Shoal

Shoals in the Caribbean Sea.

"We're shallower on the draft, right."
" Aye."
"Then can’t we lose them on those shoals?"

―Elizabeth Swann and Anamaria

A shoal or sandbar was a somewhat linear landform within or extending into a body of water, typically composed of sand, silt or small pebbles. A spit or sandspit was a type of shoal. Shoals were characteristically long and narrow (linear) and develop where a stream or ocean current promotes deposition of granular material, resulting in localized shallowing (shoaling) of the water. Shoals can appear in the sea, in a lake, or in a river. Alternatively a bar may separate a lake from the sea, as in the case of an ayre. They were typically composed of sand, although could be of any granular matter that the moving water has access to and was capable of shifting around (for example, soil, silt, gravel, cobble, shingle, or even boulders). The grain size of the material comprising a bar is related to the size of the waves or the strength of the currents moving the material, but the availability of material to be worked by waves and currents is also important.

The term bar can apply to landform features spanning a considerable range in size, from a length of a few metres in a small stream to marine depositions stretching for hundreds of kilometres along a coastline, often called barrier islands.

In a nautical sense, a bar was a shoal, similar to a reef: a shallow formation of (usually) sand that was a navigation or grounding hazard, with a depth of water of 6 fathoms (11 metres) or less. It therefore applies to a silt accumulation that shallows the entrance to the course of a river or creek.

History

"We're sailing into the heart of the Bahamas, now. Lots of shoals, so we'll anchor by night, and only sail by day. Too risky, otherwise."

―Jack Sparrow to Amenirdis

There were shoals located in the Caribbean Sea, found near the Black Sam's Spit and not far from Isla de Muerta. The shoals were slightly deeper then eleven feet. When the Black Pearl pursued the Interceptor, Elizabeth Swann proposed to escape by sailing over the shoals. But the plan failed as the Pearl caught up with them before they could reach the shoals, and a battle between the two vessels.

Parley on the sandbar.

There was a sandbar located near Shipwreck Island, where a parley took place during the War Against Piracy. It was a meeting between the representatives of the Brethren Court (Pirate King Elizabeth Swann, Captains Jack Sparrow, and Hector Barbossa) and the East India Trading Company (Lord Cutler Beckett, Davy Jones and Will Turner). This location was where Swann declared war against Beckett, and Jack was traded in for Will, to settle Jack's debt to Jones.

Behind the scenes

• Scenes on the sandbar from At World's End were shot at White Cay in the Exumas, a district in the Bahamas. It was also the location of scenes from Isla Cruces from Dead Man's Chest.
• The first screenplay draft of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl indicated that the "reef" (or "islet") is actually the island that Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann would be marooned at, known as Black Sam's Spit.

Appearances

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (First appearance)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)
• Kingdom Hearts III (Non-canonical appearance)

External links

• Shoal on Wikipedia