Avast, mateys! Pirates are selling out

16 July 2017 - 00:02 By DAVE CHAMBERS

Pirate fans will be able to plunder South Africa's very own "treasure island" next weekend when the props of TV's Black Sails go under the hammer in Cape Town.
Four seasons of the US series were filmed at Cape Town Film Studios between 2012 and last year, when one of the life-size ships built for the show was destroyed by fire.
Hundreds of props and antiques used in the 38 episodes of the 18th-century drama - set 20 years before the events depicted in Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island - include everything from gangplanks and scuttlebutts to a whale skeleton and a wooden bath.A larger ship, the Walrus, was built on wheels. The Spanish mano'war alongside floated in a 10-million-litre tank.
Black Sails provided employment for 800 local extras and crew, and starred British actor Toby Stephens, son of Dame Maggie Smith.
He played James Flint, feared pirate captain plundering ships off the West Indies. English actress Hannah New played Eleanor Guthrie, the owner of a saloon in Nassau.
Several real-life pirates were fictionalised in the show, including Long John Silver (played by Luke Arnold), Charles Vane (Zach McGowan), Anne Bonny (Clara Paget) and Jack Rackham (Toby Schmitz).
Items in the auction also include wagons, baskets, barrels, bellows and fire pits. Nautical ephemera includes cannon, bells, binnacles, anchors and galley equipment.
The entire nursery of plants and trees used on set will also be sold, as will a stunt gymnasium...

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.