The law of the sea was not bound to parchment by mortal hands.
For the civilization of Kings and Tyrants ends at the waterline, beyond that, the old
powers still hold sway.
Far from the sight of land, bold captains sail free waters, where waves are not measured
in feet, but as increments of fear and those who pass the test become legend.
There are many legends told on the open ocean.
And in every port myths and curses are whispered in hushed tones, but there is one above all
rarely spoken aloud: that of the Black Pearl.
The Pearl was commissioned under the name of “Wicked Wench”, when the seas were
still untamed, the world a rougher place and a sailor made his own fate.
Her first captain is known to Davy Jones alone, but at some point she fell under the command
of a pirate named Morgan.
Together with 9 other ships the Wicked Wench pursued the Silent Mary, whose Captain; Armando
Salazar, had pursued a private war against all pirates, earning the title the Butcher
of the Sea.
In a fierce battle at the heart of the Devil’s Triangle, the pirate fleet engaged the Mary,
only to be slaughtered by the Spanish warship’s superior guns and crew.
Morgan himself was killed, and the Wench, the only surviving vessel, might have used
the smoke of her burning allies to escape.
But its new Captain, a young boy named Jack, outfoxed Salazar.
He lured the Silent Mary onto a volcanic reef, which ignited its gunpowder and left it lost
with all hands.
Now known as Jack Sparrow, this new captain would form a lifelong bond with the ship that
would become the Pearl, seeing it as less of a ship, than as a symbol for the life it
could give him.
Despite his efforts though, the Wench fell under the ownership of the East India Trading
Company, and was used to escort slave ships.
In an attempt to win it back, Jack Sparrow agreed to sail under the command of Cutler
Beckett, the company’s director for West African Imports and Exports.
Sparrow would refuse to transport slaves however, and after betraying his orders to do so, Beckett
ordered the Wench burned with Jack on board.
Too late to save his ship and wavering on the verge of death, Jack Sparrow summoned
Davy Jones to strike a bargain.
In exchange for a century of service aboard Jones’ own Flying Dutchman, the Wench would
be raised from the depths and Jack named Captain for 13 years.
Still charred from the fires that scorched its hull, Captain Jack Sparrow had the sails
dyed to match, and named the vessel the Black Pearl.
For two years the Pearl sailed the world, preying on ships and settlements but it was
Aztek Gold on which Jack had set his sights.
On the verge of discovering this treasure however, the crew mutinied, leaving Sparrow
on a deserted island and his former first mate, Hector Barbossa in command.
Under Barbossa, the Pearl and its crew would find the Aztek gold that Sparrow had only
promised, yet it was only after spending it all that they discovered it was cursed.
Doomed to sail the seas as the living dead, the Pearl acquired an even darker reputation.
Perpetually shrouded in a dense fog, it became known in every port as a ship with torn black
sails, crewed by the damned and captained by a man so evil that hell itself spat him
back out.
Their quest to return every piece of gold taken would last a decade, and Barbossa would
tragically enjoy only a few brief moments as a living man before he was killed at Sparrow’s
hands.
Once again, the Pearl fell under the command of the pirate who had first named her.
Jack’s tenure as captain was again short however.
Only a year after he regained the Black Pearl, the debt Sparrow owed to Davy Jones came due.
A kraken dragged both into the realm of Davy Jones’ Locker leaving them stranded in an
endless desert, seemingly for all time.
Yet by a strange twist of fate, the Black Pearl and Jack Sparrow were both returned
to the seas of the living.
Captain Barbossa, himself similarly brought back to life, was largely responsible for
this, desiring a return to the golden age of piracy for which the Pearl would be necessary.
Again the flagship of a grand pirate armada, the Black Pearl led the attack on Davy Jones,
freeing him from the control of the East India Trading Company and welcoming him back into
the embrace of the sea.
The Black Pearl remained a prize to be won over the ensuing years, trading hands between
Sparrow and Barbossa.
It was trapped within a bottle by the notorious pirate Blackbeard, restored by the legendary
Sword of Triton, and sailed to the tomb of Poseidon himself.
Even Salazar would return to claim his vengeance on Sparrow and the Pearl, only to once again
be dragged to the depths, at the cost of Barbossa’s own life.
Seen from the shores, the Black Pearl might appear little different than any other ship
to set sail.
It is a three masted galleon, 165 feet long with black sails and a black hull.
Within can be found the captain’s quarters, crew berths and store rooms expected of such
a vessel.
It can fire in anger 32, twelve pound cannons, a fearsome armament but hardly the most powerful
warship afloat.
Only in its speed does the true value of the ship become apparent, for it is said that
there is nothing afloat that can catch the Black Pearl, not even the Flying Dutchman
itself.
For what the Pearl truly is, what every captain to ever raise their colors atop its mast has
come to know, is freedom.
The freedom to outrun every law and every order, to race beyond the reach of civilization
itself, to sail the open waters of the world until the world itself shall end.