Fleur de la Mort, the ship of her mother Captain Laura Smith,[2] though she wasn't aware of what she exactly did at that time.[1] When the spirit of Hernán Cortés taught Jack how to use the Sword, he used it to teleport himself from Isla Sirena onboard the Grand Barnacle.[3]

Some time later, during Jack's search for the Sun-and-Stars amulet, the pirate Silverback used the magical powers of his crystal peg leg to teleport Jack and his friends from the Barnacle onboard the Fleur. When he and Left-Foot Louis failed to overthrow Captain Smith in a mutiny, Silverback teleported them both into a longboat so they could escape.[2]

When the quest for the Sun-and-Stars amulet was over, young Jack Sparrow and Fitzwilliam P. Dalton III watched as the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship famous in nightmares and horror stories across the Seven Seas, emerged from below the waves and came at the Barnacle. A bolt of lightning flashed as Davy Jones, the legendary cursed captain of the Dutchman, appeared on deck beside them as if he had always been there, just waiting for the right moment to make himself seen, teleporting on board the Barnacle to demand the Timekeeper from Jack and Fitzwilliam.[4] A few years later, Jones used the same power when he was called by the Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court to help them identify the traitor among them. Jones teleported onboard the Troubadour, the ship of the Keeper of the Code Captain Edward Teague, and identified Borya Palachnik, the Russian Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, as the leader of rogue pirates that violated the Code of the Pirate Brethren.[5]

The undead pirate Jolly Roger teleported onboard the Black Pearl.

The undead pirate Jolly Roger teleported onboard the Black Pearl.

More than five years later, at the end of the quest for the Shadow Gold, the Voodoo mystic Tia Dalma teleported onboard Captain Jack Sparrow's ship, the Black Pearl, which was at that time sailing in the Mediterranean Sea, thousands of miles away from Tia Dalma's shack on Cuba.[6] When the infamous pirate captain Jolly Roger killed a Voodoo witch doctor Amo Dorsi, his victim used his final living moments to invoke a vindictive spell which transformed Roger into the undead monster. However, Roger also inherited all Voodoo powers from his victim, including the ability to teleport himself, his crew, and his ship, the Harkaway, from one place to another.[7]

The ability of teleportation was most notably demonstrated by Davy Jones and his cursed crew aboard the Flying Dutchman during Captain Jack Sparrow's search for the Dead Man's Chest. When Bootstrap Bill Turner was sent by Davy Jones as an emissary, Turner teleported aboard the Black Pearl to warn Sparrow that it was time to pay his debt to Jones, then gave Sparrow the Black Spot, marking the pirate captain as a prey for the cursed captain's legendary sea beast, the Kraken, before leaving the Pearl instantly. Later, Jack Sparrow looked through his spyglass, hidden in darkness on the Black Pearl, watching as a distant Davy Jones speaking to Will Turner on the deck of the scuttled ship until Jones glanced back toward Sparrow, staring straight at him. As Jack lowered the spyglass, Jones continued staring as he suddenly and jarringly appeared right in front of him. Several of Jones' crewmen also transported to the Pearl's deck, and they quickly surrounded Jack and his crew on the deck of the Pearl. Afterwards, when Jones removed the Black Spot from Jack's hand, Jack looked down at his palm to see the Spot was gone, and when he looked back up, Davy Jones and his crew were gone as well.[8] Although they had the ability to move instantly from ship to ship during a later battle between the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman, neither Jones nor his crew wanted to after Jones decided to send the Kraken the attack the Pearl.[9][10]

When Jack Sparrow escaped Davy Jones from the main deck to the upper rigging of the Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones almost instantly appeared on the yardarm.

When Jack Sparrow escaped Davy Jones from the main deck to the upper rigging of the Flying Dutchman, Davy Jones almost instantly appeared on the yardarm.

A few months later, during the war against Lord Cutler Beckett and the East India Trading Company, as the EITC armada came bearing down upon the Fourth Brethren Court and its ragtag pirate fleet at Shipwreck Island, Jones teleported himself to the prison cells on the Black Pearl to talk with Tia Dalma, the human form of the sea goddess Calypso. During the following battle, Jack Sparrow retrieved the Dead Man's Chest and attempts to escape from Davy Jones and several of his cursed crewmen on the main deck of the Flying Dutchman, using a sail filled with wind to carry him to the upper rigging of the Dutchman, only for Jones to teleport himself to the yardarm, appearing almost instantly in front of Sparrow to retrieve the chest prior to their duel.[11]

Behind the scenes

"Nobody's called us on the ability of Davy Jones' crew to move instantly from ship to ship, which I thought we would get some complaints on. What are the rules of their being able to move and when and how are they used? When and how is that ability used? And they only do it at night, for the most part. And they only do it when they want to get aboard another ship. There are some battles coming up where they don't actually want to."
"But it's actually difficult to do, as well. It's not all that easy."
―Terry Rossio and Ted Elliott[src] (DVD audio commentary)

Teleportation first appeared in media relating to the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[10] While the word "transported" (short for transportation) and the description "as if by magic, appeared instantly" were used to detail the ability used by Davy Jones and the cursed crew of the Flying Dutchman in Irene Trimble's junior novelization,[8] it was never identified by name in the film.[10] The terms "teleportation" and "teleport" were first used in 2007 for Pirates of the Caribbean Online, where players must find or earn a teleportation totem in order to teleport from one island to another.[7]

Storyboard art by James Ward Byrkit.

Storyboard art by James Ward Byrkit.

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Dead Man's Chest, as Will Turner stares at the Flying Dutchman from the scuttled ship, the crew members of Davy Jones appear from the shadows, then spread out onto the ship. Will is described as having "cannot evade this enemy, who can seemingly appear anywhere" as he makes for his boat, but Maccus is suddenly in front of him, then leaps up into the rigging, but Jimmy Legs is already there, then jumps down, but is quickly surrounded by more crewmen. When Jack Sparrow looks through his spyglass from aboard the Black Pearl at a distant Davy Jones speaking to Will on the deck of the scuttled ship, only for Jones to glance back as if he senses Jack is there, the scene is described as "Slowly lowers the spyglass -- and Davy Jones is RIGHT THERE, on deck with him. The speed of his arrival is weird and disconcerting -- like in a dream." Crewmen from the Flying Dutchman were described as having appear on the deck of the Black Pearl. After they shake hands, Jack lifts his hand to eye-level, then looks past his hand to find Jones and his men are gone, and then stares out at the Flying Dutchman, as it is already sailing off, into a distant storm. When Will Turner challenged Davy Jones to a dice game, the sound of boots on the deck above, and as the crewmen part, Jones is there.[12] Most of these descriptions in the screenplay was retained in the Dead Man's Chest junior novelization, after Will Turner boldly announced that he challenged Davy Jones to a dice game, the crew of the Flying Dutchman went silent and, "as if by magic, Jones appeared instantly on the deck."[8]

By February 9, 2005, conceptual consultant James Ward Byrkit storyboarded the scene in Dead Man's Chest where Davy Jones appeared in front of Jack Sparrow from the scuttled ship to aboard the Black Pearl.[13] In the audio commentary for the Dead Man's Chest DVD, writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio explain the rules in which Davy Jones' crew are able to move from ship to ship, as well as when and how the ability was used. According to Elliott and Rossio, Jones' crew only did it at night, for the most part, and only "when they want to get aboard another ship," noting that there were some battles where they don't actually want to, and that it's actually difficult to do as well as it not being all that easy.[9] Although there was question on if it only happens at night, there are instances of Jones or his crew using the ability at daytime, including the maelstrom battle in At World's End,[11] several levels of the film's video game adaptation,[14] Jack Sparrow: City of Gold by Rob Kidd,[4] and The Price of Freedom by A. C. Crispin.[5]

The use of the term in Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is anachronistic. In real-world history, the term teleport has been documented as early as 1878. American writer Charles Fort is credited with having coined the word teleportation in 1931. As in the earlier usage, he joined the Greek prefix tele- (meaning "remote") to the root of the Latin verb portare (meaning "to carry").[15]

Appearances

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Jack Sparrow: Silver
  3. ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Jack Sparrow: City of Gold
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Price of Freedom, Chapter Eight: The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea
  6. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pirates of the Caribbean Online
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Audio Commentary with Screenwriters Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  12. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  13. ↑ James Byrkit (@jimbyrdcat) on Instagram: Jack sees Davy (March 8, 2021)
  14. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game)
  15. ↑ WP favicon Teleportation on Wikipedia