The
Black Pearl was originally a merchant ship called
Wicked Wench (the name of the ship from the
Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at
Disneyland Park, which is shown shelling a fort), but its crew later turned to piracy under the command of a pirate captain named Morgan, who was killed during a battle with
Spanish Royal Navy Captain
Armando Salazar. The helmsman, Jack Sparrow, was granted captaincy of the
Wicked Wench after out-maneuvering Salazar and saving the crew during battle.
[1]
Years later, the
Wicked Wench became registered to the East India Trading Company and owned by
Cutler Beckett, the EITC Director for
West Africa. At the time,
Jack Sparrow was in the employ of the East India Trading Company and regained captaincy of the
Wicked Wench (this fits in with reality as history notes that pirates did not build ships specifically to commit piracy. Instead, they either bought or stole small, fast vessels, then retrofitted them with heavy armaments).
(As detailed in the 2011 Disney Publishing novel,
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom, written by
A.C. Crispin)
Jack Sparrow captained the
Wicked Wench for Cutler Beckett for about a year, hauling various cargoes, but he refused to haul slaves. Hoping to recruit Sparrow as one of his many "operatives", Beckett indulged what he regarded as an odd peccadillo of Sparrow's until he and the captain came to part ways. Beckett had dispatched Sparrow on a mission to find the lost island of Kerma, and the treasure at the heart of its underground labyrinth, but Sparrow double-crossed the EITC official and claimed he couldn't locate the island. Suspicious that Sparrow had indeed found the island and the treasure, but had not given him its accurate location, Beckett, determined to browbeat the captain into obedience, and demanded that the young captain transport a cargo of slaves to the New World. Initially Sparrow agreed, but when he realized that he was betraying the
Wicked Wench, as well as himself, he rebelled and freed the slaves by taking them to Kerma for safe asylum.
Furious that Sparrow had flouted his orders and stolen the "cargo" of "black gold", Beckett had Sparrow thrown into jail. After allowing him to languish for a couple of months, Beckett had Sparrow transported to the
Wicked Wench's anchorage, about a mile from the coast of West Africa, near Calabar on the Bight of Benin. After personally branding Sparrow with the "P" brand (so he'd be forever identifiable as a pirate), Cutler Beckett gave the order to fire incendiary carcass charges at the
Wicked Wench, in order to totally demoralize her captain. Sparrow fought his way free from his guards, dove overboard and attempted to rescue his burning, foundering ship, but he was too late. The
Wicked Wench turned into an inferno, then sank, taking Jack with her. But, while dying, Sparrow called upon
Davy Jones, and struck a bargain with him: his soul and one hundred years service aboard the
Flying Dutchman, in return for a continued human existence of thirteen years as captain, plus saving the
Wicked Wench and transforming her into the fastest, most dangerous pirate ship on the seven seas. Jones agreed, and raised the ship from the sea floor, now a charred vessel with an angel figurehead.
[2]
In keeping with her scorched appearance, Jack painted his ship black and added black sails, rechristening her "the
Black Pearl". Two years later, the
Black Pearl was in search of the mysterious
Isla de Muerta with a new crew, where the legendary
Chest of Cortés was hidden. Captain and crew agreed to equal shares of the treasure, but devious
first mate Hector Barbossa persuaded Jack that equal shares included knowing the treasure's location. Jack complied, and soon after Barbossa led a
mutiny and marooned Jack on an island with nothing but a pistol containing one shot.
The crew found the
Aztec gold, which was spent very quickly, not believing in the curse placed on it: that anyone who stole the coins would become an
undead being, unable to feel anything but unsoothable hunger, and that only
moonlight would reveal their true form. This curse being real, the pirates were soon hideous living skeletons with tattered flesh and clothing clinging to their bones. Even the
Black Pearl was affected by the curse upon its crew, becoming constantly shrouded in an eerie mist and operating with tattered sails ripped in many places.
