Mermaid

"Aye. Mermaids. Sea ghouls, devil fish, dreadful in hunger for flesh of man. Mermaid waters, that be our path. Cling to your soul, Gibbs, as mermaids be given to take the rest...to the bone."

- Hector Barbossa to the crew of the Providence

Mermaids, also known as the merfolk or merpeople and sometimes referred to as Scaly Tails, were human-fish hybrids that resided in a very few known places. Some mermaids of Isla Sirena served as agents of the Sirens, dragging many sailors down to a watery grave. One of the mermaids, Morveren, served as the queen of the merfolk.

Many mermaids have been known to gather at Whitecap Bay for hundreds of years, thereby striking terror in the heart of sailors and pirates alike. Beautiful, conniving and dangerous, mermaids would do anything to protect their homes. Drawn to the surface by man-made light and singing sailors, they entrance their prey before dragging them to the depths to devour them.

History
"Our song will tear open your heart, and you will beg for more. It will tease you with your greatest desire till you grow mad. And this desire will eventually burn so fierce that you will drive yourself directly to us. Then it is our charge to deliver you to those to whom we answer."

- Morveren, Aquala and Aquila to Jack Sparrow

Captain Jack Sparrow first encountered the mermaids in Isla Sirena, following the escape from Isla Esquelética, during his quest for the Sword of Cortés. His shipmates, the crew of the Barnacle, were affected by the song of the Sirens, though Jack himself remained immune to its influence. Unable to sway him, the mermaids instead transported Jack to Isla Sirena itself, where they attempted to enslave him by robbing him of his freedom. Jack was tricked into handing over a prized possession&mdash;the eye of Stone-Eyed Sam&mdash;in exchange for the lives of his crew. Further, his freedom would be forfeit the next time he visited Isla Sirena.

Despite realizing this stipulation, Jack was forced to return to the mermaids' lair in order to recover the eye to defeat the spirit of Hernán Cortés. He negotiated his enslavement with the blue-tailed mermaid leaders, and defeated two predatory beasts in order to avoid eternal imprisonment. He was allowed to leave the island, and later reclaimed the eye from Tia Dalma.

During the quest for the Fountain of Youth, Blackbeard and his crew journeyed to Whitecap Bay to capture a mermaid for the Profane Ritual. Blackbeard used his crew as living bait, as well as using man-made light from the lighthouse to lure the mermaids. Scrum was forced to sing My Jolly Sailor Bold to attract the mermaids, and successfully attracted the attention of Tamara.

As Tamara continued singing Scrum's song, other mermaids appeared to the longboat. Their beauty fascinated the sailors, but Tamara revealed her true form. The mermaids began a massive attack on Blackbeard's crewmen. Jack Sparrow managed to set an explosion on the lighthouse to scare them away, even meeting an old flame, Marina, in the process. A young mermaid was left behind to be captured by Blackbeard's men. She proved to be very different from her vicious kind.

Biology and appearance
"All these beautiful mermaids. Creatures of legend and lore, right in front of me! What an exciting adventure, indeed!"

- Jack Sparrow

The mermaids were amphibious beings, a hybrid of human and fish. The average mermaid had the appearance of a beautiful girl with long, flowing hair the colors of the sea, and pearly-white skin flecked with scales. From the waist down, however, a mermaid was comprised of a long, shimmering scaly tail. Further undermining their conventional beauty, mermaids hid sharp, fang-like teeth in their mouths.

It was possible that this beautiful appearance was not the true form of the mermaids; if viewed peripherally, they lost their outward beauty and seemed to transform into creatures with clawed tentacles, fangs, and barnacles and boils covering their scales. They often spoke in harmony, singing a melody commonly attributed to the Sirens.

Like the sirens, mermaids are incredibly beautiful and incredibly seductive women that lure men to their deaths. A mermaid's greatest weapon is their radiant appearance. The light of the moon illuminates their skin and their long locks fall seductively, and their eyes are as deep as the ocean and possess the power to entrap any adventurer. "I heard it said that a kiss from a mermaid protects a sailor from drowning." "Don't be a fool. Mermaids are all female, son. And lovely as a dream of heaven. But when it comes to churn butter, so to speak, they snatch a sailor out a boat or off the deck of a ship, have their way. Then the sailors are pulled to bottom, and drowned, and eaten!" "Sometimes...the other way around."

- Derrick, Ezekiel and Scrum

The water line defines where they're women and where they’re creatures. Under the water, they are creatures and over the water, they're women. The mermaids have huge strength and are strong enough to break through solid wood with their bare hands. In large numbers, they have even been known to topple great ships. They also demonstrate massive speed when swimming, and can dive out of the ocean and drag sailors back into the depths with them. The mermaids feed on the men, and that’s how they see men, as something that sustains them. They may look lovely, but they can shred a human limb from limb in seconds. The mermaids have been known to use long strands of seaweed as a form of lasso to pull sailors off ships or cliffs out of reach.

Their long and powerful tails make them very fast swimmers adapt at hunting prey. Beneath the skin of their tails is the suggestion of the legs they gain on land. Their tails are covered in a scaly translucent membrane which floats around them like tendrils in the water and is shed when they gain legs. They can survive long enough on land to drag a sailor back into the sea, where they can entangle them in a powerful grip. They can also go on land in human form. However if they are partially in the water, trapped in mermaid form but not enough in the water to live, they can dry out and die.

Mermaids were known to have special abilities. It was common knowledge that a kiss from a mermaid would protect a sailor from drowning. In legends concerning the Fountain of Youth, particularly the Profane Ritual, a mermaid's tear is one of the required items needed in order to make the Fountain work. But as proud and ferocious as the seas in which they live, mermaids do not weep lightly. It was said that tears of joy were the more potent.

Mermaids of Isla Sirena
"We are not the Sirens. We are the merfolk. We sing our own melody and we do the bidding of the Sirens."

- Morveren, Aquala and Aquila to Jack Sparrow



The mermaids of Isla Sirena did the bidding of the Sirens, who were in turn ruled by Davy Jones. They lived in chambers within Isla Sirena, and had control over various creatures that inhabited Davy Jones' Locker, including iguana monsters and sea beasts. The merfolk also had contact with Tia Dalma, and were aware of legendary artifacts such as the Sword of Cortés.

There were at least three separate sub-species of merfolk in Isla Sirena, distinguished by the color of the scales on their fish-like tails. Those with green tails were analogous to soldiers, and operated as the military arm of the society. They confronted sailors lured to Isla Sirena and dragged them down to the island itself. Red-tailed merfolk were the servants of mermaid society, and were commonly found wading around waiting for orders. They acted as guards and workers in Isla Sirena. Finally, blue-tails served as the leaders of the mermaids. The three blue-tails encountered by Jack Sparrow, Morveren, Aquala and Aquila, were named as "chairwomen" by the green-tails.

Stories and legends of mermaids commonly depicted sweet and innocent creatures, though more sinister versions told of corrupted merfolk who aligned themselves with the Sirens. In reality, there were thousands of the latter type in Isla Sirena alone, and this legion was known to congregate to drag sailors down to the depths.

Mermaids of Whitecap Bay
"We're doomed. They be drawn to man-made light." "Sharks?" "Worse than sharks, boy. There'll be mermaids upon us within the hour, you mark my words. And we're the bait."

- Ezekiel and the Cabin boy

The mermaids in Whitecap Bay seemed to be more independent from Sirens, and they also appeared to be far more aggressive and bloodthirsty. They would seduce men into coming close, and once they were in the right position, they would drag them into the water, where they would devour them. However, if the men caught on, which would presumably be right after the first one was taken, the mermaids would abandon their gentle disguise, and attack viciously, acting in a similar manner to sharks in a feeding frenzy. They were apparently very driven to catch their prey, so much that they clawed and punched through wood in attempts to snag their targets.

Mermaids are drawn to man-made light and song and this is often used as a way to capture them. However, they are naturally afraid of fire, though this could be interpreted as a fear of any forms of general warmth, which can cause them to dry out. "We say the One pours death into life, and life into death, without a drop spilt." "I like that."

- Syrena and Philip Swift

A mermaid's bond with her sisters is hard to tell, but appears to be rather cold, as when Syrena was captured, the other mermaids retreated without any visible concern. Also, when Syrena was forced to look at the many mermaid corpses, and Blackbeard's taunting of the death of her fellow mermaids, she didn't seem to be particularly affected. However, she did apparently show a slight trace of emotion, perhaps anger at the men for their actions. Mermaids have been described by Blackbeard as being tough, and strong willed, making it rare for them to genuinely shed tears. The only time they seem to shed tears is tears of happiness. The mermaid people believed that "the One pours death into life, and life into death, without a drop spilt."

However, not all mermaids were vicious. Some were capable of having a compassionate and loving side, most notably from Syrena. Syrena appeared to be unique among her kind as she was the only known mermaid to actually develop feelings for a human. Though it wasn't the same case with Marina, who had a relationship with Jack Sparrow at some point in her life.

Notable mermaids

 * Syrena
 * Tamara
 * Marina
 * Morveren
 * Aquala
 * Aquila

Behind the scenes

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was the first of the POTC films to include mermaids.
 * While filming On Stranger Tides, all the mermaids were women who wore skin-tight swimsuits on with dots on them, which would make them 3-D Computer-generated. Their performances were recorded using motion capture during actual filming on set, rather than in a motion capture studio during post-production.
 * In the first screenplay draft of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Barbossa starts to search for the Fountain of Youth, using the captain's journal of Juan Ponce de León that he took from Tia Dalma who received it from a mermaid.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Siren Song
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides