I imagine it's safe to assume Pirates of the Caribbean is based in the Caribbean.

Do we assume that when they go to Singapore at the beginning of the film that they sailed all the way down around the bottom of South America?

Just wondering as this seems like an awful long way for a pirate ship to travel.

user5603

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asked Jun 1 '12 at 22:42

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1 Answer 1

This is based on the following logical points:

  • The Black Pearl is a fast gallon that sails at 10 knots (historically they sailed around 8 knots, but the Pearl is special and it makes the math easier)

  • Assuming 10% of the trip is spent on re-supply

  • A knot is 1.15MPH

  • They used the common trade route of Caribbean to Portugal around Africa hugging the coast all the way to Singapore (thanks to source)

  • The distance between Cuba and Singapore using the above route (thanks to free map tools for mapping) is roughly 17,000 miles

So the two answers are:

  1. What route did they take? See above for trade route
  2. How long did it take? 10 knots or 11.5MPH * 17,000 miles = 1478 hours plus resupply of 147.8 hours = 1625.8 hours or 67.7 days

user5603

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answered Jun 4 '12 at 10:30

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  • +1 For the computation. So the movie's timeframe has to be seen at a larger scale than suggested (though I haven't seen it lately). But at all 67 days isn't too unrealistic for the movie to span, just haven't thought about that while watching a 2-hour movie.

    Jun 4 '12 at 12:38

  • Its not stated how long At Worlds End is after the events of Dead Man's Chest. However with Becket in near control of the seas even with the help of Davey Jones. I would assume aleast 3-5 years have passed. And in Davey Jones locker one can assume time passes at a different rate.

    Jun 5 '12 at 17:21

  • They couldn't have gone to Singapore with Black Pearl because it was with Jack in Davy Jones' locker. Actually, when they got to Singapore, they had no ship (as they were in need of one), so I have no idea how they got there.

    May 1 '15 at 18:14

  • This calculation assumes that the ship always sails at top speed whenever it's not in a harbor which is unlikely since sail ships depend on the weather to move. You can't sail fast or even at all when the wind is too weak or too strong. It's unlikely to have over two months of uninterrupted excellent sailing weather.

    May 31 '17 at 15:05

  • @OrionDarkwood Well, they haven't use Black Pearl for sure. since it was held inside davy jones' locker with jack. So it'd be a much slower ship. Seems like you've to change the math

    Jan 23 '18 at 11:44

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