The film’s Will Turner is the perfect inversion of the historical reality. He starts as an honest blacksmith (lawful, land-based) and is reluctantly dragged into piracy. His father, “Bootstrap” Bill, is a nod to the real pirate “Bootstrap” (a nickname for a real sailor, though not named Turner).
But here’s the question that sent me down a rabbit hole this week: william turner pirate
But here’s the twist: The man in the painting was later identified as —the real-life, infamous Scottish pirate who was hanged for piracy in 1701. The film’s Will Turner is the perfect inversion
They uncovered a portrait dated 1680 of a wealthy, stern-looking man with long dark hair, a leather jerkin, and a cutlass at his hip. The name on the frame? But here’s the question that sent me down
The short answer is sort of . The long answer involves a fascinating collision of history, a very famous painting, and one of the most successful fictional name-steals in movie history. Let’s get the biggest misconception out of the way first. If you search 17th-century pirate rolls for a Captain William Turner, you won’t find him. There was no infamous buccaneer with that name terrorizing Port Royal.