| For other uses, see Black Pearl (disambiguation) |
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- "The Black Pearl is a terrible ship. Many of my friends have run afoul of it and wound up dead. They say that its captain is the devil himself, and his crew are living skeletons."
- ―Gordon Carpenter to Nathaniel Hawk
The Black Pearl was a notorious ghost ship which terrorized the Caribbean in the early 17th century.
History[]
- "Now, all you bold seamen, will you spare a tear? For the Black Pearl and her poor forsaken souls gone to their watery graves beneath the shimmering waves...these lonely, lost, pirates of the Caribbean."
- ―Unknown
The Black Pearl was originally a pirate ship, and its crew always had good loot, until one day, they found large, beautiful coins, and hardly giving a second thought, they spent them. However, the crew would regret this decision shortly after: As it turned out, the coins were the Aztec Gold, which had a curse which created duels among each other, caused chaos, and murder. From that day on, the ship's crew members appeared to be normal men in the morning, but undead skeletons in the evening. Soon, the story of a dreaded ship which was cursed by God spread through the whole Caribbean.
In 1631, a young pirate Nathaniel Hawk encountered the Black Pearl in Falaise de Fleur port following an attack by two immortal pirates. He was forced to give them the chest which he was carrying in Redmond several days earlier. After hearing tales of a terrible ship captained by the devil himself, Hawk went to search for the Incan temple which contained the mystical artifact needed to destroy the ghost ship.
The destruction of the Black Pearl.
After finding his old friend, Danielle Greene, Hawk discovered the Incan temple on the island of Khael Roa, and the artifact which he was looking for. Danielle took the artifact, which caused the destruction of the temple.
Soon after, Hawk's ship, the Victory, encountered the Black Pearl. Using the power of the artifact, Danielle summoned lightnings from the sky which destroyed the Black Pearl, splitting the ship in half. The Black Pearl sunk to the bottom of the ocean, but its undead crew survived and continued the search for the cursed coins, eventually ending the curse.
Design and appearance[]
The Black Pearl was an ancient-looking frigate, infamously known as a ghost ship that would strike fear into the hearts of bravest mariners in the Caribbean. Her rigging had three masts: the fore, the mizzen, and the main. Like all frigates of the early 17th century, the Black Pearl had a spritsail topmast at the end of the bowsprit. Although the ship's sails were ragged and nonfunctional, the Pearl was very fast. At a maximum speed of 17.2 knots, she was unmatched in speed by any other known ship in the archipelago.
Although she was called a frigate, the Pearl was not of the standard design, being larger than other frigates (but smaller than a Battleship) and carrying forty 32-pounder cannons (as opposed to the 24-pounder guns on mainstream designs). In fact, she was the only ship in the archipelago known to use cannons of this caliber. Physically, she resembles a 4th-rate ship of the line.
The Pearl was unmatched as a warship, and virtually immune to enemy fire. Only magic could do something against such hellish vessel.
Behind the scenes[]
- This ship appears in the 2003 game Pirates of the Caribbean. It was named after the ship of the same name which appeared in the first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. However, it is not the same as the ship in the film, being slightly larger and having 40 cannons to the film's 32.
- The name "Barbossa" is set as the ship's default captain in the game's code. Barbossa never appears in the game, however. Also, it is very unlikely that this man is Hector Barbossa, because the game takes place in 1631; about a ninety-seven years before the first film took place and, therefore, about 50 years before Hector was even born.
- Part of the game's code suggests that a quest after the Black Pearl's destruction with the player interacting with Jack Sparrow was initially intended. This reveals that the developers may have had plans of designing the game arc as a prequel to the plot of The Curse of the Black Pearl, though the game's date is set about a century before it.
- The game was originally named the Sea Dogs 2, but The Walt Disney Company paid the video game company Akella to rename the game Pirates of the Caribbean for publicity. The ship was originally named the Black Frigate in the early drafts of the game.
- It is possible to sail the Black Pearl through hacking the game files. It has 100,000 HP and is the fastest ship in the game and the only one to carry 32 pound cannons.
- The Black Pearl returns in the Caleuche DLC of Sea Dogs: To Each His Own. The ship was renamed to the Flying Heart due to the Pirates of the Caribbean license expiring. However, it still serves the same narrative role it had in Pirates of the Caribbean, as described by Nathaniel Hawk.
Appearances[]
Sources[]
| Pirate ships in Pirates of the Caribbean | ||
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