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Shark

This article is about carnivorous fish. You may be looking for the pirate vessel of the same name.
"Set topsails and clear up this mess."
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POTCOShark
"Said I'll be lettin' you live, but the sharks may not be so charitable..."
―Jolly Roger to a pirate, forcing him to walk the plank[src]

Sharks were a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a full cartilaginous skeleton and a highly streamlined body, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that were not fused to the head. They were were classified within the sister group to the rays and kin. They were found in all seas and were common to depths up to 2,000 metres (6,600 ft) and generally did not live in freshwater. They have numerous sets of replaceable teeth. Several species are apex predators, which are organisms that are at the top of their food chain. Some examples included the great white shark and hammerhead sharks.

History

"Only the darkness saved us, for they sent out boats to kill those they found alive in the water. Hard to say which was worse, them or the sharks. We heard that devil crew laughin’ when men screamed as they were pulled under."
―Hector Barbossa[src]

When the rogue pirates destroyed Hector Barbossa's ship, the Cobra, many members of his crew were killed by the sharks.[1]

In the graveyard of lost ships off the coast of Isla de Muerta, hammerhead sharks were among the large fish that resided there. When Jack Sparrow and his motley crew travelled through the passageway, the crew watched the sharks from above in their stolen ship, the HMS Interceptor.[2] When Barbossa realized that it was Will Turner's blood he really needed to lift the Aztec curse, Elizabeth Swann was worthless to him, so he didn't hesitate to make her walk the plank, to face the sharks—or a slower death on a barren island.[3][4]

Sharks were hunted by pirates in the Caribbean during the War of Jolly Roger.[5]

By the quest for the Fountain of Youth, the pirate Scrum wore a necklace on his neck that included a lucky shark's tooth.[6] Before the mermaid hunt at Whitecap Bay, as Jack Sparrow described mermaids, "You start with a shark. Give them weapons. And make them all women." The pirate Ezekiel told the Cabin Boy and other crewmen on the longboat that mermaids were worse than sharks, claiming that the sharks wouldn't dare come anywhere near.[7]

Undead shark
"Kill the Sparrow!"
―Armando Salazar to his sharks[src]

The haunted waters of the Devil's Triangle were full of many dead creatures brought back to life as reanimated corpses. When the Spanish Royal Navy galleon the Silent Mary ended up trapped in the Triangle, she was slowly transformed into a ghost ship, and her crew acquired three sharks - a great white shark, a hammerhead shark and a mako shark - with which they terrorised the sea searching for the man they blamed for their terrible fate: Jack Sparrow. Several decades after her imprisonment in the Devil's Triangle, the Silent Mary and her crew of pirate hunters managed to return to the Seven Seas as ghosts. The undead Spaniards continued their original mission, hunting pirates on the high seas.[8]

Eventually, they tracked Jack Sparrow and his companions Henry Turner and Carina Smyth to the waters near Hangman's Bay, having just been abandoned in a small longboat by Sparrow's mutinous former crew. In order to dispose of them quickly, Salazar sent out the three sharks telling them to kill the Sparrow. Carina had already started swimming to shore when Henry attempted to join her, but when the latter went to jump into the water, he was greeted with the open jaws of an undead great white shark. Henry fell backwards, and when he and Sparrow stood up they saw that the three sharks were now circling them. The hammerhead lunged for the ship, ramming its head into the front of the boat. Henry fought the creature off with an oar, jamming the oar into its head and flinging it back into the water.[8]

Jack Henry shark

The great white then went in for an attack as Henry stumbled overboard, but Sparrow came to Turner's rescue, pulling him back aboard. The shark still attempted to devour Turner, leaping right over the boat getting seawater all over the pirates. Eventually, the two distracted the sharks by throwing Carina's dress into the sea. All three fish came crashing to the surface, biting the dress at the same time as Henry leapt overboard and swam for safety. Jack, however, got his leg trapped in a hold in the boat, and the mako shark attacked him. Sparrow threw a rope into the creature's mouth, and soon it turned away to swim after Henry. Thinking on his feet, Jack tied the other side of the rope to the boat so that the mako would drag the ship through the ocean. When it went in to consume Henry, Jack pulled the rope, turning the shark around and then grabbing Henry. The boat was then flung onto the beach, Sparrow and Turner along with it, as the sharks each swam back to the Mary.[8]

After the entire crew of the Mary were freed from their curse by Henry and Carina, the sharks most likely did as well, becoming free to roam the seas once again.[8]

Behind the scenes

"What was meant to happen was a shark would swim by, and I would swim off. But they don't show it. We did it with a CGI shark. There was a bit of green shark fin that looked like a Christmas tree floating in the water. But they cut the scene, so never mind."
"Isn't that where he tells you about swimming underneath the sharks?"
"There was a big bit about sharks, and it's all been cut. Which is fine, it works without it."
―Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport[src] (Audio commentary)
Cursed crew concept art

Although they were first mentioned in the 1996 book Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean,[9] sharks first appeared in Irene Trimble's junior novelization for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.[10][2]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's first screenplay draft for The Curse of the Black Pearl, "visible briefly deep in the fog, like a shark fin slicing through water" was used to describe the arrival of the Black Pearl prior to the attack on Port Royal.[11]

COTBPSharkDeletedScene

Some of Simon Murton's concept art from The Curse of the Black Pearl had sharks, mainly the art focusing on Hector Barbossa's cursed crew or the Black Pearl.[12]

At least one shot exists, taking place after Barbossa's crew forces Elizabeth Swann to walk the plank in The Curse of the Black Pearl, where at least one shark swims by Elizabeth in the water. This cut scene would appear in some trailers.[citation needed] In Trimble's junior novelization, Jack Sparrow rescues Elizabeth from several sharks after the two walk the plank.[10]

Originally, Davy Jones had dark black eyes, as written in Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[13] Jones was also described as having "black eyes as soulless as a shark's" in the 2006-2007 reference books Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide and The Complete Visual Guide.[14][15] But the character's design had changed, likely because actor Bill Nighy had blue eyes.[16]

In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, a player who goes fishing can catch two types of sharks.[5]

In the non-canonical LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game, Elizabeth Swann disguises herself as a shark to leave the HMS Dauntless and swims to Isla de Muerta.[17]

The hammerhead shark footage in The Curse of the Black Pearl was used courtesy of NOVA/WGBH Boston, from the 1999 documentary film Island of the Sharks.[18]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Two: Lady Esmeralda
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  3. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
  4. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, pp. 32-33 "Barbossa"
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pirates of the Caribbean Online
  6. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide, p. 34
  7. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (junior novelization), p. 84
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  9. ↑ Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean, p. 19
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization), p. 88
  11. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  12. ↑ The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean
  13. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  14. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
  15. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, pp. 62-63 "Davy Jones"
  16. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  17. ↑ LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game
  18. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl credits