Guillotine

"And how would you like to die, pirate? Hanging, firing squad, or a new invention, the guillotine?"
"Guillotine? Sounds French."

―The large guard and Jack Sparrow^[src]

A guillotine was an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consisted of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person was secured with a pillory or stocks at the bottom of the frame, holding the position of the neck directly below the blade. The blade was then released, swiftly and forcefully decapitating the victim with a single, clean pass; the head falling into a basket or other receptacle below. The guillotine was best known for its original use in France, though most notably used in the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.

History

Prior to use of the guillotine, France had inflicted manual beheading and a variety of methods of execution, many of which were more gruesome and required a high level of precision and skill to carry out successfully. It is unknown when the guillotine was invented, but it was already used in France and its overseas ports by the time of young Jack Sparrow's teenage adventures. When Sparrow and the crew of the Barnacle visited New Orleans and falsely introduced themselves to the harbormaster and the local police as the king's cartographer and a group of fishermen, the French officials did not believe them, but they knew they would risk the king's wrath and end up on the guillotine if the young visitors were telling the truth and complained about them to the king so they eventually let them enter the city without any official documents.^[1] The French Pirate Lord Capitaine Chevalle was described as having a sword that could cut quicker than the guillotine.^[2]^[3]

By 1751^[4] the guillotine was still considered a new invention on the island of Saint Martin, a British colony in the Leeward Islands. It was most notably used when Jack Sparrow and Carina Smyth, two prisoners believed to be a pirate and a witch, were both sentenced to death. When a Royal marine inquired how Sparrow wanted to die, the pirate inadvertently and regrettably ended up accidentally asking for a guillotine because it sounded French.^[5]

As they were forcibly marched in, respectively, for beheading and hanging at Execution Square in Saint martin, Jack Sparrow was carried atop the guillotine, while Carina was prepared to be hung atop the gallows. After a long argument between Smyth and Sparrow over who was to die first, it was decided that they would both die at the same time. However, Henry Turner suddenly arrived and fought several guards, but was soon captured. Lieutenant John Scarfield ordered his men to prepare another noose, but Turner revealed that he was simply a diversion; as the executioner prepared to pull the lever to execute Sparrow, the crew of the Dying Gull revealed themselves, firing a cannon that inflicted heavy damage upon the gallows, which sent the executioner flying and caused the guillotine to begin to spin around with Sparrow still in it. The guillotine of Saint Martin was soon destroyed.^[5]