# Movie Ships



## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

Questions about a ship used in the 1980 movie death ship. Her name, history? From the movie you can see her house is far aft, Im guessing late 50's early 60's cargo ship.


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## riversea (Jul 19, 2007)

Looks Scandinavian build or maybe one of the DSR fleet? Is she at the breakers with anchor chain paid out like that?


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

No, she was used in a movie when these were taken, I can send you the trailers link if you would like.


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

thanks to your help I think she is part of the DSR fleet, which one still troubles me.


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

any ideas


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

Is this a film version of the book "Death Ship" by B. Traven?

John T.


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## Pat Thompson (Jan 25, 2006)

Greetings,

So far as I can make out the ship in question was a "50-year-old Canadian coast guard ice-breaker called the "N.B. McLean,"", see below.

The review was taken from user comments on the IMBD website so have a look HERE for the whole thing.

******************************************************************
A prime example of a potentially solid and effective fright film premise being done in by a deplorably inept and spiritless execution. The basic narrative set-up is novel and intriguing (Jack Hill co-wrote the story): a gigantic crewless haunted freighter powered by the demonic evil of the brutish Nazis that once manned it keeps said Nazi torture and sadism alive throughout the decades by sinking luxury ocean liners and allowing their survivors to board it so the foul festering behemoth can bump 'em off and derive energy to sustain itself from their precious lifeforce. Unfortunately, Alvin Rakoff's lifeless, fumbling, snoozing-at-the-helm direction totally ruins any vitality or creepiness needed to make the promising plot work. Rene Verzier's hideously mannered cinematography hurts matters all the more, overusing nausea-inducing zoom-ins, annoyingly tilted camera angles, whiplash-causing overhead shots, and some strenuously labored slow motion to an irritating extreme. The crucial miscasting of George Kennedy as the luxury liner's gruff captain who after boarding the Nazi ship degenerates into a ranting, demented, murderous crazy-as-an-outhouse-rat loons constitutes as another grave error. A friendly, comforting, avuncular screen presence, Kennedy's cuddly over-sized teddy bear persona proves to be all wrong for the part, therefor making his character's gradual descent into madness laughable instead of frightening. Richard Crenna as the fretful, worried out of his skull hero likewise is pretty embarrassing: glum and dejected, Crenna carries himself with the defeated, resigned air of a man who knows he's trapped in a turkey and mostly grits his way through the whole rotten mess. The big shock scenes are seriously bungled as well, especially a limply staged drowning and an excessively bloody "Psycho"-style shower sequence that goes on forever. Only in the last reel when a bunch of revolting decomposed skeletons in tattered rags are discovered does the movie finally deliver a few uneasy shudders, but by then it's much too little way too late to compensate for the grueling tedium which precedes it. The death ship itself, a 50-year-old Canadian coast guard ice-breaker called the "N.B. McLean," sizes up as a fabulously ghastly monstrosity -- dark, rusty, and grotesquely immense, with dimly lit hallways covered in cobwebs -- but just like the lackluster cinematic clunker it's stuck in it proves to be slow, meandering, heavy-handed and ultimately quite dead in the water. 
******************************************************************
Best I can do.


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## clevewyn (May 16, 2010)

Being a movie it`s quite likely that more than one ship may have been used, even the odd mock up.

Here is NB McLean

http://www.photoship.co.uk/JAlbum Ships/Old Ships N/slides/NB McLean-01.html


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## Oz. (Sep 6, 2005)

Pat, can we take it that you didnt actually care much for the movie ?


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## stein (Nov 4, 2006)

Maybe that movie is lousy, but if you get a chance, you ought to watch the German movie version of B. Traven's The Death Ship (Das Totenschiff)
Directed by Georg Tressler and made in West Germany in 1959, with Horst Buchholz and Mario Adorf.


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## Pat Thompson (Jan 25, 2006)

Greetings All,

Oz haven't seen it that was just a review I found on IMBD with the name of the ship in it. Somehow don't think it's my sort of movie (exclam)


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

To be honest i'm not a fan of the movie also, just the ship is interesting to me. Its not the icebreaker looks more like a 60's cargo ship. attached is video clip with a picture of the ship just one tho of the stern area"_(EEK)Id mute the music in it tho_".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wRKZEdPaAQ

I just for some reason cannot find any history on the ship itself


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

movie 1980 trotterdotpom


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

S. Toth said:


> Its not the icebreaker looks more like a 60's cargo ship. attached is video clip with a picture of the ship just one tho of the stern area"
> 
> I just for some reason cannot find any history on the ship itself


The whole movie seems to be on youtube..... filmed in Quebec and Alabama....

Agreed ..ship is 60's continental....

Can you do a screen grab from youtube and take it over to the 'unidentified ships' gallery?


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

sure thing


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## trotterdotpom (Apr 29, 2005)

S. Toth said:


> movie 1980 trotterdotpom


Thanks Stephen - Stein had already answered my question. If you get a chance to read the book by B. Traven grab it! 

John T.


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

I will have to look it up, thanks!


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

NB McLean may be the ship that appears just before the credits role at the end... part 10 on youtube.


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## Shipace5 (Apr 20, 2010)

I not hear something about the movie and about the ship.

Death ship-the name is so scary(EEK) I not want view it ever, I hate such movies.
I had seen some movies where is a ship and death. (Cloud)


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## Lksimcoe (Oct 30, 2006)

There was another movie made a few years ago about an ocean liner that had disappeared many years ago, that mysteriously reappeard, and was possesssed. In order for the devil (I think) to reappear, he needed a certain number of souls, which magically added up the the people who had been killed on the original liner, plus the people who found the ship. I don't know the name, and will try to find out. Not a bad movie, but one that you'd watch on a sat nite when totally bored.

Edited to add:

Movie was called Ghost Ship, and was released in 2002


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

Lksimcoe said:


> There was another movie made a few years ago about an ocean liner that had disappeared many years ago, that mysteriously reappeard, and was possesssed. In order for the devil (I think) to reappear, he needed a certain number of souls, which magically added up the the people who had been killed on the original liner, plus the people who found the ship. I don't know the name, and will try to find out. Not a bad movie, but one that you'd watch on a sat nite when totally bored.
> 
> Edited to add:
> 
> Movie was called Ghost Ship, and was released in 2002


yeah that was a good one, the devil collected souls on board then shipped them down to well you know. replica of the andrea doria in that movie


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## John Dryden (Sep 26, 2009)

Stephen,it could be the cargo ship in the picture is just a model.Nothing is as it seems in movies,I remember on a visit to Universal Studios in Hollywood and seeing where Jaws was filmed.It was a pond with a big sky backdrop and model shark.
JD.


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

I reckon its a fair dinkum ship... from www.imdb.com 

"The footage showing the movement of the Death Ship was the result of filming from a small boat moving around the Death Ship. The crew shot for about an hour before the 'Death Ship' broke down. The rest of the required shots were achieved by faking movement, as the broken down vessel was anchored and stationary. "


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

i k Like you said I originally thought she was a model but turned out to be real, been trying to find former name ever since.


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

how do i take a screen shot as mentioned by cisco


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## john strange (Jun 27, 2006)

There was a movie about a doomed liner made about 1961 or so. All I can recall is it had ared funnel which crashed onto the skipper in the final scenes. Think the movie may have been The Final Voyage.


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## KeMac (Feb 14, 2009)

This thread intrigued me. I got the director's name (Alvin Rakoff) from the internet and contacted him. To my surprise he came straight back and said he could not remember the ship's name but gave me the name of someone working on the film who would remember - however he is proving not so easy to track down but I will keep digging. He (Alvin Rakoff) wished us good luck in our search by the way.


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

john strange said:


> There was a movie about a doomed liner made about 1961 or so. All I can recall is it had ared funnel which crashed onto the skipper in the final scenes. Think the movie may have been The Final Voyage.


Sounds like the one starring Robert Stack... used the 'Ile de France' in many scenes which were shot in the Inland Sea of Japan - where she had gone to be broken up.

Apparently they recycled some scenes from that movie into 'The Death Ship'


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

KeMac-thank you!


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

cisco the beginning scenes when the death ship claims its victim is from the last voyage as you said. I heard in the filming of the last voyage they actually sunk the liner.


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## sparkie2182 (May 12, 2007)

The original film starring Robert Stack had a howling mistake clearly visible........

A safety frogman watching the passengers jumping into the sea.........


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

S. Toth said:


> cisco the beginning scenes when the death ship claims its victim is from the last voyage as you said. I heard in the filming of the last voyage they actually sunk the liner.


I believe they ballasted ( maybe even flooded a frd hold or something) Ile de France down by the head to give good sinking ship look... I don't think they actually sank her.

I seem to recall the props being out of the water. Memory may be playing tricks here it was 48 years ago.....


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

cisco i think your right they only partially sank her. I bought the movie off amazon a few months ago, however the full thing can be found on you tube.

_"The ship was towed to shallow waters, where jets of water shot onto the ship from fireboats flooded forward compartments and made it appear she was sinking by the bow. Her forward funnel was sent crashing into the deckhouse and her Art Deco interiors were destroyed by explosives and/or flooded" wikipedia_


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

how do I take a still shot so that I can upload a picture to the unidentified gallery of the death ship?


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## clevewyn (May 16, 2010)

Which video are you looking at?


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

S. Toth said:


> how do I take a still shot so that I can upload a picture to the unidentified gallery of the death ship?


Lookee here.... http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/galle...o/235170/title/-27death-ship-27-movie/cat/532

Not the best shot but its a start....


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## clevewyn (May 16, 2010)

This one?


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

Yep, that's her...


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## clevewyn (May 16, 2010)

I`m looking through the clips but not found one with the whole ship in, not close up anyway.


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## clevewyn (May 16, 2010)

Best one so far.


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

Thanks clevewyn I will upload that to the gallery!


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

any new info kemac, or anybody?


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

Kemac did the lead ever get back to you, any new news yet?


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## Cisco (Jan 29, 2007)

Possible ID on the subject of the original question .... Luise Bornhofen .. or a sister
http://www.shipspotting.com/modules/myalbum/viewcat.php?pos=70&uid=7548&num=10&orderby=dateD

Funny how one thing leads to another.....


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## S. Toth (Jun 28, 2008)

indeed


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