Jack Sparrow

**Captain Jack Sparrow** is the main protagonist from the *Pirates of the Caribbean* franchise with close ties to the Disney Parks and their mythos.

## History

It is likely that Jack's history is different between the movies and the ride continuities given different parallels which contradict one another or exist simultaneously.

### Pirates of the Caribbean (films)

Jack Sparrow was the illegitimate son of the pirate captain Edward Teague and an unknown woman. After spending much of his youth amongst pirates under his father, he would be employed as a merchant captain under the service of the East India Trading Company as a young man. Jack worked under the authority of one Lord Cutler Beckett and was made the captain of a merchant-ship called *The Wicked Wench* which Jack held a great affection for due to seeing it as the embodiment of his freedom.

Jack would come to be employed by Beckett to deliver a shipment of 1000 enslaved black peoples aboard the Wench to the Caribbean. Knowing this was deeply amoral, Jack freed the 1000 souls and cost Beckett a promotion. Due to this, Beckett had Jack stripped of his commission, branded him as a pirate and burned the Wicked Wench as punishment. Being forced into a life of piracy, around 1716 Jack made a faustian bargain with the psychopomp sea-deity Davy Jones to have the Wicked Wench brought back from the depths. In return Jack would surrender himself after 13 years as captain to be a slave aboard Jones' ship *The Flying Dutchman*. When Jack agreed, the Wench was returned as a scorched black galleon leading to Jack renaming it, "The Black Pearl".

At some point in time, Jack became acquainted with Jones' former lover the sea-goddess Calypso who was bound in the human form of Tia Dalma. Through unknown means, Dalma gave Jack an enchanted compass which pointed to whatever its user wanted most in the world. On his second year as Captain of the Black Pearl, Jack used the compass to travel to the supernatural Isla de Muerta which was an island that could only be found by those who already knew where it was hidden and which held a fortune in blood money paid by Indigenous peoples of Central America to the evil colonist Hernan Cortez. Sparrow picked up a crew in the pirate-haven of Tortuga which included a first-mate named Barbossa who chose to lead a mutiny against Jack and who subsequently marooned him on a desert island to die.

Luckily for Jack, the island was used by rum runners to hide their cargo from the British Empire and after spending three days drunk on the island, Jack was saved by the smugglers aboard their ship. It is believed that during this time the heatstroke from the three days aboard the desert island coupled with his trauma in losing the Pearl lead Jack to his distinctive form of madness. From this affair, Jack retained the flintlock and single-shot which he was given by Barbossa which was intended for committing suicide when not being able to stand being marooned anymore. Jack intended to use this gun and shot to shoot Barbossa dead out of revenge

Ten years later, Jack would be arrested by the British and locked up in the fortress on Port Royal when the island was ransacked by Barbossa and the Black Pearl, their crew now cursed to be undead by the treasure of Cortez and wishing to break their curse. To break the curse, the crew required the medallion and blood of crew-mate Bootstrap Bill Turner who was sent to the depths before the pirates learned they needed his blood. Said medallion was in the possession of Elizabeth Swann, the daughter of Jamaica's governor who was in-love with Bootstrap's unknowing son William Turner and had stolen the medallion from him when they were young to save William from being punished for piracy by the British navy. This resulted in Barbossa kidnapping Elizabeth, believing her to be a blood-relative of Bootstrap Bill.

After becoming aware that Jack had some connection to the Black Pearl, William freed Jack from prison to set out to find Elizabeth. Though after realizing Will's heritage, Jack intended to use Will as a bargaining chip to barter his ship back from Barbossa. This eventually lead to Jack sympathizing with Will and Elizabeth and choosing to truly aid them from Barbossa with this alliance leading to William using his blood to free the pirates from their curse so that Jack could shoot Barbossa in the heart. When Jack was arrested again by the British, Will and Elizabeth freed him and he set off as captain of the Black Pearl once more.

### Disney Parks

Jack Sparrow was the illegitimate son of the pirate Edward Teague and an unidentified woman. He would grow up to become an infamous and cunning pirate captain who was in command of a vessel known as *The Black Pearl*. Jack was rivals with a fellow pirate-captain named Hector Barbossa who at one point he competed for the Treasure of the Pacific, a magical item belonging to the goddess Calypso which was located along the Nile river in North Africa. On one adventure, Jack robbed an undead magic-using pirate known as Captain X of an unidentified treasure.

Jack would travel to the pirate haven of Treasure Cove in pursuit of the legendary sunken treasure of Davy Jones. Jack made his base within Voodoo Alley nearby the old Fort Snobbish where he began enlisting new crew-mates to assist him. Through unknown events Jack temporarily became an undead skeleton within the Cave of Misfortune on the island before harnessing the magic of the caverns to set off for Davy Jones locker. Jack stole Jones' treasure aboard an unknown vessel which he then left along with its crew to a watery grave, firing a cannon in the side of the ship from the inside while he made away with a dinghy of treasure to avoid the wrath of Davy Jones. Not long after this, Davy Jones used magic to turn the stolen treasure into kelp and debris much to Jack's dismay.

At some point during the golden age of piracy, Jack Sparrow competed with the pirate crew of *The Wicked Wench* to pursue to cursed treasure of Isla Tesoro. Alongside a blue macaw belonging to his crew-mate Mr. Cotton, Jack got to the island first with the Wench close behind, laying waste the island's main port of Puerto Dorado. As he did not possess the isle's map, Jack spied on the pirate crew to lead him to the treasure's location. Jack proceeded to steal a key from the Wench's crew and get to the treasure while the Wench's crew set Puerto Dorado aflame in a drunken stupor.

By unknown circumstances, Jack lost the treasure of Puerto Dorado to the Wench's crew as they hid it away within their lair in the haunted Dead Man's Cove. Isla Tesoro's ruins were transformed into a pirate-haven after this where Jack was active, notably recruiting crew-mates from the pirate bazaar of la Plaza del Sol Caribe. This crew would assist Jack in tracking down the Treasure of the Arctic, a magic sword which was one of seven treasures of Calypso which was in the possession of smugglers. Jack's old flame Angelica Teach would run a restaurant on the Blue Lagoon of Isla Tesoro though Jack would win it from her in a duel, renaming the restaurant as, "Captain Jack's".

The prosperity of Isla Tesoro's pirate-haven would come to an end however when the curse of the stolen treasure struck the Wench's crew, turning them to undead skeletons and leaving the island a haunted waste. At an unknown point of time following this curse, Jack returned to Isla Tesoro and managed to traverse Dead Man's Cove to find the lair of the Wicked Wench. Jack managed to steal the treasure back again from the now undead pirates through whether or not it cursed him is unknown.

In the mid-18th century, Jack along with Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner frequented an island up the Mississippi River in what would become the state of Missouri. The island would come to have a vast bounty of treasure and supernatural artifacts which were stored away by pirates in the caverns of Dead Man's Grotto. Amongst its belongings were the Dead Man's Chest (presumably containing the heart of Will Turner), gold protected by the cursed undead pirates Pintel & Ragetti, a pirate genie and a similarly cursed pirate bound in chains.

## Appearances and allusions

### A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas

In this interactive Adventureland attraction, Jack Sparrow enlists guests to be crew-mates of the Black Pearl to steal the seven treasures of Calypso from a multitude of enemies and obstacles.

### The Great Movie Ride

Jack Sparrow and Will Turner briefly appeared in the ride video at the end of this attraction.

### Fantasmic!

In this nighttime Disneyland show, Jack appears fighting Barbossa and Barbossa's crew while attempting to save Elizabeth from them. The Black Pearl is represented by the Sailing Ship Columbia and his segment ends with him defeating Barbossa's crew as Barbossa and Captain X shout out Sparrow's name.

### Muppet\*Vision 3D

A parody movie poster appears in the queue for this attraction which reads, "Pirates of the Amphibian: At Wit's End" which shows Kermit the Frog dressed as Jack Sparrow.

### Pieces of Eight

A voodoo doll of Jack Sparrow is amongst the collection within this New Orleans shop specializing in the sale of items pertaining to piracy. In the films, this voodoo doll was created by Blackbeard to force Jack Sparrow into guiding him to the Fountain of Youth.

### Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer Island

Messages and leftover operations from Jack can be found across this island attraction, set on Jackson Island in the Mississippi. Jack himself used to also make live appearances on the island.

It should be noted however that Jack and the rest of the Pirates film cast are not mentioned at all within the St. Petersburg Journal article at the Raft docks that provides the island's "Tom Sawyer" framing device, which could imply these elements merely exist within the imaginations of Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and anybody else taking part in their pirate games on the island.

### Pirates of the Caribbean

Jack Sparrow is a major character in this attraction where he competes with Barbossa and the crew of the Wicked Wench for the cursed treasure of Puerto Dorado on the isle of Isla Tesoro. He is seen stealing their map and key to claim the treasure first though off-screen the treasure is claimed by his rivals and stashed away in Dead Man's Cove. He is seen with a parrot in this ride as-well who he sings Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me) with and in Disneyland Paris' version of the ride, the two reclaim the treasure from Dead Man's Cove. In the Magic Kingdom version of the ride he is mentioned by Captain X as having stolen the undead pirate's treasure at some point.

#### Captain Jack's

In Disneyland Paris, Jack is the proprietor of a restaurant found along Isla Tesoro's blue lagoon which is passed by at the beginning of the ride. In the restaurant's backstory it previously belonged to Jack's former lover Angelica Teach, the daughter of Blackbeard. Jack would go on to claim the restaurant from her after winning it in a duel.

### Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure

Jack is the protagonist of this attraction where he attempts to steal the sunken treasure of Davy Jones off the coast of Treasure Cove.

### Tortuga Tavern

This tavern set on the isle of Tortuga is run by Jack's old crew-mate Arabella Smith. Within the tavern is a book documenting the crew of the Black Pearl from after he reclaimed it from Barbossa.

### Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar

This bar contains multiple allusions to Jack Sparrow, identified as being a friend of Trader Sam and customer of his tavern (whether this is his Jungle Navigation Company assisted establishment or a separate one being unknown). Of note their is a photograph showing Jack and Sam together on what appears to be Isla de Pelegestos with Jack in chieftain makeup and a Pelegostos warrior nearby.

Also in the bar is a letter addressed to Sam from Jack reading, "*Sam. Rum is on you, heads are on me. Take care of Mum for me. She always loved hanging around in your pub -Captain Jack Sparrow*". Near the letter is the shrunken head of Jack Sparrow's mother within a wooden box, left in Sam's safe-keeping in his bar.

## Connections

### Jungle Cruise

In the Magic Kingdom's interactive-game *A Pirate's Adventure: Treasures of the Seven Seas*, Jack competes with Barbossa for the *Treasure of the Pacific*, one of Calypso's seven treasures which is in the possession of Adventureland's Headhunter Tribe. Additionally and as previously mentioned, Jack Sparrow was friends with Trader Sam who originates from this attraction.

### Fortress Explorations

In the dubiously cannon Pirates of the Caribbean comic, "The Black Skull!", Sir Francis Drake is identified as having hid a large treasure on Isla Cueva in the Caribbean along with two magical stones sought after by Captain Jack Sparrow. Within the Disney Parks mythos, Sir Francis Drake was appointed as an honorary member of the *Society of Explorers and Adventurers*.

## Trivia

* While unconfirmed, it is likely that Jack survived well past the Golden Age of Piracy in the Parks mythos given his affiliation with Jackson Island, having claimed the treasure of Dead Man's Cove well after its crew's death, and having had a photograph taken with him and Trader Sam (photographs having not been invented until the 1830s).

## References

1. ↑ https://www.flickr.com/photos/23879054@N00/4212097564/
2. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2nA7-MAKn8/