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- "It's bad luck to be singin' about pirates with us mired in this unnatural fog, mark my words."
- ―Joshamee Gibbs[src]
Joshamee Gibbs, often referred to as Mr. Gibbs, is a major character in the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. He is Captain Jack Sparrow's longtime friend and first mate. He is one of the only four characters to appear in all films, alongside Jack Sparrow, Hector Barbossa, and Jack the Monkey.
Personality[]
Mr. Gibbs is a generally loyal assistant to Jack Sparrow who often provides the movie's cast as well as the audience with background information. He makes frequent references to various causes of "bad luck". He is also known to have a passion for rum, which he drinks from a leather flask. He tends to take a moment of silence for anyone who gets left behind, such as Jack for example or Barbossa when he sacrificed his life to stop Salazar. Gibbs is most likely the only character who knows Jack Sparrow's history and has a great friendship with him, being one of the few people to admit he went to Davy Jones' Locker to rescue Jack because he missed him, although he didn't raise his hand when Jack asked.
Appearances[]
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl[]
Mr. Gibbs is first seen as a Royal Navy warrant officer aboard the vessel that Governor Weatherby Swann and his daughter Elizabeth Swann are on. Gibbs is highly superstitious and fearful of the talk about pirates. When they come across a wrecked vessel, during which a young Will Turner is rescued, Gibbs is the first to suggest it was attacked by pirates.
Sometime over the next eight years, Gibbs either left or was fired by the Royal Navy and returned to piracy once more. He eventually become good friends with the infamous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow. Jack's history is well known to Gibbs, including his quest to regain the Black Pearl from his former first mate Hector Barbossa. He also seems to be familiar with the curse that affected the Pearl. He is shown to not grow any less superstitious and has comments about bad luck, such as bringing a woman onboard a ship as he fears it is dangerous.
Jack and Will find Gibbs sleeping with the pigs when they arrive at Tortuga to recruit a crew. They successfully assemble a crew to commandeer the HMS Interceptor to travel to Isla de Muerta to rescue Elizabeth from Barbossa and his cursed crew. After Jack falls behind, Gibbs leaves him as per the Code. Gibbs and the crew flee from Barbossa, but the Pearl quickly catches up to them and captures the crew.
When the Black Pearl arrives back to Isla de Muerta, Elizabeth frees Gibbs and the crew from the Pearl's brig, and they take control of the ship. Although Elizabeth tries to convince Gibbs and the others to save Jack and Will, who are fighting Barbossa on the island, they set sail with the Pearl. They tell Elizabeth that Jack owes them a ship. However, they later rescue Jack from execution in Port Royal. With Jack back in command of the Black Pearl, Gibbs stays on as second in command.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest[]
A year later after the events of the first film, Gibbs is still serving under Jack Sparrow as his first mate aboard the Black Pearl. Jack obtains a drawing of the key to the Dead Man's Chest. When Gibbs asks if the chest and key are what they are looking for, Jack refuses to give a clear answer. Afterwards, Gibbs and the rest of the crew are captured by the Pelegostos Tribe when Jack sets land to avoid the clutches of the Kraken. They eventually escape and return to the Pearl. They later travel to Tia Dalma's shack, during which Gibbs panics when he sees Jack's black spot.
Gibbs accompanies Jack on his quest to find the Dead Man's Chest, containing the heart of Davy Jones. When Jack goes ashore on Isla Cruces, he leaves Gibbs and the rest of the crew besides Pintel and Ragetti onboard the ship. Gibbs is also one of the few survivors of the Kraken's attack on the Black Pearl and manages to escape its destruction. When Gibbs and the others return to Tia Dalma's shack for help, she asks if they would be willing to do anything to save Jack and the Pearl, during which Gibbs is the first to accept the mission.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End[]
Gibbs travels to Singapore with Elizabeth and Barbossa, where he aids in an attempt to secure a ship and crew from Sao Feng. They later make their way to World's End to rescue Jack Sparrow. When Jack suggests leaving some people behind in Davy Jones' Locker, Gibbs is one of the few people Jack wants to take back to the land of the living. Gibbs also indicates that he came to save Jack because he had missed him.
During the meeting of the Fourth Brethren Court, Gibbs tells Pintel of the backstory for the nine pieces of eight and their role in imprisoning Calypso. He later fights in the battle of Calypso's maelstrom and survives. At the end of the film, Gibbs passes out drunk and lets Barbossa steal the Black Pearl. Despite allowing the Pearl to be stolen, he and Jack part ways as friends. Gibbs stays behind in Tortuga with Scarlett and Giselle while Jack begins his quest for the Fountain of Youth.
On Stranger Tides[]
Gibbs later ends up in London and is arrested and is wrongly accused as Jack Sparrow. The real Jack Sparrow, posing as a judge, comes to his friend's aid and gives him a life sentence instead of the expected death penalty so to get answers about the impostor posing as Jack to gather a crew. After being arrested by the royal guards, Gibbs manages to steal Jack's map and memorize it using his photographic memory prior to burning it so that Barbossa would have no choice but to take him along on his quest to search for the Fountain of Youth. Eventually reunited with Jack, Gibbs uses his captain's compass during the climactic battle to find the Queen Anne's Revenge and get the bottled Black Pearl, stealing the rest of Blackbeard's trophies of war and treasure in the process.
Dead Man Tell No Tales[]
Gibbs remains a part of Jack Sparrow's crew aboard the much smaller ship the Dying Gull. However, with a long stretch of bad luck in piratical heists and Jack's behavior becoming much more unbearable as he keeps demanding a greater share of what little they can take, Gibbs and the crew finally leave Jack, although Gibbs seemed to be the least harsh about leaving as he apologized to Jack and gave him a shoulder pat after announcing that "We've reached the end of our horizon." before departing. However, Henry Turner hires the crew to rescue Jack from a guillotine execution so that they can seek out Poseidon's Trident and defeat Captain Salazar. During the quest for the trident, Barbossa dies and Gibbs mourns his death along with the rest of the crew. Afterwards, Gibbs and the rest of the crew continue to serve under Captain Jack once more.
Video games[]
Kingdom Hearts III[]
Gibbs makes his debut into the Kingdom Hearts franchise in Kingdom Hearts III alongside Tia Dalma in their homeworld of the Caribbean, with events following what happened in At World's End. Gibbs is with Will, Elizabeth, Tia Dalma, Barbossa, and their crew, as they make their way into Davy Jones' Locker to find Jack and the Black Pearl, where they soon encounter Sora, Donald, and Goofy, who recognize Will, Elizabeth, and Barbossa, but have to be formally introduced to Gibbs and Tia Dalma. Once they reunite with Jack and the Pearl, they return to the Caribbean, where Sora learns that Davy Jones and Cutler Beckett are threatening to destroy piracy in the Caribbean. However, Sora soon has to make his way to Port Royal for repairs after his ship provided by Tia Dalma, the Leviathan, takes damage from the Heartless.
By the time he rejoins Gibbs and the others, Elizabeth has already been named Pirate King by the Brethren Court, and an attempt to appeal to help from Calypso revealed to be Tia Dalma in her bound human form, appeared to have been in vain. However, a stirring speech from Elizabeth to convince the crew of the Pearl to hoist the colors and show the Brethren Court that they are not afraid of Beckett's larger Royal Navy armada under the East India Trading Company flag convinces Gibbs and the others to fight back. Soon, Calypso makes her move to summon a maelstrom for the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman to do battle in with Sora attempting to support the Pearl with the Leviathan. However, after Jack, Elizabeth, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are forced to leave a mortally wounded Will on the Dutchman as it goes down after Jack helped Will stab Davy Jones' heart in the Dead Man's Chest, Gibbs warns Jack that Beckett is approaching on his flagship, HMS Endeavour, and suggests retreating while they still have the chance. Jack refuses, hoping Beckett will keep his end of their earlier agreement, but Beckett has the Endeavour prepare to attack the Pearl before the Dutchman resurfaces with Will its new captain. As Jack then gives the command to have the Pearl join the Dutchman in hitting the Endeavour in a double broadside, Beckett is left in a state of shock at having been outmaneuvered. On Jack's command, Gibbs relays the order to fire, and both ships unleash their fury on Beckett's ship. Beckett's Royal Marines abandon ship when they realize Beckett is unable to give orders and the Endeavour is doomed, and soon the powder magazines detonate, killing Beckett and finishing off the Endeavour. With the loss of their flagship and commander, the EITC/Royal Navy armada is forced to retreat in disgrace.
As the crew of the Pearl celebrate their victory, Sora notices Elizabeth gazing over at Will on the Dutchman, at which point, Gibbs explains to Sora that the Flying Dutchman must have a captain, and since Will is the new one, he's bound by the Dutchman to spend ten years ferrying the souls of the dead to the afterlife after spending one day on land, a steep price for their victory after having only become Elizabeth's husband a short while ago. Sora is left deeply upset by this, but Gibbs does his duty and provides a longboat for Elizabeth to travel ashore to spend her one day with Will before he starts his ten-year tenure at sea before he can set foot on land again. Afterward Gibbs stands with Barbossa, Donald, Goofy, and the crew as Jack assures Sora that the one day Will and Elizabeth have to say goodbye is enough time to bond, just like Jack and Sora do with their friends, family, and hearties.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- While it is never explained why he left the Navy, when he asks James Norrington about his life, the latter responds that his life is like Gibbs' but "one chapter behind", implying that he may have been disgraced chasing pirates. It is also possible he was press-ganged into the Royal Navy, as piracy offered greater freedom at the time.[2] Another possibility is that he was dismissed from the navy due to his drinking, as he is often seen swigging rum from a flask.
- His voice and elements of his beard bare a resemblance to Horatio McCallister, the Sea Captain from The Simpsons.
External links[]
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