# Sea Chase movie



## mcotting (Dec 2, 2007)

Does anyone know the name of the actual vessel used in the filming of this movie?


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## mcotting (Dec 2, 2007)

Sorry folks, think I found it......

"Warner Brothers produced their film version in 1955 starring the ubiquitous John Wayne as the Captain, now called Karl Erlich, and the quasi-glamorous Lana Turner introduced as a Nazi spy. The ship’s name was changed to the Ergenstrasse; Sydney-ites might recognise her in the opening shots as the old 640 ton collier 
Birchgrove Park – which used to ply between Sydney and Newcastle [both in Australia]. Shortly after this filming in 1954, she capsized, with the loss of 4 lives and 500 tons of coal, off the NSW coast where she remains as a favourite diver’s location. In the remainder of the film, another ship the Margaret Schafer was used." 

Source: "FICTION IS STRANGER THAN TRUTH: tales of the Auckland Islands as a literary stimulus" by Elliot Dawson


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## Alan Rawlinson (Dec 11, 2008)

'' Ergenstrasse '' is correct. Not a bad movie, but John Wayne without his horse???
AL


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## mcotting (Dec 2, 2007)

Some more about the Margaret Shafer...

TIMBERMAN, 2059 ton "laker" freighter, built Manitowoc 1918 as CORSICANA. Matson bought 1935, sold 1936 to Schafer Bros. SS Lines. Renamed MARGARET SCHAFER, sold to Panama 1955, renamed GREAT OAKS, then PEGGY, then BORNEO. Scrapped at Hong Kong 1962.

from http://www.usmm.org/matson.html, source Cargoes: Matson's 1st Century in the Pacific, by William L. Worden, Hawaii: University Press of Hawaii, 1981


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## bigharps (Aug 18, 2010)

mcotting said:


> Sorry folks, think I found it......
> 
> "Warner Brothers produced their film version in 1955 starring the ubiquitous John Wayne as the Captain, now called Karl Erlich, and the quasi-glamorous Lana Turner introduced as a Nazi spy. The ship’s name was changed to the Ergenstrasse; Sydney-ites might recognise her in the opening shots as the old 640 ton collier
> Birchgrove Park – which used to ply between Sydney and Newcastle [both in Australia]. Shortly after this filming in 1954, she capsized, with the loss of 4 lives and 500 tons of coal, off the NSW coast where she remains as a favourite diver’s location. In the remainder of the film, another ship the Margaret Schafer was used."


Just a correction here about the Birchgrove Park. She went down about 3am on August 2, 1956. There were 10 lives lost of the crew of 14. There were 4 survivors, not 4 dead.
There is a newspaper account at this link:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=MDQ-9Oe3GGUC&dat=19560803&printsec=frontpage


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