Film Tugs 5

Click here to see the series.

Recognize the actor/character gazing into the dry dock at Ocean Wrestler?  When I saw this on a streaming rerun–whatever you’d call it now–I suspected the name Ocean Wrestler was a prop added for the show.  More on that later.  According to the script, this was a dry dock in Norfolk, but in fact it was filmed in North Vancouver for release in 1995.  Got it figured out?

Here’s another screen grab . . . season 3 episode 9 of

the X-Files.  Here’s the episode info.

I’m a lifelong fan of sci-fi and X-Files is one of the few TV shows of any sort I’ve watched in my life.  But enough of that.

So the name was real for the early mid-1990s.  The vessel was launched in Oostend, Belgium in 1972 as Wrestler.  The name evolution since then goes like this:  renamed Ocean Wrestler in 1989 until 1996, then Hadisangsuria until 1998 when it reverted to Ocean Wrestler until 2011, then Malysh until May 2014, and supposedly is still operating as Kunduz.  The whole story and specs can be found here.

My reaction to the top photo is delight in thinking that FBI Agent Mulder may admire the lines of this ocean wrestler as much as I do.

No photos by Will Van Dorp, who is grateful to the unnamed photographers of the X-Files series.   Turn the volume up and enjoy the theme music here.