Logbook

"He roped a couple of sea turtles." The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed. The dispute is about: whether the name "logbook" originally appeared in the 2003 POTC game or the 2006 book Jack Sparrow: Silver. Please see this article's talk page to discuss possible changes.

The pages of Captain Jack Sparrow's log from his adventures aboard the Barnacle.

"Obviously, I shall need to see your logbook, Mr. Sparrow."
"Right you are, Mr. Beckett, I figured you'd ask to see the log, so I brought it along."
"Thank you. I shall peruse it with great interest."

―Cutler Beckett and Jack Sparrow

A logbook (or log book), also called a ship's log, Captain's Log, or simply log, was a book or journal serving as a maritime record of important events in the management, operation, and navigation of a ship. The captain of a ship was usually responsible for keeping a log, which was essential to traditional navigation, and must be filled in at least daily as it recounted the crew's exploits and discoveries. Logbooks would be used to estimate a ship's speed through the water as well as record navigational wind, weather conditions, speed, direction, position, times of routine events and significant incidents, crew complement or what ports were docked at and when.

History

The ship's log book of the Santiago, famously captained by Ponce de León.

"I, Captain Jack Sparrow, being recently possessed of a ship, a crew and a hat, do take it upon me from this day forth to faithfully and truthfully recount our adventures on the high seas and lowly streets in this Captain's Log."

―Excerpt from Jack Sparrow's log

During his teenage adventures, young Captain Jack Sparrow kept a "Captain's Log" aboard the Barnacle, beginning with the quest for the legendary Sword of Cortés. After becoming an honest seaman and serving under Captain Nathaniel Bainbridge aboard the Fair Wind, Sparrow took command of the ship and kept the ship's log following Bainbridge's death, which he later handed over to Cutler Beckett, the Director of West African Imports and Exports for the East India Trading Company. While examining the logbook, Beckett discovered that one of the last pages was carefully cut out. Noticing faint indentations on the next blank page, Beckett drew the pencil lead sideways over the page, which turned the indentations into white letters on a grey background. "Captain Jack Sparrow" was written no less than twenty-three times, in various sizes and styles.

Jack Sparrow also kept a log as captain of the EITC merchant vessel Wicked Wench. When the Wench reached the illusion hidden island of Kerma, he marked the bearings on his chart, and then entered them in the logbook. At the end of the seemingly unsuccessful quest, the Wench sailed back to its home port of Calabar, where Jack handed over the logbook to Beckett. However, when other EITC ships searched for Kerma on the coordinates from the logbook, they couldn't find it, because it was hidden by a different magical illusion.

The Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León kept a ship's log aboard the Santiago circa 1523, which would later be used by The Spaniard's crew during the quest for the Fountain of Youth in 1750. By 1751, the Swift and Sons Chart House contained many logs, and some of them were piled all the way to the ceiling.

Behind the scenes

Logbooks made their first appearance in the 2003 video game Pirates of the Caribbean. It was first identified as "Captain's Log" in Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm, and later identified as "logbooks" in Jack Sparrow: Silver. Although Ponce de León's ship's log book appeared in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, it was first identified as a "ship's log" in the film's junior novelization and simply a "log" in the film's visual guide.

In the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the At World's End video game, the "Captain's log" which documents the player's progress through the game is modeled like the Pirate Code book.

The Disney Second Screen Experience for On Stranger Tides was presented as a logbook, which takes viewers behind the scenes of the film and show a wealth of production photos, concept artwork, turnarounds, progressions, video, and more.

Ship's logs appear in Terry Rossio's original 2012 screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. At the beginning of the story, the little girl Cora June stole one and brought it to Philip Swift who used it to figure out the location of the treasure of all treasures, the legendary Mermaid Trove.

Appearances

• Pirates of the Caribbean (2003 video game) (First appearance)
• Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm (First identified as Captain's Log)
• Jack Sparrow: Silver (Mentioned only)
• The Price of Freedom
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Armada of the Damned (First identified as Quest Log)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization) (First identified as ship's log)
• The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth
• LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide (First identified as log)

External links

• Logbook on Wikipedia
• Logbook (nautical) on Wikipedia