Despite being very different, the film did have some references taken from the book. While stories of ships crewed by zombies were mentioned in the book, and Blackbeard's boatman was a zombie servant, the film features a zombie crew serving as Blackbeard's officers. Although Tim Powers stated mermaids weren't in the novel, there was a brief reference to "suck-you-byes" as "female demons that weirdly and erotically occupied the last hours of men marooned on barren islands". In the film, mermaids appear to be siren-like; succubus took the form of a siren in real-world folklore. While Juan Ponce de León was alive in the novel, the film reveals Ponce de León as a skeletal corpse lying on a bed; the latter as a reference to the Disneyland ride. Unlike the novel, the Fountain of Youth was located on an unknown Caribbean island rather than Florida. Appearances include Blackbeard's dark magic, the "Queen Anne's Revenge", and brief mentions of Hispaniola and Saint Dominique.