Gasparde Pirates

Appearing in Dead End Adventure, this Grand Line crew was commanded by the former Marine General Gasparde, with Needless serving as his right-hand man. Their flag pointedly signals Gasparde's break from the Navy: a standard Marine banner struck through with a red X. Crew members bear a tattooed version in which the X is swapped for two crossed swords. Together the pirates carried a combined bounty of at least 152,000,000 berries, the bulk of it on Gasparde himself.

The crew sat somewhat above the average for Grand Line outfits, having pushed into those waters and repeatedly triumphed in the Dead End Race, always by cheating, and having beaten the fish-man pirate Willy and his followers. Their strength, however, rested almost entirely on two fighters, Gasparde and Needless, with the captain the deadlier of the pair thanks to his Ame Ame no Mi powers. The group sailed the Salamander, a large steam-powered ship Gasparde stole during a raid on Elena and refitted, its engine room manned by abducted civilians as forced labor.

For all the lower ranks idolized their captain and invoked his name to frighten others, the crew shared no genuine camaraderie. Gasparde viewed his men as disposable underlings, refusing to protect anyone who failed him and discarding them like trash, while both Needless and the planted infiltrator Shuraiya secretly wished to kill him.

Gasparde, once a Marine officer, stole his assigned vessel and fled with his followers, winning the Dead End Race several times through deceit to fend off boredom. Along the way they pillaged villages and pressed captives into service, among them Adelle Bascud, Biera, and Shuraiya Bascud. Biera was forced to stoke the ship's boiler, while Shuraiya joined under false pretenses to avenge his parents and sister.

During another Dead End Race the crew collided with the Straw Hats, and Luffy was disgusted by Gasparde's contempt for his own men. The pirates fell when Biera cranked up the boiler pressure and blew the ship apart, as Shuraiya overcame Needless and Luffy defeated Gasparde. A typhoon then finished off the wreck of the Salamander.