Thread:J Fan/@comment-5959298-20150422103333/@comment-1984959-20150422135415

As I said before, we do not know how or if the Cook survived. And as you seem to imply, not even the actor knows what happened. More than likely, not even the director (Gore Verbinksi) or the writers (Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio) will have a good-enough answer either...nor will they care to answer it. Sorry to say, but it's true in this particular question.

Taking the context of the film by itself shows he died aboard the Dutchman - that's all the film reveals! We don't know anything else nor is anything presented clearly explaining what happened.