Balclutha (1886) In 1933, "Star of Alaska" was renamed "Pacific Queen" by her new owner Frank Kissinger. In this guise she appeared in the film "Mutiny on the Bounty" starring Clark Gable and Charles Laughton. She then eked out an existence as an exhibition ship, gradually deteriorating, and was for a while exhibited as a "pirate ship". In 1954, "Pacific Queen" was acquired by the San Francisco Maritime Museum, which restored her and renamed her "Balclutha" and moored her at Pier 41 East. In 1985 she was designated a National Historic Landmark. In 1988, she was moved to her present mooring at
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934 film) the ship back to England. Alexander Korda, a Hungarian who had been born in a town not far from Baroness Orczy's farm, had recently had great success with the actor Charles Laughton in the film "The Private Life of Henry VIII", so he asked Laughton to play the role of Sir Percy. When the announcement went out to the press, the reaction from the Pimpernel's many fans was negative; the pug-nosed Laughton was thought inappropriate to play the suave Sir Percy. Korda thus gave the role to Leslie Howard, with Merle Oberon as Marguerite. Howard set the standard with his