Attack in the Devil's Triangle

"We are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things." The title of this article is conjectural. Although this article is based on canonical information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.

Previous: Battle for the Fountain of Youth Next: Destruction of Barbossa's fleet Attack in the Devil's Triangle Conflict: Quest for the Trident of Poseidon Date: 1751 Place: Devil's Triangle, Caribbean Sea Outcome: Decisive Spanish victory. Destruction of the Ruddy Rose. Massacre of the crew of the Monarch. Factions Crew of the Silent Mary Crew of the Ruddy Rose Crew of the Monarch Commanders Capitán Armando Salazar Captain Bonnet Captain Toms Participants Lesaro Santos Magda Moss Unknown number of pirates First Officer Wade Officer Cole Officer Maddox Dozens of British soldiers and sailors Casualties None One ship destroyed All pirates killed Almost the entire crew killed

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"No, no, no. No need to fear me, boy. I always leave one man alive to tell the tale. Find Sparrow for me, and relay a message from Capitán Salazar. Salazar! Tell him... I will behold the daylight again, and on that day... Death... Death will come straight for him. Will you say that to him? Please?"
"Yes."
"I wish I could do it myself, but dead men tell no tales."

―Armando Salazar and Henry Turner

The Attack in the Devil's Triangle was the last massacre committed by the undead crew of Captain Armando Salazar before their escape from the cursed waters of the Devil's Triangle.

Prelude

"For too many years the Triangle has cursed us. Condemned us to this Hell. The key to our escape is Jack Sparrow... and the compass which he holds."

―Armando Salazar to Henry Turner

When the Spanish Royal Navy capitán Armando Salazar vowed to exterminate all pirates on the Seven Seas, he and his loyal crew hunted and destroyed dozens of pirate ships, earning themselves a fearsome reputation. When the last pirates in the Caribbean joined forces in an attempt to sink Salazar's dreaded galleon, the Silent Mary, all except one of their ships were sent to the bottom of the sea. With the young boy Jack at the helm, the last remaining pirate ship, the Wicked Wench, sailed toward the Devil's Triangle, a mysterious area covered in eternal darkness.

The Silent Mary burns in the Devil's Triangle.

The Spanish pursued the pirates, but right in front of the cave that led into Triangle's interior, the pirates performed the bootleg turn, changing the Wench's course at the last moment. To avoid collision with the Wench, Salazar continued steering the Silent Mary straight ahead, and the warship entered the unknown waters of the Triangle, where she hit the reefs. The impact caused a massive explosion which engulfed the ship in flames, sinking it and killing its entire crew, including Salazar. However, the supernatural powers of the Triangle raised Salazar and his men from the dead as powerful ghosts.

After their resurrection, the Spanish discovered they could not leave the Triangle, seemingly doomed to spend the rest of eternity within its borders. Over the next decades, through unknown means, Salazar found out the name of the young pirate who caused his demise - Jack Sparrow. He also learned that Jack Sparrow's compass could set him and his crew free.

Battle

The Sea Chase

The Monarch chases the Ruddy Rose toward the Devil's Triangle.

"Faster you pathetic bilge rats. You pump the bilges and fill the scuppers. We are chasing down pirates!"

―Maddox to the sailors in the bilge

Many years after Salazar's imprisonment in the Devil's Triangle, the British Royal Navy warship Monarch was chasing the Ruddy Rose, a stolen vessel captained by the pirate Bonnet, across the Caribbean. The fire from the British ship forced the pirates to sail for the Triangle, where they hoped to find shelter from their pursuers. However, the Monarch's commanding officer Captain Toms decided to follow the pirates into the uncharted waters. The young British sailor Henry Turner, who had studied all the myths and legends of the sea, tried to warn the captain that the Triangle was a haunted place from which many ships never came back, but Toms decided to dismiss his warnings as a mere superstition. When Henry tried to change the ship's course by force, he was arrested for treason and thrown into the brig. The Monarch continued sailing right for Triangle.

The Ruddy Rose enters the Triangle.

In the meantime, Salazar's men noticed the pirate vessel. Unseen by the crew of the Monarch, the undead crew of the Silent Mary attacked the Ruddy Rose the moment she entered the Triangle. Attacked by the unstoppable supernatural force the pirates didn't have even the slightest chance for victory. In a few minutes the massacre was over. All the pirates were dead and their ship was quickly sinking to the bottom of the sea, leaving only a few debris and the black pirate flag on the surface.

Attack on the Monarch

Salazar's men run across water toward the Monarch.

"Ship to starboard!"
"That's no ship, sir. It's a shipwreck."
"No. She's sailing straight toward us. Open fire!"

―Officer Cole, First Officer Wade, and Captain Toms

The Monarch slowly entered the Triangle, but in the heavy fog and darkness the British crew could not see the prey they were so eagerly following. Instead, First Officer Wade noticed the pirate flag floating in the water, and a moment later Officer Cole saw the bow of the Silent Mary not far away from the starboard side of the Monarch. When he alarmed the crew about the presence of another ship, Wade told them the unknown vessel was just a wreck, and therefore not a threat.

Salazar kills Captain Toms

In that moment Salazar's men used their ghostly powers to run across water toward the Monarch. Captain Toms noticed that the unknown ship was sailing straight toward them and ordered the crew to open fire upon it. Despite the heavy fire from the Monarch, the Silent Mary approached the British ship which was quickly boarded by an unrelenting force, killing nearly all of the crew. One by one, the British sailors and soldiers were killed in a futile fight against the undead Spaniards. By the time the massacre was over, the decks of the Monarch were covered in blood. Finally, Captain Salazar stood before Captain Toms who asked him what is he. Salazar grasped him by the neck, claiming that he is death before snapping the British officer's neck and throwing him into the fire.

Salazar interrogates Henry.

Salazar and his crew then heard a strange noise coming from below deck and they slowly made their way downward. Henry stood in shock as the other pirate in the cell next to him trembled in fear. The undead Spaniards slowly approached the prisoners, noticing the wanted posters of several pirates on the floor, Jack Sparrow's among them. Annoyed at the sounds he was making, Salazar ordered one of his men to silence the pirate. Finding out that Henry was searching for Sparrow, Salazar decided to spare the young sailor and ordered him to go and tell Sparrow about death coming straight for him.

Aftermath

"We were attacked by the dead."

―Henry Turner to John Scarfield

Floating on a piece of wood Henry managed to reach the island of Saint Martin, where he was taken to a military hospital and arrested by the British authorities for running away from a fight. Being the sole survivor of the Monarch, the whole town spoke about Henry immediately after his arrival. However, despite his attempt to explain what happened on the Monarch, Henry was sentenced to death by Lieutenant John Scarfield yet he was able to escape thanks to Carina Smyth's help. When Jack Sparrow traded his compass for a bottle of rum after an unsuccessful bank robbery, the betrayed compass retaliated by causing the Triangle to collapse, freeing Salazar and his crew who immediately continued their hunt for pirates.

Behind the scenes

• The name "Attack in the Devil's Triangle" is taken from Henry Turner's line "We were attacked by the dead" that appeared in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the film's novelization, and the prequel novel The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth. In the prequel novel, Henry also says, "A sea captain named Salazar has returned from the dead to hunt Jack Sparrow. His ghost ship, the Silent Mary, and crew attacked the ship I was serving on and left me alone alive to tell the tale. Salazar is death itself. He will not rest until he has destroyed Jack and all pirates along with him." The novelization also specifically says the ghosts were "attacking the crew of the Monarch." In addition, the battle occurred within the Devil's Triangle.
• In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early draft of the Dead Men Tell No Tales script at the beginning of the film the HMS Monarch was engaged in a battle with the French Royal Navy ship the Courageux, captained by a man named Thurot. When Thurot saw how heavily damaged his ship was, and that many of his men were dead and wounded, he ordered his crew to strike the colors. Captain Toms and his crew freed the British civilians held captive aboard the Courageux and also retrieved a diamond called the Eye of Poseidon, the key to finding the Trident of Poseidon. After the battle the stormy seas carried the Monarch into the Devil's Triangle where the ship was attacked and captured by the ghostly crew of the Silent Mary, led by Captain John Brand, who allowed only one British crewman, the young captain's servant Henry Maddox, to survive to tell the tale.