James Norrington (1695-1729) was a British Royal Navy admiral and British East India Company officer who served in the Caribbean during the Golden Age of Piracy. Norrington was famous for his failed efforts to capture the legendary pirate captain Jack Sparrow from 1728 to 1729, as well as for his elimination of several other pirate captains, including Hector Barbossa, from the Caribbean that same decade.
Biography[]
Norrington in 1720
James Norrington was born in England in 1695, the son of Admiral Lawrence Norrington. He followed in his father's footsteps and purchased a commission in the Royal Navy, harboring an intense dislike of pirates and desiring to bring to justice the pirates of the Caribbean during the waning years of the Golden Age of Piracy. In 1720, as a lieutenant, he served aboard the HMS Dauntless as it transported Governor Weatherby Swann and his 12-year-old daughter Elizabeth Swann from London to Port Royal, Jamaica.
Once in Jamaica, Norrington was given command of the brig HMS Interceptor and tasked with eradicating Caribbean piracy. Over the next few years, he chased and captured the Caribbean's most fearsome pirates. In 1728, Norrington was promoted to Commodore in recognition of his services, and, that same year, Norrington decided to propose to Elizabeth, as he had become good friends with her father and admired the beautiful young woman she had become. However, his proposal was interrupted by her fall from the battlements of Fort Charles, as her corset made it hard for her to breathe. She was rescued by the pirate Jack Sparrow, whom Norrington arrested and intended to hang the next morning. That night, however, the pirate captain Hector Barbossa and the crew of the Black Pearl launched an attack on Port Royal, kidnapping Swann and sacking the town. Norrington and Governor Swann arranged a rescue mission, with Norrington taking command of the Dauntless and chasing the Black Pearl. He caught up with the pirates at Isla de Muerta, where, after a hard-fought battle, he defeated the pirate boarding party; at the same time, Sparrow and the blacksmith Will Turner (who had joined Sparrow with the goal of rescuing Elizabeth) killed Barbossa. Norrington and his Royal Marines captured Sparrow as well, but, on the day of Sparrow's hanging, Turner rescued him from the fort, and Elizabeth persuaded Norrington and her father to allow for Sparrow and Turner - who had confessed his love to her - to escape. Norrington decided to give Sparrow a day's head start as thanks for his help in taking down Barbossa, but, after that day elapsed, Norrington gave chase aboard the Dauntless.
Norrington chased Sparrow across the world until a hurricane off Tripoli destroyed the Dauntless, causing Norrington to lose both his crew and his career in the Royal Navy. He became a penniless drunk in Tortuga for a year, and, in 1729, he decided to join the Black Pearl as a pirate. However, at the Isla Cruces, Norrington stole Sparrow's letters of marque and the heart of Davy Jones and turned them over to British East India Company agent Cutler Beckett, leading to Norrington being promoted to Admiral rather than becoming a privateer as he had hoped. Norrington helped command Beckett's armada during the EIC's war against piracy, and Beckett had Norrington placed in command of the Flying Dutchman after growing weary of Jones' refusal to leave survivors for interrogation. Norrington led the boarding party which stormed Sao Feng's pirate ship Empress, and he took Elizabeth Swann prisoner, as she had become a pirate; however, she berated him for siding with the men who had killed her father, a fact which caused Norrington great surprise and lament. He later decided to free Swann and her friends from the Flying Dutchman, and he volunteered to stay behind and fight off Davy Jones and his men; Swann, knowing that Norrington would die, kissed him for the first and last time. Norrington then stabbed Davy Jones in the chest with his sword, but the immortal Jones ran Norrington through with his own sword, killing him.