They had been weeks out on the open ocean, weeks taking and pillaging foddered merchant ships and frustrating their feeble captains with their reluctance to send the merchant crews to their doom. Merchants didn't take well to pirates when they didn't try to kill them. One Fat Frenchman had even dared to call Jack Sparrow a coward, growling curses at the pirate captain from under his obscenely large mustache. Apparently it was an insult to take a man's spice but spare his life. Jack Sparrow saw to it that he would not insult that particular man. And so, as the so-called coward captain and his Black Pearl had sailed off into the sunset, the captain of the obnoxiously decorated Le Moi de Moi sputtered in the waves, tied tightly to the bowsprit of the drifting French vessel.

Good performance it had been. The Fat Frenchman had wanted to feel less affronted by the sparing of his life, and so Jack had allowed him that. But Jack had also known that two allies of Le Moi de Moi weren't far off and would find the drifting ship before her crew and captain were doomed to Davy Jones. And he knew they would subsequently seek the Pearl and their vengeance, being the frivolous sort that they were. Two days later when the three ships had attempted a sneak attack, when he had been woke by the sound of terrible accents and angry shouts disparaging his name, he and his crew had, after a long battle of wits with the Fleet de France, somehow managed to fill the hold with three ships worth of loot.

But that was just the sort of pirate that Captain Jack Sparrow was.

Not all pirates were as ingenious and the majority were most ungentlemanly.

On their way to the Bahamas they had been accosted by several crews of pirates, self-professed terrors of the sea, who had intended to pilfer their booty. While amusing at first, it had quickly become rather tiresome explaining, via cannon fire, that they were not going to do any such thing. And it had really been frustrating when the overzealous types would underestimate the Pearl's speed and force he and his crew to change tack at the last minute so as to not sail directly into their boats. He had not been joking when he had called the Black Pearl the last real pirate threat in the Caribbean. The ship was the only one not crewed by a squad of stupid scalawags.

Not surprisingly they had made it to the Bahamas with the goods to sell. They sold what couldn't be used and Jack had allowed the crew to keep whatever it was they fancied. He himself had been unwilling to part with a beautifully bound copy of Shakespeare's sonnets, a statue of a midnight-tressed mermaid, several jeweled rings, and a bounty of fine wine. After a few nights rest and a bit of love given to the Pearl they had set sail for French waters once again, and sought out new merchants to offend.

Not that he intended upon being anything but polite.