Dangerous Voyage 1954 Film

[Julian Gladyshev]

DangerousVoyage (U.S. title Terror Ship) is a 1954 British crime thriller B film[1] directed by Vernon Sewell and starring William Lundigan, Naomi Chance and Vincent Ball.[2] It was distributed by Anglo-Amalgamated in the UK,[1] and in the United States by Lippert Pictures.

Author Peter Duncan investigates the circumstances of a damaged yacht and its crew who are taken under tow off the English coast, and the subsequent disappearance of the crew before they reach land. The mast is somehow radioactive but after replacement a geiger counter still picks up a strong reading. When they try to find the old mast on the junk heap, it has disappeared.

The film was shot at Merton Park Studios in London,[2] with sets designed by art director George Haslam. Location shooting took place in the English Channel, in Honfleur in France, and Shoreham in Sussex.

Vernon Sewell later said the film was originally to be about motor car racing and he refused to direct it. As they had already contracted William Lundigan they hired a blacklisted American screenwriter to change the script to be set on Sewell's yacht.[3]

Vernon Campbell Sewell was born in London on 4 July 1903 and educated at Marlborough public school. He began his career as camera assistant at Nettlefold Studios in 1929 and moved on to become camera operator, sound recordist, art director and cutter. He also revealed ingenuity in the use of foreground models to achieve special effects and attracted the attention of Michael Powell, who wrote the script of Sewell's first directorial assignment, The Medium (1934), which made extensive use of such models. He was production assistant on Powell's The Edge of the World (1937) and claimed in 1994 to have directed some sequences of his The Spy in Black (1939). Sewell directed several short films in the '30s, including the VD cautionary tale, A Test for Love (1937), but made his name with the still gripping wartime drama, The Silver Fleet (1943), made for Powell and Pressburger's Archers company. It stars Ralph Richardson, as a Dutch shipbuilder who fakes collaboration with the Germans, and it doesn't shirk a tragic dnouement. He and Gordon Wellesley co-wrote the film and Wellesley is technically - but not otherwise - its co-director.

He turned down the opportunity to direct Madonna of the Seven Moons (d. Arthur Crabtree, 1944), and went to work with producer Louis Jackson at British National. After his interesting study of WWI flyers coping badly with peacetime Britain, The World Owes Me a Living (1945), he had a big financial success with Latin Quarter (1946), a Gothic remake of The Medium, sumptuously and inventively lit by Gunther Krampf. The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947), with Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer as the eponymous spirits condemned to haunt a London house until it is visited by a reigning monarch, was less successful despite its jokes and special effects, and most of Sewell's remaining career was confined to 'B' movies. He made nearly thirty of these, some well above the usual cut-price standards of film-making at this level.

A keen yachtsman, he used his own vessel for such films as Ghost Ship (1952), starring his wife Joan Carol; The Floating Dutchman (1953), with an opening sequence that anticipates Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972); and Dangerous Voyage (1954), a dim little thriller with minor US star William Lundigan. His best work of this period is in economical and highly effective little thrillers such as The Man in the Back Seat (1961), a minimalist tale of a pair of thugs on the run, with a chilling pay-off; The House of Mystery (1961), which juxtaposes the rational and the supernatural and has a striking finale; and, best of all, Strongroom (1962), which again ends unexpectedly after a very tense, humanly absorbing 80 minutes. This is Sewell's most wholly achieved film, though the horror films he made for 'fun' at the end of his career have their admirers.

The fact that he had private means allowed him a robust individuality, though it probably meant that he pursued his career less determinedly than he might have done. He died at his home near Durban, South Africa, on 21 June 2001.

Immigration is a vital feature of Australia's history and national identity. Explore the journey through immigrants' stories; discover the changing routes and travelling conditions, and find out what departure and arrival meant for those seeking a home in this distant land.

Immigration is a vital feature of Australia's history and national identity. Since 1788, millions have made the long journey across the oceans to Australia seeking fortune, opportunity and freedom. They came by clipper, steamer and liner until the aeroplane became established as the main means of long distance travel in the 1970s.

For those who travelled to Australia in the nineteenth century, the journey was often long and dangerous. In calm weather a sailing ship might take as long as four months, while a well-run clipper ship with favourable winds could make the journey in a little over half this time. These ships represented the pinnacle of sailing ship technology. With their streamlined hulls and acres of sail designed to catch even the slightest breeze, clippers were built primarily for speed.

By the 1850s it was possible to make the journey by auxiliary steamer, using a combination of steam and sail. However steam technology was still too inefficient to allow a ship to travel all the way to Australia under its own power. With the strong prevailing westerlies on the 'Great Circle' sailing route benefiting the clippers, sail continued to dominate the trade until the end of the 1870s.

Regardless of the difficulties in getting to Australia, it had become an increasingly popular destination for free settlers. Convicts were no longer the major source of new arrivals to the colonies. With the discovery of gold in 1851 and a booming economy, people were now coming to Victoria and Australia by choice. People came from many countries, the majority from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, America, China and Germany. (For details, see Origins - the First Census.)

Chinese immigration remained controversial for many decades. The following verse from a song by Charles Thatcher perhaps encapsulates the attitude of many colonists to the arrival of immigrants from China. (Thatcher became a popular music-hall entertainer on the Victorian goldfields after his arrival in 1878).

You doubtless read the paper

And, as men of observation,

Of course you watch the progress of

Chinese immigration.

A thousand of these pig-tailed chaps

In Adelaide are landing,

And why they let such numbers come

Exceeds my understanding!

The first iron-hulled steam ships made the journey to Australia in 1852. However, these early steamers, known as auxiliaries, still carried a full set of sails, as their inefficient engines and the lack of coaling ports en route to Australia prevented the use of the new steam technology over long distances.

Whilst speed was not initially improved by the introduction of steam, comfort and strength were. The change from traditional wooden hulled ships to iron hulls enabled steamships to be larger and stronger, with much greater space below the decks.

In the 1860s the more efficient compound steam engine, in which steam was expanded in successive cylinders, was introduced. This enabled ships to make the voyage to Australia entirely under steam power. However, it wasn't until the 1880s after the introduction of a government mail subsidy, that steam ships became profitable and began to carry the majority of immigrants. Less reliant on wind, they travelled at a constant speed and provided power for electric lighting, refrigeration and ventilation. Grand saloons were able to be provided for first class passengers, and small cabins instead of sleeping berths were provided in steerage class.

Navigating the route to Australia was a complex task, requiring great skill on the part of the ship's captain, as well as the use of various navigational tools. These included the telescope, marine compass, ship's log and sextant. However, navigation was also dependent on the ship's captain having a good working knowledge of the position of the stars in the night sky.

Telescopes were an essential tool of marine navigation for examining sightings of land more closely and for identifying ships passed en route. This was especially important in times of war.

The introduction of iron hulled ships such as the Great Britain created complications for the use of the compass. The metal in the hull of these ships interfered with the behaviour of the magnetic needle, requiring special adjustments and calculations to be made for accurate readings.

Charts and navigation maps were developed by the Admiralty for the use of British naval and merchant ships. Detail and accuracy were very important, and many are still in use today. Charts and maps were always kept in the chartroom on board the ship.

A chronometer is a timepiece that is able to keep accurate time on board ship. It enables mariners to calculate longitude by observing the position of certain stars in the sky at specific times, and comparing their observations with the data contained in a nautical almanac.

A Ship's Log looked very similar to a torpedo but was used to measure the speed of a ship. When dragged behind the vessel, movement of water past the propeller caused it to rotate, turning the small needle dials to record the distance and speed travelled.

This route involved enormous risks from drifting icebergs and the wild seas generated by frequent storms. It required exceptional navigational skills, as even the slightest error could lead to disaster. The large number of ships that were lost when navigating the narrow path between King Island and southern Victoria led to the West Coast of Victoria becoming known as the Shipwreck Coast.

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave ships coming from Europe an alternative route to Australia. However, as early steamers still partially relied on wind power, most shipping lines continued to use the 'Great Circle' route. It was several decades before steam engines were reliable and efficient enough to enable ships to complete the entire journey to Australia under steam.

3a8082e126