Hector Barbossa

"*Too long my fate has not been in me own hands... No longer.*"
―Hector Barbossa[src]
One of the nastiest pirates to ever sail the Caribbean, **Hector Barbossa** is the wily captain of a cursed crew. Barbossa ran mutiny against Jack Sparrow and stole his ship, the *Black Pearl*. In the third film, Captain Barbossa has returned from the dead, this time in an uneasy alliance with his old nemesis against the forces of the East India Trading Company.

## Biography

### Background

In the "Becoming Barbossa" featurette on the "Lost Disc", Geoffrey Rush shared his personal take on Barbossa's history; his family was very poor, and he ran away from home when he was 13. He went to the sea, saw how well the captains and officers lived and decided to become a captain himself. At first, he wanted to be an honest seaman, but soon recognized that being a pirate was easier and more lucrative.

### The Curse of the Black Pearl

In *Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl*, Barbossa is the captain of the *Black Pearl*, but he was originally the ship's first mate under Captain Jack Sparrow. After persuading Jack to give the bearings to Isla de Muerta and its treasure, Barbossa led a mutiny against Jack and marooned him on an island, with only a pistol with a single shot. But the men of the *Black Pearl* would soon find out that the legend of the cursed treasure was not a tall tale. The curse has doomed Barbossa and his crew to live forever as the undead, the moonlight eerily transforming them into living skeletons. The curse they carry can be broken only if the plundered treasure is restored in total and a blood debt repaid.

The pirates need the blood of their former shipmate, Bootstrap Bill Turner, the lone holdout against the mutiny. Believing the crew deserved to remain cursed for what they did to Jack, he sent away a piece of the treasure to his son, Will Turner. In retaliation, he was tied to a cannon and thrown overboard. For ten years, the *Black Pearl* has sailed the waters of the Caribbean, preying on ships and towns in search of the final piece, until the gold calls to the cursed pirates one fateful day. Lured by the medallion, Barbossa has sailed the *Black Pearl* to Port Royal and besieged the town that night. While Barbossa waits aboard the *Pearl*, his crew captures Elizabeth Swann, who invoked the right of parley. She negotiates for the pirates to leave Port Royal in exchange for the medallion and, believing her real name will reveal her importance as a hostage, introduces herself with the surname "Turner". Believing Elizabeth is Bootstrap's daughter (and thus, the means to lifting the pirates' curse), Barbossa agrees to stop the attack, but exploits a loophole in their agreement, keeping "Miss Turner" captive aboard the *Black Pearl*.

As the *Black Pearl* sails for Isla de Muerta, Barbossa has dinner with Elizabeth in the captain's cabin. He tells her the tale of the curse that haunts the crew, revealing their pressing need for both her and the medallion. On the moonlit deck, Elizabeth then comes face-to-face with the crew of skeletons. In the cave full of treasure on Isla de Muerta, Barbossa anoints the medallion with Elizabeth's blood and drops it into the chest. When the crew questions if the curse was lifted, Barbossa shoots Pintel, which has no effect on him—the curse remains unbroken. Will Turner, aided by a still-living Jack Sparrow, rescues Elizabeth and escapes with the medallion to the *Interceptor*, though Jack is left behind in the mercy of Barbossa.

## External links

* Hector Barbossa on the Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki