Pirate
or Pyrates? Today, the words
"Pirate" or "Piracy" are spelled with an
"I". In the Golden Age of Piracy, spelling was a
haphazard kind of thing, and the word were often spelled with a
"y". So there was a time when the word Pirate
was spelled Pyrate, Pirate, Pyrat, or Pirat. I
use pyrates, just for the whimsy and feel of it.

Piracy
Any robbery or other violent action, for private ends and
without authorization by public authority, committed on the seas
or in the air outside the normal jurisdiction of any state.
Because piracy has been regarded as an offense against the law
of nations, the public vessels of any state have been permitted
to seize a pirate ship, to bring it into port, to try the crew
(regardless of their nationality or domicile), and, if found
guilty, to punish them and to confiscate the ship.

A
key point in the definition of piracy: according to
international law, is that the act takes place outside the
normal jurisdiction of a state, without state authority, and
that the intent is private, not political. Thus, although acts
of unlawful warfare, acts of insurgents and revolutionists,
mutiny, and slave trading have been defined as piracy by
national laws of various countries or by special treaties, they
are not, in most cases, piracy by the law of nations.

Piracy
has occurred in all stages of history. In the ancient
Mediterranean, piracy was often closely related to maritime
commerce, and the Phoenicians appear to have engaged in both, as
did the Greeks, Romans, and Carthaginians. In the Middle Ages,
Vikings from the north and Moors from the south also engaged in
piracy. At the conclusion of European wars during the
Renaissance and after, naval vessels would be laid up and their
crews disbanded. From among these men, pirates recruited their
crews. A common source of piracy, for instance, was the
privateer, a privately owned and armed ship commissioned by a
government to make reprisals, to gain reparation for specified
offenses in time of peace, or to prey upon the enemy in time of
war, with the right of the officers and crew to share in prize
money from captured vessels. The temptation was great to
continue this profitable business after the war without
authorization. During the Elizabethan wars with Spain in the
late 16th century, treasure-laden Spanish galleons proceeding
from Mexico into the Caribbean were a natural target for
privateers, and the line between privateering and piracy became
difficult to draw.

From
the 16th to the 18th century, after the weakening of Turkish
rule had resulted in the virtual independence of the Barbary
States of North Africa, piracy became common in the
Mediterranean. Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli so tolerated
or even organized piracy that they came to be called pirate
states. In the early 19th century they were suppressed by
successive actions of American, British, and French forces.

The
increased size of merchant vessels, the improved naval
patrolling of most ocean highways, the regular administration of
most islands and land areas of the world, and the general
recognition by governments of piracy as an international offense
resulted in a great decline in piracy in the 19th and 20th
centuries. Piracy has, however, occurred in the 20th century in
the South China Sea, and the practice of hijacking ships or
airplanes has developed into a new form of piracy. Much of the
Piracy in the Caribbean may be related to drug smuggling. In the
South China Seas, much of the piracy is typical of the piracy
that has plagued the oceans since man first ventured off to sea.

Typically,
armed thugs will try to sneak on board a ship and try and
overcome the crew in an attempt to steal the cargo. Today, the
sloop had been replaced by small motorboats. Often ships are
attacked while docked and most of the crew is away. Typically
the pirates of today are armed with axes and long knives.
Occasionally some may have guns. They tend not to fight hard and
prefer to flee if the crew manages to organize any kind of
defense.

Johnny
Depp Interview : Pirates of the Caribbean

Johnny
Depp has come a long way from 21 Jump Street - the US TV show
which lumbered him with teen idol status. Since then he's
worked with director Tim Burton on numerous occasions - their
most recent collaboration being "Sleepy
Hollow". Depp has also worked with oddball helmer
Terry Gilliam for "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas",
and famously dragged it up for "Ed
Wood". It's all helped mould his quirky persona, as
well as earning him a reputation as one of America's finest
young character actors. While still demonstrating that offbeat
air, swashbuckling adventure "Pirates of the
Caribbean" is perhaps his most 'mainstream' film to date.

You
based your character on Rolling Stone Keith Richards. Why's
that?

I
thought of Keith because he's a guy I've admired for many,
many years. I didn't want to do an imitation of Keith, or a
character study, just a kind of salute to him, you know, to
show him I appreciate him. I was thinking about the pirates of
the 18th century, about how they were the rocks stars of their
day. So I thought: Who's the greatest rock and roll star who
ever lived? And to me, it's Keith Richards hands down. Keith
is a bit of a pirate himself!

What
was it like to have Geoffrey Rush play your nemesis?

He
was great fun. It's always a worry when you go into a film and
you don't know someone. You worry that he won't have a sense
of humour, that he'll be really intense about his work. But
Geoffrey's nuts! He has a great sense of humour.

There's
obviously a lot of swordplay in the movie. How tough was that
to learn?

That
was very intense, actually. Probably the most intense part of
pre-production and the production itself was the sword
fighting. We had these fantastic sword masters who took us
through our moves and forced us to work. Which was a good
thing, because losing a finger or losing an eye was always a
possibility.

What
about the gold teeth? You've still got them...

Well,
there's a little gold and a little platinum. It didn't go over
very well with the Disney executives actually. Initially, they
were a little freaked out about it.