Port Royal accuracy

Check out what I found on potcinteractive.com!

The Historical Accuracy of
Pirates of the Caribbean

by "Roo"

A few people have asked me about the historical accuracy of Pirates of the Caribbean, so I thought I'd put a few bits here on the site just in case anyone else is interested. How do I know about this stuff? Well, I am an archaeologist, did a PhD on Caribbean forts and now work in this field, so I spend a lot of time looking at real examples of forts and researching the military history of the 17th and 18th century Caribbean.

Firstly, the fort: well this one gave me a shock when I first saw it in POTC, I thought it was one I had missed, which gives you an idea of how accurate the reconstruction is! Basically, as I’m sure you’ll know from the DVD, they built a fort in America. But, they used many elements of real Caribbean forts to create the POTC fort. They even got the masonry technique and type of building stone right!

The type of fort seen in POTC is a standard form of the late 18th century, with an enclosing curtain wall with cannon mounted on top, a parade ground in the centre and rooms within the curtain wall, that would have housed men, powder, cannon shot and other necessaries such as kitchens, warehouses and stores. There would have probably been various ancilliary buildings and outlying defences (used to protect the inner fort). The closest parallels I can find are Fort George at Brimstone Hill fortress, St. Kitts or Fort Frederick at Richmond Hill, Grenada.

The location of the fort, overlooking the town, is a standard, with the principal town in any Caribbean island having at least one fort to protect merchant shipping lying in the bay. Port Royal would have definitely needed such protection as it had a reputation in the 17th and 18th century as a lawless town, which became the home of pirating and blackmarket dealing.

As an aside, it must not be forgotten that the shipping being protected was usually involved in the sugar and slave trades, and as such, these forts were an integral part of supporting the cruel trade in men and women from Africa.

These types of forts would have held a garrison of soldiers, usually from one regiment, who would be changed out every few years and replaced by other regiments sent from England. By the time of the changeover many of the men would have died from illnesses such as cholera, typhoid or malaria and many would have deserted. To be posted to the Caribbean was seen as a death sentence and nearly 90% of those who went never returned. Although we think of the Caribbean as paradise nowadays, the diseases and dangerous lifestyle took its toll on all who lived there. For example, having to wear several layers of wool clothing in 40 degrees C, meant soldiers regularly passed out and died on parade (what happened to Elizabeth was right!).

There would have been black men in the garrison also, as by this time, they were allowed to serve in the British army. Enslaved black men and women built such forts and the huge structures that can be seen today are a result of their toil.

Armaments: the cannon seen in POTC are generally replicas of later 18th century 12 and 24 pounders of a type in common production during the reign of George III. The muskets also follow this pattern. The ‘long nines’ talked about when Captain Jack Sparrow and Will have stolen the ship and Norrington is after them are large cannon, which would be more than capable of sinking a ship at close range.

Uniforms and dress: generally, the uniforms match late 18th century examples of standard British soldiers and marines (army soldiers on ships), the silver badges worn by the soldiers have the mark of George III, so are again later 18th century. Governor Swann’s dress is unusual as it is more typical of the later 17th/earlier 18th century, as is Elizabeth’s costume, but this is not surprising as Caribbean fashion was usually behind that of the homeland due to the time it took for ideas and goods to get to the Caribbean. The pirates, including Captan Jack Sparrow, all show elements of costume type that would be common from any point from the later 17th century onwards. This is not surprising as they would not have had access to the new fashions of Britain and would have made do with whatever was available.

So there it is, hope this is of interest! My one criticism of POTC is the general absence of black people as they would have been numerous in the towns, forts and on the ships of the period. Having gone to such efforts to create historical accuracy it seems a shame that they did not get that bit right!

Anyway, lecture over! There will be a test later to make sure you were all paying attention!

ooooooooooo.... me likey historical info. 🙂

the second film did a better job of showing the cultural and racial diversity of the caribbean.

that website looks cool. 🙂

Dang, that was long and interesting lol.

So its a little of this and that. 17th-18th century-ish.

*scribbles down notes* Another test? In finals week? Damn.

katelovespirate: yet all of the minorities seemed to be in the ball of bones that went down... ???

As you say in your own "What they were really saying" DMC, "....check out the ethnicities of this crew."

Oooh. Does that earn me brownie points? 😄

oh s***! a test! *reads it over again..then 5 more times*

i know, LOL, like I said, POLITICAL STATEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🙂 hahaha.

except the dude mending the sail, with the french-speaking brother. he was cool.

This was a really interesting character analysis on the same site. I really like the people on here, but the only vice to it is that it was either created before DMC or DMC just wasn't included.

"The first, and most obvious, examples of this are the two male leading characters: Jack Sparrow and Will Turner. Let’s look at their opposite sides. Jack is a pirate, an outlaw. He lives life on the edge, in and out of scrapes, getting by through cunning, wit and oft-times bravado. He’s experienced, sly and savvy. Will is an earnest, almost prudish, young man apprenticed to a solid (if drunken) citizen. Will follows the rules, accepts his place and, in fact, stubbornly sticks to it even when invited to forget it for the moment, as when Elizabeth consistently requests he call her by her first name. Polar opposites, yes? And yet, through their frictional, tensional interactions, forces are exerted on each other, forces are put into play that affect other people, and ultimately decide the fate of each.

But while the two eventually resume their predictable, divergent paths, we see an elemental change in each man through the frictional interaction and force they exert upon each other. Will loosens up (and grows some facial hair! LOL), he learns to take risks to get what he wants, he breaks the rules and finally (yea!) stands up for himself. Jack, on the other hand, finds himself battling...um...pirates! He proves to be (surprisingly to the "establishment"😉 a good man, a man of his word, really. While going after what he wants, like Will, he also pursues a course that is, in some ways, noble and unselfish.

Counterparts

Are Jack and Will the only representatives of balance in the story? Not by any means.

Easily spotted, we have two pairs of what are usually referred to as "side-kicks." We see the first two characters when Jack attempts to investigate The Interceptor. Murtagh and Mullroy are wonderful characters! They play off each other beautifully. And while appearing bumbling and inept, they prove their mettle in battle aboard The Dauntless at the end of the movie. Their pirate counterparts are Pintel and Ragetti...whose frictional interaction provides additional comedic high jinks. They are the piratical version of Murtagh and Mullroy, balancing the military sensibilities of M&M with a ruthless twist.

Commodore Norrington is everything an upstanding Englishman should be. He is bound by a sense of duty, an obligation of service to others, and in the end, a noble willingness to sacrifice his happiness for the woman he loves - thereby denying himself what he desires most. He not only follows the rules, he enforces them. Answerable only to the governor, he is the archetypical "good man." Countering the Commodore is Captain Hector Barbossa. He is as far from a good man as you can get. The only rules he follows are his own, and he is crafty enough to provide himself with enough loopholes in even those rules to ensure his success in every negotiation. Ruthless where Norrington is faithful, deceitful and conniving where the Commodore is honourable - he is the dark face in Norrington’s mirror - the menace of an opposite image.

Joshamee Gibbs and Weatherby Swann are not easily recognizable as counterparts. One is a former able seaman, turned pirate and the other the Governor of Jamaica. One, while in a position of ultimate leadership, seems almost always to defer to the younger man, the commodore - the other, with no distinction of class or station, easily takes over command when Jack fails to return to his stolen ship. And yet, in these seeming differences, we see a parallel.

And what of the main female character in the story? Is she merely the nexus, the means of connection for everyone, the catalyst of events, the center point of contact? Well, yes, she is all of these things, but she too has her counterpart. Unlike the other characters, however, her counterpart is not human. It is a ship. Elizabeth and the Black Pearl are opposites in fundamental ways - one animate, organic. The other inanimate, inorganic. Yet both are, to the principals, the ultimate prize worth dying for, the potential possession of which fuels their energies, consumes their minds, and ignites their passion. And, in the end, both "feminine entities" are transformed, evolving from fantasy images to flesh-and-blood/keel-and-a-hull reality."

I love the Jack and Will comparison. I remember listening to Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski while watching CotBP, and Johnny was saying that since Orlando Bloom was taking care of the "Erroll Flynn" type character, he could do whatever with Jack's character, make him as crazy as he wanted to, something like that. 😄

oh WOW. Elizabeth and the black pearl. never thought of it that way.

So, does that mean the men at some point are going to realize she's "only a ship"?

😉

I hope Jack doesn't realize that!

Well, it says by the end both are seen more realistically, that they aren't just an ideal anymore. I don't know what that means for the Pearl, but I hope that means that Will at least has seen a new side to Liz, that she's tough, capable, resourceful, brave. I wish they included the second movie in the analysis. It must just need updating. Maybe it means for Jack that the Pearl was everything he thought he wanted, but by building it up and building it up, it's still not enough to satisfy him. I guess that's the real meaning of the freedom monolog he gives Liz. It's the freedom and adventure he loves.