A very important member of one’s pirate crew, perhaps even on par with the captain, is the ship. One Piece explores this idea through the portrayal of a ship’s emotional attachment to its crew. Throughout the story, ships are given personalities, represent the crew that sails upon them and garner feelings of loss when they meet their end.
The idea of a ship having more than simply vehicle-like importance is not only seen in One Piece but was also a real-life perception of the pirates in the Caribbean and sailors in Norse mythology and history. The concept of a ship being a crew member makes sense from a logical point of view, especially for a crew that makes long voyages across the sea. The ship becomes a home; a place to eat, sleep, dream and live. The crews of the One Piece world encapsulate this lifestyle perfectly, as most of these pirates spend almost their entire lives on the open waters.
How One Piece Pirate Ships Are Given Life
The first and most notable case of a One Piece pirate ship that’s seen as a crew member is the Going Merry. It carried the Straw Hat Crew from Syrup Village to Water 7, taking a brutal beating at Reverse Mountain and the Knock Up Stream. At the end of the “Enies Lobby” arc, the Going Merry sailed out itself to rescue the Straw Hats from the Buster Call. The Going Merry’s funeral was one of the most emotional moments of the series, seen as the first and only time a member of the crew died. The Going Merry was considered a crew member by not only the characters but also the audience.
What seemed to give the Going Merry life was the Klabautermann — a water spirit that lives within a ship, which in the real world is a similar mythological creature from the Baltic Sea. The spirit conversed with the crew through the Going Merry in its final moments, enhancing the emotional effect of the ship’s funeral. However, a story’s setting can be as much of a character as the characters themselves, and the Going Merry’s place within the story certainly achieved this feat. The same could be said for the Thousand Sunny — seeing the ship in danger in both Wano and Egghead Island was as worrisome as if one of the Straw Hats was in peril.
The Variety of Ships in One Piece and How Crews Relate to Them
During the War of the Best, Whitebeard’s flagship, the Moby Dick, was set alight by Akainu and utterly destroyed. The brief look of pain and sadness Whitebeard expressed, followed by his apology, represented a loss akin to that of an old, loyal friend. As this came not too long after the Going Merry funeral, the audience was already well-versed in the feelings of loss that came with the death of a pirate ship.
A big difference between the fictitious ships of One Piece and the pirate ships of the real world is the personality of their designs. The Red Force, the Nostra Castello, the Queen Mama Chanter and the Oro Jackson all proudly portray the personality of the crews that sail them across the sea. It shows that the pirate ship embodies the crew’s ideals, being more than just a vessel to go from one place to another. Instead, the ship is a living piece of a pirate crew’s characterization.
How Pirates in Real Life Cared for Their Ships
While pirate ships and other ships in real life lacked the colorful and loud décor that One Piece ships are known for, the representation of the crew was usually embodied by their figurehead attached to the front of their ships. It is said that the figurehead was the spirit of a ship and helped maintain the crew’s safety in harsh waters, guiding them home. This historical explanation of figureheads lends itself to the theory that pirates in the real world considered their ship, or at least the spirit of it, as an important part of their crew. Ships such as Queen Anne’s Revenge, Royal Fortune and The Golden Hinde were lifelong partners to their respective crews.
Real-life pirates lived on their ships as much as, if not more than, on land. This is especially noted in the Caribbean, where pirates would roam between islands for years, sinking and raiding other vessels but avoiding the European naval forces by remaining at sea. Pirates would tend to the ship’s cleanliness, maintenance and well-being daily, ensuring it was a habitable place to live. Unlike popular media portrayals of pirate ships being dirty and degraded, they were looked after more diligently than a pirate’s own teeth.
The ships in the One Piece world are clearly shown to be characters within their own right. They are more than simply vehicles, and the pain characters suffer when their ships are destroyed, such as those of the Straw Hats and the Whitebeard Crew proves this. Throughout history in the real world, the same concept is observable as ships are named, painted and decorated as a representation of the crew that sails them. The ship becomes not only a home for its crew but also the soul and the carrier of its dreams and ambitions.
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