Madame Cheng

Madame Ching or Ching Shih, also known as Cheng I Sao, was a prominent pirate in middle Qing China, who terrorized the China Sea in the early 19th century. She personally commanded over 300 junks manned by 20,000 to 40,000 pirates: men, women, and even children. She entered into conflict with the existing empires of the time, such as the British Empire, the Portuguese Empire, and the Qing dynasty. She was one of the few pirate captains to retire from piracy and is considered to be the most successful pirate in history. Ching Shih has been featured in numerous books, novels, video games, and films in Asia and other parts of the Earth. On 16 November 1807, Cheng I died in Vietnam. Ching Shih immediately began maneuvering her way into his leadership position. She started to cultivate personal relationships to get rivals to recognize her status and solidify her authority. In order to stop her rivals before open conflict erupted, she sought the support of the most powerful members of her husband's family: his nephew Cheng Pao-yang and his cousin's son Cheng Ch'i. Then she drew on the coalition formed by her husband by building upon some of the fleet captains' existing loyalties to her husband and making herself essential to the remaining captains. Since Ching Shih would have such a large force at her command, she knew she needed someone to assist her in managing the Red Flag Fleet's day-to-day operations, but remain loyal to her and be accepted by the low-level pirates.

She believed there was only one man for the job, Cheung Po Tsai. Once she held the fleet's leadership position, Ching Shih started the task of uniting the fleet by issuing a code of laws. The Neumann translation of The History of Pirates Who Infested the China Sea claims that it was Cheung Po Tsai that issued the code. Yuan Yung-lun says that Cheung issued his own code of three regulations, called san-t'iao, for his own fleet, but these are not known to exist in a written form. The code was very strict and according to Richard Glasspoole, strictly enforced. First, anyone giving their own orders (ones that did not come down from Ching Shih) or disobeying those of a superior was beheaded on the spot. Second, no one was to steal from the public fund or any villagers that supplied the pirates. Third, all goods taken as booty had to be presented for group inspection. The booty was registered by a purser and then distributed by the fleet leader. The original seizer received twenty percent and the rest was placed into the public fund. Fourth, actual money was turned over to the squadron leader, who only gave a small amount back to the seizer, so the rest could be used to purchase supplies for unsuccessful ships. According to Philip Maughan, the punishment for a first-time offense of withholding booty was severe whipping of the back. Large amounts of withheld treasure or subsequent offenses carried the death penalty. Ching Shih's code had special rules for female captives. Standard practice was to release women, but J.L. Turner witnessed differently. Usually the pirates made their most beautiful captives their concubines or wives. If a pirate took a wife he had to be faithful to her. The ones deemed unattractive were released and any remaining were ransomed. Pirates that raped female captives were put to death, but if pirates had consensual sex with captives, the pirate was beheaded and the woman he was with had cannonballs attached to her legs and was thrown over the side of the boat. Violations of other parts of the code were punished with flogging, clapping in irons, or quartering. Deserters or those who had left without official permission had their ears chopped off, and then were paraded around their squadron. Glasspoole concluded that the code "gave rise to a force that was intrepid in attack, desperate in defense, and unyielding even when outnumbered." The fleet under her command established hegemony over many coastal villages, in some cases even imposing levies and taxes on settlements. According to Robert Antony, Ching Shih "robbed towns, markets, and villages, from Macau to Canton." The Red Flag Fleet under Ching Shih's rule could not be defeated by neither Qing dynasty Chinese officials nor Portuguese and British bounty hunters. She even captured Richard Glasspoole, an officer of the East India Company ship The Marquis of Ely, and seven British sailors in 1809. Finally, in late 1809 and early 1810, her fleet suffered a series of defeats inflicted by the Portuguese Navy at the Battle of the Tiger's Mouth, upon which she accepted an amnesty offered by the Chinese government to all pirates who agreed to surrender, ending her career that same year. She kept her loot and opened a gambling house. She died in 1844, at the age of 69.

Francis Drake

Francis Drake was born in Tavistock, Devon in around 1540 and went to sea at an early age. In 1567, Drake made one of the first English slaving voyages as part of a fleet led by his cousin John Hawkins, bringing African slaves to work in the 'New World'. All but two ships of the expedition were lost when attacked by a Spanish squadron. The Spanish became a lifelong enemy for Drake and they in turn considered him a pirate. In 1570 and 1571, Drake made two profitable trading voyages to the West Indies. In 1572, he commanded two vessels in a marauding expedition against Spanish ports in the Caribbean. He saw the Pacific Ocean and captured the port of Nombre de Dios on the Isthmus of Panama. He returned to England with a cargo of Spanish treasure and a reputation as a brilliant privateer. In 1577, Drake was secretly commissioned by Elizabeth I to set off on an expedition against the Spanish colonies on the American Pacific coast. He sailed with five ships, but by the time he reached the Pacific Ocean in October 1578 only one was left, Drake's flagship the Pelican, renamed the Golden Hind. To reach the Pacific, Drake became the first Englishman to navigate the Straits of Magellan.

He travelled up the west coast of South America, plundering Spanish ports. He continued north, hoping to find a route across to the Atlantic, and sailed further up the west coast of America than any European. Unable to find a passage, he turned south and then in July 1579, west across the Pacific. His travels took him to the Moluccas, Celebes, Java and then round the Cape of Good Hope. He arrived back in England in September 1580 with a rich cargo of spices and Spanish treasure and the distinction of being the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. Seven months later, Elizabeth knighted him aboard the Golden Hind, to the annoyance of the king of Spain. In 1585, Drake sailed to the West Indies and the coast of Florida where he sacked and plundered Spanish cities. On his return voyage, he picked up the unsuccessful colonists of Roanoke Island off the coast of the Carolinas, which was the first English colony in the New World. In 1587, war with Spain was imminent and Drake entered the port of Cadiz and destroyed 30 of the ships the Spanish were assembling against the British. In 1588, he was a vice admiral in the fleet that defeated the Armada. Drake's last expedition, with John Hawkins, was to the West Indies. The Spanish were prepared for him this time, and the venture was a disaster. Drake died on 28 January 1596 of dysentery off the coast of Portobelo, Panama. Hawkins died at the same time, and their bodies were buried at sea.

Edward Thatch

Edward Teach or Edward Thatch, better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated around the West Indies and the eastern coast of Britain's North American colonies. Although little is known about his early life, he was probably born in Bristol, England. Recent genealogical research indicates his family moved to Jamaica where Edward Thatch, Jr. is listed as being a mariner in the Royal Navy aboard HMS Windsor in 1706. He may have been a sailor on privateer ships during Queen Anne's War before settling on the Bahamian island of New Providence, a base for Captain Benjamin Hornigold, whose crew Teach joined sometime around 1716. Hornigold placed him in command of a sloop he had captured, and the two engaged in numerous acts of piracy. Their numbers were boosted by the addition to their fleet of two more ships, one of which was commanded by Stede Bonnet, but toward the end of 1717 Hornigold retired from piracy, taking two vessels with him. Teach captured a French merchant vessel, renamed her Queen Anne's Revenge, and equipped her with 40 guns.

He became a renowned pirate, his cognomen derived from his thick black beard and fearsome appearance; he was reported to have tied lit fuses under his hat to frighten his enemies. He formed an alliance of pirates and blockaded the port of Charles Town, South Carolina. After successfully ransoming its inhabitants, he ran Queen Anne's Revenge aground on a sandbar near Beaufort, North Carolina. He parted company with Bonnet and settled in Bath Town, where he accepted a royal pardon. But he was soon back at sea, where he attracted the attention of Alexander Spotswood, the Governor of Virginia. Spotswood arranged for a party of soldiers and sailors to try to capture the pirate, which they did on 22 November 1718. During a ferocious battle, Teach and several of his crew were killed by a small force of sailors led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard. A shrewd and calculating leader, Teach spurned the use of force, relying instead on his fearsome image to elicit the response he desired from those he robbed. Contrary to the modern-day picture of the traditional tyrannical pirate, he commanded his vessels with the permission of their crews and there is no known account of his ever having harmed or murdered those he held captive. He was romanticised after his death and became the inspiration for pirate-themed works of fiction across a range of genres.

Jack Ward

John Ward or Birdy , also known as Jack Ward or later as Yusuf Raïs, was an English pirate around the turn of the 17th century who later became a Barbary Corsair operating out of Tunis during the early 17th century. Little is known about Ward's early life. What little is known comes from a pamphlet purportedly written by someone who sailed with him during his pirate days. That said, Ward seems to have been born about 1553 probably in Faversham, Kent, in southeast England. Like many born in coastal areas, he spent his youth and early adult years working in the fisheries. Then, after the failed invasion of England by the Spanish Armada in 1588, he found work as a privateer, plundering Spanish ships with a license from Queen Elizabeth I of England. When James I of England assumed the throne in 1603, he ended the war with Spain and in effect put the privateers out of business. However, many of them refused to give up their livelihood and simply continued to plunder. Those who did were considered pirates because they no longer had valid licenses called letters of marque issued by the state.

Ward appears not to have turned immediately to piracy but instead once again became a fisherman, working out of Plymouth. During his younger years, Ward was on a ship that was caught in the crossfire of various other pirate ships in a battle against a Spanish ship. During the battle, his captain was killed, and he quickly assumed position of the wheel and led his crew to safety. Around 1603, Ward was allegedly pressed into service on a ship sailing under the authority of the King (the Royal Navy had yet to become a formal institution), where he was placed in the Channel Fleet and served aboard a ship named the Lyon's Whelp. After two weeks he and a group of about 30 of his colleagues deserted and stole a small 25-ton barque from Portsmouth Harbour. Ward's comrades elected him captain, one of the earliest precedents for pirates choosing their own leader. They sailed to the Isle of Wight and captured another ship, the Violet, (which Ward promptly renamed Little John a ship rumoured to be carrying the treasure of Roman Catholic refugees. However, the ship turned out to be empty of treasure, but the enterprising Ward used her to cunningly capture a much larger French ship. Ward and his men sailed to the Mediterranean where he was able to acquire a warship of thirty-two guns which was renamed The Gift and began attacking merchantmen for the next two years. While at Salé, Morocco in 1605 several English and Dutch sailors, including Richard Bishop and Anthony Johnson, joined Ward's crew and the following year (August 1606) Ward arranged with Cara Osman to use Tunis as a base of operations in exchange for which Osman would get first refusal of all goods. From this base, Jack Ward was easily able to capture several valuable merchant ships, including the 60 ton Reniera e Soderina. Following his return to Tunis in June 1607, Ward was informed during the winter that the now rotted Reniera e Soderina had begun to sink. With several of his officers, Ward deserted the ship to one of the French prizes he had captured. The Reniera e Soderina later sank off Greece as 400 crew members, of which 250 were Muslim and 150 were English, were lost. Ironically, Ward lost his own ship, as well as two others captured by Venice, several weeks later. While many in Tunisia were angered by Ward's desertion of the Muslim sailors aboard the Reniera e Soderina, Uthman Bey offered Ward a safe haven. Ward however asked James I of England for a royal pardon which was refused and he reluctantly returned to Tunis. Uthman Bey kept his word and Ward was granted protection by Tunis. During the next year ballads and pamphleteers condemned John Ward for turning corsair. He accepted Islam along with his entire crew, changed his name to Yusuf Reis and married an Italian woman while he continued to send money to his English wife. In 1612 a play called A Christian Turn'd Turk was written about his conversion by the English dramatist Robert Daborne. Ward continued raiding Mediterranean shipping, eventually commanding a whole fleet of corsairs, and whose flagship was a Venetian sixty-gunner. He profited by his piracy, retiring to Tunis to live a life of opulent comfort until 1622, when at the age of 70 he died, possibly from the plague.

Carina Smyth

Carina Smyth, also known as Carina Barbossa, was an astronomer and horologist around the middle of the 18th century. A brilliant thinker, Carina was a woman ahead of her time. She was often accused of being a witch for her interests in astronomy, time, and mathematics. Though women had no right to study at university in her time, Carina Smyth fought against that rule. She eventually came in possession of a diary with clues that would lead to the mystical Trident of Poseidon. Along the way, she encountered Henry Turner and the infamous pirate Jack Sparrow. Carina sought the Trident to not only prove herself as a scientist but to unravel the mystery of where she came from, discover who her unknown father is, and who she is truly meant to be. Not much are known about Carina Smyth's early life. Her father, Hector Barbossa left her to an orphanage after her mother's death. It is likely she was a baby then. She was left outside the orphanage with a diary with a ruby on it and a name, "Carina Smyth". Inside of the diary there were many important astronomy dates who could lead her to the trident of Poseidon. Carina is vastly intelligent having astronomy and science for many years. She dislikes people calling her a witch and the stupidity or ignorance of those who disbelieve her research.

She originally did not believe in the supernatural, legends or ghost stories however, this changed when she saw Armando Salazar and his undead crew up close. Seeing that ghosts were in front of her, she became rather shocked at the sight and ran away screaming that such things existed. Her shock further increased after she witnessed the Black Pearl being released from a bottle. She eventually came to terms with it and slowly accepted that not all things can have a scientific explanation. Carina had a deep longing to meet her father after having been placed in an orphanage at a young age. She didn't like her father's legacy being sullied as shown when she slapped Hector Barbossa for calling him a thief. However, upon learning that he was actually her father she accepted it after her referred to her as treasure when saving her. After his heroic death, she changed her name to Carina Barbossa to honor his memory.

Still comprehending what was happening, she was given little time to think, for the sea then closed in on her, Henry and Jack. The crew of the Black Pearl raised the anchor and out came the three heroes from the water. As Carina made her way aboard the Pearl, all began to sink in. Her eyes filled with tears as she was finally able to piece everything together and comprehend what had just happened. As the entire crew mourned the sacrifice of Hector Barbossa, Jack noticed Carina's expression and gave Henry carina's diary so he could win her over. Henry approached Carina asking if she was alright but she didn't know as she lamented that for a moment she had everything, only for it to be gone again. Henry told her not everything as he gave her the book and she accepted the gesture since the book was given to her by her father as Henry called her "Miss Smyth" she corrected him, and told him that her name was "Barbossa". The sea had finally been tamed. All was calm as they sailed back to Henry's home, where he tried to kiss her though she slapped him for it thinking he was still possessed. He forgives her and kisses her, a sentiment she returns. She then watches as Henry met with his father after years of not seeing him. Carina stood beside Henry as they both grasped hands as Henry's mother emerged from the hills and ran towards her husband. Carina and Henry smiled at the two finally being able to reunite after so long. Her further fate is unknown.

Hector Barbossa

Hector Barbossa was a legendary and ferocious pirate of the Caribbean and Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea. A captain of treacherous morality, a vile pirate returned from the dead, and a master of his own fate, Barbossa was the ultimate survivor. Ruthless and cunning, combining experience with reckless daring, Barbossa was also a deadly enemy and nemesis to Captain Jack Sparrow. In his youth, Barbossa was an honest sailor who left to make an easier living as a pirate. Originally a captain of the schooner Cobra, Barbossa would join Jack Sparrow aboard the Black Pearl as first mate. After a while of sailing under Sparrow, Barbossa led a mutiny against Jack and marooned him before finding the treasure of Cortés in Isla de Muerta. In mysterious circumstances, Barbossa would become the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea after he obtained the Piece of Eight of the previous Lord. Upon falling under the Aztec curse, Barbossa led his crew in search of all the scattered pieces of gold they frittered away, and blood to lift their terrible curse. Ten years later, the curse was lifted by Will Turner, the child of former crewman Bootstrap Bill, at which time Barbossa was killed by his old captain, Jack Sparrow.

Even death was not the end of Captain Barbossa, as he was later resurrected by Tia Dalma, secretly the sea goddess Calypso in human form, who demanded that Barbossa help free her from her human bonds in return for his resurrection. After helping rescue Jack Sparrow in Davy Jones' Locker, Barbossa had to join up with the Brethren Court to battle against Lord Cutler Beckett, who had control over Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman. More than a decade later, Barbossa had lost his leg, and the Black Pearl, which forced him to serve as a privateer, claiming to owe his allegiance to King George II. Having been given command aboard the HMS Providence, Barbossa participated in the quest for the Fountain of Youth, where he would rendezvous with Jack Sparrow, Blackbeard and destiny.

After mortally wounding Blackbeard on an unnamed island and taking control of his crew, his ship, and his magical sword, Barbossa made himself the scourge of the New World, leading a pirate fleet that ruled the Caribbean Sea. However, the return of the infamous Spanish pirate hunter Armando Salazar forced Barbossa to search for the legendary Trident of Poseidon. Along the way he was reunited with his long-lost daughter Carina, and had to realign himself with his old adversary - Jack Sparrow to defeat Salazar. Barbosa would sacrifice himself to save his daughter from death and died as a true pirate on the sea.

Edward Teach

Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, was a notorious English pirate who operated in the West Indies throughout the 18th century, specifically during the 1750s. The blackest soul and the darkest heart of any pirate who ever lived, striking fear into the bravest of sailors, Blackbeard was a name uttered in terror by all who sail the sea, or any unfortunate enough to encounter him on dry land. Blackbeard's many exploits became the stuff of various myths and legends of pirate lore, including the legend of being killed and beheaded by Royal Marines during the battle of Ocracoke Inlet in 1718.

Originally an Englishman who began his career as one of the many privateers dispensed by King George to raid enemy ships during war, it wasn't until he struck out as a free agent that his true legend was born. He became a renowned pirate, his cognomen derived from his thick black beard and fearsome appearance. His best known vessel was his flagship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, a fearsome frigate festooned with the bones of his victims and spits Greek fire from its bow to incinerate enemy ships or the occasional crew member fallen out of favor. Blackbeard was known to be incredibly cruel to his own crew, more so than the people he held captive, and occasionally murdered men just so they could remember who he was. He resurrected some of the men he killed into obedient zombie officers. Blackbeard also had supernatural powers, having dabbled in the Black Arts and wielded a sword embedded with one of the three sapphires of Triton, which he used to control ships. He would turn every captured vessel into individual ships in bottles and kept each as a prize for his collection. Through unknown circumstances, Blackbeard would have reunited with his beloved daughter Angelica, who served as his first mate aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge.

In his later life, Blackbeard lived under the shadow of a prophesied death in the hands of a one-legged man named Hector Barbossa, predicted by his zombie Quartermaster. His only hope was to find the restorative waters of the fabled Fountain of Youth. Whatever happened beneath the weight of his heartless ambition, Blackbeard would try and reach the Fountain by any means. After Jack Sparrow was forced aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard embarked in the quest for the Fountain, where he would rendezvous with fate. With Sparrow's help, he and his crew found the Fountain, but the British Royal Navy soldiers led by Barbossa and the Spanish crew led by The Spaniard appeared on scene and started a sanguinary battle in which Blackbeard was fatally wounded by Barbossa and subsequently ended up losing his life due to Jack Sparrow's lies to drink from the wrong Chalice.

William Turner Jr.

Will Turner, born William Turner Jr., was the only child of William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner. In his life, Will Turner was an accomplished blacksmith by trade, an excellent swordsman by pursuit and a budding pirate by fate. After embarking on several adventures with Captain Jack Sparrow, Will embraced his pirate heritage as he pursued his own purposes. Despite Will's best efforts to adhere to the social class structure, he realizes that some rules are meant to be broken. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Will was raised by his mother in England and believed his father was a respectable merchant sailor. When his mother died, Will began searching for his father while wearing a gold medallion. Rescued from a burning shipwreck, Will first met Elizabeth Swann aboard the HMS Dauntless. Upon arriving to Port Royal, Will Turner became a blacksmith under John Brown. A simple craftsman, his life revolved around his work, and his distant longing for a woman he knew could never be his wife. After Elizabeth was kidnapped by Hector Barbossa's crew of the Black Pearl, Will joined forces with Captain Jack Sparrow to save her while being pursued by Commodore Norrington's men and facing cursed pirates. Though he was initially shocked and dismayed when Jack revealed that his father was a pirate, Will Turner managed to save Elizabeth. In return for his help, Will aided Jack Sparrow in escaping from the gallows at great risk to his own.

About a year later, Will and Elizabeth were on the verge of marrying when they were arrested by Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company for saving Jack Sparrow. Will Turner sets out to retrieve Jack's unique compass in exchange for their freedom. After meeting with Jack in Cannibal Island and visiting the voodoo mystic Tia Dalma, Will Turner was tricked into serving on board Davy Jones's ship, the Flying Dutchman, where Will met up with his father, Bootstrap Bill. Will promised Bill that he'd try and free him from Jones's servitude, a promise Will saw throughout the search for the Dead Man's Chest and the war against piracy, where he joined a resurrected Barbossa in rescuing Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones' Locker. Despite his best efforts, Will would try and do everything he could to honor that vow but not forgetting that he still loved Elizabeth.

During the final battle against Beckett's Armada, Will and Elizabeth were married. Shortly after being stabbed by Jones, Will himself pierced Jones' heart. Because he had killed Jones, Will became the new captain of the Flying Dutchman. After the pirates' victory, Will and Elizabeth spent one day with each other, during which time they conceived a child, before Will left to serve aboard the Dutchman for all eternity. He was freed from the curse and reunited with his family approximately two decades later when his son Henry broke the Trident of Poseidon, ending all curses of the sea.

Jack Sparrow

Jack Sparrow was a legendary pirate of the Seven Seas, and the irreverent trickster of the Caribbean. A captain of equally dubious morality and sobriety, a master of self-promotion and self-interest, Jack fought a constant and losing battle with his own best tendencies. Jack's first love was the sea, his second, his beloved ship the Black Pearl. The son of Captain Edward Teague, Jack Sparrow was born on a pirate ship in a typhoon. Before he was known as "Captain Jack Sparrow", he was simply known as Jack, a teenage stowaway who, even then, had a desire for adventure. Jack first sailed on the Barnacle with a young ragtag crew on a quest to locate and procure the legendary Sword of Cortés. As a young pirate he earned the name Jack Sparrow when he trapped the notorious Spanish pirate hunter Capitán Salazar in the Devil's Triangle. Years after his teenage adventures, an encounter with the infamous rogue pirates forced him to abandon the pirate life and take employment in the East India Trading Company.

After five years of faithful service, during which he sailed across all the Seven Seas, he was given command of the Wicked Wench, a ship owned by Cutler Beckett, the EITC Director for West Africa. As Beckett's employee, Jack searched for the mystical island of Kerma and its legendary treasure, until he decided to betray Beckett and keep the island and its inhabitants safe from Beckett and his slave traders. When Beckett contracted him to transport a cargo of slaves to the Bahamas, Jack chose to liberate them and steal the Wench from Beckett. However, Beckett's men managed to find him and branded him as a pirate, while the Wench was set aflame and sunk. After striking a bargain with Davy Jones, the ghostly captain of the Flying Dutchman, to resurrect his beloved vessel, Jack had the Wench renamed the Black Pearl and began the pirate life anew. At some point, Jack Sparrow became one of the nine Pirate Lords, his domain being the Caribbean Sea.


Throughout his years as an infamous pirate of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow embarked on many adventures, several of which involved gaining items of unique value. Jack was captain of the Black Pearl for two years, during which time he searched for the Shadow Gold. But when he was after the treasure of Isla de Muerta, Jack lost the Pearl in a mutiny led by his first mate, Captain Hector Barbossa. Ten years later, with the help of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, Jack retrieved the Black Pearl after having fought and killed the cursed Barbossa, thereby becoming its captain once again. Jack was soon after the Dead Man's Chest, to settle his debt with the fearsome Davy Jones, which ended with him being taken to Davy Jones' Locker by the Kraken. After escaping the Locker with the help of his crew, led by the resurrected Hector Barbossa, Jack had joined with the Brethren Court in the battle against Lord Cutler Beckett, who had control over Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman. Jack would later sail on stranger tides during the quest for the Fountain of Youth, contending with the notorious Blackbeard and the beautiful Angelica, who forced him aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge. After the malicious Captain Salazar's ghost crew escaped from the Devil's Triangle bent on killing every pirate, Jack sought to reverse his recent spate of ill fortune by finding the Trident of Poseidon.


Following the defeat of Salazar and the sacrifice of Barbossa, Jack once again made captain of the Black Pearl regaining the loyalty of his crew and his compass. He sailed his ship to unknown adventures. Over the course of time, Captain Jack Sparrow became a center of intrigue as myths and legends have been told of his exploits. Most of these tales, however, were exaggerations, or even fabrications, embellished by Jack himself to bolster his reputation. Despite his dishonesty and many deceptions, Jack Sparrow did embark on a number of grand and thrilling adventures, some involving the supernatural, pirate lore, magic, and journeys in discovering hidden treasures. Indeed, Jack's ultimate ambition was to have the freedom to sail the seas as a legendary pirate for eternity.

Black Pearl

The Black Pearl was an infamous pirate ship, originally named the Wicked Wench. At one point it was sold and turned into a merchant vessel before turning back to piracy when it was re-christened. With sails as dark as a moonless night, and a hull painted to match, this legendary ship of the seven seas was every inch a pirate vessel. Built for action, this ghost ship could outsail any other sailing vessels. The Black Pearl was most notably captained by Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa. The Wench's first captain was Morgan, a pirate who died in a battle with the Spanish Royal Navy. Command was later given to Jack Sparrow, who led the Wench and her crew on several voyages from West Africa to the Caribbean and back for the East India Trading Company on the behalf of Cutler Beckett. However, after Jack liberated a cargo of slaves, Beckett ordered the Wench set alight and sunk and her captain forever branded as a pirate. After failing to rescue the Wench, Jack made a deal with Davy Jones, the ghostly captain of the Flying Dutchman. Jones raised the Wicked Wench from the depths, giving Jack thirteen years as captain, in exchange for one hundred years of service aboard the Dutchman. With the Wench's new charred look, Jack renamed her the Black Pearl. Now a renowned pirate vessel and threat of the Caribbean, the Black Pearl would embark on many adventures on the high seas.

Two years later, during the quest for the cursed treasure of Cortés, Jack Sparrow lost the Pearl by a mutiny led by his first mate, Hector Barbossa. After ten years of being a cursed ship, with stories being told of the ship preying on ships and settlements, the Black Pearl was regained by Jack Sparrow after he killed Barbossa. For the next year, Jack would captain the Pearl until he was reminded of his thirteen year old bargain with Davy Jones, who demanded the debt was due to be paid. This prompted Jack's search for the Dead Man's Chest, which ended with the Kraken dragging both Jack and his beloved Pearl to Davy Jones' Locker. After escaping the Locker, the Black Pearl sailed for Shipwreck Cove, led by both Jack and the resurrected Barbossa, where it became the flagship of the Brethren Court's armada in the fight against Cutler Beckett's Armada. The titanic battle would end with the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman, now captained by Will Turner, destroying the HMS Endeavour, achieving the pirates victory. After the battle, Barbossa once again stole the Pearl from Jack with the intention to using it to find the Fountain of Youth. But the Pearl came under attack by the Queen Anne's Revenge, captained by the notorious pirate Blackbeard. Using his sword, Blackbeard turned the Pearl against Barbossa and his crew. Blackbeard would have captured the Black Pearl and made it into one of the many ships enclosed in bottles in a special cabinet in Blackbeard's cabin.

The Black Pearl would eventually be restored to its former glory by Barbossa's use of the Sword of Triton during the search for the Trident of Poseidon with the help of Jack Sparrow, Henry Turner, and Carina Smyth.