TALL SHIPS

Southland Times, Issue 23287, 25 August 1937, Page 9

TALL SHIPS

NEW CYCLE OF SEA PICTURES WINDJAMMERS IN DEMAND Hollywood is in the midst of a cycle of sea pictures. But with only about 31 old sailing ships still in active commercial service, according to the last survey by the National Geographic Society, 23 of their decommissioned sisters have been recalled from pension anchorages to be turned into movie props. Paramount’s historical maritime saga, “Souls at Sea,” for instance, meant a new lease of life for the old barque Star of Finland, once queen of the Alaska fishing fleets. She was taken on a deep-sea location off Catalina Island, with the wind once more in her sails, foam about her cutwater, and such film salts as Gary Cooper, George Raft, Francis Dee and Henry Wilcoxon treading her decks on her last voyage. The schooner Lottie Carson, which her skipper, Captain Carl Guntert, will tell you was once owned by the man immortalized by Jack London as The Sea Wolf, was also under charter for the production. Five other vessels

were also hired recently on a day-to-day basis, for a week—the barque Pacific Queen, formerly The Star of Alaska, of the Alaska packers’ fleet, and the schooners Lottie Bennett and W. H. Harriman.

For “Captains Courageous,” Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer bought one Gloucester schooner with the colloquial name We’re Here, and chartered another, Jennie Cushman. Thirteen other small sailing vessels of the Gloucester rig were brought down from Seattle to be used in the picture for only a few days. Fox chartered the Albatross on the east coast, and sailed her to Catalina for the film “Slave Ship.” Cecil B. de Mille will be needing some more sailing ships very soon for his “Buccaneer,” a story of Jean Lafitte, now in production, and will use his own yacht Seaward.