Shoal

Shoals located 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 was a natural submerged ridge, bank, or bar that consisted of, or was covered by, sand or other unconsolidated materials, and rose from the bed of a body of water close to the surface or above it, which posed a danger to navigation. Shoals were also known as sandbanks, sandbars, spit or sandspit. The term bar could also 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.

The term shoal was also used in a number of ways that could be either similar to, or quite different from, how it was used in oceanography. Sometimes, the term referred to either any relatively shallow place in a stream, river, lake, sea, or other body of water; a rocky area on the seafloor within an area mapped for navigation purposes; or, a growth of vegetation on the bottom of a deep lake, that occurred at any depth, or was used as a verb for the process of proceeding from a greater to a lesser depth of water.

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 applied 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

The Bahamas were full of shoal waters. When the rogue pirate sloop the Koldunya chased the EITC merchantman Wicked Wench through the Northwest Providence Channel, the Wench's captain Jack Sparrow tricked the pirate vessel into running aground. However, the Wench also ended up stuck in shallow water, well within the firing range of the pirates, and a fierce battle ensued. When the tide lifted the pirate ship, she sailed for the Wench with the intention to rake her stern, from which the merchant crew could not return fire. However, one of the passengers aboard the Wench, the Zerzuran princess Amenirdis, used her magical powers to blow up the gunpowder on the Koldunya, completely destroying the sloop.

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 suggested to Joshamee Gibbs and Anamaria that they sail the Interceptor over the shoals to try to lose the Pearl. Gibbs agreed as the three turned and looked to the horizon in front of them, the indistinct shape of a rocky outcropping could be seen, not far away from them. Apparently thinking that Elizabeth's idea was better than no idea, Anamaria turned to the Interceptor crew and barked out new orders, while Captain Hector Barbossa had no intention of letting them get away at the shoals. The plan failed, however, as the Pearl caught up with them before they could reach the shoals, and a battle between the two vessels.

The Black Pearl sailed to an archipelago in the Caribbean that matched the outline of the crab claws on Tia Dalma's table. And there, on the shoals, lied a scuttled ship, the main deck slanted into the sea. Under the glow of an old oil lantern, Jack Sparrow, Joshamee Gibbs, and Will Turner silently stared at the broken vessel, with Will believing it to be Davy Jones' ship, the Flying Dutchman.

Parley on the sandbar.

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

Behind the scenes

Shoals first appeared in the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The term "sandbar" first appeared in T.T. Sutherland's junior novelization of the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, and "sandbank" first appeared in the 2011 novel The Price of Freedom.

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's early screenplay draft for The Curse of the Black Pearl, it was indicated that the "reef" (or "islet") is actually the island that Captain Barbossa left Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann to be marooned at, also known as Black Sam's Spit.

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay draft ofPirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Tia Dalma tells Jack's crew that if they were to brave the "weird and haunted shoals at world's end." In the final version, the word "shores" is the spoken line.

During the back-to-back production of Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, scenes were shot at White Cay in the Exumas, a district in the Bahamas. It was first used for scenes on Isla Cruces in Dead Man's Chest, then used for the parley on the sandbar in At World's End.

Appearances

• The Price of Freedom (First identified as sandbank)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (First appearance)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2006 junior novelization)
  • Fluch der Karibik
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization) (First identified as sandbar)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: The Movie Storybook
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (Penguin Readers)
• LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)
• Kingdom Hearts III (Non-canonical appearance)

External links

• Shoal on Wikipedia