Sunset (ship)

The Sunset is a ship that was appeared in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. For the making of the second and third Pirates films, Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, the Sunset was redesigned and built by production designer Rick Heinrichs and his production team, in which it portrayed the Black Pearl. In 2010, because the Black Pearl didn't fit into the story of On Stranger Tides, the Sunset was once again redesigned, this time by production designer John Myhre, to portray the Queen Anne's Revenge.

The Black Pearl


During the making of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the original Black Pearl was basically a set built from the hull up on top of a barge, which was towed into position for filming. For the back-to-back productions of Dead Man's Chest and At World's End, because the barge would take forever to line up, the producers felt it was in their best interest to build the Black Pearl as a seaworthy vessel.

Eight months prior to the start of principal photography, production designer Rick Heinrichs was given the task of creating the new Black Pearl. To speed its construction, Heinrichs built the Black Pearl around the Sunset; which was docked in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. The result was that from the waterline up you had the pirate ship, with the Sunset still in there somewhere, with engines, fuel and water tanks, a galley and bunks.

The Queen Anne's Revenge
"Since the Black Pearl doesn't figure physically into the story of On Stranger Tides, Disney wanted us to use the ship as the base for the Queen Anne's Revenge."

- John Myhre



Because the Black Pearl didn't figure into the story of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, it was decided that the Sunset was to be used as the base for the Queen Anne's Revenge, the infamous ship belonging to the film's villain Blackbeard. So with production designer John Myhre and his team, the Sunset went under construction, in which the entire top of the boat was sliced off in the creating process of redesigning the ship. Myhre wanted to make the Queen Anne's Revenge stand out and look like the most powerful ship on the seas, and so his team took the base of a two-story ship and turned it into a three-and-a-half-story ship.

While creating the ship's design, producer Jerry Bruckheimer said that since the most famous pirate flag was the skull and crossbones, they should work on some skulls and skeletons into the design of the ship. With that in mind, John Myhre remembered Kostnice, the famous 'Church of Bones' in Kutna Hora, Czech Republic; it was a church that was literally decorated with bones. In the case of Blackbeard's ship, Myhre thought instead of doing all these intricately carved molding details, what if they used the bones of Blackbeard's victims in the design of the Queen Anne's Revenge. So with the idea that Blackbeard actually burned his victims, moldings were made of leg and arm bones, and teeth; and walls made out of skulls.

The Sunset is currently still docked in Hawaii, where On Stranger Tides was filmed.

Design and appearance
The Sunset was made completely of metal, but she is claded like the old, 18th century vessel. The ship is completely seaworthy. After filming each Pirates film, whether it was portraying the Black Pearl or the Queen Anne's Revenge, the upper masts and sails of the Sunset would have been added later by the visual effects team with computer generated imagery in post-production stage of each film.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - Black Pearl
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End - Black Pearl
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides - Queen Anne's Revenge