Hook

"Fetch a boat hook and haul him out of there!"

The hook was an iron rod bent into a curved shape, typically with one end free and the other end secured to a rope or other attachment.

History

"When I asked him later on how he was managing without the hand, he said that it wasn't so bad, the hook was as good as a dagger in a fight."

―Don Rafael on James^[src]

At some point in the Age of Piracy, a pirate captain named "James" lost one of his hands, after which he put an iron hook in its place.^[1] He managed without the hand, and thought the hook was as good as a dagger in a fight. James later encountered Don Rafael at Oporto, who noticed his lost hand and new hook, among other details he would later tell the Pirate Lords assembled at Shipwreck Cove.^[2]

During the voyage of the Queen Anne's Revenge across the Atlantic Ocean, Jack Sparrow surprised the ship's First Mate Angelica below deck and threatened her with a hook for making him a prisoner on Blackbeard's ship.^[3]^[4]

Behind the scenes

Hooks appear in several aspects of Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean, specifically its Disney Parks merchandise. The toy figure of the Treasure Keeper has a hook on the left hand, but the ride version of the character has both hands normal.^{[citation needed]} The term "hook" would first be used to describe Captain Hook during his appearance in Disneyland: From the Pirates of the Caribbean to the World of Tomorrow, the 1968 special on the ride.^[5] Following the start of the movie franchise, hooks were first identified in-universe through the video game adaptation for the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.^[6]

Felipe Lara's concept art for the video game Pirates of the Caribbean Online shows the original version of Jolly Roger with a hook-like tool on his left hand.^[7] In the non-canon video game LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, when the young Will Turner is brought aboard the Dauntless he looks like a stereotypical pirate with an eyepatch, a hook, and a parrot.^[8]