How many shipwrecks were filmed

[Tarn Stephanos]

How many liners can you all think of whos last moments were captured on film?
(and I mean motion picture, not still photography)

Think of liners that were filmed as they were sinking or burning to a crisp..

Here is what I came up with-


*Morro Castle (filmed while burning)
*Normandie (filmed while burning)
*Andrea Doria (filmed while sinking)
*Queen Elizabeth (fimed while burning)
*Oceanos (filmed while sinking)

any others?
There was also the Ille De France, partially sunk for the film "The Last Voyage", but she was refloated and scrapped.

Were the fires on board the L'Atlantique or Paris filmed?
(not including stills published in various books)

regards



Tarn Stephanos

 

[Andrew Johnston]

in the movie THE LAST VOYAGE, how did she sink?
(can u describe?)
is it a good movie? thanks...
--------------------------------------------
PS sorry i cannot think of any others rite now! im down wit the Oceanos thing rite now tho
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[Michael H. Standart]

The Yarmouth Castle was caught on film as she burned in the night. I seem to recall a few photos of the Achille Lauro befor she went down, and the Britanis as well.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Prinsendam
L'Atlantique
Paris
Wahine (spectacular film)
General Slocum (aftermath)
Leonardo DaVinci
A few moments of Achille Lauro's demise are on video.
Dara
and, I believe,
Lakonia.

I seem to recall that the Premier ship which sank a few years ago was briefly filmed.

Eastland (aftermath) was extensively filmed but I've not found any surviving footage.

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

The aftermath of the 'Herald of Free Enterprise' was filmed, with survivors and the dead being pulled through the top of the wreckage in Zeebrugge harbour in 1987.

The rescue of survivors of the 'Jupiter' was also filmed in Piraeus harbour in 1988.

I seem to recall footage of the 'Scandinavian Star' burning in port in 1990.

The aftermath of the 'Dona Paz' was filmed in 1987, with wreckage still burning on the sea from it's collision with a tanker off the Phillipines.

 

[Andrew Johnston]

The Premier ship you mention is the SeaBreeze (formerly Seabreeze 1)...

I would like to see footage... CNN has links to the videos but they are dead links...

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Ah the Seabreeze....
I cruised her in 99', and had a grand ol time....

Odd thing...walking her decks, I had a gut feeling she would one day sink..

I recall seeing her tied up in Boston a week before her fatal voyage....

btw, I recall seeing a special on Discovery about a ship called 'Flying Enterprise' that went down...There was black and white footage of the sinking.
Was she a liner, or a cargo vessel?
Thanks for the list Jim!

8 )

regards


tarn Stephanos

 

[Jim Kalafus]

If you can get the video The Great Liners (part 8) Echoes of the Mersey, there is some footage of the Empress of Canada burning, and capsized onto her pier (1953) which is quite remarkable.

Newsreel footage exists of the Dixie, an American coastal liner which was thrown up on a reef during the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane, believed to be the most powerful storm ever to strike the US. 400-800 people died in the Keys, but the Dixie did not break up and her shaken up (literally and figuratively) passengers were safely evacuated. Eventually Dixie, too was safely removed from the reef.

There is much home video available of the aftermath of the America grounding and breaking apart.

Flying Enterprise was not a liner.

 

[Jim Kalafus]

There is much 'aftermath' footage available of the former Hudson River Dayliner Peter Stuyvesant, which had been brought to Boston and beautifully restored as a restaurant only to be damamged beyond repair in a storm. For a few days afterwards NY television news and local programming used the film of her sunken at her pier as 'filler' footage. Ca 1979/'80. I imagine the Boston news archives must have tons of film of this event.

Rasa Sayang burned at roughly the same time and, again, was used on NY news as filler footage.

A few seconds of video of the former Meridian (Celebrity Cruises) burning was also used as a news filler story- I assume that somewhere much more than three seconds worth of film exists.

Also heavily filmed was the fire aboard the Ecstasy.

 

[greg robertson]

Sun Vista was filmed while going down and the Estonia was photographed on her side while sinking

 

[Tarn Stephanos]

Hi Greg!
Was that Estonia photo published?

regards


tarn

 

[Andrew Johnston]

Really?! The ESTONIA was shot WHILE on her side?! amazing, i really must find this photo...

must be a horrific site though.

Tarn, the Flying Enterprise was a cargo vessel. I have a book in which she has a small section.

 

[greg robertson]

The photograph in Question was taken by a passenger (Swedish - but I cannot spell the name as it was in a tv doc). He took two photographs while he sat on the side of the Estonia as she san.
One of the pictures show another passenger sitting on the side of the ship, the second shows the same passenger sliding off the vessel into the sea.
The photographs appeared on BBC television's Panorama round about 94/5.

 

[Iain Stuart Yardley]

I remember that photo, Greg. Mike Standart posted a web site address for the Estonia report on the Estonia thread and there may be some photos on there. It makes for very grim reading, particularly when the very few survivors tell their stories about how the disaster happened and what they saw happen to other people who didn't make it out.

 

[Martin Owen Cahill]

Jim,

you mention the Wahine film.
yes it was spectacular and I can remember how I felt when I watched it on TV the day the ship sank. Up until the news came on I did not know she had been lost and even as a 6 year old I was shocked as I had only travelled on her a few months earlier. much akin to the unsinkable sinking. In the mind of a small boy, the ship under my feet felt truelly solid and unsinkable.

Both events together would stay with me for the rest of my life and be responsible for my interest in ships and the Titanic.

martin

 

[Jim Kalafus]

Martin- That is interesting about your having been aboard Wahine before the disaster!

The most accessible film of the sinking is that used in the Wahine documentary a few years back.

 

[Alex McLean]

And of course, while not an ocean liner, the Hindenburg going up in flames is a terrible, yet very interesting film to watch.
I was in New Zealand in April last year and I remembered seeing the names of those lost on the Wahine in the Maritime Museum in Wellington. It stuck in my mind the three couples with the same last name, put as Mr. and Mrs. Fifty-six odd years after Mr. and Mrs. Strauss and Mr. and Mrs. Allison died together, heroism is still at work.
My best,

Alex

 

[Martin Owen Cahill]

Alex,

the saddest names are of the Hicks children and a boy who was the same age I was on the day. That one really hit me when I was researching the death certificates in the National Archives.

did you attend the memorial day on April 10? I was at that event. the maritime museum is a place I have had ongoing contact with.

Martin

 

[Alex McLean]

Martin,
No, sadly I didn't. I would have been there for the 10th, but my aunty passed away and thus I couldn't make it until the 22nd. It is a shame though, but I hope to go back next year to visit some friends and family. Now that I'm traveling alone, I can't get enough of it!
I hope to see you when I get there, I am in New Zealand usually twice a year.
My best,

Alex

 

[Michael Bezek]

I've read that a newsreel camera caught the entire Eastland disaster from start to finish, but it was considered so horrific that it was not released to the public. I have my doubts about that-there are a lot of photos of corpses being pulled out of the wreck that were published at the time, and I don't see how film of the sinking could have been any more graphic. Does anybody know for sure if a full length film of the Eastland sinking ever did exist?