Dead Man's Chest
Dead Man's Chest · Retired · closed November 2024

The legend of the dead man's chest

Calico Jack's iron-bound chest has been hauled up from the black water, and a siren's curse still grips its locks. Open it and claim the captain's last secret before Davy Jones comes up from the deep to take it back.

In short: Dead Man's Chest told the last part of Calico Jack's saga: a cursed chest dragged up from the deep, a siren's riddle in every lock and Davy Jones waiting below. It followed Pirates and Pirate Island, the two chapters still running today.

Pirates say a siren sang over Calico Jack's chest the night it was sealed, and that her song became the lock. Whatever was put inside could only be taken out by someone who answered every verse.

The captain didn't care. He stuffed the chest with his richest plunder and the secrets he kept from his own crew, then let the sea have it, trusting that anyone brave enough to dive for it would drown long before they solved it.

Your crew knows Calico Jack better than most. You broke out of the brig on his ship. You raided the island where he stashed his loot and got away before he came about. Every clue from those escapes points down, to the one hoard he never risked on land.

Now the chest sits dripping on the boards in front of you, dredged from the deep with weed still caught in its hinges. Charts, charms and carvings are worked into its timbers, and each lock waits for an answer the siren wrote long ago.

Somewhere beneath the hull, Davy Jones is listening. The curse gives you one hour. Break it and the captain's fortune is yours; run out of time and the keeper of the drowned rises to reclaim the chest, taking your crew down to his locker with it.

Some chests are locked to keep thieves out. This one was locked to keep a debt in.
A tarnished silver skull wedged in old timber, a token of Davy Jones' curse in the Dead Man's Chest legend
Three chapters, one captain

The pirate trilogy, in order

Each chapter put the same crew up against Calico Jack. Dead Man's Chest was the last, and the only one you can no longer play.

Chapter three

Dead Man's Chest

Retired November 2024

The cursed chest he trusted to the sea, a siren's riddle in every lock and Davy Jones waiting below.

Behind the legend

How the final chapter fit the saga

Escape This told Calico Jack's saga as three separate games, each with its own set and its own clock. Pirates put players in chains below decks on his ship; Pirate Island moved the hunt ashore to the beach where he buries his plunder.

Dead Man's Chest, which opened in January 2024, followed the same crew to the one prize the captain guarded above all others. Its own site called it the climax of the series and the end of the trilogy.

It was also the shortest-lived chapter. Dead Man's Chest closed at Perth CBD in November 2024, while the first two chapters kept running and have since reached Sydney and Melbourne.

The name echoes an old sea shanty about fifteen men on a dead man's chest, made famous by Treasure Island. The game's story, its siren and its curse were Escape This's own.

FAQ

Questions about the legend

What was Dead Man's Chest at Escape This?

Dead Man's Chest was a pirate escape game that Escape This ran at its Perth CBD venue from January 2024 to November 2024. As the third and final chapter of the studio's pirate trilogy, it challenged crews to open Calico Jack's cursed chest before the ghost of Davy Jones could claim it. The game has since been retired.

Was Dead Man's Chest a whole room or a single chest?

Mostly a single chest. The 2024 listing for Dead Man's Chest said players focused on one treasure chest instead of searching a room, with its locks, riddles and hidden compartments carrying the whole game. That made it quicker and more frantic than a usual room, and it's why two matching chests could be raced against each other.

Who was Davy Jones in the Dead Man's Chest story?

Davy Jones was the danger waiting below in Dead Man's Chest: the keeper of the drowned, bound by the siren's curse to Calico Jack's treasure. If a crew failed to break the curse in time, the story said he would rise from the deep, seize the chest and drag their souls to his locker. Sailors have long called the seabed Davy Jones' Locker.

Was Calico Jack, the captain behind Dead Man's Chest, a real pirate?

Yes. Calico Jack was a real English pirate captain of the early 1700s, nicknamed for his calico clothes, who sailed with two of the era's best-known women pirates and was hanged in Jamaica in 1720. Dead Man's Chest borrowed his name and reputation; the cursed chest and Davy Jones' claim on it were invented for the game.

Were there live actors or jump scares in Dead Man's Chest?

There were no live actors in Dead Man's Chest. Its 2024 site said the pirate games relied on sets, sound and lighting instead of performers, so Davy Jones' menace came through the story and atmosphere. That site never published a scare rating, and its age guidance contradicted itself, so this site doesn't state one.

How does Dead Man's Chest link to Pirates and Pirate Island?

All three games pit the same crew against the same captain. Having escaped imprisonment aboard Calico Jack's ship and fled his treasure island before he returned, the crew of Dead Man's Chest finally faced the chest he guarded most, and the curse sealed into it. The 2024 site described each chapter as building on the one before.

How did the pirate trilogy end in Dead Man's Chest?

The trilogy ended with Dead Man's Chest: crews had to break the siren's curse on Calico Jack's chest before Davy Jones rose to take it, closing the saga that started in the captain's brig. Escape This never published the final solution, and with the game retired there's no official way to see that ending now.

All questions about Dead Man's Chest →

The saga sails on

Calico Jack is still taking prisoners

Dead Man's Chest has gone, but its first two chapters are open in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne. Pick a room, pick a venue and see live session times.

See pirate rooms you can bookPirates ↗Pirate Island ↗