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| The postmodern tall ship: The Earl of Pembroke in a poster for the upcoming Cloud Atlas |
Outside of genre films, it's not very often that a boat gets to be a movie star. The
Lady Washington, thanks to her role as the
Interceptor in the original
Pirates of the Caribbean, is now recognizable to fans worldwide and is essentially the modern image of the pirate ship, even tho' not only as
brig would she have not been common in the Golden Age Caribbean but also the ship was built as a replica of a late 18th century vessel of the U.S. Navy. The
HMS Rose, after her moment in the spotlight as Lucky Jack's dear ship in
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, was even renamed the
Surprise and is now educating thousands at the
San Diego Maritime Museum on the ways of the old Royal Navy. Now the
barque Earl of Pembroke of Bristol, already a veteran of the
Hornblower series among other roles, is hitting the big screen in the new
Cloud Atlas. All of these are, at least in part, historical dramas, and readers of this blog should know these ships well. But, the other night, the DVR captured a modern film that was all about the boats. This is especially worth pausing for as one of the vessels is no longer with us.
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| At sea, no one can hear you scream |
Dead Calm came out back in 1989, based on the
novel from 1963 and directed by Australia's
Philip Noyce. There are only three human cast members: the always intense
Sam Neill, a young
Nicole Kidman (only 22 at the time), and, the sole Yank,
Billy Zane (with hair!). Without giving too much away, as this is a film I would recommend, the premise is that Neill and Kidman are cruising the South Pacific when they are overtaken by the psychopathic Zane. Other than some set up at the beginning, the film takes place entirely at sea. It is a psychological thriller, but the tension would be nothing without some realistic nautical elements. Thus one must give equal billing to the film's two boats. The identity of these vessels are revealed in
Dead Calm's production notes
here.
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| Stormvogel with sails set for running downwind, from blog.tadroberts.ca |
The protagonists are sailing aboard a
ketch named the
Saracen. In reality, this was a rather famous yacht named the
Stormvogel. Details of her design can be found
here at boat designer Tad Roberts' blog, while a discussion of her history is
here at the Wooden Boat Forum. She was built in in 1961, commissioned by one C. Bruynzeel. Not surprisingly, as Bruynzeel was at the time the head of a long-standing and still extant
producer of plywood, he had the boat made of marine plywood.
Stormvogel was built in South Africa, purportedly the "first truly light displacement maxi ocean racer." She has won numerous blue-water race trophies. She is also a big boat, 74' LOA, with three double-bed cabins and a fourth twin-bed cabin. Bruynzeel died on
Stormvogel while racing her in Greece. The producers of
Dead Calm found her in Sydney, doing their filming in the
Whitsunday Passage between Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef. The latest I can find on the
Stormvogel is that she is on the charter list at
yachtcharter.jp.
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| The Golden Plover in all her finery |
The
Stormvogel appears to be alive and well, but her costar in
Dead Calm did not fare well. In the movie, the villainous Zane has just abandoned the "schooner"
Orpheus. The ship was in fact a 30-meter (ca. 98')
brigantine, the
Golden Plover, and had been around since 1910. A well-written narrative on the ship can be found
here at wordpress.com blog The Fo'c'sle. She began life as a steam-powered tug in
Melbourne and worked various jobs for decades until she caught fire. She lay sunken in the
Maribyrnong River until she was resurrected by the brothers Helmut, Gunther and Gerhardt Jacoby. In 1974 she lived again, and by the 1980's was not only the oldest working boat in Australia but regularly used in film, including 14-year-old
Brooke Shields' notorious softcore disguised as cinema,
The Blue Lagoon.
In the 1990's, the
Golden Plover was based in
Cairns and spent time doing "Great Barrier Reef boat partying tours." Whether as a result of this lifestyle or not, at the turn of the century she was in horrible disrepair. In 2011, at the age of 101, she was broken up.
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| Golden Plover in 2009, looking weary |
I don't mean to be a downer, but fame does not equal preservation when it comes to boats. The
Surprise was deemed unseaworthy by the Coast Guard for quite some time after filming
Master and Commander, tho' she is now fully operational and was back in form in
On Stranger Tides.
Lady Washington underwent major hull restoration over the summer that required nearly $200,000 dollars in state and private funding. There is even a
web site, still to be seen, that tried to save the
Golden Plover. The point is simple: If we are to continue to enjoy our tall ships, on the water or on the screen, then we must contribute how we can. That message must and will be repeated. You can help the San Diego Maritime Museum
here, and the Historical Seaport, home of the
Lady Washington and the
Hawaiian Chieftain, can be supported
here. If there is a boat dear or close to you, and you can't give money, give time. Every effort counts.
