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For other uses, see Crew of the Black Pearl (disambiguation)

Cursed crew

General information
Founder	Jack Sparrow Hector Barbossa
Leader	Hector Barbossa Bo'sun
Notable members	Jack the Monkey Pintel Ragetti Koehler Twigg Jacoby Mallot Grapple Bootstrap Bill Turner Scurvy Joe and many others
Ships	Black Pearl Cursed crew's pirate ship Cursed crew's merchant ship
Headquarters	Isla de Muerta
Locations	Caribbean Sea
Other information
Affiliation	Crew of the Black Pearl
Behind the scenes
First appearance	The Curse of the Black Pearl
Last appearance	The Legend of Jack Sparrow

"The moonlight shows us for what we really are. We are not among the living, and so we cannot die. But neither are we dead."

―Hector Barbossa^[src]

The Cursed crew^[1] was a pirate crew of the Black Pearl. Scoundrels, murderers, drunkards and desperadoes, this crew was most notably led by Captain Hector Barbossa.

Barbossa originally served as first mate aboard the Pearl until he led a mutiny against the former captain Jack Sparrow. Sometime after finding the Treasure of Cortés at Isla de Muerta, the crew suffered the Aztec curse; a curse they originally thought to be ridiculous superstition. To lift the curse, the crew had to return all 882 pieces of the Aztec Gold must be restored and the blood repaid. The crew would spend ten years finding all the gold and trying to lift the curse. After the curse was lifted, the crew was taken as prisoners of the British Royal Navy. They later escape from their prison and would be led by Bo'sun following Barbossa's death.

History

Captain Jack Sparrow

"Worry about your own fortunes, gentlemen. The deepest circle of Hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers."

―Jack Sparrow to Koehler and Twigg^[src]

Jack Sparrow arrived at Tortuga to round up crew members with the intention to find the treasure of Isla de Muerta. At this point in time, Hector Barbossa was Jack's First Mate, who had already sailed aboard the Black Pearl for at least two years, having designs on captaincy himself. Barbossa told the crew of his own plans, resulting in them pledging their loyalty to him instead of Jack.^[2] At least two members of the crew, Pintel and Ragetti, were most loyal to Barbossa, because they had sailed under Barbossa's command on the Cobra.^[3]

Mutiny

"See, three days into the venture, the First Mate comes up to him and says everything's an equal share. That should mean the location of the treasure too. So, Jack gives up the bearings. That night, there was a mutiny."

―Joshamee Gibbs on Jack Sparrow's mutiny^[src]

With the crew assembled, the quest began, using coordinates that Jack was able to get from his unique compass. Three days into the voyage, Barbossa coerced Jack into giving up the exact location of the island which Jack initially planned on keeping confidential. And so, Jack gave Barbossa the bearings of Isla de Muerta, as well as informing the crew the stories of the curse that lied upon the treasure. The men laughed at stories that it was cursed, with Barbossa having said, "Ridiculous superstition!" That night, Barbossa and the crew led a mutiny against Jack. They marooned him on a deserted island, leaving him with a pistol with a single shot, and left him for dead. Barbossa then assumed command as the new captain of the Black Pearl.^[2]

Captain Barbossa

Finding the cursed treasure

"I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore, Captain Barbossa."
"Aye. That's exactly what I thought when we were first told the tale. Buried on an island of dead what cannot be found, except for those who know where it is. Find it, we did. There be the chest. Inside be the gold. And we took them all. We spent them and traded them and frittered them away on drink and food and pleasurable company. The more we gave them away, the more we came to realize, the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust. We are cursed men, Miss Turner. Compelled by greed we were, but now...we are consumed by it."

―Elizabeth Swann and Hector Barbossa^[src]

Although having believed that the curse that former captain Jack Sparrow spoke of was a mere ghost story, Captain Barbossa had the Pearl sail on, pressing towards Isla de Muerta. The crew located the island of the dead and plundered its treasure: 882 pieces of Aztec gold that lied on the stone chest of Cortés. At some point prior to finding the island, Barbossa would get a pet monkey that he would name "Jack", after his old captain, who also took at least one piece of the treasure. The crew spent and traded every bit, eventually ridding themselves of all gold pieces, spending them on food, drink and pleasurable company. It was only at this point that the crew began to realize they had been cursed, suffering a living death, in which no amount of food, drink or pleasurable company would satisfy. When they step into the moonlight, the grim effects of the curse were plain to see. In the moonlight, the crew's flesh vanished from their bones, and become walking skeleton, while in the daytime, their true decayed selves were covered by appearance of their former selves. Therefore, each member of the crew was doomed to reside as members of the undead for their transgression.^[2]

Reclaiming all pieces

"There is one way we can end our curse. All the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold must be restored and the blood repaid. Thanks to ye, we have the final piece."
"And the blood to be repaid?"
"That's why there's no sense to be killin' you...yet."

―Hector Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann^[src]

Over the next decade, the now-cursed crew attempted to reclaim all 882 pieces of the Aztec gold, in order to lift their curse. Bootstrap Bill Turner, on the other hand, did not join this desperate search, instead sending his piece of the treasure to his child, saying that they deserved to remain cursed for their previous actions. In response, Barbossa had Bill tied to a cannon thrown overboard, eternally drowning but unable to die because of the Aztec curse. He was left to suffer at the bottom of the ocean. Not until after Bootstrap was thrown overboard did the crew learn of an additional requirement to lift the curse: all who stole but a single coin from the chest had to pay the heathen gods in blood, which now seemed impossible with Bootstrap lost to them. However, a chance of salvation lied in the child of William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner, who had both his coin and Turner blood in his veins.^[2]

And so, with their slight ray of hope of lifting their curse, the cursed crew hunted down all the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold, using the caves of Isla de Muerta as a base to store their plundered loot. Throughout their search, the crew raided ships and settlements and believed to have left no survivors. Due to their immortality and prior fighting experience of most of the crew members, the crew was a deadly threat. Stories and legends arose about the Black Pearl, being "crewed by the damned" and Barbossa himself characterized as "a man so evil that Hell itself spat him back out".^[2]

Even members of the British Royal Navy were not above superstition; Joshamee Gibbs was particularly mindful of drawing the attention of the "cursed pirates" during the HMS Dauntless's crossing from England to Port Royal. It was during this voyage that the Black Pearl destroyed a merchant vessel that carried young Will Turner, who wore the Aztec gold medallion around his neck, who had set out to find his father. Drawn by Will's medallion, the crew left a burning wreck in their wake, though were unable to recover the gold because Will, along with his piece of gold, had drifted towards the Dauntless. Young Elizabeth Swann took the gold medallion away from him, believing that if it were discovered he would be treated as a pirate and be killed. Elizabeth Swann would discover the Pearl sailing away from the Dauntless as she held the medallion.^[2]

Sometime during their desperate search for the gold, Barbossa's crew of cutthroats came across a mysterious castaway who was floating in the water. It was from him that Barbossa learned of the Fountain of Youth, a legendary spring that grants oneself immortality, believing that the Fountain might hold the key to lifting the curse they're under.^[4] However, the idea was soon left aside and the crew continued searching for the gold.^[2]

Attack on Port Royal

"Wait! You have to take me to shore! According to the Code of the Order of the Brethren—"
"First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement, so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the Pirate's Code to apply, and you're not. And thirdly, the Code is more what you'd call 'guidelines' than actual rules. Welcome aboard the Black Pearl, Miss Turner."

―Elizabeth Swann and Hector Barbossa^[src]

About eight years after the Black Pearl's voyage from the crossing of England, the crew had returned all but one of the 882 pieces of the Aztec gold. The crew would at some point sense the final piece, following the "call" of the gold piece to the British colony of Port Royal. The cursed crew of Black Pearl arrived to Port Royal at night, blending in perfectly with the dark and cloudy night, followed by an eerie fog. Due to the cover, the Pearl was able to attack Port Royal unhindered. Barbossa ordered his cannonneers to fire on Fort Charles. While the ship occupied the fort's attention, Barbossa sent a raiding party to collect the final Aztec coin.^[2]

The Black Pearl laid siege to the town, and two fo the crew, Pintel and Ragetti, brought a woman aboard the Pearl, who had the last Aztec gold medallion. The woman introduced herself as "Elizabeth Turner", thereby making the cursed pirate crew believe she was the child of Bootstrap Bill Turner they needed. Barbossa welcomed Elizabeth aboard the Pearl as the crew set sail for Isla de Muerta.^[2]

Isla de Muerta

"Gents, you all remember Captain Jack Sparrow? Kill him."
"The girl's blood didn't work, did it?"
"Hold your fire! You know whose blood we need."
"I know whose blood you need."

―Hector Barbossa and Jack Sparrow^[src]

While the Black Pearl sailed in the moonlit night, Barbossa had Elizabeth as his guest for a dinner in his cabin. It was here that Barbossa told Elizabeth the story of the curse and how the crew fell upon it. He also told her that she was the last blood sacrifice needed to lift the curse. At that, Elizabeth leapt up and attempted to run out of the cabin, having stabbed Barbossa with a knife from the table. However, she was shocked to see that Barbossa was still alive and ran face-to-face with Barbossa's skeletal crew. After Barbossa explained the curse's effect on the crew, drinking wine as evidence, a terrified Elizabeth ran back into the cabin, where she remained for the remainder of the voyage.

Upon reaching the caverns of Isla de Muerta, the crew unloaded all of their booty, while Barbossa prepared the blood ritual. Barbossa gave a speech to the crew, reminiscing of their search for the 882 pieces of the Aztec gold, and turned to Elizabeth to perform the ritual to lift the curse. He cut Elizabeth's palm with a knife, covered the coin with her blood, and dropped it into the stone chest. Although they performed the ritual, the crew didn't feel any different. As a test, Barbossa shot Pintel with his pistol to see if the curse was lifted; but Pintel didn't die. Barbossa confronted Elizabeth, realizing that Elizabeth was not the child of Bootstrap Bill. A frustrated Barbossa then slapped Elizabeth, dropping Elizabeth's coin as well. The crew then began to argue amongst themselves on their unsuccessful attempt to lift the curse. They blamed Pintel and Ragetti for bringing the wrong person, and then turned their attention to Barbossa, claiming every decision he had made has led them from bad to worse. But, when Barbossa brandished his sword, none of the crewmen dared to fight against their skilled captain.

The confrontation was interrupted by Barbossa realizing that Elizabeth escaped with the gold medallion. While searching for the oars to their longboats, which had gone missing, Barbossa's crew were surprised to see their old captain Jack Sparrow waltzing through the caves. Invoking the right of parley, Jack was brought before Barbossa, who was also shocked by Jack's survival. Barbossa then ordered the crew to kill him. However, as Jack had knowledge on whose blood the crew needed, Barbossa had no choice but to bring his former captain aboard the Black Pearl to find the medallion.

Retrieving the medallion

"Gents, our hope is restored!"

―Hector Barbossa to his crew^[src]

While aboard the Pearl, Barbossa and Jack negotiated in the captain's cabin, until Bo'sun informed Barbossa that they were closing in on the HMS Interceptor, the ship that Elizabeth and the medallion were on. And so Barbossa sent Jack to the brig as the Pearl gaining on the Interceptor. After engaging the Interceptor in battle, which resulted in Barbossa's monkey Jack retrieving the medallion and the Interceptor's destruction, the crew was confronted by the real child of Bootstrap Bill Turner—Will Turner, who requested the safety of Elizabeth and Jack's crew. Barbossa agreed to those terms, but with a price: Will was taken as prisoner, while Jack's crew was sent the brig, and Elizabeth was sent with Jack Sparrow to the same island Jack was previously marooned on.

Battle of the Isla de Muerta

"All hands to the boats! Apologies, you give the orders."
"Gents, take a walk."
"...Not to the boats?"

―Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa^[src]

With Barbossa's crew having reclaimed the medallion, the Black Pearl had set sail towards Isla de Muerta once again, this time with Will Turner as their prisoner. Entering the caves, Barbossa once again aimed to lift their curse, this time with the intention of killing Will and using his blood in the blood ritual. However, his plans fell apart when Captain Jack Sparrow himself entered the cavern. Although Barbossa was initially shocked of Jack's reappearance, he resumed in his plan to kill Will, but not before Jack warned that the HMS Dauntless, captained by Commodore James Norrington, was waiting for the crew. Upon this revelation, Barbossa listened to Jack's proposal, which involved killing Norrington's men, thereby gaining a new ship for a fleet.

Agreeing to the matter, Barbossa sent his crew for attack, save for three of his men, Jacoby, Clubba, and Monk. But to Jack's dismay, having planned on Barbossa's men using the longboats to fight Norrington's men aboard the Dauntless, Barbossa ordered the crew to go walk underwater, and ambush the Dauntless from below. Pintel and Ragetti were forced to distract the Dauntless crew before the other crewmen gave the full attack. Meanwhile, back at the caverns, just as Barbossa was beginning to trust Jack, a duel ensued between the two within the treasure cave. Although Barbossa was able to stab Jack, mortally wounding him, Jack revealed himself to be cursed, having taken an Aztec coin while he and Barbossa negotiated. Even though the duel was now pointless, Jack and Barbossa continued fighting throughout the caves.

The rest of the crew continued fighting Norrington's men of the Royal Navy aboard the Dauntless. Pintel and Ragetti soon came aboard, where they would discover that, while two of their men stood guard, the Black Pearl was sailing away, stolen from them by Jack's motley crew. Nevertheless, they continued fighting on the Dauntless.

The curse lifted

"Wait to lift the curse until the opportune moment."

―Jack Sparrow^[src]

Later in the battle, Elizabeth, who escaped from the Dauntless before it was attacked, arrived to the caves and aided Will in defeating Jacoby, Clubba and Monk. Upon seeing this from his stalemate duel with Barbossa, Jack cut his hand and threw his coin, smeared with his blood, to Will, who dropped his own coin into the chest, lifting the curse at the most opportune moment: Barbossa was caught off-guard and shot in the heart by Jack himself with his pistol. Although Barbossa finally got what he wanted for the past ten years, to be able to feel again, he died from Jack's one shot that was still in his heart.

Simultaneously, the rest of Barbossa's crew fought the Dauntless crew until they noticed that each of them reverted back to normal, even though they were out in the moonlight. One of their own, Koehler, was mortally wounded by Norrington before this sudden change, and died. Realizing that they were now mortal, the crew found themselves surrounded by Norrington's men of the Royal Navy, and so they were forced to surrender.

Bo'sun's command

Second curse

"Scurvy cutthroats who turn into the bony undead under moonlight! Looks like your old crew is back from the grave again, Jack! Let's see to it that they rest in pieces, shall we?"
"Easier said than done, I'm afraid! It's bloody hard to kill something that's already dead!"

―Will Turner and Jack Sparrow^[src]

The surviving crew members were taken back to Fort Charles to be executed, but soon escaped the clutches of the Royal Navy. They would return to Isla de Muerta to become cursed once more, vowing revenge against Jack Sparrow. They first made their reappearance at the Faithful Bride in Tortuga, where they kidnapped Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, though Jack saw to their rescue with the aid of St. Piran's Blade.^[5] By this point, Bo'sun was serving as the leader of the crew, and set off on a quest to steal an Aztec Idol in Mexico. Bo'sun was briefly rendered invincible by the artifact, though it was immediately stolen by Jack, who left the crew marooned at sea.^[6]

The crew later tried more subtle ways of getting revenge on Jack, such as ambushing him aboard a merchant vessel. However, the ingenious use of chain-shot by Jack's crew saw the cursed pirates sent overboard, and forced to make a long walk back to shore.^[7] At some point following this, the entire crew returned to Isla de Muerta and lifted their curse. They were arrested soon afterwards; it is possible that pirate hunters were sent after them following this. It is presumed that they were all hanged, with the exception of Pintel and Ragetti, who escaped and later joined Jack Sparrow's crew aboard the Black Pearl.^[8]

Everyday life

"You've seen a ship with black sails, that's crewed by the damned and captained by a man so evil that Hell itself spat him back out?"

―Mullroy^[src]

The crew was characterized as a group of scoundrels, murderers, malefactors, drunkards and desperadoes. They hailed from a dozen nations, including escaped slaves from West Africa and Hispaniola, and former members of the British Royal Navy. Some members once operated as privateers before peace-time saw the loss of their employment, forcing them to turn to piracy.^[1]

Though they were described to be cutthroats by many, this depiction of them was biased. Like most pirates, many of them were mutual acquaintences, and many were known to have a sense of humor, even if their jokes were dry. One example was Jacoby's self sense of satisfaction after revealing to Will that he was not dead during the attack on Port Royal as well as Pintel and Ragetti's constant playful banter.

Although all crewmembers had the same dream—to remove their curse—they did not show real team spirit. Nevertheless, there were some groups of two pirates who normally worked together, including:

The nature of these pairings is unknown, while some of them are relatives (Pintel and Ragetti are uncle and nephew), other seems to be not related, perhaps they are matelots.

There was an antagony between Bo'sun on one side and Pintel and Ragetti on the other. The crew also seemed to have a dislike their captain, Hector Barbossa, who led the crew in a quite tyrannic way, because they made him responsible for their misfortune. Despite this, all crew members worked together out of mutual necessity to find all 882 Aztec coins, and they handled their victims with extreme brutality. The crew cared about their ship and kept it clean; while the crew worked, Mallot and Jacoby performed music with a fiddle and a concertine. The fact that the Pearl's sails were in a very bad condition hints that the crew lacked a sailmaker.

On board the Black Pearl, the pirates look forward to becoming human again. Barbossa, along with his entire crew, long to taste food once more, which was why they kept a large amount of food, so that they have a variety about what they would eat first when the curse is lifted.^[1]

Sometimes the curse had its advantages. Though the pirates were wandering the world as skeletons that cannot be killed, they were also indestructible phantoms that don't float in seawater the way mortals do. An example of this was when the crew staged a surprise attack on the Dauntless, moored in the shallows off the coast of Isla de Muerta, they simply walk upon the sea bed and climb up the ship's anchor. Their longing to lift the curse had also given them a sixth sense, that lured them to the scattered Aztec gold pieces. "The gold calls to us," they tell Elizabeth Swann as they find her with the Aztec medallion in the governor's house.^[1]

Behind the scenes

In The Curse of the Black Pearl, there were many more crewmembers apart of the credited ones, their overall number is unknown but could be estimated to about 100 men as seen in the movie. An actual number of men revealed in The Curse of the Black Pearl video game for the Gameboy Advanced was approximately 150 souls.
The skeletal crewmembers were created by Industrial Light and Magic. Therefore all scenes involving the skeletal crew were filmed twice: one time with the actors and the second time without them.
Some members of the cursed crew including their leader Barbossa are pictured on the cover of WAS IST WAS band 71: Piraten.
In the non-canonical Disney Adventures comic book The Buccaneer's Heart!, the Cursed crew, led by Bo'sun, commandeers the HMS Dauntless, but they were later defeated by the ghosts of Blackbeard, Mary Reade, Henry Morgan, and Bartholomew Roberts.^[9]
A group of similarly cursed pirates crewed the ghost ship known as the Black Pearl in the 1630s, though they were cursed under different circumstances involving an enchantment by an Incan priest-king who was crossed by their captain.

The Pirates of the Caribbean wiki has a collection of images and media related to Cursed crew.

Appearances

Pirates of the Caribbean: Legends of the Brethren Court
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (First appearance)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (video game)
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
Revenge of the Pirates!
The Capture of Jack Sparrow!
Legend of the Aztec Idol!
Open Sesame!
The Buccaneer's Heart! (Non-canonical appearance)
Chain Reaction!
Kingdom Hearts II (Non-canonical appearance)

Sources

Notes and references

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, p34-35: "The Cursed Crew"
↑ ^2.0 ^2.1 ^2.2 ^2.3 ^2.4 ^2.5 ^2.6 ^2.7 ^2.8 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom
↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Six Sea Shanties
↑ Revenge of the Pirates!
↑ Legend of the Aztec Idol!
↑ Chain Reaction!
↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
↑ The Buccaneer's Heart!