Pirates of the Caribbean’s lovable rogue Jack Sparrow is notoriously known for his obsession with rum, but the secret behind this reveals an interesting true story. Becoming a running joke across the blockbuster movie franchise to date, Jack Sparrow’s (Johnny Depp) love of rum is not just a pirate stereotype but is also a survival tactic. As Jack Sparrow has escaped death on multiple occasions and even returned from the dead, it is no surprise that his favorite alcoholic beverage is actually another way to survive.
When sailing out to sea for long hauls, beer was provided on naval ships in the early 1500s to encourage comradery between the sailors, but they soon realized it would go bad quickly and later discovered that rum was the alcohol that lasted longest. To prevent scurvy, sailors would even mix rum with water and lime juice, so rum became a staple drink on most naval ships. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies similarly utilize rum as an element of comradery for the crew members of the Black Pearl as they share stories and tales of their time at sea. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl additionally saw Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) marooned on an island, bonding while drinking rum and singing pirate songs. When Swann destroys the rum, Sparrow quotes the famous line “why is the rum gone?” which is paralleled in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest when Swann and Sparrow reunite, and he immediately says, “Elizabeth? Hide the rum”.
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Jack Sparrow has narrowly avoided death on many occasions and was even resurrected as he returned from Davy Jones' locker in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. As a well-known survivalist, it is, therefore, no surprise that his favored choice of drink is also another form of survival based on sailors' proclivities from the late 1500s to early 1800s. When Jack Sparrow recounts how he survived after being stranded on an island, supposedly escaping on a raft made out of sea turtles, it is subsequently revealed that he discovered the rumrunner’s cache and spent three days drinking rum to stave off illness. As a result, it is a stash of rum rather than turtles that really saves Jack’s life - highlighting the wild true story behind why rum was so popular among sailors and pirates alike.
The majority of the world’s rum comes from the Caribbean due to its sugar resources. This meant that ships attacked and looted by pirates in the Caribbean often had vast amounts of rum aboard, and therefore the amount of rum stolen was directly equated to the sign of a successful pirate. As a notoriously drunk character who constantly consumes rum, Pirates of the Caribbean hints at Jack Sparrow being the most successful pirate. Furthermore, as the life of piracy was also a life of survival, Jack Sparrow avoiding death by mutiny, enemy, disease, and even hanging, all while swindling rum crowns him the best pirate survivalist.
In this way, Jack Sparrow's unquenchable thirst for rum in Pirates of the Caribbean harks back to historical fact from real pirates' heyday. Most prevalent from 1660 to 1730, pirates operating across the Caribbean consumed rum en-masse not only as a status symbol but as a way of staving off a number of nasty illnesses such as scurvy. Famous for his ability to swindle death, Captain Jack Sparrow is an intelligent character, and his rum obsession is actually a smart survival tactic in Pirates of the Caribbean that has ties to real pirate culture.