niekie
17.05.2021 3:23:50
No, it's not okay to say a word from the future! more
See full version: Historical inaccuracies
No, it's not okay to say a word from the future! more
Despite being based on the historical time period of the golden age of piracy and featuring several historical individuals and real-world locations, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise contains many historical inaccuracies. A specific date for the placement of the first three films has not been officially given, but On Stranger Tides was said to be set in the year 1750 [1] [2] and the official comic book adaptation of Dead Men Tell No Tales shows the film's events are set in 1751. Those two dates and the informations revealed in the tie-in novels set the events of the first three films around 1728/1729.
Singapore, a town which shouldn't exist. here
The Providence flies the Union Jack that wasn't designed until 1801. more
So the first step for pirates after spotting an ‘enemy’ ship, which could be done from a distance of 20 miles on a clear day, was to identify the type of vessel they would be dealing with. As we mentioned before, military ships were avoided, while merchants ships were ‘assessed’, with estimations done on the number of crew members, armaments carried by vessel, and the speed and maneuvering capabilities of the vessel. On occasions, a resourceful pirate captain would also try to identify and comprehend the capability of his counterpart on the merchant vessel. here
Similarly, in the case of the would-be pirates, the catalyst once again harked back to riches, this time in the form of the rising seaborne trade across the Atlantic (that coincided with the end of the War of the Spanish Succession) and economic development of the colonies in the Americas. Simply put, some of the Caribbean based seamen, lacking any form of legal employment, took to plundering merchant ships that traveled between the ports of the region. And these early 18th century pirates are the romanticized subjects who are often (incorrectly) depicted in movies and related media – with their own cultural overtones and even lingo.
Essentially, these categories leave out the proverbial pirate – who for the most part operated independently and indiscriminately preyed on ships from various nations. Now, of course, the terms were also used interchangeably during the 17th-18th century, with occurrences of contracted privateers turning into full-fledged pirates for greater profitability (as was the case with Captain Kidd). And lastly, the oft-romanticized term swashbuckler is derived from the sword-and-buckler men, better known as rodeleros (‘shield bearers’) in Spanish – and they were originally the expert infantrymen (sometimes forming Conquistador divisions) of the Spanish crown operating in the New World.
Now while the aforementioned ‘doom and gloom’ statement might be a foil to the popular cultural depictions of the ‘swashbuckling’ pirates, we should also understand that under practical circumstances, the 17th-18th-century pirates operated like any other contemporary naval company. In that regard, our romanticized notions about them ironically also relate to their ill-kept physical state and boorish nature. However, in reality, pirates were probably more health-conscious and medically well-supplied. For example, the wreck of the famed Queen Anne’s Revenge (commanded by the infamous Blackbeard) has revealed various medical equipment, including a urethral syringe containing mercury that was used for treating syphilis, a porringer probably used for bloodletting, a tourniquet used for mitigating loss of blood during the painful amputation sessions, and other crafting items for potions and balms.
Simply put, the cargoes of the targeted merchant ships were far more important to these Caribbean pirates (so that they can sell it off later or at least use them for their own purpose), and such commodities ranged from sugar, rum, wood to fur, ore, cotton, and manufactured goods of European origin. In few cases, the slaver ships did carry high-value items (between the triangular slave-trading nexus comprising Europe, America, and Africa) like gold, ivory, and spices. On capturing these prized crafts, it depended on the pirate captain as to how he would treat the slaves. In some cases, they were freed and recruited as pirate crew members or employed as workers aboard the ship. In other cases, when the allure of profit was too high, they were simply sold off to the highest bidders – with pirates taking up the role of slave traders. [links]
As the ships continue to collide, Barbossa yells "it be too late to alter course now!" This is a line taken directly from an animatronic pirate heard in the Disney ride. [links]
Tia Dalma and her swamp home are strange, mystical additions to an already fantastical world. But the swamp is actually a direct copy of the bayou scene that features prominently in the "Pirates" ride. more
The sword was held by Cutler Beckett in "Dead Man's Chest" for a while, until he gave it back to Norrington when the former Commodore was re-promoted to Admiral.
One of them is shirtless and sports several tattoos, two of which are on his back. If you look closely, they are actually hidden easter eggs themselves. [links]
Barbossa plays a prominent role in "At World's End," particularly during the climax of the movie when the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman battle across a maelstrom. [links]
Orlando Bloom shot to fame with his role as Legolas in Peter Jackson's "The Lord of the Rings" series. The cast of the fellowship in those movies all got tattoos to commemorate their time on the films, with Bloom getting his done in Elvish.
I was surprised to see one real maneuver in one of the movies: club hauling. This is a way of rapidly changing the direction the ship is facing if the wind will not serve, by dropping an anchor. Normally it’s only used in life-or-death situations, because you have to cut the anchor loose and abandon it. [links]
Hardly at all in any respect. The clothing is probably the closest, although it’s too diverse and flamboyant, and of course Capt. Jack Sparrow’s getup is purely the product of Johnny Depp’s deranged imagination. more
Pirates were thoroughly evil men, but they were necessarily still disciplined sailors; you can’t sail one of those ships with a lax, disorganized crew. They were mostly renegades who had fled from other ships. And their officers had to be skilled enough to navigate.
Sailing a three-masted merchant vessel (no guns) in this period required a considerable crew—I would guess about 30 to 40 at a bare minimum. Remember, only half of them are on watch at any given time. When the Royal Navy took enemy ships, it would put a prize-crew of about 20 aboard, but that was just enough to sail the ship into a friendly port a few days away, and they’d be half-dead when they arrived. But you want to fire the long guns? It takes a crew of about eight to manage each gun of the size we’re seeing in the movies, plus a powder-man to run powder and a shot-boy to bring shot from the lockers. So that’s 10 more per gun. The crew in Pirates of the Caribbean is nowhere near big enough. [links]
Then there’s the problem of getting where you’re going. Somebody has to be able to navigate. This means reading the altitude of the sun every day at noon with a sextant and plotting the speed and course traveled regularly on a device called the traverse-board, then transferring it to a chart. To gauge the speed, you throw a log tied to a rope overboard and see how much of the rope runs out in 28 seconds. The compass gives you your bearing. Computing your longitude is far more complicated. This is all tedious mathematical paperwork unsuitable for adventure movies, but we don’t see any hint that it might be happening, even in the background. [links]
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