Question about Pirates of the Caribbean and Disney owned ship "Sunset"

[montclaire]

Hello, I have a question and I'm not sure where exactly to ask it.

For POTC 2, Disney purchased a ship called the Sunset, with a port of call listed as Long Beach, CA. The Sunset was built into an operable copy of the Black Pearl, and later remodeled to portray the Queen Anne's Revenge in POTC4.

After 'On Stranger Tides' wrapped, the Sunset was stripped down a bit, and loaded on a container ship. Two articles state that the ship was loaded by the Yacht Path Marine Group in November of 2012, but the destination varies - one article says that the ship was headed home to Long Beach. The other states that the ship will go to St. Thomas in the USVI.

I can't find any information as to where the ship actually went, where it is now, or if Disney even still owns it. From what I can tell, it was not used for POTC5, with the production crew purchasing a new ship, the Rainbow Gypsy, to portray the Dying Gull.

Looking for any info as to what happened to the Sunset, and I am also curious if the beached Black Pearl set from POTC2 is still out there on a coastline somewhere, I believe they filmed around Dominica and I can't imagine they would have beached the Sunset. I know the full mock up of the Dutchman was placed on a sandbar at Castaway Cay after filming and later destroyed.

Thanks

 

[umichigan10]

Hello, I have a question and I'm not sure where exactly to ask it.

For POTC 2, Disney purchased a ship called the Sunset, with a port of call listed as Long Beach, CA. The Sunset was built into an operable copy of the Black Pearl, and later remodeled to portray the Queen Anne's Revenge in POTC4.

After On Stranger Tides wrapped, the Sunset was stripped down a bit, and loaded on a container ship. Two articles state that the ship was loaded by the Yacht Path Marine Group in November of 2012, but the destination varies - one article says that the ship was headed home to Long Beach. The other states that the ship will go to St. Thomas in the USVI.

I can't find any information as to where the ship actually went, where it is now, or if Disney even still owns it. From what I can tell, it was not used for POTC5, with the production crew purchasing a new ship, the Rainbow Gypsy, to portray the Dying Gull.

Looking for any info as to what happened to the Sunset, and I am also curious if they beached Black Pearl set from POTC2 is still out there on a coastline somewhere, I believed they filmed around Dominica and I can't imagine the would have beached the Sunset. I know the full mock up of the Dutchman was placed on a sandbar at Castaway Cay after filming and later destroyed.

Thanks

That's a really interesting question, I have no idea to the answer but that's quite the paper trail you found

 

[montclaire]

A couple of links:

http://www.charterworld.com/news/ya...ort-140ft-pirate-ship-black-pearl/black-pearl

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ip-sets-sail-high-seas--container-vessel.html

 

[montclaire]

Getting closer, she was spotted at the Sea Ventures Dive Center in Puerto Rico, back in Jan of 2013...

And again in March of 2013

And in December of 2013...

 

[OSUZorba]

Wow, they are missing a huge opportunity with DCL to sell excursions on it out of Castaway Cay. I know generic pirate excursions sell like crazy, I am sure people would pay insane amounts to do it on the real black pearl.

 

[montclaire]

Pretty sure I found her. In March of 2014 she showed up in Lafitte, Louisiana. By December of that year they were hauling her out of the water.

Then this shot of just the bow was posted on instagram in October of last year - can you tell where this is going?

A little digging determined that she was at or adjacent to SEMCO shipyard, on Rt 303/Jean Lafitte Blvd. Googlemaps shows what looks like the Pearl, minus the bow, in a sad state and probably in the process of being scrapped.

I have to admit, I'm totally bummed. It's hard to say exactly when this photo is from, so I don't know what still remains of her currently. She may just be a prop, but you would think that with all of the cash that Disney has, that they would have preserved her for a multitude of reasons (not the least of which being that the latest installment just broke the 500 million mark).

Maybe Depp or Bruckheimer will swoop in and rescue her...

 

[montclaire]

May 2nd, 2015. RIP

 

[allthenamesaretaken]

Good sleuthing!

 

[Planogirl]

That's a shame. I'm surprised that they would just ditch her like that.

 

[montclaire]

The original plan was to film in and around Puerto Rico (and Louisiana) for the 5th film. Ronning and Sandberg were hired specifically to direct due to their experience filming on the water; in fact, they toured the Pearl in July of 2013 (pic below).

When the Lone Ranger tanked, Disney became a lot more involved with the process and were no longer comfortable just giving a blank check to Depp/Bruckheimer. The project lagged and the Pearl sat in Puerto Rico waiting for a call-up that never came - Disney decided to film in Australia and took advantage of millions in tax breaks and other incentives, probably as a hedge against the possibility of another flop.

The plan may have been to move the Pearl back to Bayou La Batre, where she was built originally, to be prepped for filming. From what I can tell she was still sea-worthy at that point in time. I am guessing that the logistics of getting her to the Gold Coast, the cost of a retrofit, and the restricted budget was just too much to overcome. The production crew chose to add the Rainbow Gypsy/Dying Gull instead, and that was the end for the Pearl.

The full scale Dutchman was sold to DCL before she was moved to Castaway Cay, it's too bad that the same did not happen here. Even if they auctioned her off for charity, I am sure someone would have stepped up to buy what is probably the most recognizable ship on film in recent memory. Bad move on Disney's part letting her go.