Cursed crew

"Compelled by greed we were, but now&hellip;we are consumed by it."

- Hector Barbossa to Elizabeth Swann

The cursed crew was the pirate crew of Captains Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa, who suffered the curse of the Chest of Cortés. They were apparently led by Bo'sun following Barbossa's death.

Captain Sparrow
Jack Sparrow initially rounded up what would become the cursed crew to serve aboard the Black Pearl. A number of crew members joined at Tortuga, where Jack arrived with the intention to find the treasure of Isla de Muerta. Hector Barbossa was Jack's First Mate at this point, and had designs on captaincy himself. With the crew assembled, the quest began, but three days into the voyage, Barbossa coerced Jack into giving up the coordinates to the island. With the information, Barbossa led a mutiny against Jack, which the crew unanimously backed&mdash;although Bill Turner would later voice his regret over this action&mdash;and marooned the former captain on Rumrunner's Isle.

With Jack removed and believed dead, Barbossa took command of the Black Pearl and the quest itself, pressing on to Isla de Muerta.

Captain Barbossa
The crew located Isla de Muerta and plundered its treasure, taking and eventually ridding themselves of all 882 pieces of gold from the Chest of Cortés by spending them on food, drink and pleasurable company. It was only at this point that the crew began to realize they had been cursed: no ammount of food, drink or pleasurable company would satisfy, and slowly their bodies began to rot, turning skeletal under the moonlight. The crew were doomed to reside as members of the undead for their transgression.



The now-cursed crew attempted to reclaim all 882 pieces of gold, in order to pay back the Aztec gods and lift their curse. Bill Turner did not join this desperate search, instead saying they deserved to be cursed for their actions, and sent his piece of gold to his son, William Turner, in England. In response, Barbossa had Bill tied to a cannon by his bootstraps, and thrown overboard. Undead, "Bootstrap" Bill was unable to die, and forced to endure the crushing depths of the ocean floor. He ultimately struck a bargain with Davy Jones to spare his life, but was forced to serve aboard the Flying Dutchman. Not until after "Bootstrap" had been thrown overboard did the cursed crew learned of an additional requirement to lift the curse: all crew members who stole from the Chest but a single coin had to pay the Aztec gods in blood, which now seemed impossible with "Bootstrap" lost to them. However, a chance of salvation lay in Bill's son, who had both his coin and Turner blood in his veins.

Over the next decade, the cursed crew hunted down 881 pieces of gold, raiding settlements and believed to leave no survivors. Stories and legends arose about the crew of the Black Pearl, with Barbossa himself characterized as a man so evil that Hell itself spat him back out. Even members of the Navy were not above superstition; Joshamee Gibbs was particuarly mindful of drawing the attention of the "cursed pirates" during the HMS Dauntless's crossing from England to Port Royal. It was during this voyage that the Black Pearl destroyed the merchant vessel carrying young Will Turner, who had set out to find his father. Drawn by Will's gold medallion, the crew left a burning wreck in their wake, though were unable to recover the gold because Will, along with his piece of gold, had drifted towards the Dauntless. Young Elizabeth Swann took the gold medallion, which he wore around his neck, away from him, believing that if it were discovered he would be treated as a pirate—and be killed!

End of the curse
Eight years later, the crew had collected all but Will's coin at Isla de Muerta, and were closing in on its location in Port Royal. The Black Pearl laid siege to the town, and Pintel and Ragetti kidnapped Elizabeth, who still had Will's gold medallion, and brought her aboard. There, Barbossa took possession of the medallion, believing Elizabeth's lie about being of the Turner bloodline; and the crew set sail for Isla de Muerta. Their captain performed the ritual to lift the curse, which failed. Elizabeth revealed her true name, and managed to escape with Will and a coin. Jack Sparrow made his reappearance, and informed Barbossa of the whereabouts of Will Turner.

The crew gave chase, attacking the commandeered HMS Interceptor and taking her crew hostage. Will confronted Barbossa, but was out-maneuvered by the captain, and was captured. In a cruel twist, Barbossa marooned Jack and Elizabeth on Rumrunner's Isle, and made for Isla de Muerta once more. However, his plans fell apart when Jack and Elizabeth were rescued by the Dauntless, which then followed the Black Pearl to the island. Jack tricked Barbossa into sending his men out to battle the marines, and engaged his mutinous First Mate in single combat within the treasure cave, having himself taken a coin from the chest.



As the crew infiltrated the Dauntless, Elizabeth made for the island, and aided Will in defeating Jacoby, Clubba and Monk. Jack and Barbossa, both undead, fought to a standstill, but Jack had a plan. He threw his coin, smeared with his blood, to Will, who dropped his own coin into the chest, lifting the curse at the most opportune moment: Barbossa was caught off-guard and shot in the heart by Jack, while the crew, now mortal, found themselves surrounded by navy marines, and were forced to surrender.

Second curse
The surviving crew members were taken back to Fort Charles to be executed, but escaped the clutches of the Royal Navy. They returned to Isla de Muerta to become cursed once more, vowing revenge against Jack Sparrow. They first made their reappearance at the Faithful Bride in Tortuga, where they kidnapped Will and Elizabeth, though Jack saw to their rescue with the aid of St. Piran's Blade. By this point, Bo'sun was serving as the leader of the crew, and set off on a quest to steal an Aztec idol in Mexico. Bo'sun was briefly rendered invincible by the artifact, though it was immediately stolen by Jack, who left the crew marooned at sea. They returned to launch an assault on Port Royal, and commandeered the HMS Dauntless, though the spirits of the Buccaneer's Heart proved more than a match for them, and Jack marooned them on Rumrunner's Isle. They later tried more subtle ways of getting revenge on Sparrow, such as ambushing him aboard a merchant vessel. However, the ingenious use of chain-shot by Jack's crew saw the cursed pirates sent overboard, and forced to make a long walk back to shore. After that, they probably returned to Isla de Muerta and lifted the curse.

Everyday life
The crew was characterized as a group of scoundrels, scallywags, murderers, malefactors, drunkards and desperadoes. They hailed from a dozen nations, including escaped slaves from West Africa and Hispaniola, and former members of the Royal Navy. Most operated as privateers before peace-time saw the loss of their employment, forcing them to turn to piracy.

Althougt all crewmembers had the same dream -to remove their curse- they did not show real team spirit, but there were some groups of two pirates who normally worked together (Pintel & Ragetti, Koehler & Twigg, Mallot & Grapple, Maximo & Clubba.) The nature of this pairings is unknown, while some of them are relatives (Pintel is Ragetti's uncle and Mallot and Grapple are assumed to be brothers), other seems to be not related, perhaps they are matelots. There was an antagony between Bosun on one side and Pintel and Ragetti on the other, and the crew seemed to dislike their captain, Barbossa, who led the crew in a quite tyrannic way, because they made him responsible for their misfortune. Despite this, all crew members worked together on finding all the Aztec coins, and they handeled their victims with extreme brutality (according to stories told about them, they led no surviviors). They cared about their ship and keeped it clean; while the crew worked, Mallot and Jacoby performed music with a fiddle and a concertine. The fact that the Pearl's sails were in a very bad condition hints that the crew lacked a sailmaker.

Fighting abilities
Due to their immortality and the prior fighting experience of most of the crew members, the crew was a deadly threat, they won all the battles in which they participated until the final one at Isla de Muerta, when the curse was removed and they surrendered to the superior forces of the Royal Navy.

Behind the scenes

 * There were much more crewmembers apart of the credited ones, their overall number is unknown but can be estimated with approximately 100.
 * The skeletal crewmembers were created by Industrial Light and Magic
 * Therefore all scenes involving the skeletal crew were filmed twice: one time with the actors and the second time without them.
 * Some members of the cursed crew including their leader Barbossa are pictured on the cover of WAS IST WAS band 71: Piraten.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (video game)
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
 * Pirates of the Caribbean (game)
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
 * Revenge of the Pirates!
 * The Capture of Jack Sparrow!
 * Legend of the Aztec Idol!
 * Open Sesame!
 * The Buccaneer's Heart!
 * Chain Reaction!
 * Kingdom Hearts II