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Reef

DMTNT Silent Mary crashing
"Mother Cary's chickens! What happened?"
"Must have hit a reef."
―Bursar and Quartermaster[src]

A reef was a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of the ocean or any other natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, non-living processes such as deposition of sand or wave erosion planing down rock outcrops. However, reefs such as the coral reefs of tropical waters were formed by biotic (living) processes, dominated by corals and coralline algae. Reefs were known as a great danger that ships faced while sailing, and many vessels were grounded or sunk when they ran afoul of one that could not be seen.

History

Capitán Armando Salazar's campaign against piracy aboard the dreaded Spanish Navy galleon, the Silent Mary, came to an end when Salazar was tricked by the young pirate Jack Sparrow into sailing through the haunted waters of the Devil's Triangle. In the darkness of the mysterious area, Salazar did not notice the numerous reefs which struck the bow of the ship, causing an explosion of gunpowder and fires everywhere, sinking the Spanish Navy ship and obliterating her crew.[1][2]

Prior to the battle between the Black Pearl and the Interceptor, after Elizabeth Swann proposed to drop the anchor on the starboard side, which Will Turner thought gave an element of surprise, the anchor dropped into the blue water and began to drag along the bottom. Hooking on a reef, the anchor line pulled taut, and with a loud groan the Interceptor began to pivot around the anchor, her bow almost pulled underwater by the motion. As the Interceptor turned sharply, clubhauling, Captain Hector Barbossa quickly ordered the crew to turn the ship hard to port, and ordered a full broadside as the crews of both ships now sat parallel to each other, manning the cannons at the ready for a fight.[3][4]

During the search for the Dead Man's Chest, as a scuttled ship that Will Turner believed to be the Flying Dutchman was found run aground in an archipelago, Joshamee Gibbs suggested the ship ran afoul of the reef before Jack Sparrow sent Turner to settle his debt with the cursed Davy Jones. Later, when Jones summoned the Kraken to attack the merchant ship Edinburgh Trader, which carried the recently-escaped Will Turner, the ship lurched to a sudden stop. The bursar shouted in alarm, asking what happened, while the quartermaster answered "Must have hit a reef." The Black Pearl was anchored past the outer reef of Isla Cruces, while the Flying Dutchman arrived, diving underwater, then resurfacing to attack the Pearl. As the Pearl groaned, shuddered, and pulled to a stop, ground to a halt, Lejon called out that they must have hit a reef. Will frowned, having heard those same words aboard the Edinburgh Trader, and warned the Pearl's crew that it was not a reef before preparing to battle the Kraken.[5][6]

During the battle of Poseidon's Tomb, the ghostly Salazar used the supernatural powers of the Trident of Poseidon to play with Jack Sparrow like a cat with a mouse, throwing him in and out of the water, until the pirate was hurled into a large coral reef.[7][1]

Behind the scenes

Reefs first appear in the 2003 junior novelization for the film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, where Jack Sparrow forced Elizabeth Swann to swim along the bottom of the ocean with him until they reached the reef to avoid the sharks, and both finally surfaced, choking and gasping for air.[8] However, while reefs appear in the final version of the film itself, in a scene also featured in the 2006 2006 junior novelization,[4] the scene with Jack and Elizabeth reaching the reef did not appear in the final cut.[3]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's early screenplay draft for The Curse of the Black Pearl, as the cursed Black Pearl arrived to Isla de Muerta, Captain Barbossa ordered Jacoby to bring her in, but not too close, laying anchor before dark, saying he won't brave the reef until high tide. As the Pearl gained on the Interceptor, trying to outrun the latter, Joshamee Gibbs ordered AnaMaria to make for the reef. While Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann were forced to walk the plank, Barbossa tells Jack that the reef to the islet is less than a league distant, and leaving them to swim for the reef as the Black Pearl was underway. After Jack and Elizabeth were rescued by the HMS Dauntless, Jack drew up a chart for Commodore Norrington to get him past the reefs of Isla de Muerta.[9]

In the screenplay for Dead Man's Chest, as the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman arrived to Isla Cruces, it was described as being anchored past the outer reef. As the Pearl groans, shudders, and is pulled to a stop by the Kraken, Elizabeth Swann called out to the Black Pearl crew "We must have hit a reef!"[10] Some of the details were mostly provided by the film's junior novelization,[5] but it would be Lejon who told the Black Pearl crew about the reef in the final cut of the film.[6]

Appearances

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  2. ↑ Pirates des Caraïbes : La Vengeance de Salazar, p. 116
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2006 junior novelization)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  7. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, pp. 238-239
  8. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization)
  9. ↑ Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/Screenplay - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  10. ↑ Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/Screenplay - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio