The Black Pearl

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

the Model of the black Pearl is a popular model and I thought it might be interesting to explore some back round information.

The first Black Pearl was actually not a ship at all it was a stage prop built on a steel barge from the deck up. Much of the images you see in the movie are CGI computer graphic images. So what you might see on the big screen actually did not even exist in reality.

The following Black Pearl was rebuilt as a sea worthy vessel and this is the real black Pearl. Yes it is a OSV and the name was the SUNSET. There are different types of Off Shore Vessels built for different jobs. The Sunset was a oil rig supply ship.



What was done is the Black Pearl like the first stage prop was built on another vessel. You can see the Black Pearl under constriction and looking close pointed to by the arrow, where the prop ended and the Sunset hull below.



The Black pearl was built around the Sunset. Kind of think of it as the old western movie sets where only the face of the town is built. so the Black Pearl was a prop and under it was a steel hulled oil rig supply ship



as new material comes to light I will continue to explore the plans, the design and the imagery of the Black Pearl

 

[Donnie]

Hi Dave,
this is great. So are you going to cover all the history of how this became a model of the Black Pearl?

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

I love researching so I will uncover everything I can find.

The movies were a spin off of the Disney theme park ride Pirates of the Caribbean

The attraction was originally conceived as a wax museum and a walk-through adventure. But following the success of Walt Disney’s Carousel of progress at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, Walt Disney and his team of Imagineer decided that audo animatronics, his latest animation technology, was the most imaginative way to tell a rousing pirate story.

Opening on March 18, 1967, the Disneyland version of Pirates of the Caribbean was the last ride that Walt Disney himself participated in designing, debuting three months after his death

interesting the theme park ride Pirates of the Caribbean pirate ship was the Wicked Wench and not the Black Pearl. And the pirate ship in the moves has little resemblance to the original pirate ship at the Disney park.

 

[Kurt Konrath]

Now to wait for a cross section kit of the Black Pearl, with the brig cages used in the movies to be seen....

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Hi Dave,
this is great. So are you going to cover all the history of how this became a model of the Black Pearl?

yes and no i will try to cover a historical time line but my intent is to focus on the design and development of the Black Pearl drawings and kits. The No is as stated by the forum i will not get entangled in any debate over franchise or product or who did what to who. Strictly keeping focused on the Black Pearl.
The best place to start is with the building of the prop used in the movies.



interesting the very original plans that were used to build the prop has been RELEASED and is available to anyone who wants them. I suppose you can ask the question released to who? the general public? and if the creator ( Richard "Rick" Heinrichs one of film's most original and innovative visual artists,) was concerned about the design being copied why release the plans in the first place?

 

[mrshanks]

I am glad you started this thread Dave!! It is very interesting for those of us who are fans of the movie, the fantasy ship and modeling it. The actual construction of the prop ship for the movie (as you described above) was done by Steiner Shipyard. Folks can check them out here:

Repairs and Conversions - Steiner Shipyard

Steiner has repair and conversion capabilities utilizing their on-site 440 ton Marine Travelift which provides the most efficient means of vessel haul out today. Some of the repair services provided by Steiner are: ABS and USCG inspections Underwater inspections Blasting and painting Audio...

steinershipyard.com

 

[shelk]

I might be wrong but I'm fairly certain that the 3 pictures posted are from the queen anne's revenge and not from the black pearl

The queen anne's revenge has the big window on the back and the red stripe

There's a YouTube video of it in dry dock in honululu, and a very nice model on a YouTube channel called kak-to-tak

If memory serves me right it's supposed to be black beard's ship

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

I might be wrong but I'm fairly certain that the 3 pictures posted are from the queen anne's revenge and not from the black pearl

The queen anne's revenge has the big window on the back and the red stripe

There's a YouTube video of it in dry dock in honululu, and a very nice model on a YouTube channel called kak-to-tak

If memory serves me right it's supposed to be black beard's ship

good point I will back track and check into this,

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

there is a lot to the story and I am tracking the Black Pearl, after the movies the Black Pearl was redone as the Queen Anns Revenge

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

Here is a set of modeling plans for the Black Pearl

This is a very well done set of plans for anyone wanting to do a scratch build model.

i think these plans are dated 2007 so they have been around for quite some time. My guess these are the first set of modeling plans made available of the Black Pearl and i am hot on the trail to find out as much as i can about them.

Dates become important the first movie was released in 2003 and at that time there were no plans of the Black Pearl being built on the Sunset because at that time the ship was just a stage set and much of it was computer generated. These plans could very well have been created from just the images in the movie and if that is the case i must say "well done" Rick Heinrich who did the Black Pearl/Sunset build did not start from scratch he also used the first stage set to created the second Black Pearl.

 

[zoly99sask]

Here is a set of modeling plans for the Black Pearl

This is a very well done set of plans for anyone wanting to do a scratch build model.

i think these plans are dated 2007 so they have been around for quite some time. My guess these are the first set of modeling plans made available of the Black Pearl and i am hot on the trail to find out as much as i can about them.

Dates become important the first movie was released in 2003 and at that time there were no plans of the Black Pearl being built on the Sunset because at that time the ship was just a stage set and much of it was computer generated. These plans could very well have been created from just the images in the movie and if that is the care i must say "well done" Rick Heinrich who did the Black Pearl/Sunset buils did not start from scratch he also used the first stage set to created the second Black Pearl.

View attachment 156214View attachment 156215View attachment 156216View attachment 156217View attachment 156218View attachment 156219View attachment 156220

These are made by a Japanese guy in 2007

BP001

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

I would invite anyone and everyone who has any links or information or better yet to FACT CHECK everything and anything here.
The last thing I or Ships of Scale want to is mislead our members with fake information or sketchy data.

I make mistakes I sure am not perfect in every detail so when it is all said and done we can construct an honest and informative story of this popular ship.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

and it is confirmed the above plans are 2007
thanks for the confirmation Zoltan

 

[mrshanks]

Yes indeed. These drawings from Japan go back to 2007 and were done completely from imagination by watching the movie and general knowledge of ships. All of these drawings are completely free and have no copyrights attached, as stated by the original author on his site. I have compared these plans against both the ZHL kit and the Hachette kit and found that ALL THREE PLANS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY DIFFERENT. While the final model is representative of the Black Pearl from the movie, the design of the models are different.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

that was my first thought ZHL used these plans from Japan to produce his kit, Seems the ZHL plans are originals and not a copy from of any other plans.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

on the Rick Heinrich plans you can see a light blue outline of the Sunset

Now to wait for a cross section kit of the Black Pearl, with the brig cages used in the movies to be seen....

now that is one interesting idea a cross section of the Black Pearl with the Sunset inside her belly

 

[mrshanks]

Check out these examples for yourself:

Here are some photos of the Hachette Black Pearl false keel and bulkheads: http://mellpapa.lolipop.jp/hachetteBP-001-002.html

You can see the drawings of the Japanese version of the false keel and bulkheads in Dave's post above. Completely different.

Below is a picture of the ZHL version of the false keel and bulkheads. Completely different.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

As a trained draftsman and a retired commercial artist you come to realize creative artists, draftsmen and the such develop a "style" and those little nuances stand out so you can quickly detect copies from originals. Yes they are all the Black Pearl but each and everyone is an original piece of work, an interpretation of a subject.

 

[Dave Stevens (Lumberyard)]

without fact checking and just off the top of my head the golden age of piracy was from the late 1600s to the early 1700s
the Black Pearl looks like a Galleon of around the 1550s to 1600 so the above all the way back to the original Disney attraction is totally make believe Wrong type
of ship in the wrong time period.
but who cares?

 

[jimmystratos]

What would the working life of a ship have been in the 17th century, if not shipwrecked?