Chapter 13: 1740 - Tortuga


The "Black Pearl" reached Tortuga around noon the next day.

The delay Davy Jones had granted her captain quickly melted away, and Jack Sparrow knew whatever they had to do on the island had to be done quickly, if they wanted to avoid ending up in the same horrid way as the ship they had abandoned on the reef only a few hours ago.

Jack felt all the more driven to free himself from the bargain he had struck with Jones, ever since he knew that both Tia Dalma and Jones had lied to him and knowingly cheated him out of the woman he loved.

For a long time he hadn't felt so shaken up inside as he did at the moment when this suspicion became true, and it had taken enormous willpower from him to continue playing the naïve, cranky, and always slightly selfish pirate that many still believed him to be.

So he almost felt something like deep gratitude as Tortuga came into view and the crew prepared to go ashore and stock up on supplies. And another, unexpected surprise helped to lighten his spirits, at least temporarily, while issuing new orders to his crew after the "Pearl" was moored at one of the berths:

"Gentlemen, I think, I don't have to tell you that we don't have lots of time! I want to be back at sea not later than midday tomorrow. So, the first thing I want you to do is getting supplies, water and everything else aboard we're in need of. I don't have to tell you what will happen to us when we will come across the 'Dutchman' the next time, so, make haste and hurry up! Keep the ship ready for a quick cast off and don't lose time! As soon as you're ready, you're free to go ashore, but be warned: Every man who's not back aboard with noon tomorrow, will be left behind!"

He turned round: "Mister Gibbs, you will accompany me! Let's see what we can do about those ninety-nine souls. Oh, and, van Dijk – it might have escaped your attention, but your 'Stella' anchors right vis-à-vis, and I'd bet a certain young and beautiful smuggler with her...!"


The 'Pirate's Lass' once again proved to be a reliable source for information of all kinds, and even if much had changed on Tortuga over the past few decades, this tavern seemed to have been spared from all this.

As always, the well-known den of thieves was filled to the rafters with sailors, pirates and merchants from all over the world who wanted to play, drink, or while away some time within the gentle arms of a pretty girl, but like everywhere on Tortuga, merchants made up the largest part of the clientele here as well by now.

The world of seafarers began to change, especially the world of pirates, and ever since the English made it their aim to put an end to the evil of piracy, the number of the so-called 'terrors of the seas' decreased noticeably. And while there were still between two and three thousand pirates hunting for gold and treasure in the Caribbean during the 'Golden Age of Piracy', their number was now limited to fewer than five hundred - and treachery by deliberately smuggled in informers added to this. To make matters worse, it was no secret that the big remaining strongholds of piracy, such as Singapore, Madagascar or Shipwreck Island, were hopelessly at odds with each other, which gave the English an additional advantage.

But it was not only the declining number of pirates that explained the growing number of merchants, calling at ports such as Tortuga or Nassau for some time: Rising mooring fees, port taxes, storage and trading fees and a host of other taxes and fees, made it more and more difficult, especially for smaller traders, to make any profit at all from the goods they were shipping. And so the iron grip of the big trading companies forced them to try their luck in the few remaining free ports.

Even Jack Sparrow and Joshamee Gibbs were aware of their attempt to increase the crew of the "Black Pearl" by ninety-nine souls to be impossible under these circumstances but they also knew they had no other choice.

Gibbs took it upon himself to sound the poor souls out who were planning to hire aboard the "Pearl":

Be it, because they wanted to sail under the command of the notorious Captain Sparrow at least once. Be it, because they wanted to sail on such a legendary ship as the "Black Pearl" once in their lifetime. Or be it, because they were hoping for an adventure that would be as exciting as it would be lucrative.

'Probably they'll all be wishing they'd stayed ashore before long.' Gibbs thought to himself as he took a deep draft from the bottle of rum that was on the table in front of him: 'And the poor devils will most probably have more adventures soon than they ever hoped for...'

Finally, he cleared his throat and went to work: "What makes you think you're worthy to crew the 'Black Pearl'...?"

It didn't take long for him to find a handful of men:

An elderly landlubber who had decided to join a ship at least once in his life, but had absolutely no knowledge of seafaring. A guy who pretty much didn't care about anything after his wife jilted him. A poor soul missing an arm. And the hopeless romantic who wished for nothing dearer than being able to spend a lifetime at sea...

If this continued, they would soon have a crew together, but one that even Davy Jones would doubtfully raise an eyebrow at, if he'd only had one...

Away from Gibbs' efforts to hire a reasonably decent number of men, Jack was sitting in one of the quieter niches - his feet on the table, a mug of beer next to him and his compass in his hand.

His gaze, a mixture of desperation, annoyance and resignation, spoke volumes, while he tried again and again to elicit from the compass an answer to what he wanted to know and to what it was he wanted most. But as much as he himself believed that he knew what he wanted - his compass seemed to know perfectly well that this was not the case.

All shaking and knocking didn't help, the needle spun, stopped, spun again, and then jumped back to its original position before beginning to rotate around itself again.

It was frustrating, and Jack wondered whether he really didn't know what he wanted or whether the compass was trying so hard to prevent him from doing or wanting anything at all.

He'd tried Davy Jones' chest, the heart, and even - Elizabeth Swann, but none of that had worked. And when even the thought of Caithleen didn't help, he closed the lid of the precious little box and sighed. Deeply!

Heedless of the seductive and lustful looks the whores of the tavern presented him with, he finally picked up his beer mug and turned to Gibbs: "How's it going?"

Gibbs lifted his head and shrugged: "With the four we already have, we have... four!"

"Seems it's getting much more complicated to find some fools willing to die at sea than last year, eh?"

"Jack, this wasn't a good idea right from its beginning. Don't you think it would be better to search elsewhere for a solution to our problem?"

"That's what I already thought about as well, mate, but so far to no avail! So, let's go ahead with what we've been doing over the past few hours. Maybe, I'll be able to come up with a better idea before we're going to set sail, aye?"

With that he turned back to his niche, his beer mug and his compass, while Gibbs set to work with far less enthusiasm than before to ask the next candidate for their crew his questions: "And what's your story?"

Much to his surprise, the man's voice sounded all too familiar, albeit a little quieter and more exhausted than at the time when he had heard it more often: "My story? It's exactly the same as your story, just one chapter behind. I chased a man across the Seven Seas. The pursuit cost me my crew, my commission, and my life..."

Gibbs raised his gaze and looked right into the face of a man whom he would never have expected to find here on Tortuga: "Commodore?"

"No, not anymore, weren't you listening? I nearly had you all, off Tripoli. I would have, if not for the... hurricane."

"Lord. We heard of it, but we didn't believe you would... You didn't really try to sail through it...?"

Of course, Gibbs, like everyone else aboard the "Pearl", knew that the "HMS Dauntless" sank during the hurricane, but it was still something else to hear this from someone who had witnessed and survived this tragedy, than from those who only knew rumours about it.

"Believe what you heard, Mister Gibbs! I forgot everything while having been so obsessed with finding the 'Black Pearl' and her notorious captain! My duties! My orders! Myself!" He bent over the table, looking Gibbs straight in the eye: "In short: I lost my purpose in life because I wasn't able to hang that fool and because I agreed about giving him one day's head start!"

That was the moment in which Jack too, looked up from his compass and his futile attempts to get the thing to answer his questions.

Like Gibbs before, he had recognised the voice, and like Gibbs before, he was amazed that James Norrington of all people, had turned up here in Tortuga and at the 'Pirate's Lass' at that. Moreover, on that very day where they were about to hire a new crew...

Norrington looked awful: The once dutiful and dapper soldier was barely able to hold himself upright, and he looked as if he hadn't been sober in weeks. The once neat white-powdered wig upon his head was now just as grey and stiff with dirt, as was his uniform, which was ragged and torn in many places. His face was now deeply tanned and his eyes told everyone that he drank too much and slept too little. Even now he held a bottle of brandy tightly in his hand to take a sip from it again and again, and probably also to hold on to something.

Jack didn't know if the former soldier had spotted him yet, but for now, Norrington seemed still preoccupied with Gibbs: "So do I make your crew, or not? You haven't said where you're going. Somewhere nice, I assume?"

Gibbs didn't answer him. He was still too surprised. But Norrington's attention turned to the wandering leaf, anyway, within this moment, which just then tried to sneak out of the tavern unnoticed. And faster than one would have expected it from a man in his drunken state, he drew his pistol, cocked it and aimed at the 'leaf': "So, tell me then, am I worthy to serve under Captain Jack Sparrow? Or should I just kill you now?"

His gaze, although unsteady and a little too glassy, still spoke a clear language, and Jack decided it would be better not to take any chances - even if there stood not to be feared that Norrington's shot would actually meet him: There was no need of taking any unnecessary risk...

And so he just shrugged, gave the man a wide grin, and replied: "You're hired..."

Norrington returned the grin, aimed at Jack again and remarked: "Sorry! Old habits..."

Before he could pull the trigger, though, some of the men hired by Gibbs earlier that night threw themselves on him, making it clear in their own way that no one was going to shoot their captain just like that.

The shot still rang out, ricocheted off one of the cast-iron chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and smashed one of the earthenware beer mugs just as its bewildered owner was about to take a sip. It only lasted a split second, and once again a 'magnificent' brawl was on its way, accompanied by the merry sounds of jigs and reels, which a group of musicians had already been busy playing all evening - now, however, from out of the safety of an overturned table...

Jack and Gibbs exchanged a quick look and agreed it was time to get going. Since their way through the taproom and thus through the front door was blocked, Jack pointed to the stairs: "Let's take the back door, mate. You never know what that's good for!"

"Aye! I agree, cap'n! Let's get out of here!"

In the chaos that once again seemed to have everyone in the tavern in its grip, Jack and Gibbs sneaked up the stairs to the next floor. And as if by miracle, they escaped all the beer mugs, tables and chairs, which were thrown in their direction, and smashed against the walls next to them or above their heads.

The hooting and bawling was still accompanied by the death-defying musicians, and no one paid no more attention to the two pirates, who tiptoed through one of the chambers, to the yelling of one of the whores and her customer, to get to the outside from there via the balcony and another narrow staircase...


"You want to leave already?" Van Dijk stood rooted to the spot outside in the alley when he saw Jack and Gibbs stumbling head over heels out of the 'Pirate's Lass' - on top of that from the back door, and accompanied by the continued screaming of the whore, who shouted the wildest insults at them from the balcony. "I guess I'm right in assuming you don't feel like keeping us company for another bottle of rum or port?"

"Believe me, van Dijk," Gibbs replied: "at the moment it's not the right climate for sharing a bottle of rum or port. It's a bit stormy in there, if you know what I mean..."

As if to underscore his words, a chair went flying through one of the windows at the same moment, followed by one of the countless drunkards who took part in the brawl. The man shook his head, briefly, adjusted his hat, and immediately threw himself back into the fray.

"What's going on in there?"

It was only now that Jack and Gibbs realised that the Dutchman was not alone. The woman at his side was young, pretty and - no stranger.

"Anamaria!" Jack looked from her to van Dijk and back to her again, a knowing grin on his lips.

"Jack!" She too, looked at him with a knowing grin: "Once again on the run from one or the other slap you're not sure of if you deserve it or not? Surely you're not entirely innocent of the turmoil in there, are you? And the fight certainly has nothing to do with your return to Tortuga either, am I right?"

"Charming as always, love! But what makes you assume I could have anything to do with what's going on within the 'Pirate's Lass'? Gibbs and I have only been in for a mug or two - and to add a little to our crew. Savvy?"

"Add a little to your crew? What happened to the one you had?"

Anamaria sank her gaze deep into his eyes, but he made no attempt to avoid her: "Let's put it this way: We had a somewhat unpleasant encounter with some overly hospitable cannibals. If you get what I try to tell you..."

"Oh, I get you perfectly well! Do you want me to tell you something, Jack? I'm really glad I turned my back on you and your 'Pearl'! Whoever sails under your command simply never knows what disaster will be their next! Honestly, I've had a wonderfully peaceful year! No undead pirates, no cursed gold, no cannibals and no frenzied Englishmen clinging to the tail of my coat!"

"Is that so? Well, you surely forget that it was me who got you your ship and your peaceful year, eh?"

"You? Thanks to you and that brute, Barbossa, the 'Interceptor' now lies at the bottom of the sea..."

"Who's talking about the 'Interceptor', love? Actually the ship I'm talking about is the 'Stella'. And if I think about it I did not only get you a ship but a snazzy captain as well, right?"

Anamaria blushed up to her hairline, but before she could say anything else, Gibbs remarked: "We'll have time for that later! Jack and I had better get out of here."

"He's right!" Jack was about to turn on his heel, but changed his mind and turned to van Dijk and Anamaria once more: "If I were you, I would look for another tavern, brothel or whatsoever. 'Cause our good ol' friend Norrington is in there too and he's in just the right mood for a proper booze and an equally proper fight..."

"Norrington?" Anamaria frowned: "What did you do to him?

"Me?" Jack looked at her innocently, head cocked: "I didn't do anything to him! All the contrary!" He hesitated before he added: "I'm afraid I hired him...!"