A ship on the way from England (Portsmouth is a large port in England) to Australia would not have ended up in the South Pacific (where Lost is supposedly set). They would have come round the bottom of Africa. Also slaves weren't trafficked from England to Aus, but from Africa to England/US, i.e. across the Atlantic. Either way, if it is a slaver's ship (and it looks that way) then it was very, very lost. - DF
Where did the info about Portsmouth come from?--Tricksterson
It's written Portsmouth on the ship's aft, indicating that it was built there. --158.36.241.12 06:54, 15 February 2006 (PST)
On the Prometheus thing...Prometheus was chained to the side of a mountain by the Black Sea and every day birds would come and eat his liver and at night it would grow back.
Wikipedia has a great article on him and info about the mountain - nothing about a Black Rock reference though. However, Prometheus was there for going against the gods and giving fire to the mortals...perhaps this boat gave something....
I guess the reference is mountain (rock) by the Black sea. But yeah, nothing too direct has been mentioned. The reason for Prometheus' captivity was because he gave fire (dynamite?) to mankind. On greek myths, Hades and his queen lived in a castle made of Black Rock, but again, this is something too indefinite for even an adding a theory for. Maybe a common theme, since everything is one nowadays anyway. --skks 01:02, 19 March 2006 (PST)
Plague Ship
Wild theory here.
Could the ship have brought disease to the island. It would explain why slaves and/or the infected were left to die chained in the hold.
Since its age.. could it be that it sailed into its new location on a since dried up river.
Just ideas I had and probably don't mean anything but you get the impression that little in Lost is 'by accident'.
--MRNasher
Other Black rocks
Did anyone else note the black rocks in the background of the location that Jack recognises as the location of the meeting with the others?
It looks rather prominent and this was in the episode where Bernard was collecting black rocks (revealing that there is a lavafield on the island, and therefore a volcanic island) to make the beach sign. Which btw would be vulnerable to the tide sweeping it away, just like the fuselage.
--MRNasher
Peter Pan?
The name of Captain Hook's ship in Peter Pan is also the Black Rock. Could this be a refence to Never Never Land or the Lost Boys?
Just looked it up... Captain Hook's ship (at least in the Disney cartoon) was the "Jolly Roger"--BigSteve777 11:27, 13 April 2006 (PDT)
A restructure?
I feel this article needs more structure. In the "Facts" section, it would help comprehension if the items about the ship the Black Rock were separated from the other references to "the Black Rock". It may also help to acknowledge that there may be another Black Rock on the island -- namely, a landmark -- which has nothing to do with the ship.
And yes, I'm not convinced that the Black Rock was a slave ship -- would it be distracting to explain in the article some reasons why it might not be? (If it's just going to lead to a edit war, I won't push the matter.) -- Llywrch 16:03, 14 April 2006 (PDT)
- I agree. It would make sense to have a "black rock" section that included non-specific rock references, then a "black rock ship" section that was specific to the ship, and thirdly a "other black rock" section specific to the attributes of the rock at The Line.
Slaves and dynamite
There are two strange things about the ship.
Number one: ships with slaves would hardly be in the Pacific Ocean, since most of the slave trade was done in the Atlantic, and some less in the Indic. This fact can be explained by the hypothesis that the island is actually somewhere in Africa's east coast, and not in the Pacific. I wrote about this in Talk:The Island.
Number two: there is another less provocative fact that I never saw anybody discuss... Dynamite was invented only in 1866. That article also mentions that South Africa became a large dynamite producer, but looks like this happened only in the beginning of the 20th century.
The strange thing is that by the ending of the 19th century, slave trade was already declining, as slavery itself. The British Navy started suppressing slave trade alrady in 1807, and it seems it was very successful in the Indic Ocean.
Brazil was one of the last countries to abolish slavery. The international slave trade was forbidden here in 1850 with the Eusébio de Queirós Law. In 1871, sons of slaves were already declared free by the Lei do Ventre Livre, and in 1888 the full abolishment came.
One of the primary reasons for the ending of slavery was the industrial revolution, and dynamite is already a symbol the "second industrial revolution"! A dynamite box in a slave-trading ship is almost an ANACHRONISM!
So, it's very unlikely that a ship trading slaves would carry dynamite... Is this another strange fact to look for in the series, making everything more mysterious, or an (very unlikely) error from the writers?... What do you think? -- NIC1138 18:22, 27 May 2006 (PDT)