“Last time you left me with a gun and a shot,” says Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), about to be stranded on a small Caribbean island by the villainous Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush). This scene demonstrates exactly the type of punishment that was inflicted on the rebellious members of a pirate crew. Unfortunately, Sparrow is forced to walk down a long, comical board and dive into the crystal clear waters below. In the long history of piracy, not a single pirate or pirate victim has dived from a wooden plank into a watery grave. This entertaining ritual, featured in countless pirate movies and generally accepted as a pirate tradition, is nothing more than a Hollywood invention. Never happened. More than one pirate was unceremoniously thrown overboard, but never with the help of a board. Perhaps the idea never occurred to them. Or maybe it would just take “Too long!” as suggested by the mayor of Barbosa when Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) is forced to cross the same table. The pirates were an impatient bunch. They did not tolerate long rituals. They lived short, fast lives, and were too preoccupied with their fate to delay dispatching a victim.

Surprisingly, this is one of the few important details where Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl gets it wrong. And judging by how much it turns out well, writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio were probably well aware of this discrepancy, but they wanted to pay homage to the pirate movies of yore.

Aside from the supernatural elements, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are imbued with a surprising amount of authenticity. The general disarray of pirates’ hygiene is particularly precise, with fruit-hungry yellow eyes and dirty teeth that appear to be rotting directly from their skulls. Their clothes are not as colorful as Captain Hook and Smee’s, as they have probably been wearing the same clothes for months.

Of course, our hero Jack, despite his strange personality, must remain the object of audience affection … which is why he sports strategically placed gold teeth instead of several rotten ones. His skin is in a lighter condition and the whites of his eyes suggest that he keeps a hide of fruit on his person at all times. When he tries to woo Elizabeth in Dead Man’s Chest, it’s not too hard to believe that she would be attracted to him, despite herself.

The amount of rum Jack consumes is not an exaggeration. When the water went bad, the pirates turned to rum and generally stored as much of it as possible. While rum isn’t an ideal thirst quencher, it probably helped their bravado when raiding merchant ships.

In “The Curse of the Black Pearl”, we are introduced to Anamaria, played by Zoe Saldana. While some audience members may scoff at the gullibility of a female pirate, Anamaria’s name actually pays tribute to two pirates who really existed; Anne Bonny and Mary Read. These two served alongside the likes of “Calico Jack” Rackham, and proved just as formidable, if not more so, than their male counterparts. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, we are finally introduced to the infamous Blackbeard (Ian McShane), “the pirate all afraid of pirates.” That phrase is not far from the truth. It is probable that Blackbeard was spoken of in a low voice, the subject of many exaggerated and far-fetched tales. In Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Blackbeard is known by his real name, Edward Teach. When Teach first appears in the film, his beard is fiery and smoky, creating a spooky and alarming effect. As theatrical as it may sound, Teach actually set his beard on fire before boarding the enemy ships. He also used multiple pistols, as McShane does in the movie (using them later to test Jack’s resolve). Physically, McShane is a bit short for Blackbeard, who was described by Henry Bostock, one of his many victims, as “a tall, sober man.”

At this point in the pirate lore, Teach would have already been beheaded by Robert Maynard or one of his members, and this is mentioned in the movie. It is also suggested in the film that, after being deposited on the side of the ship, Blackbeard’s body came back on board and recovered his head. In a franchise with ghost pirates, mermaids, and squid men, that’s not too hard to swallow.

The writers pepper the many pirates with an appropriately pirate dialect that is not as over the top as the pirate movies of yore, but is more in line with actual pirate speech. Most of these men started out as honest sailors, and this is shown in the dialogue of Barbosa, Gibbs, Anamaria, and many others. “Execute the sweeps,” says Barbosa, referring to the oars that sprout from the side of the boat to generate momentum.

While strict adherence to authenticity was certainly not a requirement for films dealing with the supernatural, the attention to detail helps to subconsciously validate the world of Pirates of the Caribbean. When something out of the ordinary happens, it seems even more extraordinary.