In its incarnation as HMS Surprise, the Rose was utilized for several weeks of shooting at sea by first and second units. This unique "shooting stage" was retrofitted to be authentic to the period, as well as to be able to accommodate the principal cast, filmmakers, camera crew, hair, makeup, wardrobe, props and other departments necessary to shoot the scenes. The Rose’s actual crew manned the vessel as it moved through the Baja waters. (Russell Crowe also learned to sail The Rose, and assumed the "helm" on several occasions.)
"We’ve gone to great lengths for historical authenticity," says master shipwright Leon Poindexter, another of the film’s technical and historical consultants. Poindexter also worked with twenty shipwrights to retrofit the Rose in San Diego, and helped relocate it to its production home in Ensenada, Mexico. "We received fully documented construction details from the Admiralty in the U.K., and used mathematical formulas to determine the proper anchor size," says Poindexter. "Every inch of this ship, down to the placement of the mooring cables has been carefully researched."
"I loved being out on the Rose," says Russell Crowe, who earlier had sailed through tempest-tossed waters in Fiji (coincidentally in a boat named the Surprise) to begin preparing for his role as Jack Aubrey. "Climbing a mast on The Rose at sea, 137 feet above the ocean, was a highlight for me. Those days were really special; there was an immense sense of freedom because we weren't connected to the land."
The filmmakers built a second "HMS Surprise" – the 60-ton tank ship – over a four month period. This ship was placed in a 6 ½ - acre water tank at the Fox Studios Baja – home to Titanic. This Surprise was constructed completely from scratch, with painstaking attention to detail, down to the lanterns, hammocks and the aging of the ship and its sails.
At the same time, New Zealand-based special effects house Weta Workshop, part of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy effects team, built detailed ship miniatures. Their Surprise was over 25 feet in length. Additional models were digitally constructed in the computer of visual effects house Asylum.
The massive tank ship in Mexico was mounted on a specially constructed gimbal, the largest ever used in a motion picture production. Powerful hydraulics brought to life the monstrous mechanism, which facilitated a complete range of motion, duplicating a ship’s movements at sea.
"We rocked and rolled from Brazil to the Galapagos Islands in that tank," says Weir.
Director of photography Russell Boyd notes that thanks to the gimbal, shooting on the tank sometimes felt like filming at sea. "The gimbal gave a pitching and rolling motion to the set, so that the whole set actually moved like a ship at sea," says Boyd. "We all had to develop sea legs fairly early on, just to work on the tank ship." Boyd and his team used a techno-crane with a libra head, with the camera sitting on three axes—horizontal, forward/backward and leveling – enabling them to counteract the ship’s movement.
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