Pirates of the Caribbean: All 5 Ships Captained By Jack Sparrow

Here are the ships that Captain Jack Sparrow captains in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow is the undisputed heart of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, starring in all five movie releases since 2003. Rumors continue to swirl around Depp’s future on the seven seas, but for many, it’s hard to imagine the story continuing without Captain Jack swashbuckling his way from one disaster to the next. But just as Jack is instantly recognizable as an iconic movie character, so is the fictional Jack Sparrow famous (on infamous, depending on your perspective) in the fictional world of Pirates of the Caribbean. Here’s every Pirates of the Caribbean ship that Jack Sparrow captains.

Captain Jack has endured ancient curses, arduous voyages, the British Navy, zombie pirates, the Kraken, and, worst of all, running out of rum. Jack’s exploits as a captain of the seas are legendary among his peers and enemies, affirming him as a man to be feared, respected, perhaps even loved, but certainly never trusted. This renown would never have been possible without a series of eventful stints as captain on a host of different pirate ships.

Born into piracy, Jack was a prodigious talent in his youth, and after a brief stint with the East India Trading Company, Jack resumed his buccaneering ways, and the 18th century’s answer to Keith Richards hasn’t looked back since. But which Pirates of the Caribbean ship and crew were unlucky enough to call Captain Jack Sparrow their leader?

The Barnacle

Even the most legendary pirates often have humble beginnings, and so it goes with Jack Sparrow, who made his bones on the Barnacle as an aspiring young teenage pirate. A (very) modest fishing boat, the Barnacle was devoid of the bells and whistles Jack’s later ships would come with, but served its purpose in carrying Jack and his budding crew during their earliest adventures. The Barnacle makes her debut in Rob Kidd’s series of official Pirates of the Caribbean books, which chronicle Jack’s early life long before the events of The Curse of the Black Pearl. After initially leaving with only 2 crew mates, a barmaid and an aristocrat, the new Captain Jack soon gathered more friends and experienced the kind of magic and mayhem even veteran pirates can only dream of, discovering hidden cities, encountering mermaids, fighting a weather-controlling captain and, of course, seeking treasure.

Although the Pirates of the Caribbean ship was nothing more than a single-sail vessel, young Jack was able to enjoy the full pirate experience when he used the Sword of Cortés to turn the undersized boat into an impressive, mighty warship. Renamed the Grand Barnacle, Jack captained his way to victory over the British but ventured alone during this period, and eventually, the Barnacle was returned to its former state. Much to Jack’s dismay, his first true pirate ship came to a fiery end when the Barnacle found itself on the receiving end of a cannonball intended for his own father, Edward Teague.

The Fair Wind

After serving under a selection of pirate captains, including Teague, Rapièr, and others, Jack found himself unwelcome by the pirate community for breaking their time-honored code. Unable to sail as a criminal, Jack tried to go legitimate and signed up to the East India Trading Company, where his extensive sailing experience made for a rapid rise through the ranks. Jack first stepped onto the company’s Fair Wind vessel in the position of first mate under Captain Bainbridge. Despite only being a typical merchant ship, this brig-class was a vast upgrade on the Barnacle and made its sole appearance in A.C. Crispin’s The Price of Freedom novel in 2011. Somewhat surprisingly, Jack largely stuck to the rules while employed on the Fair Wind, and attained the rank of captain not by mutiny or misdeed, but because Bainbridge was killed during a pirate attack.

As the first mate, it followed that Jack became captain of the Fair Wind and did so with aplomb. As fortune would have it, the invading pirate was once romantically involved with Jack during his swashbuckling days, allowing the newly-promoted Sparrow to succeed in salvaging the cargo from Esmeralda’s pirate crew and bringing the vessel home in one piece. Having excelled under pressure, the East India Trading Company rewarded Jack for his efforts by promoting him to Captain of his own ship.

The Black Pearl

The most famous ship in Pirates of the Caribbean was originally known as the Wicked Wench. Jack was assigned as her commander after he refused to be captain of a slave ship, whereas the Wicked Wench was designed simply for cargo. Although it was the East India Trading Company who first put Jack in official charge of the Wicked Wench, his history with the boat stretches back to the battle against Pirates of the Caribbean 5‘s Salazar, in which the infamous Spaniard was defeated by a young Jack Sparrow alone at the helm of the Wench during his early piracy days. In a strange quirk of fate, both the Wicked Wench and Jack ultimately found themselves in the East India Trading Company and were now reunited.

Finally the captain of his own ship once again, Jack experienced the same kind of attachment to the Wicked Wench as he did with the Barnacle before, enjoying the freedom of the seas and the mastery of his own destiny. Once again, Jack resisted the temptations of piracy and kept on the straight and narrow during his time on the Wench, but Sparrow’s staunch moral code would soon lead him away from the privateering world. Jack’s superior, Tom Hollander’s Cutler Beckett, once again tried to steer Jack Sparrow towards the slave trade and, once again, he was refused. In response, Beckett banished Jack back into piracy and burned the Wicked Wench, while Jack did what any good captain should and went down with his ship.

With his beloved ship falling to the depths, Jack made a deal with Davy Jones to raise the Wicked Wench once more. Renewed by magic and christened “the Black Pearl” due to being flame-grilled by Beckett, Jack’s ship was now the fastest in the Caribbean and the perfect vessel to start his life of piracy anew. Over the course of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the Black Pearl regularly flits between the command of Jack Sparrow and Hector Barbossa and sees more adventure than ever before. The fabled ship is consigned to Davy Jones’ Locker along with Jack in At World’s End and miniaturized in a bottle by Blackbeard in On Stranger Tides. The last fans saw of the Black Pearl, she was once again captained by Jack Sparrow and seeking fresh escapades.

The HMS Interceptor

When The Curse of the Black Pearl begins, Jack Sparrow has been deprived of the film’s titular ship by Barbossa and is seeking to reclaim the boat from his sworn, undead foe. Jack’s interests conveniently align with those of Will Turner, whose lover (Keira Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann) has been kidnapped by Barbossa. Together, the unbearably handsome duo plot to escape the port by hijacking one of the Navy’s own ships — Captain Norrington’s HMS Interceptor, reputedly the fastest in the fleet and second only to the Black Pearl herself. After succeeding in their mission, the unlikely duo of Sparrow and Turner make for Tortuga, where they assemble a pirate crew with the help of Jack’s trusted first mate, Joshamee Gibbs.

The Interceptor serves as Jack’s replacement ship during his first true voyage in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but when the protagonists finally catch up to Barbossa and the Black Pearl, their fortunes take a turn. Proving its reputation for swiftness is not without merit, the Black Pearl catches the Interceptor and Jack’s ragtag crew are taken aboard his old ship, with not much in the way of a friendly welcome. After taking the crew hostage, Barbossa orders the Interceptor destroyed, and the ship is never seen again in Pirates of the Caribbean‘s timeline.

The Dying Gull

This small sloop was introduced in 2017’s Dead Men Tell No Tales and represented another temporary stopgap while Jack’s Black Pearl was otherwise unavailable to him, still shrunken inside Blackbeard’s bottle. Coming across the boat while it was marooned on the island of Saint Martin, Jack and his crewmates claimed the appropriately-titled Dying Gull as their own, with Sparrow as its land-bound captain, but few believed the thing would actually float if taken to sea. Fortunately for Jack and his new companion, Will Turner’s son Henry, the Dying Gull was indeed seaworthy, and more capable than many gave her credit for. Aboard the Gull, Jack, his crew, Henry and Carina set sail seeking the nautical legend the Trident of Poseidon but were pursued by Salazar, seeking revenge on Jack for locking him in the Devil’s Triangle years prior.

With Barbossa in tow, Salazar gains on the Dying Gull, at which point the ship’s crew decide they want no part of Salazar’s Pirates of the Caribbean vengeance against Jack, mutinying and forcing their captain, Henry, and Carina to disembark. Gibbs takes the captaincy of the Gull for a brief time, although he swiftly passes the buck onto Scrum before the Dying Gull falls into the hands of the British.

Related: Every Possible Pirates of the Caribbean Follow-Up (Could Any Succeed?)

Are Any Of Jack Sparrow’s Ships Based On Real Life?

Some of the elements from the franchise are taken from real life including Captain Jack Sparrow himself. So, which of the Pirates of the Caribbean ships were based on actual vessels? There are six major ships in the series that have real-life inspirations, and two of them were captained by Jack Sparrow. Notably, the boat that is featured the most in the franchise, The Black Pearl, is inspired by a specific type of vessel known as a “galleon.” Galleons were primarily used between the 16th and the 19th century and were pioneered by European nations, naval warfare, and merchant fleets. The huge ships were multi-deck, square-rigged sailing vessels that often featured three or four masts. A real-life ship captained by Sir Henry Morgan was named “The Black Pearl,” but it sunk during battle.

The second of Jack Sparrow’s ships that were based on real life was the HMS Interceptor. Appearing in the first movie, the Pirates of the Caribbean ship is actually a carbon copy of the historical vessel known as “Lady Washington.” The boat in question was a small merchant sailing ship that was used in the later half of the 18th century. Funnily enough, the same ship also appeared in the 1994 movie Star Trek: Generations. Other boats featured in the franchise have their origins in real life, such as the At World’s End vessel “The Empress,” which was captained by Sao Feng and then Elizabeth Swan. The Empress is based on Chinese sailing ships, known only as “junk,” and the boat is still in use to this day. Its earliest designs were used all the way back in 2800 B.C.E., and the term “junk” was initially a European term used to describe medium-to-large ships that sailed near China and Southeast Asia. Other Pirates of the Caribbean ship names based in reality include the East India Trading Company vessels, The Flying Dutchman, and Queen Anne’s Revenge. The film’s ties to real life only serve to highlight their more fantastical elements, pleasing fans of swashbuckling and nautical aficionados alike.