Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki

READ MORE

Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki
Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki
It's A Pirate's Life For Me. Savvy?
3,627
pages
in: Lore

Ghost ship

Sign in to edit
This article is about the ship type. You may be looking for the storybook of the same name.
The Black Pearl, a legendary ghost ship raised from the depths by Davy Jones, the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman.

The Black Pearl, a legendary ghost ship raised from the depths by Davy Jones, the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman.

"Davy Jones...is real?"
"He is. He sails on some kind of ghost ship. The Flying Dutchman."
―Esmeralda and Jack Sparrow[src]

A ghost ship was a vessel, usually with no living crew aboard. It may be a ghostly vessel under a curse, or a physical derelict vessel found adrift with its crew missing, dead, or undead. During the Age of Piracy, the most notable and legendary ghost ships were the Flying Dutchman and Black Pearl.

History[]

The Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship well-known to be captained by the cursed Davy Jones.

The Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship well-known to be captained by the cursed Davy Jones.

"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."
―Henry Turner to Carina Smyth[src]

According to a legend of Davy Jones, as a result of abandoning his duty of ferrying souls, Jones was doomed to cruise the oceans forever aboard the Flying Dutchman, which turned into a well-known ghostly vessel.[1] The Dutchman haunted the seven seas, where Jones would offer drowning mariners the chance to live by joining his crew,[2][3] though its crewmembers would eventually be a part of the ship itself. A terrible beast known as the Kraken brought Jones ever more souls onto his cursed ship, dead sailors forever impressed into servitude.[4]

As the pirate ship of Captain Smilin' Jack sailed for Zaragona, the winds picked up, announcing a storm. One of the pirate's lieutenants, Snake, reported that two of guards who stood watch the night before believed they saw a ghost ship, the Buzzard of the long-dead pirate Sharkheart Sam. Smilin' Jack dismissed the warning as foolish superstition.[5]

The Silent Mary.

The Silent Mary.

Armando Salazar's anti-piracy campaign came to an end when his ship, the Silent Mary, ran aground in the mysterious waters of the Devil's Triangle, only to be raised by the Triangle's supernatural powers in a derelict state of its former glory. The Silent Mary became a terrifying specter, a floating nightmare crewed by cursed ghosts and always surrounded with undead seagulls.[6][7]

The Black Pearl as a ghost ship.

The Black Pearl as a ghost ship.

After his beloved merchant ship sank beneath the depths, Jack Sparrow made a deal with Davy Jones to raise the ship from the bottom of the ocean. The Wench emerged a ghost ship, her sails tattered and her hull blackened, which by reason Jack would rename her the Black Pearl.[8][9] When Hector Barbossa's crew fell under the Aztec curse, the Black Pearl became a vessel that haunted the Caribbean.[10][11]

The Cave of the Red Turtle at the bottom of the sea was full of cursed ghost ships. The haunted place was always guarded by the undead servants of Davy Jones. When Jack Sparrow and Samuel Rackham came there to steal a gold coin known as the heart of the Black Pearl, they escaped by bringing one of the ghost ships to the surface. The haunted vessel was immediately attacked by a nearby Royal Navy ship.[12]

A phantom ship.

A phantom ship.

A pair of identical warships was built for the Spanish Navy, the San Pablo and the San Miguel. The two ships were the pride of Spanish Navy, but during the night of the full moon, both ships disappeared without a trace. However, according to legends, the vanished ships would reappear from time to time, pursuing other ships, and every pursuit would end with the sinking of every captured vessel. Because of these legends, the San Pablo and the San Miguel became known as the Condenados, the Damned.[13]

The Armada of the Damned

The Armada of the Damned

The Armada of the Damned was a well-known fleet of ghost ships during the first half of the 18th century. Haunting the waters of the Antilles Gate they would strike fear into the bravest of sailors.[14] During the War of Jolly Roger, Jolly Roger's fleet was composed of ghost ships raised from the sea bottom, and led by the most terrifying of them all, the infamous Harkaway.[15] Many phantom ships could be found in the Caribbean after the battle between the Brethren Court and Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company.[16]

Notable ghost ships[]

Behind the scenes[]

"The Caribbean abounds with gales and hurricanes. Aye, and a ghost ship is said to sail these waters, with her skeleton helmsman forever lashed to her cursed wheel. It is said that she can be seen sometimes in the light of flashing lightning, when the wind is screaming like the Devil himself was after Davy Jones."
―Unknown[src]

Ghost ships were first mentioned in the soundtrack for Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean.[18] In the attraction, a ghost ship could be seen sailing on a storm-tossed lagoon. Flashes of lightning illuminated a ghastly skeleton clutching the ship's wheel, dead set on steering his vessel into any port in this particular storm.[19]

In Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides, which was used as the basis for the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the pirates witness the battle of two ghost ships, the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Senora de Lagrimas, and the English privateer vessel Charlotte Bailey.[20]

Many ghost ships appear in the Sea of the Damned in the non-canonical video game Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life.[21]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

External links[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Price of Freedom, Chapter Eight: The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  4. ↑ Story of Davy Jones and Calypso
  5. ↑ Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean, p. 50
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  8. ↑ The Pirates' Guidelines, p. 104
  9. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Epilogue: The Black Pearl
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pirates of the Carribean presskit, accessed Dec 9, 2006
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  12. ↑ The Black Heart of the Pearl
  13. ↑ The Sails of Doom!
  14. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Pirates of the Caribbean Online
  16. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War
  17. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Ghost Ship
  18. ↑ Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Sound Track of the Fabulous Adventure
  19. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies
  20. ↑ On Stranger Tides
  21. ↑ Sea of Thieves: A Pirate's Life
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
More Fandoms