Ghost

This article is about a deceased person's spirit in visible form. You may be looking for the non-corporeal essence of a being or entity.

For other uses, see Ghost (disambiguation)

The ghostly crew of the Silent Mary.

"A ghost sir. A revenant, that's what they calls 'em. Came out of that haunted fogbank. Must have, sir. That fogbank, it was haunted right enough. My friend, Etienne de Ver, he said that there's an old fortress near where he grew up in France that was haunted. He said that he—"
"Mr. Featherstone, I asked you about this apparition that came aboard that same night. Can you please describe it, and then tell me you why you believe it was not simply a man?"

―Lucius Featherstone and Cutler Beckett

A ghost was the soul or spirit of a dead human or animal that is believed to be capable of appearing or otherwise manifesting itself to the living. According to folklore and traditional belief, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to realistic, lifelike visions or forms. Other terms associated with it are revenant, apparition, haunt, spirit, spook, wraith, demon, and ghoul.

The belief in the existence of an afterlife, as well as manifestations of the spirits of the dead, is widespread, dating back to pre-literate cultures. Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of ritual magic—are specifically designed to rest the spirits of the dead. Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences though stories of ghostly armies, ghosts of animals other than humans, and ghost ships have also been recounted. They are believed to haunt particular locations, objects, or people they were associated with in life. Historically, despite centuries of investigation, in which the overwhelming consensus of science is that there is no proof that ghosts exist, their existence is impossible to falsify.

History

The Ghost captain.

"It's not like that, sir. This ship is haunted."
"Is it, now? And you?"
"There's a female presence amongst us here, sir. All the men, they can feel it."
"It's the ghost of a lady widowed before her marriage, I figure it, searching for her husband, lost at sea."

―Bursar, Captain Bellamy, Quartermaster, Sailor, and Cook

When the Spanish conquistador Humbert "El Patron" Diaz forced the inhabitants of Raven's Cove to forge weapons for him, they sealed him, his crew, and his ship, inside his mines in the Cove. When the crew mutinied against him, El Patron and his men were cursed to remain inside the mines as ghosts and haunt them for all eternity.

When the young adventurer Captain Jack Sparrow and the crew of the Barnacle found the legendary Sword of Cortés on Isla Fortuna, Sparrow unintentionally summoned the spirit of the corrosive conquistador Hernán Cortés, the original owner of the Sword and the man who destroyed the Aztec Empire. The ghostly conquistador tried to trick the young adventurer into doing his bidding, so the ghost could make himself ruler of the Seven Seas, but with some advice from the voodoo witch Tia Dalma, Jack Sparrow was able to summon the spirit of the Aztec Emperor Montecuhzoma, who attacked and destroyed Cortés.

During a sea battle off the coast of the mysterious Devil's Triangle, Jack Sparrow tricked the notorious pirate hunter Capitán Armando Salazar of the Spanish Navy into steering the Silent Mary in pursuit of the Wicked Wench into the Triangle, where the Spanish ship was destroyed and Salazar's crew killed. Salazar's crew became cursed into undead ghosts, unable to escape from the Triangle, and were forced to spend several decades in it.

At the end of his quest for the island of Kerma, Jack Sparrow dueled and killed the rogue pirate Christophe-Julien de Rapièr on the deck of his ship, the Wicked Wench. When he returned to Calabar and had to give his report to Cutler Beckett, Sparrow lied that he had actually fought against the ghost of his old fencing master from Marseilles.

The ghosts on Raven's Cove.

Shortly after the battle of the Isla de Muerta, a mysterious ghost ship sailed into the Port Royal harbor. The ship's crew of ghosts terrorized the inhabitants of the city until the blacksmith Will Turner made a sword and gave it to the ship's ghostly captain.

During the War of Jolly Roger, when the forces of the East India Trading Company and the undead army of Jolly Roger fought a battle over El Patron's weapons left on Raven's Cove, the entire population of the island was wiped out. However, their ghosts soon began appearing to pirates who came to the island. Some ghosts were friendly, but others were hostile.

When Elizabeth Swann sneaked aboard the merchant ship Edinburgh Trader, disguised as a sailor, she tricked the superstitious crewmen into thinking that her wedding dress was a spirit to force them to sail the ship to Tortuga.

After a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow betrayed his compass, Captain Armando Salazar and his ghostly crew were released from the Devil's Triangle. After the Trident of Poseidon was destroyed by Henry Turner, all the curses of the sea were broken, which resulted in the ghostly Salazar and his crew becoming human and mortal once again.

Behind the scenes

"Looks like you've seen a ghost."

―Will Turner to Jack Sparrow

• In Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, a ghost voice repeatedly says "Dead men tell no tales". The ghost voice was credited as "Echo" in the 1967 final draft of the attraction narration script, and the show's signature warning was provided by legendary voice actor Paul Frees. Frees' ghost voice was re-used in the third film, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
• Each scene in the ride's Grotto sequence originally featured ghostly narration and even witty dialogue for its skeletal performers, performed by Paul Frees and Pat O'Malley, in what was to be a ghostly counterpoint to Frees's recurring warning "Dead men tell no tales." Walt and his Imagineers ultimately concluded that the moody visuals spoke for themselves and packed more punch without the dialogue. Years later, the dialogue was released, specifically in Jason Surrell's book Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies, "We finally let these involuntarily mute pirates have their say now, proving once and for all that perhaps dead men do tell tales!"
• When the filmmakers made Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, based on screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's addition of a supernatural curse, they made a ghost story at the same time in making an epic pirate period film, which by itself would have been one thing. In a later interview, Terry Rossio said the Pirates films were really "ghost stories set in a world of pirates".
• In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay draft of The Curse of the Black Pearl, the Black Pearl was first described as "moving through the fog, silent as a ghost." Later, when Will Turner asked Joshamee Gibbs how Jack Sparrow got off the desert island, Jack replied: "I didn't! My body's still there, rotting away, and I am but a ghost!"
• Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio originally conceived of Davy Jones and his crew as ghostlike creatures. Determined to come up with never-before-seen fantastical characters, director Gore Verbinski wanted them to be more specifically of the sea, with gravity and weight, as if the souls of shipwrecked sailors had fused with the detritus of the ocean floor.
• In the non-canon comic The Buccaneer's Heart!, the ghosts of Blackbeard, Mary Reade, Bartholomew Roberts, and Henry Morgan help Jack Sparrow to defeat his former crew.
• Several ghosts appear in Tim Powers' novel On Stranger Tides, which was used as the basis for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
• One of the original plot ideas for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was to have ghosts. Although the idea never make it into the final cut of the film, the ghosts ended up being featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, in which Armando Salazar and his crew are ghosts.
• In The King's Ransom quest in A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas the treasure is kept inside the fort that is haunted by the ghosts of Spanish Conquistadors.

The ghost of Captain Morgan, as imagined by Chris Schweizer and Joe Flood.

• One of the ideas for the Joe Books Pirates of the Caribbean comic book series was the ghost of Captain Morgan causing trouble in Tortuga during Jack Sparrow's crew's night out. However, the story was rejected by The Walt Disney Company because of the ghost element of Dead Men Tell No Tales.
• Several different ghosts were featured in Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early draft of the Dead Men Tell No Tales script. The ghostly crew of the Silent Mary, led by the British pirate hunter Captain John Brand, haunted the waters of the Devil's Triangle. The young girl Olivia Cole died in their captivity and became a ghost. During the final battle the destruction of the Trident of Poseidon caused the ghosts of Brand's victims, led by his brother Eric, to appear in the sunken Poseidon's Tomb, and drag their killers to Hell.
• Hector Barbossa died at the end of The Curse of the Black Pearl, but was resurrected by the end of Dead Man's Chest. When asked if something like this could happen again in a possible sixth movie, following the character's selfless sacrifice at the end of Dead Men Tell No Tales, producer Jerry Bruckheimer stated: "You never know with us. We always bring characters back because we love them." Actor Geoffrey Rush did not seem completely opposed to returning to the series because he said, "[Barbossa] could come back like Hamlet's father, as a ghost. Just to annoy Jack."

Appearances

• Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean (First appearance)
• Climb Aboard if you Dare!: Stories from the Pirates of the Caribbean (Mentioned only) (First identified as ghost)
• A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas
• Jack Sparrow: The Pirate Chase
• Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés
• The Price of Freedom (Mentioned only)
• Legends of the Brethren Court: The Caribbean (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization) (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2006 junior novelization) (Mentioned only)
• Banshee's Boon (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Ghost Ship
• The Buccaneer's Heart! (Non-canonical appearance)
• The Star of the Seas (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean Online
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization) (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game) (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Master of the Seas
• The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel
• Kingdom Hearts II (Mentioned only) (Non-canonical appearance)
• Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

• Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
• Bring Me That Horizon: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean
• Disney Pirates: The Definitive Collector's Anthology

External links

• Ghost on Wikipedia