Wicked Wench

## The Wicked Wench

The Wicked Wench attacking the Spanish Fort of Puerto Dorado under the command of Captain Barbossa

### Appearances

Pirates of the Caribbean
Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar
Trader Sam's Grog Grotto

### Location

Made port in Dead Man's Cove, Isla Tesoro.

### Inhabitants

Captain Barbossa
Blackbeard
Captain of the Wicked Wench
Redd
The Auctioneer
The Pooped Pirate

**The Wicked Wench** was a pirate-ship originating from the attraction *Pirates of the Caribbean.*

## Description

The Wicked Wench was a scarlet sailing-ship and galleon with gold decorative designs. She had 18 cannons and three masts. She was affiliated as having held, "The Wildest Crew to Sack the Spanish Main" who were infamous pirates of the Caribbean.

## History

The Wicked Wench was a Spanish galleon which was turned to piracy during the golden age of piracy, presumably in the 1710s though possibly later into the 1720s. She would be lead by one Captain Barbossa and hold several pirates of the Caribbean known to be, "The Wildest Crew to Sack the Spanish Main".

At some point in the golden age of piracy's peak, the Wicked Wench ransacked the Spanish colony of Puerto Dorado on the island of Isla Tesoro in the Caribbean. This town held a massive legendary treasure which was sought after by the pirates despite said treasure being cursed. The Wench laid waste to the island's seaside fortress though received some damage in the process while its crew set to shore and terrorized Puerto Dorado in a raid. During the ransacking of the port, the Wench's crew drunkenly burned the port to the ground. The pirates also had to compete with Barbossa's rival Captain Jack Sparrow who sought after the same treasure, eventually stealing a map and key from the crew and getting to the treasure first.

Through unknown means the pirates of the Wench would claim the treasure from Jack and hide it away in a lair which they build in Dead Man's Cove, a series of caverns within Isla Tesoro. By this point in time the Wench also appeared to have changed captains to an unidentified individual while Puerto Dorado was turned into something of a pirate haven. Due to the treasure's curse however, the pirates were all killed and left as skeletons and as ghosts with Jack years later breaking into the Cove to steal their treasure. The ultimate fate of the ship itself is a mystery.

### Alternate versions

#### Pirates of the Caribbean (film-series)

##### Original trilogy & spin-off materials

In these films, the Wicked Wench was a British vessel used by the East India Trading Company which was captained by a young Jack Sparrow. Sparrow would rebel against the EIT when his superior Lord Cutler Beckett ordered him to deliver a shipment of 1000 enslaved people who Jack freed. Due to the incident costing Beckett a promotion, he had Jack branded as a pirate and burned the Wicked Wench while Jack watched.

In order to get his ship back, Jack made a bargain with Davy Jones in-which Jack would be captain of the Wench for 13 years and then serve as a slave aboard Jones' ghost ship *The Flying Dutchman*. Jones would return the Wench from the depths though the fire caused it to be scorched black resulting in Jack renaming it to *The Black Pearl*. After 2 years as captain, Jack was mutinied by his first-mate Barbossa and marooned while the crew sought after the cursed treasure of Hernan Cortez, causing them to become cursed skeletons.

##### Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

In the dubiously cannon and critically panned fifth instalment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film-series, the Black Pearl/Wicked Wench's backstory was heavily retconned. Here, the Wench was a pirate ship captained by a man named Morgan and having carried the pirate lord Edward Teague for unknown reasons along with Teague's son, Jack Sparrow. Morgan would be killed by the Spanish pirate-hunter Salazar but left the ship in Jack's care.

## Appearances and allusions

### Pirates of the Caribbean

The Wicked Wench appears in this attraction, sacking Puerto Dorado.

### Trader Sam's

    In both *Trader Sam's Grog Grotto* and *Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar*, the Wicked Wench appears as a miniature ship in a bottle. When the *Shipwreck on the Rocks* drink is ordered, the ship springs to life and mimics sinking into the ocean as, "skippers" act as pirates abandoning ship. This effect is recycled from the Adventurers Club although in said attraction the ship was not the Wicked Wench.

### In other media

#### Printed materials

##### Haunted Mansion (comics)

In the non-cannon Haunted Mansion comics by Slave Labour Graphics, the Wicked Wench appeared as a factor in the backstory of the Hitchhiking Ghost known as Gus, freeing him from prison in their raid.

## Connections

### Atlantis: The Lost Empire

Blackbeard was identified as the founder of the Thatch family and ancestor of Milo Thatch in a deleted script for this film. Given their shared surname, it is likely that the connection remains.

### Jungle Cruise

In the interactive game A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas, guests play as the crew of Captain Jack Sparrow competing for treasure with his enemies. One quest involves competing for the *Treasure of the Pacific* with Barbossa, trying to steal it from the tribe of headhunters from the Jungle Cruise. Barbossa can be presumed as leading the Wench's crew in this attraction given Jack representing the Black Pearl, Blackbeard being active and presumably captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge, and the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction being located nearby where Barbossa is captain.

### Oceaneer Lab

Marc Davis artwork of Isla Tesoro and several members of the Wench's crew is hung up in the RV Oceaneer Lab.

## Trivia

* Originally in Disneyland and presently in Walt Disney World, the Wench has/had a crest located on stern.
* It is unknown what the relationship between the Black Pearl and the Wicked Wench are in Disney Parks cannon given how in film-continuity they were the same vessel while in Disney Parks continuity they appear to be separate vessels. Theories and speculation on this do exist:
	+ It is possible that the Wench and the Pearl are sister ships.
* It is sometimes theorized that the Wicked Wench was wrecked, possibly being the beached vessel located in Hurricane Lagoon on Isla Tesoro.
	+ In the original scripts for the ride, the beached ship was referred to as *The Royal Fortune*; a name historically used for ships belonging to Bartholomew Roberts. There have however been many notable alterations to the story since said unused script's creation making its authority questionable.
	+ During the raid of Puerto Dorado, the Wench was noticeably damaged and had one of its masts collapsed.
	+ The Wench is shown sinking in a storm within the Trader Sam bars.
* Several members of the Wench's crew are modelled after famous pirates, sometimes via direct allusion and sometimes the recycling of concept-art made for when the attraction was to portray historic pirates:
	+ The original captain of the Wench was very blatantly based on Edward "Blackbeard" Teach.
	+ The pirate Redd was modelled after Anne "The Pirate Queen" Bonny. She would later be given an Irish accent and piratical identity matching that of the historic Bonny.
	+ The Auctioneer is modelled after Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts.
	+ The Pooped Pirate is modelled after Henry "Long Ben" Every.
	+ The hook-handed pirate is based off of concept-art made to depict Blackbeard though his prosthetic is obviously inspired by the fictitious Captain James Hook from Peter Pan.
	+ The flute player by the hook-hand pirate is dressed near-identically to Mr. Smee from Peter Pan, likely as a further allusion to the pirate's inspiration.
* There are several characters in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise who are frequently theorized to have been amongst the Wicked Wench's crew:
	+ **Barker Bird**: The Barker Bird is a green pirate macaw which inhabited the ruins of Isla Tesoro following the island's curse. It frequently quoted crew-mates of the Wicked Wench and also bore the same tattoo and plumage as Dirty-Foot's pet parrot.
	+ **Beacon Joe**: Beacon Joe is a river marker who lived in the Blue Bayou outside of New Orleans during the 19th century. Due to his position in Pirates of the Caribbean he is sometimes speculated to have been a pirate himself although given the attraction's timeline if this were true he likely served under a 19th/late-18th century pirate such as Jean Lafitte.
	+ **The Helmsman**: The helmsman is the undead skeleton of a sailor whose corpse stands at the helm of a beached ship in Dead Man's Cove Hurricane Lagoon. If the beached ship represents the Wicked Wench this might make the helmsman a deceased member of the Wench's crew. Earlier scripts however identified the helmsman's vessel as *The Royal Fortune*.
	+ **Jackson Island Prisoner**: In Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island there is a pirate bound in chains in Dead Man's Grotto on Jackson Island, Missouri. He is shown to suffer from the same curse as that of the cursed Aztec gold and is inferred to have likely imprisoned by Jack Sparrow or Jean Lafitte.
	+ **Pintel**: Pintel was a cursed crew-mate of the Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, said crew having been inspired by that of the Wicked Wench. He is shown as an undead cursed pirate in the Dead Man's Grotto of Jackson Island within Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island.
	+ **Ragetti**: Ragetti was a cursed crew-mate of the Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, said crew having been inspired by that of the Wicked Wench. He is shown as an undead cursed pirate in the Dead Man's Grotto of Jackson Island within Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island.

## References

1. ↑ https://insidethemagic.net/2017/07/video-new-redhead-scene-amazing-barbossa-animatronic-debut-pirates-caribbean-ride-disneyland-paris/
2. ↑ https://dapsmagic.com/2018/06/redd-the-pirate-sails-into-new-orleans-square-in-search-of-captain-jack-sparrow-at-disneyland/
3. ↑ https://insidethemagic.net/2016/07/five-years-of-adventuring-at-trader-sams-enchanted-tiki-bar/
4. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/disneyindiana/24149294757/in/photostream/
5. ↑ https://www.discoveringthemagickingdom.com/apps/blog/show/44620021-history-of-female-pirates-and-the-redhead
6. ↑ https://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2017/08/
7. ↑ https://disneyandmore.blogspot.com/2008/09/rare-marc-davis-pirates-of-caribbean\_10.html
8. ↑ https://allears.net/2019/10/09/17-magic-kingdom-details-youve-never-noticed/