The Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship opened in Fantasyland on Aug. 29, 1955, sold tuna burgers for 55 cents and had a mermaid on the bow. In 1982 Disney tried to move it and couldn’t. Dumbo flies there now.
For 27 years, the most photographed thing in Disneyland’s Fantasyland after the castle was a full-size pirate galleon parked in a lagoon, and you could buy a tuna sandwich in it.
The Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship and Restaurant opened on Aug. 29, 1955, six weeks after the park did. It was sponsored by a tuna cannery, styled after Captain Hook’s ship from Peter Pan, and it served exactly what you’d expect a tuna cannery to serve.
It’s gone now. It went out badly.
What was the Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship at Disneyland?
A restaurant shaped like the Jolly Roger, paid for by Van Camp Sea Food, the company behind the Chicken of the Sea brand. The menu, per AllEars, ran to “tuna sandwiches; there were also tuna burgers, hot tuna pies and a signature tuna salad served in a miniature boat.” As the site notes, “Prices ranged from 55 to 90 cents.“
The sponsor had one big demand: its mermaid mascot had to be on the ship. Sculptor Chris Mueller built a six-foot mermaid figurehead for the bow and another on the stern, riding a sea turtle. A parrot named Paco squawked from a cage on deck.
The ship was so big it couldn’t be built in place. AllEars says “the ship was so big that it had to be built backstage, behind the Main Street Opera house,” then hauled into Fantasyland with a crane.
When did Skull Rock come to Disneyland?
Late 1960. Disney added Skull Rock, the giant grinning skull from Peter Pan, behind the ship, with waterfalls pouring out of it and green lights glowing in its eyes after dark. The lagoon around it became Skull Rock Cove, with outdoor seating under the falls.
For kids in the 1960s and 1970s, eating a tuna pie under a waterfall coming out of a skull was as good as Disneyland got. Fan sites date the addition to December 1960, though a couple put it earlier that year.
Why was the pirate ship renamed Captain Hook’s Galley?
The tuna money ran out. Van Camp was bought by Ralston Purina in the 1960s, and the sponsorship ended in 1969.
Disney dropped the Chicken of the Sea name and the ship became Captain Hook’s Galley, which it stayed until the end. Same ship, same tuna, no mermaid contract.
Why was the Disneyland pirate ship demolished?
Because it was a wooden boat sitting in water for 27 years, and wood does what wood does. D23’s entry says it flatly: the ship “was made entirely of wood, but with the wood sitting in water for so long, it began to rot.” Over the years Disney replaced the rotted base with concrete, piece by piece.
By 1982 the park was rebuilding all of Fantasyland, and the plan was to move the ship, not scrap it. It was supposed to end up on the promenade near “it’s a small world.” The galley closed on Aug. 29, 1982, 27 years to the day after it opened.
The move failed. The hull couldn’t survive being lifted. Yesterland’s account ends the way it ended: “Bulldozers unceremoniously demolished the longtime landmark.“
What happened to the mermaid?
This is the part that hurts. Disney tried to save the plaster mermaid sculpture, at least. D23 says that during the move, “the plasterwork fell over and broke into a thousand pieces“ when the truck hit a bump.
Other accounts have her slipping out of a sling going over a speed bump. Either way, she shattered.
You’ll read that pieces of the ship survive in the Disney archives. No one has ever produced them. Assume it’s all gone.
What’s on the pirate ship site now?
Dumbo the Flying Elephant. When New Fantasyland opened on May 25, 1983, Dumbo was moved from its original spot to the old lagoon, lined up with the carousel and the castle entrance. The ship’s footprint is where kids ride a flying elephant today.
Can you still see the pirate ship anywhere?
Sort of. Disneyland Paris opened on April 12, 1992 with its own Captain Hook’s Galley in Adventureland, a new build inspired by the Anaheim original, moored next to its own Skull Rock. It stopped serving food in 2011 and now stands as a walk-through pirate galleon.
Tokyo Disneyland had a Captain Hook’s Galley snack stand too, from its 1983 opening.
So the mermaid is gone, the tuna is gone and the ship is gone. Skull Rock lives on in France, 5,600 miles from the lagoon it was built for.
Chicken of the Sea, meanwhile, still exists. It just doesn’t have a boat.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
Pirates and Princesses is your destination for Disney news, theme park updates, and the pop culture you love. From Disney cruises and travel tips to Disney fashion, food, collectibles, and movie news, PNP covers it all. Visit us at piratesandprincesses.net for daily coverage. Follow PNP on Facebook and Instagram, and listen to the Pirates & Princesses podcast on Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
Hat Tips:
D23 (Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship, Captain Hook’s Galley and This Day entries), the opening and closing dates, the rot, the failed move quote, Paco the parrot and the Paris and Tokyo galleys
AllEars (Step Back in Time: Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship), the backstage construction, the menu and prices
Yesterland, the crane move, the small world relocation plan and the demolition quote
Jim Hill Media, the Van Camp and Ralston Purina sponsorship history, the Chris Mueller mermaid sculptures and the wood construction
Daveland, the Dec. 1960 Skull Rock photos and the speed-bump version of the mermaid’s end
Trips With Tykes, the May 25, 1983 New Fantasyland opening and Dumbo’s relocation
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