Remember Cutthroat Island? And the Pirates of the Caribbean movies? What about the Hornblower movies? Anyone remember those?
For all of these movies, they needed 17th century ships. So do the movie companies make replicas? How do they get these ships?
There are replica ships available (a replica of the Bounty made for the 60s Marlon Brando film is still afloat and is used in movies from time to time). They are generally only used for long shots, though; when it looks like it’s on a ship, it’s usually on a set.
There are quite a few tall ships about. Google “Mystic Sea Port” for example. Many of these are maintained by historic preservation groups that survive on donations. For a large donation they are happy to provide ships and experienced crew to Hollywood. In 1976 dozens of tall ships convirged on New York’s harbor in honor of America’s bicentenial.
On a similar note, if you ever saw the movie “Maverick” there were a number of small steam powered launches taking people to and from the large riverboats. These were owned and operated by individual steam enthusiasts, and there was quite a writeup on the production in “Live Steam” magazine.
There are people who preserve almost any exotic old thing you can imagine, and most are thrilled at the chance to share thier passions via film.
Many more tall ships are operated as sail training vessels. For instance, many people trained aboard the “HMS Rose” in the 80s and 90s before it appeared as the “HMS Surprise” in “Master and Commander”.
BTW, the “Lady Washington” was used in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”:
They also generally build a few partial ships- see the DVD extras on Master and Commander for some amazing stuff about the ships, props, etc.
They can CGI anything these days. Especially if it’s just a long shot of the ships, I wouldn’t count on there having ever been any real ships at all. For closer shots, as EJsGirl mentions, they can just build a partial ship - as much as they need to get the shot and CGI in the background.
There are plenty of sailships around, whether original or reproductions.
The Pride of Baltimore, Gazela of Philadelphia, The Bounty, The Half Moon, The Peking, The replicas of Columbus’ caravels, , those are just a few off the top of my head. I am sure it is extremely easy to find a more complete list.
List of large sailing vessels - Wikipedia
Tall ship - Wikipedia
The replica pirate ship built for Polanski’s Pirates has wound up as a tourist attraction in the harbour at Genoa.
The prop deparrrrrrrrtment.
Here’s what the did for Pirates of the Caribbean:
And the link. If you’ll look at it, the replica is totally fine up close, but from a longer distance it’s all stubby and oddly proportioned.
That movie used the Rose which is based out of a museum in San Diego, IIRC.
Indeed… My grandfather is a rail car enthusiast… He has a little yellow box with an engine on it, goes and meets up with other rail car enthusiasts, and they ride on old railroads, seeing the sights. Sadly, there has as yet been no offers from hollywood for the use of his little yellow box, but I’ve no doubt he would be ecstatic if it were to happen.
There was a reality TV show about two years ago called Pirate Master. When the producers needed a ship for the contestants to live on, they went out and hired one.
However, there just aren’t that many tall ships, and the ones operated by governments and militaries probably don’t hire out. The one they used for the TV show had to be repainted and disguised to look more piratey. And while the contestants were shown as working the ship alone, there were experienced crew on board.
As I remember, I was a little let down by how few pirate ships there were in this movie.
I remember a blurb in Naval History magazine when Master and Commander came out. The French warship, referred to in dialogue as being similar to the fearsome American frigates of the day, was actually a CGI replica of the USS Constitution.
