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Spyglass

AWEJackBarbossaTelescopePromo
"Hand me that spyglass."
"Look all around. Not just at Koldunya."
―Esmeralda and Jack Sparrow[src]

A spyglass, glass, or telescope, also nicknamed the "bring-em-closer" among pirates, is an object used by mariners to magnify the view, kept on one's person to view anything far away, such as sailing ships. It was typically composed of a metallic or wooden cylindrical casing, which contained lenses that magnify images from distances that may be hard to see from the human eye itself. During the Golden Age of Piracy, the spyglass was often used to spot land or an incoming sailing ship in the distance.

History

"Fitz, give me your glass."
―Jack Sparrow to Fitzwilliam P. Dalton III[src]

By the Age of Piracy, the telescope was invented and used many times on land and at sea. Spotting distant sailing ships and shores at sea wasn't easy—even from the crow's nest. So mariners used a spyglass (telescope) nicknamed the "bring-em-closer" to magnify the view. The wooden tube makes the spyglass light and easy to handle.[1][2] Among the known first users of a glass were Fitzwilliam P. Dalton III and young Captain Jack Sparrow.[3]

During the Santa Catalina's journey to the colony of Zaragona, the young crewmember Pablo snuck into the captain's cabin to steal the captain's silver teapot. Although he managed to take the teapot from the captain's chest, Pablo's theft attempt was ruined when the pet monkey Zita stole one of the coins from Pablo's pocket and tossed it right into the sleeping captain's open mouth, waking him up. The next day, Pablo was condemned to walk through a gauntlet, but right before his punishment could begin, the crewmember Turi alerted the crew about the pirate ship off the larboard bow. The captain ordered the first lieutenant Rodriguez to bring him his spyglass, and as the officer looked through the telescope, he identified the approaching vessel as the Buzzard, the ship of the infamous pirate Sharkheart Sam.[4]

Piratas del Caribe La Venganza de Salazar - Creando a Salazar 0159

Following a devastating sea battle that destroyed nearly all the pirates in the Caribbean Sea, the Spanish Royal Navy galleon Silent Mary slowly sailed through burning shipwrecks until the pirate hunter Captain Armando Salazar heard someone calling him from afar. As a lone pirate ship, the Wicked Wench, emerged from the smoke, Salazar grabbed a spyglass from one of his Spanish officers and saw a young pirate boy, Jack the Sparrow, on the crow's nest. Salazar angrily closed the spyglass after Sparrow mocked Salazar, suggesting that he surrender and defiantly hoisted the Jolly Roger flag.[5]

Jack Sparrow used the spyglass many times during his service in the East India Trading Company. When he sailed aboard the EITC brig the Fair Wind as First Mate on a voyage from Jamaica to England Jack looked through the spyglass at the familiar Blackwall frigate that was following them. The Second Mate Robert Greene also took a look at the suspicious vessel and recognized her as the ship the both of them were familiar with—the pirate frigate Venganza.[6] Their superior officer, Captain Nathaniel Bainbridge, remained convinced their pursuer was a friendly vessel, tricked by the British flag flown on the other ship, until the moment he looked at the Venganza with his spyglass and saw the dirty, uniformless, pirate crew on deck, armed to the teeth and ready to board his ship.[7] A few months later, as captain of the EITC merchantman Wicked Wench, Jack sailed his ship from Calabar to the Caribbean. When the Wench came close to her destination Jack saw through his spyglass several islands of the Lesser Antilles, including Barbados, St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, Guadeloupe, Antigua, and Barbuda.[8]

Groves and Norrington

After Elizabeth Swann was kidnapped by Captain Hector Barbossa's crew of cursed pirates aboard the ghost ship Black Pearl, Commodore James Norrington of the British Royal Navy spotted Jack Sparrow and Will Turner taking the HMS Dauntless through his spyglass prior to the commandeering of the HMS Interceptor.[9] Shortly afterwards, according to one of the legends of Jack Sparrow told at Fort Alvo Grande, Sparrow spotted a Spanish galleon through his spyglass.[10] A few days later, when the Interceptor approached Isla de Muerta, Anamaria saw the Pearl through her spyglass, so Jack steered the Interceptor to the other side of the island to avoid detection.[11] Captain Barbossa later looked through his spyglass as the Pearl came up on the Interceptor and during the cursed crew's pursuit. Prior to the battle of Isla de Muerta, Commodore Norrington gazed through his spyglass to survey the Pearl and Isla de Muerta with Sparrow. Shortly afterwards, aboard the Dauntless, Lieutenant Gillette spied on two women on a longboat (Pintel and Ragetti in disguise) with his own spyglass before the ship was attacked by Barbossa's cursed pirates.[9]

Jones spyglass

During the search for the Dead Man's Chest, while helping Will Turner find Jack Sparrow, a shrimper used a spyglass to see the Black Pearl careened onto the sands of Isla de Pelegostos. Later, as Will Turner was sent to settle Jack Sparrow's debt with Davy Jones on the deck of the scuttled ship, believing it to the cursed ghost ship Flying Dutchman, Turner was captured by Jones' cursed crew and Sparrow used his spyglass to watch the scene from aboard the Black Pearl. Through the spyglass, a distant Davy Jones spoke to Will then glanced over his shoulder, and back toward Jack, as if he sensed Jack was there. As Jack lowered his telescope, Davy Jones appeared right in front of him, shortly before his crew transported on the deck of the Pearl.[12] A few days later, on an outer reef of Isla Cruces, the Flying Dutchman came around the point, where Davy Jones peered through his barnacled spyglass and saw Sparrow's crewmen Pintel and Ragetti by a longboat. After sending the Kraken to attack the Black Pearl, Jones looked through his spyglass again as the sea monster pulled the Pearl down into the sea, and Captain Jack Sparrow going down with his ship.[13]

After the quest to rescue Jack Sparrow from Davy Jones' Locker led by Hector Barbossa, Jack and Barbossa competed with their spyglasses twice. The first time, Barbossa ceremoniously pulled out a spyglass, extending about two feet, while Jack pulled out his own spyglass that opened about nine inches. Barbossa smirked as Jack, deflated, tried tugging on his spyglass, but it doesn't lengthen any further. The second time, Barbossa peered at Black Sand Beach his long spyglass, while Jack puts his eye into a telescope he opened, much longer than his arm, until it was longer than Barbossa's.[14]

AWE Mercer Beckett Theres nothing left

During Lord Cutler Beckett's war against piracy, from his spot high in the crow's nest, a pirate trained his spyglass on the horizon, no sign of any ship besides his own and the two they traveled with, with the Caribbean Sea calm until the destruction of the pirate fleet by the Flying Dutchman.[15] While standing on the deck of his flagship, the Endeavour, Beckett raised his spyglass to gaze out at the carnage by the Dutchman, and closed it when contemplating with Ian Mercer about Governor Weatherby Swann's impending death.[14] Later, following the Fourth Brethren Court meeting at Shipwreck Cove, Beckett stood on the Endeavour with his armada, pleased to see the reaction from the collected pirate ships of the Brethren Court's fleet, lowering his spyglass and smiled as he questioned Jack Sparrow's next move.[15] In the battle that followed, Lieutenant Theodore Groves looked at the Black Pearl through his spyglass before the officer asked Lord Beckett what the pirates were waiting for.[14]

Barbossa officidf

Years later, when Captain Hector Barbossa served a privateer of the British crown during the quest for the Fountain of Youth, he saw three Spanish galleons from aboard the British Navy vessel HMS Providence, with one of his officers, Lieutenant Commander Theodore Groves, looking through his telescope. As the Providence crew prepared to battle the Spanish crew, Barbossa grabbed Groves' spyglass, lifted it and trained it on the helm of the flagship, where Barbossa saw The Spaniard and another Spanish Officer gazing forward as the Spanish galleons sailed silently past the British vessel. Barbossa closed the spyglass and handed it to Groves when he observed the Spanish rushing past, saying that the Fountain was the prize and the British were not worth the time it'd take to sink.[16]

Undead Salazar spyglass

In 1751,[17] as the British Navy warship the Monarch chased the pirate vessel the Ruddy Rose across the sea, Officer Cole looked through a spyglass and informed Captain Toms that the pirates were sailing into the giant cave in front of them.[5] Following the launch of the Dying Gull, Jack Sparrow climbed on top of the mast to look over the horizon with his spyglass.[18] Later, as Captain Armando Salazar and his crew of cursed ghosts aboard the ghost ship Silent Mary began their hunt for Jack Sparrow, Salazar looked through his spyglass and saw Sparrow in a longboat, only for the pirate to escape the pursuit on dry land, the island of Hangman's Bay, where the ghosts couldn't follow. A few hours after Salazar sent his prisoner Hector Barbossa and his men go ashore to capture Sparrow,[5] Salazar looked at the island through the spyglass and noticed the Black Pearl sailing away.[19] That night, young Henry Turner stood in the crow's nest of the Black Pearl with his spyglass, observing the horizon, and saw the British warship the Essex, where Lieutenant John Scarfield stood on the main deck and had one last look at the Pearl with his spyglass before the Silent Mary destroyed the Essex. Following the battle of Poseidon's Tomb, Henry Turner returned to his home, accompanied by Carina Smyth, at which point in time Henry pulled out his spyglass to identify a ship off shore as the Flying Dutchman and saw the return of his father Will Turner before his reunion with Elizabeth Swann. From aboard the Black Pearl, Captain Jack Sparrow saw the "revolting sight" of the Turner family reunited through his spyglass.[5]

Behind the scenes

Spyglasses first appeared in the 1996 book Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean, where the term "telescope" was also first used.[20] The first, and so far only, known usage of the term "bring-em-closer" was first used in the 2006 reference book Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide,[1] later republished in the 2007 reprint The Complete Visual Guide.[2] The term "glass" was first used in the 2006 book Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm by Rob Kidd.[3]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, it was described that the Shrimper nods as he and Will Turner come around the point to find the Black Pearl careened onto the sand of Cannibal Island.[21] While this description was retained in the junior novelization,[12] the Shrimper spots the Pearl with a spyglass in the film.[13] Davy Jones also had his spyglass when he ordered the Flying Dutchman to break off the pursuit of the Black Pearl in the screenplay,[21] unlike in the final cut of the film.[13]

Beckett preparing

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's Calypso's Fury screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Lieutenant Greitzer and Lord Cutler Beckett use a spyglass when they discover seagulls flying over dead bodies lashed onto barrels. Later, as the huge Armada of the East India Trading Company appeared, Beckett lowered his spyglass from aboard the Endeavour as he gazed at the collected pirate ships of the Brethren Court.[22] Only the latter scene appeared to be filmed, as the At World's End trailer featured a shot of Beckett looking at the Brethren's fleet.[14] The scene was also retained in the junior novelization.[15]

In the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Henry Turner looks at the Ruddy Rose with a piece of mirror.[5] Whereas Henry looks at the pirate ship with a spyglass in Elizabeth Rudnick's novelization and the comic book adaptation.[23][17]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, p. 28
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
  4. ↑ Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean, pp. 4-17
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  6. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter One: Fair Winds and Black Ships
  7. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Two: Lady Esmeralda
  8. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Six: The Wicked Wench
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  10. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
  11. ↑ Fluch der Karibik, p. 129
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization)
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization)
  16. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel
  18. ↑ Pirates des Caraïbes : La Vengeance de Salazar, p. 93
  19. ↑ Pirates des Caraïbes : La Vengeance de Salazar, pp. 145-146
  20. ↑ Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  22. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  23. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, p. 19