- "Said I'll be lettin' you live, but the sharks may not be so charitable..."
- ―Jolly Roger to a pirate, forcing him to walk the plank
Sharks (superorder Selachimorpha) were a type of fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body. The earliest known sharks date from more than 420 million years ago, making them some of the oldest living creatures in the world.
History[]
- "Only the darkness saved us, for they sent out boats to kill those they found alive in the water. Hard to say which was worse, them or the sharks. We heard that devil crew laughin’ when men screamed as they were pulled under."
- ―Hector Barbossa
When the rogue pirates destroyed Hector Barbossa's ship, the Cobra, many members of his crew were killed by the sharks.[1]
In the graveyard of lost ships off the coast of Isla de Muerta, hammerhead sharks were among the large fish that resided there. When Jack Sparrow and his Motley crew travelled through the passageway, the crew watched the sharks from above in their stolen ship, the HMS Interceptor.[2] When Barbossa realized that it was Will Turner's blood he really needed to lift the Aztec curse, Elizabeth Swann was worthless to him, so he didn't hesitate to make her walk the plank, to face the sharks—or a slower death on a barren island.[3]
On his neck, the pirate Scrum wore a necklace that included a lucky shark's tooth.[4]
- "Kill the Sparrow!"
- ―Armando Salazar to his sharks
The haunted waters of the Devil's Triangle were full of many dead creatures brought back to life as reanimated corpses. When the Spanish Royal Navy galleon the Silent Mary ended up trapped in the Triangle, she was slowly transformed into a ghost ship, and her crew acquired three sharks - a great white shark, a hammerhead shark and a mako shark - with which they terrorised the sea searching for the man they blamed for their terrible fate: Jack Sparrow. Several decades after her imprisonment in the Devil's Triangle, the Silent Mary and her crew of pirate hunters managed to return to the Seven Seas as ghosts. The undead Spaniards continued their original mission, hunting pirates on the high seas.[5]
Eventually, they tracked Jack Sparrow and his companions Henry Turner and Carina Smyth to the waters near Hangman's Bay, having just been abandoned in a small longboat by Sparrow's mutinous former crew. In order to dispose of them quickly, Salazar sent out the three sharks telling them to kill the Sparrow. Carina had already started swimming to shore when Henry attempted to join her, but when the latter went to jump into the water, he was greeted with the open jaws of an undead great white shark. Henry fell backwards, and when he and Sparrow stood up they saw that the three sharks were now circling them. The hammerhead lunged for the ship, ramming its head into the front of the boat. Henry fought the creature off with an oar, jamming the oar into its head and flinging it back into the water.[5]
The great white then went in for an attack as Henry stumbled overboard, but Sparrow came to Turner's rescue, pulling him back aboard. The shark still attempted to devour Turner, leaping right over the boat getting seawater all over the pirates. Eventually, the two distracted the sharks by throwing Carina's dress into the sea. All three fish came crashing to the surface, biting the dress at the same time as Henry leapt overboard and swam for safety. Jack, however, got his leg trapped in a hold in the boat, and the mako shark attacked him. Sparrow threw a rope into the creature's mouth, and soon it turned away to swim after Henry. Thinking on his feet, Jack tied the other side of the rope to the boat so that the mako would drag the ship through the ocean. When it went in to consume Henry, Jack pulled the rope, turning the shark around and then grabbing Henry. The boat was then flung onto the beach, Sparrow and Turner along with it, as the sharks each swam back to the Mary.[5]
After the entire crew of the Mary were freed from their curse by Henry and Carina, the sharks most likely did as well, becoming free to roam the seas once again.[5]
Behind the scenes[]
- "Why?"
"Sharks attack from below." - ―Elizabeth Swann and Jack Sparrow
- Some concept art from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl had sharks, mainly the art focusing on Hector Barbossa's cursed crew or the Black Pearl. For unknown reasons, hammerhead sharks could only be seen swimming under a graveyard of lost ships in the final cut.
- In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's first draft for The Curse of the Black Pearl, "visible briefly deep in the fog, like a shark fin slicing through water" was used to describe the arrival of the Black Pearl to Port Royal.
- A shot from The Curse of the Black Pearl exists, taking place after Barbossa's crew forced Elizabeth Swann to walk the plank, where at least one shark swims by Elizabeth in the water. Whether or not it is a deleted scene is unknown. The 2003 junior novelization features Jack Sparrow rescuing Elizabeth from several sharks after the two walk the plank.
- Originally, Davy Jones had dark black eyes, as written in the Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest screenplay, and as noted in The Complete Visual Guide: "black eyes as soulless as a shark's."[6] But the character's design had changed, possibly because actor Bill Nighy had blue eyes.
- In Pirates of the Caribbean Online a player who goes fishing can catch two types of sharks.
- In LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game to leave the HMS Dauntless Elizabeth Swann disguises herself as a shark and swims to Isla de Muerta.
Appearances[]
- Climb Aboard if you Dare!: Stories from the Pirates of the Caribbean (Mentioned only)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure
- Pirates of the Caribbean (game)
- The Price of Freedom (Mentioned only)
- Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow (Mentioned only)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Six Sea Shanties (Mentioned only)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (First appearance)
- Pirates of the Caribbean Online
- The Return of Jack Sparrow
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (video game)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Mentioned only)
- The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth (Mentioned only)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (Non-canonical appearance)
Sources[]
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide
External links[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ The Price of Freedom
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, p.32-33 "Barbossa"
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide, p34.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, pp. 62-63 "Davy Jones"