Hector Barbossa - Background

Background

In the "Becoming Barbossa" featurette on the "Lost Disc", Geoffrey Rush shared his personal take on Barbossa's history: his family was poor, and he ran away from home when he was 13. He went to the sea, and seeing how well the captains and officers lived, decided to become a captain himself. At first, he wanted to be an honest seaman, but quickly recognized that piracy was easier and more lucrative.

In At World's End, Hector Barbossa is revealed to be one of the nine Pirate Lords of the Brethren Court. He is the Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea, although as that body of water is endorheic, he pirated elsewhere, eventually settling in the Caribbean and joining Jack Sparrow's crew. His position as Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea is revealed in the updated Complete Visual Guide.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom, Barbossa is the pirate captain in the Caribbean. After his schooner, the Cobra, is attacked and destroyed by the infamous rogue pirates, he goes to Shipwreck Cove to inform the Pirate Lords of his disaster. With the help of a young pirate Jack Sparrow, Barbossa discovers that the leader of the rogues is Borya Palachnik, the Russian Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea. After he was captured and sentenced to hang, Borya gave his Piece of Eight to Barbossa, thus making him the next Pirate Lord of the Caspian Sea.

Hector Barbossa is fond of apples, which appear throughout the first film. He offers one to the captive Elizabeth and later tells her that once the curse is lifted, he wants to eat a whole bushel-full. There are also apples in his cabin, and when Jack is taken to the brig, Barbossa grabs the apple Jack was eating and throws it in the water in anger. When he dies at the end of "Curse of the Black Pearl", an apple rolls from his hand that he apparently brought to eat when the curse was lifted. His cameo appearance at the end of Dead Man's Chest shows him biting into his favorite fruit. In At World's End, he is only shown eating one apple when aboard the Black Pearl. In On Stranger Tides, he is seen eating apple slices aboard his ship.

According to the audio commentary from the first Pirates of the Caribbean DVD (featuring the scriptwriters), Hector Barbossa is skilled with a sword, and is considered one of the finest swordsmen in the Caribbean. According to the commentary, Barbossa's skills are equal to James Norrington (Jack Davenport) and exceeded only by Will Turner. His prowess with a blade is evident in his duel with Jack Sparrow, and in the maelstrom battle against the East India Trading Company. In the first film, the Black Pearl crew were hesitant to attack Hector Barbossa, even simultaneously. The only person known to have survived a one-on-one duel with him is Jack Sparrow, in the treasure caves of Isla de Muerta—and even that was with the aid of a pistol. Geoffrey Rush comments that Hector Barbossa supposedly used a sword from a very young age, possibly as early as 13.

He uses the same flag as the notorious pirate "Calico Jack" Rackham.

In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide, Hector Barbossa is described as being attentive to his appearance, as his elaborate clothing shows. He wears a large ring bearing a bear's head symbol and has purplish blue ostrich plumes and a pheasant feather in his hat (which appears to be important to him, as in the first movie Jack Sparrow interests him in a bargain by saying, "and I'll buy you a hat... a really big one"). His coat buttons are made from recast Incan silver, and his pistol once belonged to a Spanish pirate, won in a duel.