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'{{short description|1938 film}} {{italic title}} {{Infobox film | name = The Ship That Died | image = | alt = | caption = | director = [[Jacques Tourneur]] | producer = | writer = George Sayer | screenplay = | story = | based_on = <!-- {{Based on|title of the original work|creator of the original work|additional creator(s), if necessary}} --> | starring = [[John Nesbitt (announcer)|John Nesbitt]]<br>[[Leonard Penn]]<br>[[Rhea Mitchell]] | narrator = | music = | cinematography = [[Lester White]] | editing = | studio = Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | distributor = [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)]] | released = {{Film date|1938|2|19}} | runtime = 10 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }} '''''The Ship That Died''''' is a 1938 American short film directed by [[Jacques Tourneur]] for [[MGM]]. Written by George Sayer and featuring [[John Nesbitt (announcer)|John Nesbitt]], [[Leonard Penn]], and [[Rhea Mitchell]], it presents dramatisations of a range of theories (mutiny, fear of explosion due to alcohol fumes, and the supernatural) of the ship ''[[Mary Celeste]]''.<ref>Fujiwara, p.14</ref> ==Plot== The film opens on a clear and brilliant day in the harbour of old New York. The morning tide was a familiar scene, putting many ships out to sea. There was a bustle of men taking on cargo, and men saying goodbye to people they wouldn't see again until spring. There was sunlight, a good wind, and the tang of salt in the air. The narrator explains this is all perfectly normal, except for that this is also a true story about a murder, but not the murder of a person, rather it is a story of the murder of a haunted ship, the "ship that died". November 7th, 1872, the sailing yacht emblasoned with the name Mary Celeste is spotted at latitude 370 North, longitude 18 west. The Mary Celeste is under Full Sail, but when the crew of the ship that spotted the Mary Celeste boards it, they find out that there is no one on board. A search of the vessel reveals that the Longboat is secured on the deck, a barrel of alcohol is open with some missing, the Captain's Log book has the last pages torn out (but his watch still keeps time), and there is a large knife stained with rust or blood is found stored in the captain's quarters. December of 1872, in the famed nautical Club at the Rock of Gibraltar, a group of people meet to hypothesize the reason why the Mary Celeste was abandoned. Three theories were proposed: 1. The ship's crew got drunk and muntanied against their captain. 2. The ship was abandoned because there was a fear of fire when the alcohol leak was discovered. 3. Some unknown force is responsible. The film ends with the narrator acknowledging that the only thing they really know is that there were people on the ship, then later on, there wasn't anybody on the ship. ==Cast== * [[John Nesbitt (announcer)|John Nesbitt]] as Narrator (voice) * [[Leonard Penn]] as Rescue Ship Crewman * [[Rhea Mitchell]] as Passenger on Marie Celeste * [[Harry Allen (actor)|Harry Allen]] as Bos'n of Rescue Ship * [[Lee Prather]] as Undetermined Secondary Role * [[Richard Alexander (actor)|Richard Alexander]] as Crewman of Marie Celeste ==References== {{reflist}} ===Bibliography=== * {{cite book|last=Fujiwara|first=Chris|title=Jacques Tourneur: The Cinema of Nightfall|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tSX8EUOlqT0C&pg=PT14|date=1 July 1998|publisher=McFarland|isbn=978-1-4766-0811-2}} == External links == * {{IMDb title|id=0215189|title=The Ship That Died}} * {{amg movie|141398}} * {{tcmdb title|id=400913}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ship That Died}} [[Category:1938 films]] [[Category:1938 drama films]] [[Category:1938 short films]] [[Category:American drama short films]] [[Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer short films]] [[Category:American black-and-white films]] [[Category:Mary Celeste]] [[Category:1930s American films]] {{short-drama-film-stub}}'