Jackdaw

2014-01-16T01:06:08Z

162.157.255.151: Corrected spelling/grammar

{{Era|AC4}}
{{Spoilerhd}}
{{Quote|This country here is my best chance. This country called Jackdaw, where I know the names of all the citizens and they know mine, and we work together. Not always out of love, but to keep our country afloat.|Adéwalé to Edward Kenway, 1717.|Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag}}
[[File:AC4 Jackdaw.png|thumb|250px|The ''Jackdaw'' docked in Great Inagua]]
The '''''Jackdaw''''' was a [[brig]] captained by the [[Piracy|pirate]] and later [[Assassins|Assassin]] [[Edward Kenway]], which he obtained with the help of [[Adéwalé]], during his time in the [[Caribbean|West Indies]]. Before Kenway's captaincy, the [[Ships|ship]] was a part of a [[Spanish Treasure Fleet]] and named '''''El Dorado'''''. Upon securing it, Kenway renamed the vessel ''Jackdaw'', after the bird of the same name.<ref name="AC4">''[[Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag]]''</ref>

==History==
===Procurement===
After an imprisoned Edward Kenway was placed on a ship in the fleet bound for [[Spain]], he met his future quartermaster, Adéwalé, who helped free Edward from their leg irons and assisted him in incapacitating the guards until the pirate retrieved his equipment. Following this, the pair secured a crew by freeing other prisoners from their Spanish captors, before they set their sights on a brig in the fleet, ''El Dorado'', and made their way to relinquish it. Subsequently, Kenway used the pirates he freed to help sail the ship from the fleet under the cover of a severe storm, successfully escaping the natural disaster while the remaining ships were sunk. Kenway then renamed the ship the ''Jackdaw'', after a small, swift bird from his home of Wales.

===Piracy===
{{Dialogue|Edward|It's a shaky feeling, sailing around with this much stolen cargo.|Hornigold|Get used to it. We'll need to take a few more prizes to make this a profitable day.|Edward Kenway and Benjamin Hornigold, after the ''Jackdaw'' took its first brig, 1715.|Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag}}
The ''Jackdaw'''s first major act of piracy took place off of the coast of [[Nassau]] in 1715, when Captain [[Benjamin Hornigold]] showed Kenway how to successfully take a ship. It was after this voyage that the brig was given its very own black flag.

Soon after, it was used to transport Kenway to [[Cat Island]] to plunder a plantation, and eventually followed a Spanish [[Man O' War]], ''[[El Arca del Maestro]]'', through [[the Bahamas]] to its moorings at [[Great Inagua]]. Kenway then infiltrated the island, killed the [[France|French]] [[Templars|Templar]] [[Julien du Casse]] and took both the ship and the island. It was here that he would establish his own [[Great Inagua cove|base of operations]], and the ''Jackdaw'' could often be found moored at the docks in the cove.

The ''Jackdaw'' traveled across the West Indies Sea to the ancient city of [[Tulum]], home of the Assassins, where the crew members were soon taken prisoner by [[Laurens Prins]]. Kenway freed his crew and they returned to sea. Soon after, the ship took its first fort, located at [[Punta Guarico]], and made sail for [[Kingston]]. After Kenway killed Prins, the ship returned to Nassau.

However, the pirate city was suffering from disease, prompting Kenway to outfit the ''Jackdaw'' with a diving bell in search for medicines. When he came up empty, he followed his fellow pirate [[Edward Thatch]] to [[Charles-Towne]] to secure medicines before returning again to Nassau. After the city was blockaded by the British, the ''Jackdaw'', along with [[Charles Vane]]'s ship, the ''[[Ranger]], ''was able to escape and fled to Great Inagua. There, he made plans to find Thatch again and set sail for [[Ocracoke]]. When the pirates were ambushed by the Royal Navy, the ''Jackdaw'' was the only vessel to escape.

The ''Jackdaw ''and the ''Ranger ''met up again off the coast of [[Jamaica]], in pursuit of a ship that would lead them to [[Bartholomew Roberts]]. However, Vane's associate [[Jack Rackham]] had engineered a mutiny, taking the ''Jackdaw ''and leaving Kenway and Vane marooned on [[Isla Providencia]].

Kenway managed to make his way back to Great Inagua, where Adéwalé and [[Mary Read]] had taken the ''Jackdaw'' from Rackam. Kenway soon set sail again, returning to Kingston before continuing on to [[Principe]], where Roberts had gone into hiding. After freeing Roberts, he followed him to the coast of Mexico, where the two infiltrated and battled a [[Portugal|Portugese]] fleet before sailing for the [[Observatory]], Kenway's ultimate goal.

Along the way, the ''Jackdaw'' chased Hornigold's ship through a fog bank before Kenway assassinated his former friend, clearing the way to the Observatory. When Roberts betrayed Edward deep inside the complex, Adéwalé and the crew quickly fled. It would be almost a year before Kenway would be reunited with his ship in Kingston, although Adéwalé chose not to join his captain, revealing his intentions to join the Assassin Order and suggesting that Edward do the same.
===An Assassin ship===
Shortly thereafter, the vessel returned again to Tulum, where Edward became an Assassin as well and received his three targets: [[Woodes Rogers]], Torres, and Roberts. The ''Jackdaw'''s flag was replaced with one bearing an Assassin insignia, and Anne Bonny took Adéwalé's place as quartermaster.

Edward sailed for Kingston to eliminate Rogers. In turn, the Templar revealed Roberts' location in Principe, where the ''Jackdaw ''sailed next. In a tremendous battle between the ''Jackdaw'', Roberts' ship ''[[Royal Fortune]], ''and a Spanish fleet, Kenway managed to kill Roberts and retrieve the Observatory's [[Crystal Skulls|Crystal Skull]]. The ship then carried its captain back to Havana, where Edward discovered Torres was already on his way to the Observatory. The Assassin followed in hot pursuit, making his way through the jungle and the complex before finally killing the Grand Master.

The ''Jackdaw ''then made one final trip back to Great Inagua, where Edward finally retired from piracy, deciding to care for his newly-discovered daughter [[Jennifer Scott]]. In 1722, he sailed his ship one last time across the ocean to [[London]], where he would live for the rest of his life.

It is unknown what happened to the ''Jackdaw ''in the intervening years, but at some point prior to 1735, the brig returned to the West Indies and sank off the coast of Hispaniola due to unknown circumstances. Its figurehead was later recovered from the wreckage by Adéwalé.<ref name="FC">''Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - [[Freedom Cry]]''</ref>

==Schematics==
The ''Jackdaw'' was 60 meters long, 48.5 meters high, had a width of 11.9 meters, and had twenty-six sails. Accompanying this, the ''Jackdaw'' was armed with forty-six {{Wiki|Broadside|broadside cannons}}, four {{Wiki|Cannons|chaser cannons}} and two {{Wiki|swivel gun}}s. Accompanying this, she could hold a sizable number of [[Naval mines|fire barrels]], {{Wiki|heated shot}} and mortar rounds, and was equipped with a iron plated {{Wiki|naval ram}}. At her strongest, the ''Jackdaw'' possessed a sizable amount of iron-plating reinforcement across her hull, which provided ample protection in combat against a number of Men O' War. The brig was able to disable and destroy any type of ship, given the proper strategy in battle.

She was also equipped with a {{Wiki|diving bell}} for exploration of various underwater wrecks, as well as a whaling rowboat and harpoons, which allowed Edward to [[Hunting|hunt]] for local sea life. Like most ships of the time and area, her masts featured pedal-activated lifts and hooks to allow for both ascent and descent. The ''Jackdaw'' also had cleverly placed swinging ropes secured both on deck and in the cross-masts which were used by the crew to swing from one ship to another when boarding.<ref name="AC4"/>

==Notable conflicts==
While the ''Jackdaw'' did not participate in any major historical battles of the era, she still had more than her fair share of legendary combat. Notable skirmishes, such as the battle which took Blackbeard's life near [[Ocracoke]], and the later conflict off the coast of Príncipe – in which Bartholomew Roberts was killed – were fought on the ''Jackdaw'''s decks.

The ship was a formidable raider in the Caribbean – it single-handedly outgunned and destroyed all of the naval forts around the Caribbean at one time or another. The ''Jackdaw'' also took many ships, from gunboats to Man O' Wars, including the five legendary ships that roamed the Caribbean Sea: ''[[El Impoluto]]'', the twin ships [[HMS Fearless|HMS ''Fearless'']] and ''[[Royal Sovereign]]'', ''[[La Dama Negra]]'', and [[HMS Prince|HMS ''Prince'']].

==Crew==
*Edward Kenway - Captain (30 July 1715 - 23 November 1718, 1719 - 1722)
*Jack Rackham - Captain (23 November 1718 - c. 23 January 1719)
*Adéwalé (until 1721-22) - Quartermaster.
*[[Anne Bonny]] (from 1721-22 onward) - Quartermaster.
*Numerous unnamed pirates

==Trivia==
*Like many other references to the Assassin Order involving avians, a {{Wiki|Western Jackdaw|jackdaw}} is a small, black bird belonging to the crow family. Coincidentally, the color of the bird's feathers themselves could also be a reference to piracy often being symbolized by black.
*[[Darby McDevitt]] mentioned the ''Jackdaw'''s name was also a reference to the fable of [http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio/subjects/english/aesops_fables/25-32/eagle_and_jackdaw the Eagle and the Jackdaw], which is recited during the "[[Delirium]]" memory.
*The former name of the ship, ''El Dorado'', is Spanish for "the gilded one; the golden".
*In the captain's cabin, there was a statue of a vulture near the ''Jackdaw'''s rear window. There was also a bust of an unknown man in the right corner. Other cabin decorations include several flags, lanterns, a desk, and some chairs.
*The ''Jackdaw'' flew a generic pirate flag for most of its time under Kenway's command. After Edward [[...Everything Is Permitted|defended the Assassins]] from a Spanish raid, the flag changed to include the [[Assassin insignia]] around the skull.
*At elite level, most of the ''Jackdaw'''s equipment, including the swivel guns, broadside, and mortars, were plated gold. The elite hull upgrade also included liberal gold and iron plating on the ship's hull and deck.
*After defeating all legendary ships, the Jackdaw gained a charge attack, allowing it to inflict greater damage on an enemy ship.

==Gallery==
<gallery captionalign="center" position="center" spacing="small" widths="180">
AC4 - Concept Art - Ship.jpg|Concept art of the ''Jackdaw''
The Treasure Fleet 9.png|Adéwalé and Edward aboard the ''Jackdaw''
This Tyro Captain 3.png|The ''Jackdaw'' sailing the Caribbean
AC4 Jackdaw Wreck.png|The ''Jackdaw'''s wreck
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{AC4}}
[[Category:Ships]]
[[Category:Spanish Navy warships]]
[[Category:Pirate ships]]
[[Category:Assassin ships]]

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Jackdaw