World map

"We are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things." The title of this article is conjectural. Although this article is based on canonical information, the actual name of this subject is pure conjecture.

World map
Object information
Creator	Artisan Cutler Beckett
Made	1720s
Affiliation	East India Trading Company Cutler Beckett's office
Behind the scenes
First appearance	Dead Man's Chest
Latest appearance	Dead Man's Chest

"Jack Sparrow is a dying breed. The world is shrinking. The blank edges of the map filled in. Jack must find his place in the New World or perish."

―Cutler Beckett to Will Turner

Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula, also known as the Map of the World, map on the wall, or simply world map, was a large-scale world map depicting the Earth, its oceans, and its continents. Since their arrival in the New World, the East India Trading Company had been charting the territory and researching the most effective trade routes. Created by an individual, serving as an expert Company artisan and cartographer for Lord Cutler Beckett, the map was painted on the wall inside Beckett's headquarters in Port Royal. As the Company made greater headway in the Occidental regions, more routes were established, and the civilized world itself appears, on paper as in reality, more structured and more uniform.

History

Cutler Beckett

Search for the Dead Man's Chest

Since their arrival in the New World, the East India Trading Company had been charting the territory and researching the most effective trade routes. By the late 1720s, Lord Cutler Beckett had great ambitions for the Company, making it his duty to fill in the blank areas on the world map, and so he had a map of the world painted on his office wall to illustrate them. By the time of Lord Beckett's arrival to Port Royal, the individual serving an expert artisan and cartographer was employed by Beckett to make daily changes to the map. As ships brought reports of the Company's growing power and new discoveries across the Seven Seas, the artisan painted in blank sections of the map and added new ports, countries, and towns. And as the Company made greater headway in the Occidental regions, more routes were established, and the world itself appears, on paper as in reality, more structured and more uniform.

The artisan painting the map of the world.

Cutler Beckett's plans needed to be constantly updated in his office during his search for the Dead Man's Chest, when the map was unfinished, with New World hardly recorded. As Beckett spoke with Will Turner, the artisan was actively painting the unfinished map on the wall, with the countries of the map were filled in, though most ports and towns remained blank. When Elizabeth Swann confronted Beckett, to warn him about the cursed Aztec gold of Isla de Muerta, Beckett said that there was more than one "chest of value" as he moved to the huge world map on the wall. Later, Beckett admired his unfinished map of the world, holding the ceremonial sword of James Norrington as Governor Weatherby Swann stood before him, locked in shackles for helping his daughter escape until Beckett brought the governor under his command in exchange for her safety.

The artisan working on the world map while Cutler Beckett holds Norrington's sword as a pointer, talking to Weatherby Swann.

The East India Trading Company's map of the world was known to be completed around the time James Norrington presented Cutler Beckett the heart of Davy Jones, thereby giving Beckett control of Davy Jones, the Flying Dutchman, and therefore the sea. Despite this, Beckett resumed his campaign against piracy aboard the HMS Endeavour, where there was at least one smaller but different version of the world map as well as a globe created and placed in the captain's cabin.

Sir Thomas Faye

At some point after the death of Lord Cutler Beckett, the secret files of the East India Trading Company was authored by Sir Thomas Faye. The efforts in charting their territory was among the subjects covered by Faye, who also obtained a small reproduction of the large-scale world map that created by Lord Beckett and the expert Company cartographer, as well as a second reproduction, where the world appears more structured and uniform as the Company made greater headway in the Occidental regions. Faye also added a warning to pirates that their days were numbered, as evidenced by the completed map of the civilized world.

Behind the scenes

Cutler Beckett promoting James Norrington and gazing at the finished world map was filmed for Dead Man's Chest, only to be cut. Promotional images and film footage would still be released.

"The Flying Dutchman. Whoever controls the heart of Davy Jones, controls the sea."
"The map is finished, sir."
"Just the way I imagined it."

―Artisan and Cutler Beckett

The map of the world or "NOVA TOTIUS TERRARUM ORBIS GEOGRAPHICA AC HYDROGRAPHICA TABULA" first appears in the 2006 reference book Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide, detailing the map inside Lord Cutler Beckett's offices of the East India Trading Company featured in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. It was first identified as a "map on the wall" or "huge world map" in the Dead Man's Chest junior novelization. Beckett's map of the world would also be featured or further detailed, among other appearances, in the official website, as well as the books Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean, The Secret Files of the East India Trading Company, and Disney Pirates: The Definitive Collector's Anthology. The only known creator of the map was graphic designer Dianne Chadwick, who detailed on her online website that Beckett's map of the world had three iterations, each more complete than the one before to convey the passage of time and the scope of his plans as he pursued global domination.

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Dead Man's Chest, while Cutler Beckett talks to Elizabeth Swann about a "chest of value" among his desires, the script details the huge world map on the wall of Beckett's office, "-- incomplete, parts of South America, Africa, Australia only sketched." However, Australia was identified as "Hollandia Nova" in the final cut of the film. After James Norrington hands the heart of Davy Jones to Beckett and the Flying Dutchman arrives to Port Royal, the Artisan, misspelled as "Artisian" twice in the scene, told Beckett of the map being finished. The scene never made it to the final cut of the film but was retained in at least one trailer as well as the film's deleted scene "The Map Is Finished" featured in home video releases.

The official website for Dead Man's Chest.

A map of the world was featured in the official website for Dead Man's Chest in 2006, but it was designed much differently than the final version. It was also identified as "The East India Trading Company's Map of the World" or simply "Map of the World" by the 2010 version of the website.

While unconfirmed, Beckett's map of the world is likely based on the historical Nova Totius Terrarum Orbis Geographica ac Hydrographica Tabula, created by Hendrik Hondius in 1630, and published the following year in the atlas Atlantis Maioris Appendix. Illustrations of the four elements of fire, air, water, and land are included. In the four corners, there are portraits of Julius Caesar, Claudius Ptolemy, and the atlas's first two publishers, Gerard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius, the father of Hendrik.

Appearances

• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization) (First appearance) (First identified as map on the wall and world map)
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: The Movie Storybook
• LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

• DisneyPirates.com
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide (First identified as map of the world, NOVA TOTIUS TERRARUM ORBIS GEOGRAPHICA AC HYDROGRAPHICA TABULA)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
• The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean
• The Secret Files of the East India Trading Company
• Disney Pirates: The Definitive Collector's Anthology