John Scarfield

John Scarfield
Biographical information
Gender	Male
Ethnic group	British
Eye color	Blue
Hair color	Unknown (white wig)
Born	c. 1700s
Died	1751, Essex, Caribbean Sea
Title(s)	Lieutenant Sir
Statistics
Weapon(s) owned	Sword Flintlock pistol
Ship(s) captained or crewed	Essex
Battles	Escape from Saint Martin Race to the Black rock island
Affiliation	British Royal Navy Crew of the Essex
Behind the scenes
First appearance	The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth
Last appearance	Dead Men Tell No Tales
Cause	Deceased
Portrayer	David Wenham

"You're going to read that wall for me or you will die. The British Empire will have the Trident and rule the sea. I want to know where that pirate is going with that witch."

―Scarfield to Shansa

John Scarfield was an officer of the British Royal Navy, a ruthless and determined martinet in service to the British Empire. He most notably held the rank of lieutenant, serving as the second-in-command of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin under Mayor Dix, and the commanding officer a British crew aboard the warship, the Essex. Mean spirited, condescending, and quick to scapegoat others for his faults, Lieutenant Scarfield was driven mad by both his ambition and lust for vengeance.

In the town of Saint Martin, Lieutenant Scarfield pursued Carina Smyth, a young woman and astronomer accused of being a witch, as well as a down-on-his-luck pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. He also detained Henry Turner, a young sailor and traitor or perceived "coward" of the British Navy who washed ashore talking about the Trident of Poseidon. Following the escape of the three fugitives, Scarfield deduced their quest and, as the sea turned to blood and ships burned in the night, enlisted the help of Shansa the sea witch to help set his course. During the voyage, Scarfield's crew aboard the Essex managed to capture Sparrow's crew aboard the Dying Gull, who later escaped from the brig, and pursued the restored Black Pearl. As Scarfield spotted the Pearl through his spyglass, he decided to chase them with the intention of securing the Trident, claiming only the British Empire would rule the power of the sea. However, Lieutenant Scarfield's plans were thwarted by the unexpected appearance of the Silent Mary, the ghost ship of Capitán Armando Salazar, and was killed as the Essex was destroyed in a matter of seconds.

Biography

Early life

"The Navy sent me here to kill witches."

―John Scarfield to Young soldier

Little is known of John Scarfield's life, other than by 1751, he became a member of the British Royal Navy, eventually becoming an officer promoted to Lieutenant of the British Navy. Scarfield desired to have his own fleet and fight in the wars of West Africa, but he was denied and instead assigned to secure the Caribbean island of Saint Martin. Although Lieutenant Scarfield was assigned as the commanding officer of the warship Essex, the denial of his superiors was probably the reason why he acquired a fierce temper.

Quest for the Trident of Poseidon

Saint Martin

Scarfield threatens his own officer.

"Well, look at this. If I kill the coward, the witch hangs. Two for the price of one."

―Scarfield

The "witch" Carina Smyth and the Captain Jack Sparrow were both captured at Saint Martin, and Scarfield demanded that they both be executed simultaneously so as to not ruin his reputation. After Henry Turner washed up on his shores, he coldly brushed him off as a deserter while sentencing the boy to be hanged as well. However, Turner managed to escape trouble twice, first by Smyth giving him the key to his release and again by enlisting Jack's old crew while acting as the distraction during their sentencing and thus enabling said rogue's escape once again, who knocked out Scarfield with a block of wood before he could do any harm to Carina and Turner.

The Pursuit

"We will beat your captain to death until he reveals where they're heading."

―Scarfield

Scarfield was now in pursuit, assembling a crew and doing everything in his power to find the three miscreants that ruined his public image. He, along with some of his officers, sought out the sea-witch Shansa, coercing her for information about the star chart Carina made in her cell. But the seamstress willingly showed Scarfield the route to the Trident of Poseidon, where Henry, Carina, and Jack were headed, in spite of his threat upon her life.

After hours of searching, Scarfield's ship, the Essex, would encounter the Dying Gull captained by; unbeknownst to him at the time, Mr. Gibbs, who just narrowly escaped a beating from the naval officer's men by making Scrum captain of the ship in his stead. Scarfield, ever the mean spirited type, ordered one of the burlier soldiers to pummel Gibbs' scapegoat until they confess as to where Sparrow and company were heading.

The Black Pearl and the Silent Mary

"Those pirates are going for the Trident."

―Scarfield

Some time after Gibbs and the other brigands escaped from his ship, Scarfield sailed along until discovering the newly resurrected Black Pearl. Having deduced their motives, the officer ordered his crew to prepare an assault. After Henry Turner spotted his ship on the starboard side, Hector Barbossa ordered the men of the Pearl to stand their ground and fight until the end. Scarfield stood aboard the Essex looking at the pirate ship through his spyglass and waiting to signal his men for cannon fire. When all had seemed well, Scarfield heard a menacing sound creeping up behind him.

Lieutenant Scarfield, in his pursuit of the Trident of Poseidon, seconds before being crushed by the Silent Mary.

"Only the British Empire will hold the power of the sea."

―Scarfield's last words before the Silent Mary appears

As he slowly turned around, he noticed a peculiar large object moving upward in a chilling way: the Silent Mary. The Silent Mary opened its sides like a cage and came crashing down on top of Scarfield and his crew, igniting the powder magazine and causing the Essex to go up into flames and sink to the depths of the ocean, therefore ending the tyrannical lieutenant's reign of terror.

Personality and traits

"The whole town speaks of you. The only survivor of the Monarch. A boy who paddled all the way to Saint Martin against the tide on a piece of driftwood. Found jabbering about pirates and tridents."
"Please, sir, let me go of these chains."
"My job is to protect this island and these waters. And your sleeves have been ripped. The mark of treason."
"We were attacked by the dead..."
"You're a coward who ran from battle. And that is how you'll die."

―Scarfield and Henry Turner

Lieutenant John Scarfield.

Lieutenant John Scarfield of the British Royal Navy was a ruthless and determined martinet. He was known to be baleful and cruel, not only to his enemies, but to his own men as well, as seen by his threatening to hang one of his own officers in Carina Smyth's place if she wasn't found. His personal lust for reputation and vengeance ultimately ended in his quick demise at the hands of Capitán Armando Salazar. In fact, Scarfield's only interest in his life was personal representation, which is the reason for his obsession with the escapes of Jack Sparrow and Smyth, since said escapes ruined his social standing in the first place.

Scarfield was also largely hypocritical in his beliefs as evident while in taking glee in tormenting an innocent woman on the grounds of witchcraft, he was willing to deal with an actual witch in pursuit of his goals. After the fact of dismissing ramblings about tridents and vengeful ghosts from the same person labeled a deserter whom said lieutenant sentenced to hang. Scarfield also shows signs of incompetence given his tendency to re-assign blame, write off others at a glance and need to gloat over pleasant situations that are distracting him from what's in front of his face.

Scarfield was very ambitious. One of his desires was to command a fleet of his own and fight wars in West Africa. During the race to the Black rock island his goal was to find the legendary Trident of Poseidon, and although he publicly declared that only the British Empire would hold the power of the sea, privately he intended to keep the Trident for himself, because with a weapon like that he would surpass all the British naval officers, and even become more powerful than the King hmself.

Behind the scenes

Lieutenant John Scarfield first appeared in The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, both tie-ins books released before the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. David Wenham portrayed the character in the film, identified only as "Lieutenant" in a line of dialogue and "Scarfield" in the end credits.

There are several differences with Scarfield's character in between the film and the tie-in books. Scarfield named the British Royal Navy (named "British navy" or simply the "navy") in the books, rather than the British Empire as in the film. In Elizabeth Rudnick's novelization and the comic book adaptation, Scarfield is knocked down by Jack Sparrow with the guillotine's blade in the film's novelization and the comic book adaptation, whereas Scarfield is knocked down by Sparrow with a piece of wood in the film itself.

In Terry Rossio's original 2012 screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales, the main British Navy officer in the film was an admiral called John Benbow. Sent to the Caribbean to fight in the Seven Years' War, Benbow would offer a free pardon for all pirates who surrender to the British authorities and agree to serve in the Royal Navy for one year or fight on behalf of the British in one battle under his command. In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales, Scarfield was a Royal Navy admiral stationed in Port Royal. After capturing the witch Melia, he and his crew would follow the Queen Anne's Revenge into the Devil's Triangle where both the pirates and the Navy crew would be attacked by the ghostly crew of the Silent Mary led by Captain John Brand. Though some of the pirates would escape to the nearby Coffin Island, Brand and his ghosts would possess the bodies of the captured British mariners, with Brand using Scarfield's body to leave the borders of the Triangle. Even though Scarfield's body was wounded during a clash with the pirates, Brand eventually took the Trident of Poseidon, returning to the Silent Mary and abandoning Scarfield's body, leaving the wounded admiral to die on deck.

In the film, Lieutenant Scarfield commands the Essex, a British warship. In real-world history, however, the biggest ships the Royal Navy lieutenants could command were smaller vessels like sloops and brigs. A lieutenant could command a warship like the Essex only if the ship's captain was absent, indisposed or had been killed in action.

It's possible that Lieutenant John Scarfield was named after the main villain of Howard Pyle's short story Captain Scarfield in which the titular character lives a double life as an honest merchant captain Eleazer Cooper and the infamous pirate John "Jack" Scarfield.

Appearances

• The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth (First appearance, simultaneous with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization (First appearance, simultaneous with The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth)
  • Pirates des Caraïbes : La Vengeance de Salazar
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel