Maelstrom

This article is about the natural phenomena. You may be looking for the soundtrack theme.

"The enraged goddess Calypso gathered the waters of the ocean around herself in a giant whirlpool–a massive maelstrom–and a battle raged at the center of it."

―Unknown^[src]

A maelstrom is a very powerful whirlpool; a large, swirling body of water. A free vortex, it has considerable downdraft. The most notable was the massive maelstrom created by the sea goddess Calypso.

History

"Maelstrom!"
"Captain Barbossa! We need you at the helm."
"...Aye, that be true."

―Joshamee Gibbs, Elizabeth Swann and Hector Barbossa^[src]

After being released from her human form, the goddess Calypso, enraged over Davy Jones's betrayal and the Brethren Court, used her powers to summon a maelstrom. Calypso's maelstrom consisted of an enormous whirlpool topped with a thunderstorm with strong wind, lightning and rain. At the heart of this maelstrom, a battle raged between the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman. After the death of Davy Jones, the maelstrom subsided.^[1]

Behind thescenes

For filming the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the climatic Maelstrom battle sequence was shot at a 600 foot long, 300 foot wide and 70 foot tall hangar in the desert community of Palmdale, California-58 miles north of The Walt Disney Studios—where full-sized replicas of both the Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman were built from the decks up, as well as various other set pieces.^[2]^[3]

In the first edition of the At World's End junior novelization by T.T. Sutherland, the book ended with the Pirate King Elizabeth Swann's speech to the crew of the Black Pearl, so the maelstrom created by Calypso never made an appearance. However, a revised version of the novelization, written by Sutherland and Elizabeth Rudnick, details the film's climax and ending, which included the maelstrom.^[4]

Before At World's End, there had been no earlier mention of maelstrom in any preceding Pirates of the Caribbean media, but it has been mentioned in several other works, including Jules Verne's 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.^[5]

It may be a reference to Charybdis from Greek mythology, which was a giant whirlpool. However, Charybdis is sometimes also referred to as a sea monster.