- "Help! There's a witch in my shop! And a pirate! There's a witch and a pirate in my shop!"
"Well, it's your lucky day!" - ―George Swift and Jack Sparrow
George W. Swift was a cartographer and the owner of the Swift and Sons Chart House in the town of Saint Martin on the island of the same name in 1751.
Biography[]
- "No woman has ever handled my Herschel!"
- ―George Swift to Carina Smyth
At some unknown point likely in his early life, George W. Swift became a cartographer and the owner of the Swift and Sons Chart House in Saint Martin. At some point he and an unknown female would have a child, Charles Swift.[1]
By 1751,[2] George Swift was still working at the Swift and Sons Chart House, not allowing dogs or women inside the shop. However, during the robbery of the Royal Bank of Saint Martin, the astronomer Carina Smyth, wanted by the British Royal Navy due to false accusations of her being a witch, walked into the shop after escaping from the navy. Thinking she was a witch, George pulled out a pistol on her and yelled for the authorities. Suddenly, a drunken pirate Captain Jack Sparrow walked into the Chart House. He asked if anyone inside had seen "his bank", which confused Smyth and Swift. But, the Royal Bank of Saint Martin, which was being pulled through Saint Martin by the crew of the Dying Gull, soon came crashing through the chart house, destroying all of Swift's work and forcing him to scramble for cover as the wall of the chart house came crumbling to the ground.[3] His further fate is unknown.
Behind the scenes[]
- George W. Swift was portrayed by John Leary in Dead Men Tell No Tales. The character was credited only as Mr. Swift in the film but the full name was revealed in the prequel novel The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth.
- Terry Rossio's original script for Dead Men Tell No Tales featured a cartographer named McNally, a reference to the famed map-maker Rand McNally rather than a homage to Kevin McNally the Pirates actor.[4] In Rossio's screenplay, he is the owner of the McNally & Sons Chart House in Kingston, Jamaica, who worked with Philip Swift as his apprentice.[5]
Appearances[]
- The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth (First appearance)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p124.
- ↑ As evidenced by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel, the events of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales are set in 1751.
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- ↑ P5 Annotations by Terry Rossio
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES Screenplay by Terry Rossio