Pirates of the Caribbean’s Jack Sparrow may be the worst pirate you’ve ever heard of, but he is based on the real Barbary pirate John Ward. Johnny Depp modeled his performance of Sparrow after Rolling Stones frontman Keith Richards, considering pirates were the rock stars of their age, but that’s not the only source of inspiration for Pirates of the Caribbean’s beloved character. John Ward, often known as Jack, was nicknamed Sparrow, and his eccentric ways and winding history often parallel his fictional counterpart.

John Ward began his career in the 16th century as a privateer, a pirate sanctioned by a government to attack enemy ships, but when a new king took the English throne, privateering was outlawed. Like many out-of-work privateers, Ward turned to piracy. He heard rumors about a Catholic merchant about to sail his valuables to France, and he persuaded 30 men to join him in taking the ship. The valuables had been removed from the ship before they arrived, but Ward took the ship anyway, and he and his crew started searching for loot on the seas. His career began before the Golden Age of Piracy, but he became one of the most legendary pirates of his time.

SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY

Instead of working in Jack Sparrow’s hunting grounds of the Caribbean, Ward made his way to the Mediterranean. He set up his base in Tunis, Tunisia, where an official in the Ottoman Empire welcomed him in exchange for a share of his loot. Ward captured a number of ships sailing the Mediterranean heavy with trade goods, including an enormous Venetian galley that became his greatest success. Meanwhile, he started building himself a mansion fit for a prince in Tunis and took to wearing “curious and costly” attire. A wealthy and respected pirate, but also extremely eccentric, Ward was the picture of Jack Sparrow at his height as captain of the Black Pearl.

His success did not last forever. As in the true stories of many pirates, he soon met his downfall. He refitted the Venetian galley, but it broke up in a storm and sent 350 men to their deaths at sea. Ward’s reputation never recovered from the disaster as he returned to Tunis. He was considered bad luck, and he was drunk most of the time in his retirement. One source described him as “a fool and an idiot out his trade.” [via History] In his later years, Ward mirrors the washed-up and down on his luck Jack Sparrow of the movies much more closely.

See also  My Hero Academia: Who Are The Big Three?

Although John Ward fell from grace, he was considered one of the most notorious English pirates to rule the seas in his day, a fitting inspiration for Jack Sparrow. Even within his lifetime, Ward’s illustrious career spawned books, plays, and songs. His legacy would later be overshadowed by names like Blackbeard, but his exploits still turned him into a folk hero to inspire stories for centuries to come. Pirates of the Caribbean draws heavily from pirate legend and lore, and John Ward had quite a legend.

Everything Everywhere All At Once Review: Yeoh Delivers In Imaginative Sci-Fi

About The Author


Christy Box
(104 Articles Published)

Christy Box is a features writer for Screen Rant. When she’s not writing about Star Trek, she’s a linguistic anthropologist and researcher. Her experience in TV production as a director, producer, and camera operator has made her passionate about the work that goes into bringing a story to the screen. She is fascinated by science fiction, monsters, slow-burn suspense, complicated female leads, and faithful book adaptations. In her free time, she writes fiction and reads everything she can get her hands on. She has also written for Ranker and Factinate.

More From Christy Box