Continuity errors

Pirates of the Caribbean is a large franchise, and as such its films, books, video games, and comic books contain many continuity errors. Several movie mistakes and plot holes can also be found in the films.

Jack the Sparrow
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales the undead Spanish Royal Navy officer Capitán Armando Salazar recounts the story of his downfall to the imprisoned pirate Hector Barbossa. According to Salazar, a young pirate aboard the Wicked Wench mocked him, provocatively hoisting the black pirate flag, and with that act of defiance earned himself the name "Jack the Sparrow". However, Jack was already known as Jack Sparrow since his teenage adventures in Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow, a few years before the flashback scene in Dead Men Tell No Tales.

When did Jack Sparrow become a pirate captain?
The flashback scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales shows the young Jack Sparrow taking command of the Wicked Wench and causing the downfall of the Spanish pirate hunter Armando Salazar. After the battle the surviving pirates give him a tribute, accepting him as their leader and captain. However, in his next chronological appearance, in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom, Jack is just an ordinary deckhand aboard Captain Teague's ship, the Troubadour.

Captain Teague
According to The Pirates' Code Guidelines and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom Captain Teague is the Keeper of the Code and the Pirate Lord of Madagascar. However, the "Inside the Brethren Court" featurette from the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End DVD reveals the Pirate Lords' titles were based on the seas on which they hailed. Madagascar is not a body of water but an island. Also, in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, during the Fourth Brethren Court Hector Barbossa asks the assembled Pirate Lords to show their Pieces of Eight to confirm their lordship and right to heard. None of the POTC materials explain what was Teague's Piece of Eight supposed to be, or if he even had one.

Hector Barbossa
The "Inside the Brethren Court" featurette from the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End DVD implies that Hector Barbossa became the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea after his first mutiny on the Black Pearl. However, Barbossa received his Piece of Eight from the previous Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, Boris Palachnik, approximately six years before the mutiny, in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom.

Sao Feng
According to the "Inside the Brethren Court" featurette from the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End DVD Sao Feng inherited his Piece of Eight and Pirate Lordship from his father. However, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East, Feng took the Piece of Eight from his older brother Liang Dao who inherited the title from their father.

Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom one of the flashback scenes shows the Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court magically summoning Davy Jones aboard Captain Teague's ship, the Troubadour. When Jones appears both he and Jack Sparrow act like they've never seen each other before. Before Jones appears on the Troubadour Jack even tells his lady friend Esmeralda that he has never seen Jones before. However, their first meeting occured a few years earlier, at the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: City of Gold.

Hector Barbossa and Edward Teague
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters when Jack Sparrow brings his crew to Libertalia they encounter Jack's father, Captain Teague, who invites them to his home. Teague makes no sign of recognizing Jack's first mate Hector Barbossa, even though they met each other for the first time approximately five years earlier in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom.

Jack Sparrow and Joshamee Gibbs
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, when Gibbs tells Will Turner the story of Hector Barbossa's mutiny on the Black Pearl he explains the mutiny occured before he met Jack Sparrow. However, Jack and Gibbs met each other for the first time at least fifteen years earlier, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: Sins of the Father.

Ragetti's right eye
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Six Sea Shanties: Strangers Bearing Gifts - A Tale of the Black Pearl Ragetti loses his right eye when Pintel accidentally stabs him in the eye socket when Barbossa's cursed crew has to fight against an army of souls led by the Greek demigod Palaimon. However, Ragetti was already one-eyed at least five years earlier, during the events of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom.

Jack Sparrow's hat
According to the "Inside the Brethren Court" featurette from the Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End DVD the silver coin in Jack Sparrow's Piece of Eight was one of the first two bits he ever pirated, and he bought his famous hat with the second bit. However, the flashback scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales shows the young Jack receiving the hat as a tribute from the pirate crew of the Wicked Wench.

Jack Sparrow's waist sash
In the prequel novel Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom Princess Amenirdis of Zerzura gives Jack Sparrow a white and red waist sash, enchanted with spells of protection to keep him safe on his journeys across the Seven Seas. However, the flashback scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales shows the young Jack receiving the sash approximately seven years earlier as a tribute from the pirate crew of the Wicked Wench.

Invisible fort
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl right after Jack Sparrow's arrest at John Brown's blacksmith shop there's a shot of the Navy dock with the Interceptor and Fort Charles in the background. When Jack and Will Turner arrive at the same place the next morning Fort Charles is missing.

Skeletal pirates in Port Royal
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, during the attack on Port Royal Koehler and Twigg break into the Fort Charles prison, searching for the armory, but finding Jack Sparrow instead. When Jack tells them to worry about their own fortunes because the deepest circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers, Koehler grabs Jack's neck, putting his arm under the rays of moonlight which magically transforms the arm into its undead skeletal form, revealing that the curse of the Aztec Gold is real. Consequently, at the same time all the cursed pirates in Port Royal and aboard the Black Pearl should have transformed into skeletons, since they were exposed to the same moonlight. However, after the battle none of the soldiers or civilians make any mention of pirates turning into living skeletons.

The Wicked Wench's figurehead
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom following the sinking of Jack Sparrow's ship, the Wicked Wench, Jack ends up in the realm of the dead where he makes a deal with Davy Jones, the supernatural lord of the sea. Jones resurrects Jack and his ship, leaving them both in Tortuga. In exchange, Jack promises Jones one hundred years of service aboard Jones' ship, the Flying Dutchman, after thirteen years of captaincy on the resurrected Wench. In accordance with Jack's instructions Jones heavily arms the Wench, but on his own he also supplies the ship with a beautiful figurehead, a graceful black angel holding a black dove in her left hand, something which the Wench originally didn't have. However, the flashback scene in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales shows the same figurehead on the Wench's bowsprit at least seven years before Jack made a deal with Jones.

The Interceptor's multiple foremasts
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, during the battle between the HMS Interceptor and the Black Pearl, Pintel and Ragetti fire a chain shot at the naval vessel, breaking its foremast and causing it to fall on the Pearl's main deck. However, a few moments later, right after Marty fires from a swivel gun, when Barbossa's pirates swing aboard the Interceptor, the foremast can be seen standing intact, with ANOTHER, broken foremast connecting the Interceptor and the Pearl.

The Flying Dutchman's gangways
The Flying Dutchman's gangways are clearly visible several times in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. However, when the Dutchman rises to the surface at the beginning of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales with Henry Turner on the main deck the gangways are missing.

The mizzenmast's lateen sail
In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End during the Battle of Calypso's maelstrom Jack Sparrow swings on a rope around the Flying Dutchman's mizzenmast and lands on the quarterdeck, right in front of the Dead Man's Chest and Davy Jones. When Jack swings around the mizzenmast its lateen sail and the yardarm are missing. Right after Jones yells at Jack from the Capstan Hammer the sail is back in its place.

Jack Sparrow's Jolly Roger on the Black Pearl
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, when Jack Sparrow shows his crew the Black Pearl, magically shrunken and trapped in a bottle, Jack Sparrow's pirate flag, the white skull with two crossed bones and a red sparrow on a black background, can be seen flying from the mainmast. However, when Blackbeard captured the ship between the events of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, she was under Barbossa's command, not Jack's. When Jack takes the bottle in his hands at the end of On Stranger Tides Barbossa's flag, the white skull with two crossed swords, can be seen right before Jack the monkey appears.

Bowsprit's top
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales the Wicked Wench/Black Pearl has a top (a small platform which holds the sprit topmast) near the end of the bowsprit. The top does not appear in any of the ship's previous appearances in the franchise.

The stern of the Queen Anne's Revenge
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales when the Queen Anne's Revenge sails toward the Silent Mary Barbossa tells his crew to prepare to be boarded. In that scene, on the poop deck right behind the mizzenmast the rest of the stern is missing.

Jack Sparrow's curse of the Aztec gold
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, during the Battle of Isla de Muerta, Jack Sparrow stabs Hector Barbossa with his sword. Being under the curse of the Treasure of Cortés and therefore immortal, Barbossa pulls out the sword from his chest and stabs Jack with it. Seemingly mortally wounded, Jack makes a few steps back, with the moonlight transforming him into a skeleton, showing that he was under the same curse as Barbossa. Shocked, Barbossa looks at Jack as the younger pirate shows him one of the cursed gold coins which he stole from the Aztec stone chest a few minutes earlier. However, Barbossa should NOT be surprised to see Jack cursed because he took four coins from the chest right in front of Barbossa, automatically falling under the curse. Barbossa himself stated earlier that "Any mortal that removes but a single piece from that stone chest shall be punished for eternity". In a post credit scene Jack the monkey, now free from the curse, swims back into the treasure cave and takes one of the coins from the chest, instantly becoming cursed again. The only way to remove the curse was to put all the Aztec gold back into the chest AND offer the blood of all the people who took the gold from the chest as a sacrifice to the Heathen Gods.

Jack Sparrow's compass
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Tia Dalma reveals that Jack Sparrow bartered his famous compass from her. According to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide he got the compass from Tia Dalma seven years before the events of Dead Man's Chest. The compass doesn't appear in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court series which is set before Barbossa's mutiny on the Black Pearl.

However, Terry Rossio later said that Jack had the compass even before Barbossa's first mutiny on the Black Pearl, and that's how he knew where to search for Isla de Muerta and the Treasure of Cortés. The short comic book The Compass of Destiny! confirmed that when in it Tia Dalma gave the compass to Jack and he said he intended to use it to search for the Treasure of Cortés.

A few years later, Ann C. Crispin was contracted by The Walt Disney Company to write an adult novel set in the POTC world. She specifically asked the Disney employees if she could put the compass in the book, and they answered positively. The book showed Jack in possession of the compass when he was a twenty-year-old pirate. The specific date when he received the compass was not given. However, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales shows a different origin of Jack's compass, which seemingly retcons all the other stories. The film's flashback scene shows an eighteen-year-old Jack aboard the Wicked Wench, receiving the compass from the ship's mortally wounded captain, a pirate named Morgan. With his last dying breath Morgan explains what the compass does and warns Jack never to betray it. In one of the earlier versions of Jeff Nathanson's script the original owner of the compass was Captain Salazar.

Why did the Kraken attack the Black Pearl?
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Davy Jones' legendary sea beast, the Kraken, follows "with ravenous hunger" people who bear the Black Spot. When Jones finds out Jack Sparrow was trying to find the Dead Man's Chest the Spot reappears on Jack's left hand. However, when the Black Pearl hits the Kraken on the open sea and Sparrow hears from Will Turner what's going on he leaves the ship in a longboat, slowly rowing back to Isla Cruces. Instead of following Sparrow like it was supposed to, the Kraken attacks the ship.

Wrong direction
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest following the Kraken's first attack on the Black Pearl Elizabeth Swann notices Jack Sparrow in a longboat, rowing away from the Black Pearl. In that moment she is looking over the STARBOARD rail. Jack's longboat was located between Isla Cruces and the PORT side of the ship.

Sri Sumbhajee's voice
In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End during the Fourth Brethren Court the newly elected Pirate King Elizabeth Swann orders the assembled Pirate Lords to prepare their ships for war against the East India Trading Company. The Pirate Lord of the Indian ocean, Sri Sumbhajee, then declares the pirates would go to war, revealing his ladylike voice. Jack Sparrow then looks at him with a surprise on his face. However, Jack already learned about Sumbhajee's unusual voice approximately twelve years earlier, during the Quest for the Shadow Gold, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court: The Turning Tide.

The Curse of the Devil's Triangle
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales when the Spanish Royal Navy galleon Silent Mary hits the reefs in the Devil's Triangle and her entire crew dies in the explosions. However, the Triangle's supernatural powers bring the Spanish back to life as ghosts. At the beginning of the film two more crews die in the Triangle, the pirate crew of the Ruddy Rose and the British crew of the Monarch. Instead of being turned into ghosts like the Spanish, the pirates and the British remain dead.

How long was Armando Salazar trapped in the Devil's Triangle?
According to Geoffrey Rush Armando Salazar and his crew were trapped in the Devil's Triangle for twenty-five years. However, the timeline established in the films and their tie-in materials reveals that Salazar's imprisonment lasted for at least thirty and maybe even more than forty years.

The Wicked Wench
According to The Pirates' Code Guidelines and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom the Black Pearl was originally an EITC merchant ship the Wicked Wench. Cutler Beckett gave the twenty-five year old Jack Sparrow command of the ship but when Sparrow refused to transport slaves Beckett had the ship burned and Sparrow branded a pirate. This caused Jack to make a deal with Davy Jones who raised the ship from the bottom of the sea in exchange for Jack's soul after thirteen years of captaincy which eventually leads into the events of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. However, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales gives the ship a different backstory where the Wench was a pirate ship and Jack became the ship's captain as an eighteen-year-old boy.

Barbossa's crew hangs from nothing
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, when Jack Sparrow, Carina Smyth, and Henry Turner escape to Hangman's Bay, the vengeful ghost Captain Armando Salazar hangs Barbossa and his surviving crewmen upside down on the main deck of the Silent Mary and starts slowly killing them one by one. However, on that part of the ship there was nothing they could be hanged from. The only thing that could be used for something like that were the yards of the ship's masts, but the mast closest to them, the mainmast, was lying on deck, broken.

The Trident of Poseidon
In Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow the Trident of Poseidon was a legendary weapon that was owned by the mermaids for hundreds of years. It was eventually stolen by the infamous pirate captain Torrents. Following Torrents' defeat the young Jack Sparrow gave the Trident to the merman Tonra, making him the King of the merfolk. In Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales the Trident was hidden in a place called Poseidon's Tomb at least since the time of Galileo Galilei. During the quest for the Trident Jack Sparrow makes no mention of ever seeing the Trident before.