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The Truth Behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

In the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Jack Sparrow battled the Royal Navy and a bunch of cursed pirates. In the sequel, Dead Man's Chest, he's up against even more frightening foes: hungry cannibals, a supersize squid, and a ghostly sea captain who's after Jack's soul!

Jack and his ship, the Black Pearl, are just fiction—but pirates really did terrorize the seas during the 1700s, when the movie is set. How closely does the film capture that kind of pirate life? NG Kids discovers the answers.

En Garde: Jack and his blacksmith pal Will Turner take part in a death-defying sword fight inside a giant rolling wooden wheel. "But there wasn't a lot of fancy-schmancy sword fighting going on at that time," says screenwriter Ted Elliott. In fact, the quality of steel back then was so bad that the blades often broke during fights! "That's why pirates preferred pistols," says pirate expert Ken Kinkor.

Sinking Feeling: The movie's pirates can swim. Seems obvious, right? But believe it or not, many pirates and sailors of the time couldn't swim. "Some sailors made it a point not to learn," Kinkor says. "The idea was that if your ship went down, you'd want a quick death."

Women of the Waves: As in the first film, Governor Swann's daughter, Elizabeth, gets swept up in Jack's misadventures. This time, she dresses like a man to pretend she's a sailor! Not many women sailed the seas back then, but some who did—such as pirates Anne Bonny and Mary Read—really did dress as men when they attacked ships.

X Marks the Spot: In one scene, pirates dig up a treasure chest on a beach. All pirates buried their loot, right? Nope! "It wasn't that common," Kinkor says. "Mostly they spent it." Only a few pirates were responsible with their booty: They used it to start their lives over if they tried to re-enter society.

Burial Booty: Check out the wooden-eyed pirate Ragetti—he has a gold earring. Real pirates wore gold earrings, too, and not just to look cool. Some experts think it was because the earring would pay for a proper burial if the pirate were killed.

Showdown at Sea: The Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman battle each other side-by-side during a furious fight. "That's a good position to be in," says screenwriter Terry Rossio. "The cannons on the sides of the ships could just blast away at each other." But then the Pearl tries to escape. That wouldn’t happen. "If pirates were in a desperate fight, they'd probably try to board the other ship," Kinkor says. "Pirates were usually better in hand-to-hand combat than they were in cannon duels."

Elizabeth Swann (played by Keira Knightley) and Jack get ready to dig for treasure. Photograph courtesy Pirates of the Caribbean: Dean Man's Chest/Peter Mountain/Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved.