Fort

"Set topsails and clear up this mess."

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TCotBP Fort Charles Norrington promotion ceremony 2

"There's a fort up ahead."
"A fort? Here? What kind of fort?"
"It flies the Spanish flag."
"What are they all doing here?"
"And more important, why don't they want anyone to know they are here? Why has the fort been so carefully hidden?"

―Gombo and Jack Sparrow^[src]

A fort, also known as a fortress or stronghold, was a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and was used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin fortis ("strong") and facere ("to make"). Defensive walls had often been necessary for cities to survive in an ever-changing world of invasion, conquest, and defense against enemy forces.

History

Early history

Many forts were built as coastal fortifications in the Caribbean in the 17th century, which were instrumental in protecting colonies against enemy fleets and pirate raids. These were powerful complexes often built on elevated ground and armed with 32-pounder cannons spread out through various battlements and towers.^{[citation needed]}

Forts in the Caribbean also contained garrisons of troops, who were called to action when the fort's cannons were destroyed by enemy ships. If the troops were killed, the intruder could take over the colony with ease; the invasion of Oxbay and siege of Greenford were two known instances when forts were destroyed by enemy fleets.^{[citation needed]}

Forts could also prevent wanted vessels from leaving port. One such occasion occured during the Oremans kidnapping, when the pirate captain Bernardo Gamboa was unable to flee Douwesen colony when Nathaniel Hawk warned him of the fort's watch. However, particularly fast ships could also successfully evade a fort's guns - for example, the rogue French captain Rabel Yverneau fled safely past the Oxbay fort using the speed of his corvette.^{[citation needed]}

Cutler Beckett's war against piracy

During Lord Cutler Beckett's ruthless campaign against piracy, an unidentified intimidating fort was under the command of the East India Trading Company as it hosted countless executions of those convicted of committing piracy or associating with persons guilty of piracy. The song Hoist the Colours, called forth by Captain Hector Barbossa to summon the Fourth Brethren Court, was sung by those facing the gallows at the execution fort.^[1]

Notable forts

Behind the scenes

Forts first appeared through the "Bombarding the Fort" scene in Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, having first been identified by name in Thurl Ravenscroft's 1966 narration recorded for the ride.^[8]

In the 2003 video game Pirates of the Caribbean, destroying a fort results in its town becoming empty of all human life. If a player fires at a friendly fort, that fort will be permanently hostile throughout the game. The Falaise de Fleur, Greenford, and Oxbay forts are invincible at the start of the game, until the Oxbay mission is completed and the player is tasked to siege the Greenford fort. The Oxbay fort can be damaged again after the French leave the island.^{[citation needed]}

The first scene of the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End features a hanging at a fort. Although fans theorized that it was Fort Charles, in reality it is an unidentified fort and an unknown location, unnamed in most media relating to the film. Screenwriter Terry Rossio made the post "Ends of the Earth" on Wordplay, in which he never identified the fort by name.^[9] Although he considered that it could be Fort Charles, Rossio stated his presumption that it was some other fort, given the grim nature of the events taking place, but also maintained it was a locale intended to be ambiguous and simply not defined. Conceptual consultant James Ward Byrkit, who storyboarded the scene, stated it was never conveyed to him that it was supposed to be Fort Charles, as well as his feeling that by then the scope of the story had expanded to a much bigger area.^{[citation needed]} The fort in question was identified as "Execution Fort" in The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean,^[10] and "an intimidating fort" in Bring Me That Horizon: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean.^[11]

In Terry Rossio's 2012 screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the final battle for the Trident of Neptune was fought between the British forces led by Admiral John Benbow and the Spanish forces led by Queen Inez Luisa Gabriella di Savoia, who were holed up in Fort San Cristobal, an old Spanish fortress on the northern coast of San Domingo.^[12] In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales, the Tomb of Poseidon was a monumental fortress and the final resting place of Poseidon. Located on Coffin Islands on the outer side of the Devil's Triangle, the tomb was raided by Hector Barbossa's pirates and the ghostly crew of the Silent Mary. The leader of the ghosts, Captain John Brand, used the Trident of Poseidon to sink the Tomb which ended up at the bottom of the ocean.^[13]

Appearances

Non-canon appearances

Sources

External links

Fortification on Wikipedia

Notes and references

[AWE-1] Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

[2] Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

[POTCO-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Pirates of the Caribbean Online

[4] Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow

[OST-5] 5.0 ^5.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

[6] Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters, p. 83

[7] Legends of the Brethren Court: The Turning Tide, pp. 38-40

[8] Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Sound Track of the Fabulous Adventure

[9] Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/"Ends of the Earth" by Terry Rossio

[10] The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean

[11] Bring Me That Horizon: The Making of Pirates of the Caribbean

[12] Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES by Terry Rossio

[13] Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013

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