The captain goes down with his ship

Jack Sparrow accepts his fate as the captain going down with his ship, as the Kraken drags the Black Pearl to the depths.

"Jack Sparrow, our debt is settled."
"The Captain goes down with his ship."
"Turns out not even Jack Sparrow can best the devil!"

―Davy Jones, Palifico, and Maccus

The Captain goes down with his ship was a naval tradition in which the captain was expected to remain on board a sinking ship in order to save as many other lives as possible. In most instances, captains forgo their own rapid departure of a ship in distress, and concentrate instead on saving other people. It often results in either the death or belated rescue of the captain as the last person on board.

A most notable example being Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl, a pirate ship which originally served as a merchant vessel for the East India Trading Company called the Wicked Wench. When the Wench was sunk, along with her captain, Sparrow made a deal with Davy Jones to raise the ship from the depths, after which Sparrow named her the Black Pearl. Thirteen years later, both Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl were once again sunk by Davy Jones, though both Sparrow and his vessel were later rescued from Davy Jones' Locker.

History

"I lost the Pearl as I lost my leg!"
"Lost the Pearl?"
"Aye. I defended her mightily enough, but she be sunk nonetheless."
"If that ship be sunk properly, you should be sunk with it."

―Hector Barbossa and Jack Sparrow

Captain Jack Sparrow unintentionally went down with his beloved ship, the merchant vessel Wicked Wench, when she was burned and sunk on the orders of Cutler Beckett, the EITC Director for West Africa. Sparrow ended up halfway to the Land of the Dead, where he made a deal with Davy Jones, the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman and the supernatural ruler of the ocean depths. Jones resurrected Sparrow and his ship, and in exchange Sparrow agreed to surrender his soul to Jones after thirteen years of captaincy. However, returning to a life of piracy and rechristening his ship the Black Pearl, Jack had no intention of honoring his part of the bargain. Over thirteen years later, despite his attempt to avoid his blood debt by finding the fabled Dead Man's Chest and use the heart of Davy Jones as leverage, Sparrow ended up sinking with his ship once again to Davy Jones' Locker. Although Sparrow intended to escape the Kraken's attack on the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann shackled Sparrow to the mast of his ship, giving Sparrow's crew time to escape. As the Kraken enveloped the Pearl, Jack Sparrow accepted his fate and leaped forward at the "beastie" to go down fighting. Looking through his barnacled spyglass as the Black Pearl was dragged into the depths, Davy Jones considered Jack Sparrow's debt settled, with Palifico commenting "The captain goes down with his ship." Despite both Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl being sunk once again, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, and rival pirate captain Hector Barbossa entered an uneasy alliance to rescue Sparrow and his vessel from the Locker.

Lord Cutler Beckett stays on his ship, the Endeavour, as it explodes around him.

During the Brethren Court's final stand against Lord Cutler Beckett, the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman destroyed the HMS Endeavour, the flagship of the East India Trading Company Armada. Although many officers and crewmembers escaped the destruction, notably Lieutenant Theodore Groves, the ship's captain, Lord Cutler Beckett, sank with his ship.

Years later, following an encounter with Blackbeard, Hector Barbossa lost his right leg and believed the Black Pearl was sunk. When Hector Barbossa, now a privateer under King George II, told Jack Sparrow about the sinking of the Black Pearl, Sparrow stated that Barbossa should have sunk with it. Later, as the HMS Providence encountered three Spanish galleons in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, Captain Barbossa ordered his crew to prepare the ship for battle, and when he realized he was hopelessly outgunned, he swore to himself if his ship went down he would go down with it.

Behind the scenes

Although an example of "the captain goes down with the ship" first appeared with Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl in the junior novelization for the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, the phrase first appeared in the film.

In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the main villain was Captain John Brand, an insane British Royal Navy officer who was outsmarted and defeated by Jack Sparrow and sank with his ship, the Silent Mary, in the haunted waters of the Devil's Triangle.

In the 2002 sequel to Disney's Peter Pan, Return to Neverland, Peter Pan tells Captain Hook that "a good captain always goes down with his ship" as an octopus sinks the Jolly Roger. However, Hook's response to Pan, "I don't want to be a good captain!"

Appearances

• The Price of Freedom
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Ghost Ship
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (First identified as captain goes down with his ship)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization) (First appearance)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
• Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Mentioned only)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization) (Mentioned only)

External links

• The captain goes down with the ship on Wikipedia