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The Captain Blood Armada

24 Jul

July 24, 1935

Los Angeles Examiner

Warners Rush Ships for Scenes in Captain Blood

Construction of five pirate boats to be used in the filming of Captain Blood was being rushed on the Warner Brothers lot today, anticipating the picture’s going into production the first week of August.

The ships are being made under the supervision of Anton Grot, art director, who designed the lavish sets for A Midsummer’s Night Dream, Warner Brothers special directed by Max Reinhardt.

Although Captain Blood’s boat, the Arabella, is the smallest craft under construction, the combined efforts of Grot, his sixteen assistants and the studio department are so focused on the ship that it may be best of its kind ever turned out.

A group of professional boat builders have been recruited from local seaport towns, and professional ship painters also have been called in to work on the project.

Work on the “Captain Blood Armada” started early this year shortly after announcement by Warner Brothers that the filming of Sabatini’s pirate yarn actually would get under way this summer. The first steps taken were the collection of books on pirate craft and the tabulating of data to be used by Grot’s assistants in making working drawings. One of the research books used was “Souvenirs de Marine,” which went out of print in 1886. Another book studied was “Histoire de la Marine.”

Featuring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, Captain Blood is the first of twelve super productions to be made by Warner Brothers-First National. They are Anthony Adverse, Frisco Kid, Charge of the Light Brigade, Lafitte the Pirate Legionnaire, Ceiling Zero, Green Pastures, Petrified Forest, Radio Jamboree of 1935, and The Fighter.

— Tim

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Posted in Behind the Scenes, Captain Blood Brotherhood, Gentleman Tim, Newspaper & Headlines, Ships & the Sea

Souvenirs de Marine

24 Jul

One of the primary references used by Art Director Anton Grot’s team for the design of ships in Captain Blood was the Souvenirs de Marine, written by Vice Admiral Francois-Edmond Paris.

François-Edmond Pâris (1806 – 1893) was one of the most fascinating characters in French maritime history. As a young man he was involved in the last of the grand French scientific expeditions, and helped collect and classify the curiosities of the newly explored lands in Asia and the Pacific. He circumnavigated the globe three times with renowned French captains. As a surveyor and draftsman, he helped with the overwhelming success of these explorations. This opened for him a new opportunity, the honor to command one of the first steamships in the French fleet. A brilliant naval engineer, he greatly helped modernize the French navy of the 1800’s. Most of his books became classics not only in France but abroad. He is notable for his role in organising the Musée National de la Marine (National Navy Museum) in Paris. In 1871 he was appointed curator of the Navy at the Louvre, where Admiral Paris spent the last twenty-two years of his life enriching the collections, and formulating this unique set.

Description: Hard bound in publishers green cloth with blind stamped boards and gilt titles. Large Elephant folios – 22.5 ” x 19″. Massive at over 13 Lbs. each. Each volume holds 60 full page, single sided plates. Originally published 1882-1908. First reprinted in 1910. Profusely illustrated with striking full page plates of marine architectural renderings. RARE!

Souvenirs de marine Collection de plans ou dessins de navires et de bateaux anciens ou modernes existants ou disparus avec les éléments numériques nécessaores à leur construction
Pâris, François-Edmond
Publisher: Gauthier – Villars Et Fils, Paris
Publication Date: 1892, 1910, 1910

Could ships depicted in this masterwork have been models used by Warner Brothers for ships in Captain Blood and Sea Hawk? Quite possibly. Here’s one of the book’s many superb plates: