Rat

Shansa holds a rat.

"You think the power of the Sword was meant for the likes of you, who are little more than a bilge rat."
"I take offense to that. Were I a rat, I would certainly not reside in a bilge!"

―Hernán Cortés and Jack Sparrow

A rat was a medium-sized rodent with long tails, pointed noses, and whiskers. Rats were typically distinguished from a mice by their size. The common terms rat and mouse are not taxonomically specific.

History

A rat stands on a barrel below decks of the Fleur de la Mort.

"All right. Now that we have all been introduced—and I assume there isn't anyone else? No nephews turned into rats, no second cousins turned into rabid dogs?"

―Jack Sparrow

Like most rodents, mice and rats existed throughout human history.

The term "bilge rat" originally referred to the rats who lived in a bilge at the bottom of the ship. It typically referred to members of a ship's crew who work in the bowels of the vessel, where rats would sometimes breed. Bilge rat was then utilized as an insult often employed among sailors and pirates.

When young Jack Sparrow stole a sack belonging to the infamous pirate Captain Torrents, he found what looked like a dried up old rat in it. Upon being introduced to Jean Magliore and his sister Constance, who was cursed as a cat by the mystic Tia Dalma, Jack asked if there were no nephews turned into rats. When the resurrected spirit of Hernán Cortés called Jack Sparrow a bilge rat, Sparrow replied that if he were a rat, he would certainly not reside in a bilge. Constance once fell overboard while chasing a bilge rat. On one occasion Constance brought Arabella Smith a stinky dead rat. The brig of the British Royal Navy vessel that carried the imprisoned Billy Turner from Bermuda to Port Royal was filled with rats, the floor was covered in sludge, and the ceiling dripped with a yellowish brown liquid. As Silverback and Left-Foot Louis meet, a rat stood on a barrel below decks of the Fleur de la Mort.

The infamous White Island prison was infested with rats. At the time of the quest for the Shadow Gold, the HMS Peacock was one of the few ships free from rats, cockroaches, and weevils. When Toolajee expressed a wish to leave Suvarnadurg as a stowaway aboard the Black Pearl, Spanish princess Carolina advised him against it, because there were too many rats in the hiding places on a ship. Near the Day of the Shadow, Diego de Leon and Carolina could hear the scritchscritching of tiny claws among the sacks and barrels around them on the merchant ship. Mice and rats didn't bother Diego anymore. He'd spent enough time with them on his other trips as a stowaway, including a short spell in the hold of the Black Pearl before Jack Sparrow had found him there.

Captain Jack Sparrow once deliberately insulted Capitaine Chevalle's French poodle Fifi by calling her a rat. When Joshamee Gibbs was recruiting sailors to crew the Black Pearl for Sparrow in a cantina at Tortuga, one skinny man claimed he didn't give an "ass rat's" if he lived or died. In Singapore, rats were known to dwell in the sewers.

A rat in Grimes Pub.

Rats were also frequented in Saint Martin. In Grimes Pub at Saint Martin, rats would occasionally crawl over all the items that Grimes got from penniless customers, most notably Captain Jack Sparrow, in exchange for rum and other alcoholic beverages. When the notorious pirate Captain Hector Barbossa visited the sea witch Shansa, she took a rat and threw it into a cauldron of boiling water, magically turning the water's surface into a visual of the ghost ship, the Silent Mary, attacking and destroying Barbossa's fleet.

Behind the scenes

Marc Davis' 1979 concept art for the Tokyo Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean with rat eyes sparkling in the treasure cave.

"Now line up so I may collect your daily tribute."
"Tribute? We're starved, Captain. Yesterday we ate a rat."
"It was a very big rat. Luckily the ship is overrun with them -- and I charge very little for each."

―Jack Sparrow and a pirate

Although used for terms like "bilge rat" in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, rats first appear in the 1996 book Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean. They were later mentioned in the 2006 book Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm, and made their first on-screen appearance in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's early screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl before the cursed crew's attack on the HMS Dauntless the tall sailor and the short sailor discussed the ship rats, with the short sailor stating that he hates them but their taste is all right, to which the tall sailor agreed.

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, a Skinny Man said he was drunk for a month and "I don't give a rat's ass if I live or die." The character instead said "an ass rat's" in the final cut of the film.

In Terry Rossio's original 2012 screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, when Hector Barbossa realized he'd been played by the beautiful Nadirah (actually the villainous Sea Widow in disguise), there was a sudden chirping, squeaking sound as a half dozen large, fat wharf rats and ship rats scuttle past, squeak and race away from shore.

In Jeff Nathanson's early 2013 screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales, rats were mentioned throughout the story. After the bank robbery in Saint Martin, the crew of the Dying Gull tell Jack Sparrow they were starving enough to the point they were forced to eat rats. Sparrow said it was a "very big rat" and the ship was overrun with them, and he charged very little for each. Scrum also considered rats delicious. Later, Sparrow told Pierre "Pig" Kelly he had three ships, but one of his ships was "not much of a ship" with one gun, leaks in the hull, and rats everywhere, which Scrum repeated were delicious. When Jack Sparrow hears a noise in the brig of the Queen Anne's Revenge, a young stowaway named Henry Maddox, Sparrow said "Now that's a big rat." By the final version of the film, rats appeared in Grimes Pub and with the sea witch Shansa. In the film's novelization, when Hector Barbossa declared to Shansa that the Trident of Poseidon could never be found, the rat on Shansa's shoulder then hissed at Barbossa.

Appearances

• Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean (First appearance)
• Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm (Mentioned only)
• Jack Sparrow: The Sword of Cortés (Mentioned only)
• Jack Sparrow: Silver
• Jack Sparrow: The Tale of Billy Turner and Other Stories
• Legends of the Brethren Court: The Turning Tide (Mentioned only)
• Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow
• Disney Adventures: "The Black Heart of the Pearl"
• Disney Adventures: "The Treasure of Shipwreck Island!" (Mentioned only)
• Disney Adventures: "Enter... the Scarecrow!" (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (Mentioned only)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization
  • Pirates des Caraïbes : La Vengeance de Salazar

Sources

• Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Story of the Robust Adventure in Disneyland and Walt Disney World (First mentioned)

External links

• Rat on Wikipedia