The tall ship Fremont was launched in Philadelphia in 1850, the Times reported, and was first used in the slave trade, swapping rum, muskets and bolts of cloth for slaves on the East African coast.
The Fremont then became a blockade runner during the Civil War.
“But after a while the black flag was hauled to her mizzen peak, and she was sailed by pirates,” the Times reported.
In its later years, the Fremont was a cargo carrier, until government inspectors condemned the vessel, and it was sold to a film production company to be used as a prop.
The Fremont was made over to look like a Spanish galleon and used in early filmmaker Maurice Tourneur’s silent adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” in 1919.
The ship ran aground on a shoal just off Newport Harbor during filming in October 1919, the Times reported.
“...[The Fremont] made new history last Tuesday, when she went aground with forty-five persons aboard,” the Times reported. “Their lives were in peril all night, while waves broke over her and boatmen refused to attempt a rescue. Next day the people were taken off with a breeches buoy.”
Another old vessel, the Muriel, was used in the filming of the 1924 silent film “The Sea Hawk,” directed by Frank Lloyd. The film tells the story of an English nobleman sold into slavery who later escapes and becomes a pirate. Lloyd used old ships outfitted with new wooded exteriors in the film.
The Muriel was later abandoned after it ran aground on a sand bar at the entrance to Newport Harbor, the Times reported on Aug. 8, 1925.
