Jack Sparrow

The British Navy kept meticulous logs. Yet one entry, dated 1720, remains unexplained. It describes the capture of a pirate ship, The Black Siren, and its captain — Jonathan Sparrow, age unknown, eyes “black as tar.”

He was to be hanged at dawn. But when the sun rose, the noose held only seawater. The cell door was locked from the inside, and his boots were full of sand.

Sailors who later served aboard The Black Pearl claimed Sparrow’s laughter carried through fog long after he died. The ship itself was sighted in multiple oceans simultaneously — a phenomenon later dubbed “The Sparrow Paradox.”

In 1853, a hurricane off Nassau revealed a wrecked vessel marked with the same emblem — a black bird pierced by a compass needle. Divers found no gold, no crew, but one journal entry carved into the helm:

“I traded my soul for a map that never ends. Now I am both sailor and sea.”

The compass prop from Pirates of the Caribbean was inspired by this artifact, still locked away in the British Museum’s restricted vaults — where curators claim it sometimes turns by itself.