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Madagascar

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"Hector, how long till we arrive in Madagascar?"
―Jack Sparrow to Hector Barbossa[src]

Madagascar was an island lying off the southeastern coast of Africa. The island of Madagascar had numerous smaller peripheral islands and a subtropical to tropical maritime climate. Over time, Madagascar was settled by different peoples and ruled by a fragmented assortment of shifting sociopolitical alliances. During the Age of Piracy, pirate activity in the coastal areas was common and Madagascar became a pirate stronghold.

History

"Make sail for the fort of King Samuel. It's on the western coast of Madagascar."
―Benedict Huntington to Roland McTavish[src]

Prior to the First Meeting of the Brethren Court,[2] the original Court gathered in Madagascar in secret, well before it became a pirate stronghold.[6] Made up of the great Pirate Lords, the Brethren Court existed at a time when the waters were untamed, the world a rougher place, and a sailor made his own fate.[2] Prior to the Golden Age of Piracy in the 17th century, the Court began meeting at Shipwreck Cove.[7]

Small bands of native peoples populated the island, but none lived in close proximity to each other. European contact began in the year 1500, when Portuguese sea captain Diogo Dias sighted the island after his ship seperated from a fleet going to India. In 1665, Francois Caron, the Director General of the French East India Company, sailed to Madagascar. The Company failed to establish a colony on Madagascar but established ports on the nearby islands of Bourbon and Ile-de-France. In the late 17th century, the French established trading posts along the east coast.[citation needed]

Around 1690, Madagascar became haven to pirates, who used the island as a stronghold and a safe port from which they would sail and prey on the rich trade of the Indian Ocean. Good weather, secluded coves, friendly natives and an abundance of fresh food and water made it a haven for pirates operating in the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.[citation needed] Toward the end of the 1700s, the age of the buccaneers was coming to a close. Tortuga was beginning to settle down under French rule and Port Royal was still reeling under the shock of the earthquake of 1692, a blow from which it's piratical population never recovered. The Caribbean pirates began to make the long voyage around the Cape of Good Hope beginning what was to become known as the "Pirate Round".[citation needed]

Bands of pirates established a variety of bases on Madagascar. Usually each was under the command of a single pirate captain referred to as a "king". Around 1700s, 1500 pirates lived on the island and seventeen vessels made it their home port. The best known pirate port on Madagascar was Libertalia, founded by the famous Captain James Misson.[citation needed]

Jack Teague Madagascar

By 1711, Madagascar's popularity and pirate population declined. Squadrons of warships patrolled the Indian Ocean and Red Sea. Less then one hundred pirates remained on the island.[citation needed]

When Woodes Rogers in 1718 succeed in driving the pirates from Port Nassau in the Bahamas, Madagascar reclaim it's popularity with the pirates. At that time pirates such as Christopher Condent and Edward England chose Madagascar as their base of operations.[citation needed]

By the early adventures of young Jack Sparrow, and Captain Edward Teague was the Pirate Lord of Madagascar, as well as Keeper of the Code.[2][1][4] Although he kept the title within the first two years Sparrow was captain of the Black Pearl, Teague gave up his lordship at some point prior to the Fourth Brethren Court.[7] About one year after Captain Jack Sparrow's escape from Port Royal, and during the search for the Dead Man's Chest,[8] Will Turner started his search to find Jack, stopping at various island ports around Tortuga, including a candlelit tavern, where the innkeeper told Turner that Sparrow ran off with a Creole woman to Madagascar, then added with a wink that she was half Sparrow's age and twice his height.[5][9] Sometime before the Fourth Court, both Teague and Jack Sparrow came to Madagascar after escaping from the vicious Indian Akshay. Teague then commandeered Jack's boat, stole the precious tears of Kali from him, and sailed away, leaving Jack stranded on Madagascar.[3]

By the war against piracy led by Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company, Madagascar was drawn onto a map of the world created in the EITC headquarters in Port Royal,[8][10][11][12] along with a smaller map in the captain's cabin of the Endeavour.[7]

Behind the scenes

Madagascar was first depicted on a map of the world in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[8] The map would also be featured in the 2006-2007 reference books Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide,[10] The Complete Visual Guide,[11] and The Secret Files of the East India Trading Company.[12] Madagascar was first mentioned by name in the junior novelization for Dead Man's Chest.[5] Although it was only mentioned in various media, Madagascar later made its first appearance in the 2009 book Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters by Rob Kidd.[1]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Dead Man's Chest, a bartender said that Jack Sparrow ran off with a Creole woman, who was half his age and twice his height, to Madagascar.[13] While the scene never made it into the final cut of the film, it was retained in the junior novelization,[5] and the tie-in book Island of the Pelegostos.[9]

Madagascar and the Indian Ocean were mentioned in On Stranger Tides, the novel by Tim Powers which was used as the basis for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.[14]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 Legends of the Brethren Court: Wild Waters
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 The Pirates' Guidelines
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Tears of the Goddess
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Price of Freedom
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Terry Rossio on the First Brethren Court setting
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: Island of the Pelegostos
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 The Secret Files of the East India Trading Company
  13. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  14. ↑ On Stranger Tides