See the last foto in this post from a year and half ago. In less than 48 hours, three people identified the tugboat and I acknowledged them here.
The 96-year-old tugboat below, Furie, was centerpiece of a Dutch TV show called Hollands Glorie from the late 1970s. I once watched an episode of the show with my grandmother in the Netherlands. Here’s a youtube–all in Dutch–that does a great job of showing the towing industry museum (Sleepvaartmuseum) in the town of Maassluis, where Furie is docked. Foto comes thanks to Jan van der Doe.
So here’s my question: recently on Netflix I watched a 1965 movie called Morituri . . with Yul Brenner and Marlon Brando. The following are screen grabs. Anyone know where and using which vessels it was filmed? I don’t. This was supposedly port of Tokyo during WW2. The cargo ship, representing an Axis-friendly freighter attempting to run the Allied blockade all the way to Vichy France, was called Ingo at the start and
Christina later in the movie. Here a Japanese submarine approaches to transfer survivors of a torpedoed vessel to the freighter. Note: if you doubleclick on the foto above there’s a “W above a T” on the stack of the tug. ??
This seems mighty obscure stuff, but who knows? It was an okay movie, by the way.
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November 15, 2012 at 2:26 pm
lazerone
this is a german “auxiliary cruiser” (on english Hilfkreuzer): the first name coming in mind is Atlantis … I am checking the names used as camouflage…
November 15, 2012 at 2:58 pm
tugster
lazerone . . . i didn’t know that, so the production company may have used a surplus german aux cruiser, modified it to pass as a freighter. thanks much.
November 15, 2012 at 4:38 pm
sleepboot
The Red Cross Fleet used during the 2′ WW a Swedish ship with the name ‘Christina’
The Germans owned a cargo ship called “Ingo”.and she sailed for Hamburg-Bremer Afrika Linie GMBH.
She was sunk in a convoy by FAA Swordfish.of 830 NAS.
Which ship was used in the movie is another question.
It looks to me a British freighter was used for this role..
November 15, 2012 at 9:55 pm
Roger Prichard
The WTCO on the tug’s stack is the Wilmington Transportation Co. which was very active in Los Angeles, right? Seems reasonable that location shots for a movie were done locally.
November 15, 2012 at 11:29 pm
tugster
roger– thanks. i hadn’t noticed that detail at first. now i’m surprised, given that the “world of the film” would have us believe this ship assist is out of tokyo harbor, you’d think they’d at least cover up roman letters with japanese characters. i guess that means that in 1965 it was just assumed that workboats were quasi-invisible.
November 16, 2012 at 4:47 am
Anonymous
Re: Film Tugs: just above the Pulaski Drawbridge there is moored a deck barge with what appears to be a 2 story frame house built on it. Is this a film prop?
November 16, 2012 at 7:45 am
Chris Williams
The Wilmington tug looks a lot like the Long Beach that was modeled by a Revell kit in the mid to late ’60s. I’m not sure if she had sisters in the fleet, but she may have been a government tug prior to her Wilmington service.
November 16, 2012 at 8:43 am
tugster
anon– i’m not familiar with that deck barge. if you get a pic, maybe you could forward it. boardwalk empire greenpoint set is near there. and this is nyc, where tv/movie production is always happening. here’s a list from the mayor’s office: http://www.nyc.gov/html/film/html/locations/current_nyc_productions.shtml
csi films here sometimes: http://www.onlocationvacations.com/tag/csi-ny-filming-locations/ if you do facebook, here’s one of my favorite csi film locations on nyc/sixth boro waters: http://www.twylah.com/GarySinise/tweets/25216479675
on the other hand, there are just house barges, some of them quite elaborate: http://www.google.com/search?q=housebarges&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&tbo=u&rls=en&tbm=isch&source=univ&sa=X&ei=lEKmUL2nJ5PD0AGT5oH4Cw&ved=0CFwQsAQ&biw=1876&bih=936