Black rock

Facts

The Black Rock

• Claire had a dream about a "black rock" that she put down in her diary which Charlie read about.
• Danielle had a section of her map labelled "Black Rock".
• Danielle said that there were explosives at the Black Rock.
• Danielle also said that there is a transmitting station near the "Black Rock". We have yet to even see the transmitting station.
• Mentioned in Rousseau's transmission, though that part was not translated by Shannon.
• The Black Rock is actually a roughly 200 year old ship that is beached far inland on the island.
• There are skeletons shackled inside the ship as well as old mining equipment.
• There are at least two cases of highly-volatile sticks of dynamite inside the ship's hold.
• There is a large hole in the aft port section of the ship's hull which was used to enter the ship.
• The exterior of the ship is overgrown with different types of foliage, suggesting that the ship has been at that location for a very long time.
• It is a mystery how the ship got that far inland, perhaps a tsunami?
• Located in the "Dark Territory".
• Arzt, the school teacher, blew himself up while handling some of the volatile dynamite.
• The ship originates from Portsmouth, whether this is Portsmouth, England or any of the numerous Portsmouths in USA is uncertain.
• Locke says he thinks it possibly sailed out of Mozambique but doesn't say why.
• One of the notes on the hidden blast door map reads, "KNOWN FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MAGNUS HANSO/BLACK ROCK."
  • Whether this points to the location or the actual ship is unknown
• Black Rock is whispered in the jungle.

Theories

• Alvar Hanso is said to be a manufacturer of weapons and munitions. The map note linking Magnus Hanso, perhaps a father or brother, to the Black Rock suggests that the ship's cache of dynamite was one of those munitions.

• The Black Rock was wrecked on the island because of the mysterious ability that the island has that enables it to attract boats and aircraft. Some have called this ability a strong magnetic field, but the Black Rock does not appear to be a metal ship, however the hull isn't the most important magnetism effected instrument in ships. It's possibly that the ship's crew just thought they were heading north. The island may have the power to attract other things as well, i.e. Desmond's race-around-the-world sailboat, Henry Gale's hot air balloon, and the Nigerian Drug Smugglers Plane.

• Greek myth states that Prometheus was tied to a Black Rock, possibly a mountain, as a punishment from Zeus. Prometheus features heavily in the story of Pandora's Box, which the hatch is speculated to be (Locke says, he thinks hope is inside, just as with the Pandora Box myth)

• 'Prometheus' is/was a key figure on the island who was a slave on the ship, chained to the Black Rock (the ship, not the mountain in the myth).

• The Black Rock could be an old slave ship. When Jack goes inside to find the dynamite we are shown that some of the shackles are unlocked. It is possible that some of the slaves escaped and proceeded to inhabit the island, maybe their descendents still do?

• Some or all of the Others could be descended from the crew of the Black Rock.

• Could be a mining colony ship that would carry new supplies and slave labor

• Since they are so close to Australia, the ship was possibly a prison transport ship from England. Australia used to be a penal colony for England, and also had a thriving mining industry that used convict labor. Since dynamite was invented in 1866 (when slavery was already abolished in most of the world), it is probably not a slave ship.

• The ship may have suffered a mutiny and the convict/slaves sailed eastward for refuge in the south Pacific islands rather than return to England, or been drawn there by the same mysterious forces that affected flight 815 and others

• Black rock is another name for a place in Clevedon, Bristol, UK for a cave system near the M5 Motorway, (aka Fox's Cave) where it is alledged, Polar bear's once inhabited.