My favorite "bone in her teeth" shot. I've posted it before. It was taken during a film shoot I directed. The scenes are the opening sequence of the video I produced for our (Boeing's) Everett plant tour center. I believe the video is shown at the start of every tour. I based the script on Captain George Vancouver's voyage of discovery to the Pacific Northwest.
I could not find any stock footage that would work so I chartered the replica "Lady Washington" for an afternoon to act as a stand-in for Vancouver's "Discovery." Both vessels were from the same era. In fact it's said that the ships met at one point off the Columbia River. "Discovery" had one more mast than the "Lady Washington" but for filming purposes it didn't matter. The "Lady Washington's" appearance and basic design fit the era.
We did the shooting on Bellingham Bay on a sunny, windy day. I had two cameras on the ship and one in a chase boat. The ship's crew dressed in period clothes. At the time this shot was taken the "Lady Washington" was doing 12 knots. The captain told me the fastest he'd ever gotten her to go was 14 knots.
I directed from on board the ship. The two things that impressed me most were, one, how fast the ship could be tacked or jibed. They shifted all the sails on each mast at the same time and it was really cool to watch all the square sails rotate together. The ship tacked or jibed almost as fast as a typical sloop or schooner.
The other thing that impressed me was how much work it takes to sail a ship like this. I had the skipper get the ship going as fast as he could with every sail he had and also had him tacking or jibing every few minutes for light and shooting angle reasons. The crew, which is quite large, operated on the run for three hours straight once we were in position in the middle of the bay. There were people in the rigging, people on deck, and they worked their asses off setting and resetting the sails. Lots and lots of lines of eight to ten crew members hauling on a sheet or some other line. All to a vocal rhythm. "Heave! Heave! Heave!" The ship is tiller-steered like so many vessels of that era and it took two and sometimes three people to put the helm over for a tack or jibe.
Very, very cool experience and we got some great shots.