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Junk

Empress
"It's a junk!"
"Aye."
"No, I mean, it really is junk."
―Will Turner and Hector Barbossa[src] (original screenplay)

A junk was a type of Chinese sailing ship characterized by a central rudder, an overhanging flat transom, watertight bulkheads, a flat-bottomed design, and built using iron nails and clamps. The term "junk" was derived from the Malay word for boat "jong" and applied to many types of small coastal or river ships, usually serving as cargo ships, pleasure boats, or houseboats, but also going up in size up to large ocean-going vessels. Similar designs to the Chinese junk were also adopted by other East Asian countries, most notably Japan, where junks were used as merchant ships to trade goods with China and Southeast Asia.

History

The term "junk" was derived from the Malay word for boat, "jong". Far from being a product of the scrapyard, the junk was one of the most successful ship designs of all time, and had been gracing the waters of Asia and the Orient since the second century AD.[1][2][3] The sails of a junk were not square-rigged as on most western sailing ships, but were positioned so that they could turn towards the wind, and sail almost straight into it. The aerodynamic cut of the sails were slightly curved. For centuries junks were the largest and safest ships in the world due to a number of innovative features. Internal walls made the structure of the junks extra rigid and created watertight compartments (bulkheads) that could contain water in the case of a leak. The flat-bottomed hull and an adjustable rudder that could be raised or lowered, ensured that junks could sail on the ocean as well as in more shallow waters like large rivers. The rudder itself was located on the stern which made it easier to steer a straight.[1]

Following the Dark Dynasty, ancestral navigational charts were created as the map leading to other realms,[4][5] most notably the route to the Farthest Gate.[6][7] "Over the edge, back, over again, sunrise sets at the flash of green." The ancient riddle in the middle accompanied a central depiction of an intrepid junk. This picture, circled by a diagram of the phases of the moon, would point the way to the gate.[1]

By the Age of Piracy, as piracy along the China coast has a long and profitable tradition, Mistress Ching, the Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean for the Brethren Court, commanded an armada of pirate junks as her disposal, since the death of her husband. The exact number was unknown, other than Ching's fleet consisted of either hundreds[8][9][10] or thousands of ships.[11] Nevertheless, Mistress Ching commanded enough junk ships to spare a few to guard the entrance to her territory, as well as follow their orders to loot any merchant ship that came this way and drive off rival pirates.[11]

Around the quest for the Shadow Gold, along with Ching's fleet, Sao Feng became captain of the Empress, a Chinese junk in the pirate fleet of his brother Liang Dao, the Pirate Lord of Singapore and the South China Sea until Sao Feng overthrew his brother Liang Dao with the help of Jack Sparrow, captain of the Black Pearl.[11] Feared throughout the South China Seas, Sao Feng's pirate junk brought despair into the hearts of respectable merchants from the Gulf of Siam to Macao,[1] with the Empress being his pride and joy, a fighting ship, warship,[6] flagship,[12] and opulent junk.[1] To reach the Singapore docks, one must navigate a maze of pylons through the harbor leading to junks crammed into ramshackle docks.[5]

Junks were mostly used during the war against Lord Cutler Beckett and the East India Trading Company. At the time of Captain Jack Sparrow's escape from the Turkish Prison,[13] one junk ship sailed on the Mediterranean Sea.[5] In Singapore, Sao Feng gave Hector Barbossa, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann a crew and a ship, the Hai Peng, as well as the navigational charts that showed the way to World's End in the quest to rescue Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl from Davy Jones' Locker. Sparrow solved the ancient riddles "sunrise sets at the flash of green" and "up is down" by using the map's central depiction of an intrepid junk,[1] then had the crew of the Black Pearl capsize the ships upside down, only to encounter Sao Feng's fighting ship and flagship, the Empress.[6][12] Sao Feng agreed to help Sparrow and Barbossa's crew escape Beckett's flagship Endeavour in exchange for Elizabeth Swann to join him aboard his opulent junk. However, Sao Feng's pride and joy, could be heading for Davy Jones' junk yard, since it is doomed for a fatal encounter with a supernatural ship, the Flying Dutchman.[1] Before dying, Sao Feng gave Elizabeth his Piece of Eight, a captain's knot, and declared her captain of his pirate junk and warship.[7] Following the meeting of the Fourth Brethren Court, the Empress joined Mistress Ching's pirate junks that comprised part of the ragtag fleet of pirate ships against Beckett's Armada.[1][7]

Known junks

Behind the scenes

Junks first appeared through an unidentified ship in the background of the Turkish Prison scene in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[13] The term "junk" was first published in the Glenn Dakin's reference book Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide,[1] which detailed the pirate junk Empress prior to its first appearances in T.T. Sutherland's junior novelization and the video game adaptation for the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.[6][12][7]

There are two different versions of "The Empress" pages in The Complete Visual Guide, which describe that the junk has been gracing either the "water of the Orient" or "water of Asia" since the second century AD.[2][3] In addition, it was described that the slightly curved and aerodynamic cut of the sails of a junk made them similar to those used in modern-day windsurfing.[1]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 The Complete Visual Guide: "has been gracing the water of Asia since the second century AD."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The Complete Visual Guide: "has been gracing the water of the Orient since the second century AD."
  4. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: "Map of the Land of the Dead"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 DisneyPirates.com - Archived
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  8. ↑ DisneyPirates.com: MISTRESS CHING-Lord of the Pacific Ocean. A blind lady with hundreds of ships to her armada that rules with terror up and down the coast of China – controls the pirate confederation in China since her husband's death. Profiteer of smuggled trade goods between Japan and China. Her pirates are known to victimize their opponents, with beheadings being the preferred torture.
  9. ↑ At World's End Pirate Lords photos on Yahoo! Summer Movie Guide: Mistress Ching - Archived
  10. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: "Inside the Brethren Court"
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 Legends of the Brethren Court: Rising in the East
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Pirates of the Caribbean PocketModel game