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Billy was born within sight of the shipyards
First son of a riveter's son
And Billy was raised as the ship grew a shadow
A great hull would blot out the light of the sun
-"Island of Souls," Sting

Bill Turner was born the son of a shipbuilder in England, and spent most of his childhood and adolescence working on and around ships. At the age of twenty, newly married and with a child on the way, Bill went to sea for the first time in his life to earn a living as a merchant sailor.

A memorable fight with a drunk and violent crewmate a year or two later earned Bill a new nickname, which was to stick to him for the rest of his life. (It also led to a new verse to the "Drunken Sailor" song, briefly popular among this particular crew: trip him up with his undone bootstraps.)

It wasn't long after that day that he first met Captain John Richards, later to be known to the world as Captain Jack Sparrow.

The rest you know: how Bootstrap Bill turned pirate along with Sparrow, how he protested during Barbossa's mutiny against Sparrow but failed to oppose it in deed, how he fell victim to the curse of the Aztec gold along with the rest of Barbossa's crew. How he sent one of the gold pieces away to his young son back in England, to prevent his crewmates from lifting the curse. How he was bound and cast into the depths of the sea by Barbossa, in revenge.

How he was raised from the depths by Davy Jones to join the crew of the Flying Dutchman, passing from one curse to another. How he was later made Jones's messenger to bring word of a price coming due to his old captain, Jack Sparrow. And how a chain of events started years before led to his reunion on the deck of the Dutchman with his son Will, now a man grown ... and a pirate like his father.

Where is the fisherman, where is the boat?
Where is the keeper in his carrion coat?
Eclipse on the moon when the dark bird flies:
Where is the child with his father's eyes?
-"The Soul Cages," Sting

Bootstrap helped his son escape the Dutchman, but remains bound there himself. But Will left with a promise: that he would return, and find a way to destroy Captain Jones and free his father from the curse.

On a good day, Bootstrap can remember this.

The days blend into each other, lately, and memory has become a vague proposition at best. That happens, when you've been part of the crew long enough: you lose who you were, bit by bit. You become part of the ship.

It doesn't hurt if you don't fight it.

If a prayer today is spoken
Please offer it for me
When the bridge to heaven is broken
And you're lost on the wild, wild sea
And you're lost on the wild, wild sea
-"The Wild Wild Sea," Sting


William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner is from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and is the property of Disney. He is used here solely for purposes of the roleplaying game milliways_bar, from which no profit is being made.
There is no connection between the PotC movies and Sting's album The Soul Cages, outside of my own synthesis.