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Sinking

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This article is about sinking in general. You may be looking for the physical remains of a wrecked ship.
The Jolly Mon sinks at Port Royal.

The Jolly Mon sinks at Port Royal.

"Remarkable. When last I saw that ship, it was on fire and sinking beneath the waves. I fully expected that to be the last I saw of it."
―Cutler Beckett to Jack Sparrow, on the Black Pearl[src]

Sinking may refer to the sinking of a ship or shipwrecking, or to submerge by being covered by something (usually a liquid), such as being underwater.

History[]

The Silent Mary sinks several pirate ships.

The Silent Mary sinks several pirate ships.

"Do you smell that? Burning. That's my ship burning, thanks to your cannonballs. It will sink within the hour."
―Hawk to Ammand[src]

Throughout the Age of Piracy, ships have sailed the seven seas, though some have sent sinking from the surface to the bottom of the ocean. In 1631, Nathaniel Hawk's ship, the Victory, encountered the pirate frigate Black Pearl, which sunk to the bottom of the ocean, but its skeleton crew surviving underwater.[1] During a massive sea battle in the Caribbean Sea, Capitán Armando Salazar of the Spanish Navy and the crew of the galleon the Silent Mary destroyed dozens of ships, with more ships belonging to pirates of the Caribbean joining together in an attempt to defeat the dreaded pirate hunter, only to be destroyed themselves, the last of the pirate ships burning and sunk. Following the death of Captain Morgan, young Jack the Sparrow and the crew of the Wicked Wench cleverly tricked Salazar by sailing to the haunted waters of the mysterious Devil's Triangle, where the Mary hit the reefs, which ignited the gunpowder, resulting in a massive explosion that killed Salazar's entire crew and sank the Spanish ship.[2]

In the waters north of Bermuda, Hector Barbossa's pirate schooner Cobra had an encounter with rogue pirates,[3] led by Boris "Borya" Palachnik, the rogue pirate captain of a sloop called the Koldunya and the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea,[4] in which Barbossa's schooner was attacked and sunk.[3] The Black Pearl was originally the well-known merchant ship the Wicked Wench that Cutler Beckett gave Jack Sparrow command of as captain, on behalf of the East India Trading Company, until Beckett tracked down the ship, set her ablaze, and sent her sinking beneath the waves to a watery grave at the bottom of the ocean, along with its captain. When the Wench was sunk, Jack made a bargain with Davy Jones, the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman and the supernatural ruler of the ocean depths, to raise his sunken ship from the depths and allow him to captain the Black Pearl for a time of thirteen years in exchange for Jack's soul and servitude aboard the Dutchman.[5][6][7][8][9]

Within the thirteen years after his deal with Davy Jones,[7] Captain Jack Sparrow became a legendary pirate who, among other stories, sunk a French war galleon "with naught but his cutlass and a diving bell."[10] At some point after the mutiny aboard the Black Pearl, Hector Barbossa strapped a cannon to William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner's bootstraps, with the last Barbossa's crew saw of Bill Turner was sinking to the "crushing black oblivion of Davy Jones' Locker."[11] Sparrow later made an unusual yet graceful entrance to Port Royal by stepping onto the wooden dock from the masthead of the Jolly Mon, the purloined fishing boat once owned by Anamaria, as his craft silently sunk beneath him.[12][13] As Jack Sparrow swam towards Elizabeth Swann to rescue her underneath the water, he ripped off her dress, which caught in the current and slowly began to sink back to the ocean floor as Jack quickly swam Elizabeth to the dock.[11] Within the next year, Commodore James Norrington of the British Royal Navy pursued the crew of the Black Pearl, until the HMS Dauntless sunk in the pursuit through a hurricane. The debt Captain Jack Sparrow owed to Davy Jones was settled after the Black Pearl was dragged to the depths, along with Sparrow himself, following a series of attacks by the Kraken.[7] Even after the rescue of Sparrow and the Pearl,[14] Cutler Beckett mused about the last time he saw the ship over thirteen years ago, she was on fire and sinking beneath the waves, fully expecting that to be the last he saw of it.[8] Following the battle between the East India Company and the Brethren Court, Beckett's flagship, the HMS Endeavour had been destroyed,[14] and the ship began to sink beneath the cool, blue Caribbean Sea.[14][15]

The HMS Providence sinks beneath the waters of Whitecap Bay.

The HMS Providence sinks beneath the waters of Whitecap Bay.

Years later, following an encounter with Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and the Queen Anne's Revenge, Hector Barbossa lost his right leg and believed the Black Pearl was sunk,[16][17][18] then unaware of its fate as being encased in a glass bottle in Blackbeard's collection aboard the Revenge,[19][20] which Barbossa himself didn't learn until later.[2] When Barbossa, now a privateer for the British crown under King George II, explained to Jack Sparrow about the sinking of the Pearl, Sparrow pointed out that if the ship he loved dearly had sunk, Barbossa should be dead,[17] gone down and sunk with it.[16] During the quest for the Fountain of Youth, Barbossa's British Navy vessel, the frigate HMS Providence, was attacked and sunk by dozens of angry mermaids at Whitecap Bay.[18]

The book The Pirates' Code Guidelines by Joshamee Gibbs was only rumored to exist until a copy was discovered, perfectly preserved, in the wreckage of the Titanic, one of the most legendary ships to be lost at sea by the twentieth century.[5]

Behind the scenes[]

The term "sink" was first mentioned in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, specifically the "Bombarding the Fort" scene between the Spanish fort and a pirate galleon with the defenders' line, "We're going to sink your stinking ship, you!"[21] Sinking first appeared in the 1996 book Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean.[22] For the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, director Gore Verbinski didn't wait for a revised script but immediately began prepping and storyboarding his film from Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's outline,[23] with the storyboarding process giving birth to Captain Jack Sparrow's now famous first appearance with his arrival on a sinking boat,[11] the Jolly Mon,[12][13] as depicted in development art by James Ward Byrkit.[24][25]

The 2013 interactive treasure hunt A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas at the Magic Kingdom featured ships in bottles sinking,[26] notably during the "Blackbeard" raid.[27][28] The special effect of ships in bottles battling and sinking later appeared in the 2025 Pirates-themed lounge The Beak and Barrel.[29]

The Queen Anne's Revenge serves as Edward "Blackbeard" Teach's ship in the 2011 film Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which is set circa 1750.[18] Historically, the ship ran aground and sank off the coast of North Carolina in 1718.[30]

Appearances[]

Sources[]

External links[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean (2003 video game)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Price of Freedom, Chapter Two, Lady Esmeralda
  4. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Eight, The Devil in the Deep Blue Sea
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 The Pirates' Code Guidelines
  6. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Nineteen: Freedom's Price
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 97
  9. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Behind the Scenes
  10. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  15. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization) (Special Edition), p. 229
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization), pp. 21-22
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Movie Storybook, p. 23
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named OST
  19. ↑ Terry Rossio: "It's true that we don't show Barbossa's investigation scene or scenes, in between the sinking of the Pearl and the capture of Jack, where Barbossa gained his information, but it should be enough to know that those scenes must have taken place for Barbossa to know what he knows."
  20. ↑ Terry Rossio: "Barbossa absolutely does not know about the Pearl is on Blackbeard's ship. If he did, that would be his focus, and when he reached the ship, he would be upset the Pearl wasn't there."
  21. ↑ Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Sound Track of the Fabulous Adventure
  22. ↑ Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean
  23. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies
  24. ↑ The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean
  25. ↑ Bring Me That Horizon: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean
  26. ↑ A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas
  27. ↑ A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas - Blackbeard Raid - Play Testing, Disney World - YouTube (May 9, 2013)
  28. ↑ A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas - "Blackbeard" Raid - YouTube (May 16, 2013)
  29. ↑ First Look Inside The Beak and Barrel Pirate Tavern at Magic Kingdom - YouTube (August 22, 2025)
  30. ↑ New "On Stranger Tides Revealed" – PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES Pod #1 & Poster | We Are Movie Geeks (March 14, 2011) - Archived
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