Young Jack (

1704-1713, age 15-24 )

This timeline covers Rob Kidd’s Young Jack adventures and the period leading up to the events detailed in A.C. Crispin’s Price of Freedom. Some of Crispin’s timeline bleeds in here, as the events that lead Jack to joining the EITC fall within this time period as well.

Jack considers piracy to be abhorrent. He believes that the ocean should be a free space and he is especially protective of the Caribbean, which is the closest region to a home that he knows. He is spirited and – as much as he questions who Teague is to him – he holds the man as a bar to be met. Jack yearns for the sort of respect that Teague so effortlessly commands, though he goes about it in all the wrong ways by insisting on being recognized as captain rather than enforcing the matter – but that is another topic altogether.

Jack’s early crew aboard the Barnacle will all come to play important roles throughout his life (Some so frequently drawn on for headcanons that they are, in fact, crew upon the blog itself or may be at a later date ) Arabella taught him the value in being educated on the supernatural elements of the world – and further illustrated to Jack the importance of not killing people – while Fitzwilliam taught Jack the bitter burn of betrayal, and showed him that simply being born to the right side of the law, did not in turn make someone a good person.

The conclusion of the Young Jack series is, for me, Sins of the Father. I do not count the stories afterward, though inspiration from them may be drawn from time to time. What is important to understand is that when Jack returns with Teague, he still does not know what he wants out of life.

It will be in this time period that he first encounters Armando Salazar, and where his path first has potential to diverge from its course. ( More in the salt of DMTNT. )

Important Notes:

• By the time Jack is twenty-four, his understanding of language is precisely where it will be when we meet him at the age of thirty-nine in Curse of the Black Pearl.

• Jack  trained himself to adjust his speech patterns so that he lacked a lower class accent whilst working for EITC, an occupation he held for five years and raised in position by right of skill and hard work. Being exceptionally observant, he was able to pass for upper class by noting their mannerisms and mimicking them. ( This becomes notable later, when he mimicks Cutler Beckett and later, passes himself off as the son of a lord without anyone being the wiser until far too late. )

• Jack reads for pleasure: poetry, history, biographies. He has read most of Shakespeare’s poems and some of his plays. His favorite book is Captain J. Ward’sMy Lyfe Amonge the Pyrates, which was gifted to him by Captain Teague.