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How They Literally Built A Complete 1800s Ship - And a Half - To Film Last Voyage of the Demeter

The Last Voyage of the Demeter sets sail on the big screen Friday, Aug. 11.

For the last 44 years, Hollywood has been chasing the  haunted house high of Ridley Scott's Alien .

The premise of a tight-knit group of relatable characters stalked by a horrific beast throughout a limited backdrop is pretty simple in theory, yet incredibly difficult in execution. Director André Øvredal ( The Autopsy of Jane Doe , Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark ) will attempt to recreate that old Nostromo magic this coming Friday — Aug. 11 — with The Last Voyage of the Demeter .

RELATED:  The Modern Horror Legend Who Plays Dracula in André Øvredal's The Last Voyage of the Demeter

Drawing inspiration from a single chapter in Bram Stoker's Dracula   novel, the film takes place aboard the titular merchant vessel, circa 1897, which makes the oldest vampire blunder in the book by unknowingly inviting an undead bloodsucker aboard. Universal has released an interactive walkthrough of the Demeter, and you can explore the ship here .

Thirsting for fresh blood, the Transylvanian ghoul (played here by Javier "Javi" Botet) takes the form of an emaciated bat-monster and brutally slaughters the crew once the sun dips below the horizon. There is no escape or refuge from Drac's neck-biting rampage...unless this band of salty sea dogs would rather jump overboard and take their chances with Davy Jones.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter director talks vision for the titular ship

Speaking with Universal Pictures about the horror undertaking for the studio's electronic press materials, Øvredal explained that he wanted the Demeter itself to "be very dull in a way." Not to bore audiences, of course, but to ground the narrative in some basis of reality — and the relative comfort of the unordinary — before the supernatural element comes into play.

 "It had to be like a cargo ship — not a beautiful, big [vessel]," he said. "It needed to be a very simple ship."

At the same time, the boat required "a lot of space" in order to create "spatial tension and ... unreliable environments that the actors could be scared in." Immersing the cast within the world of the movie and making them wonder what corner Dracula might be lurking around, was the key to unlocking a genuine sense of blossoming terror.

"We needed to make it huge because they’re supposed to walk around on the ship, day and night, and discover new things," the filmmaker emphasized. "So if the ship was too small, we didn’t have enough space to tell the complex story that we’re telling."

RELATED:  Is The Last Voyage of The Demeter Based on A True Story? Real History Behind Dracula Film

He later continued: "I also wanted the ship to feel very grounded and gritty and dirty and real. So we had to go over the whole ship and it was built with old material [by] so many people who were sanding it down and making it look old and used. We were going over it again and again to make sure that it just really felt grounded down from 50 years of use at sea."

In a separate interview facilitated before the SAG-AFTRA strike took effect last month, cast member Liam Cunningham (Captain Eliot) affectionally characterized the builders behind the Demeter sets as "these wonderful shipping nerds who love these old boats."

Where was The Last Voyage of the Demeter filmed?

The exterior (complete with deck and working sails) was constructed at Malta Film Studios, which "boasts one indoor tank and two large exterior water tanks situated along the Mediterranean coast," reads the official production notes.

Measuring 214 feet long and 38 feet wide, the set was the "biggest ship that has ever been in that tank in Malta and ... that includes all of Ridley Scott’s movies that were also shot there," Øvredal said, referring to the studio's horizon-facing tank. In addition, the crew built a "half ship" for the opening scenes where the Demeter loads its mysterious cargo in the port of Varna before setting off for England.

The interiors, on the other hand, were shot at Studio Babelsberg AG in Germany. Fittingly enough, it's the same studio where the first film adaptation of Dracula — Nosferatu   (a remake is currently in the works from Robert Eggers) — kicked off production a century before .

"We needed it to feel like a labyrinth inside with all [the] nooks and crannies and dark spots and long hallways," Øvredal said, adding that he and production designer Edward Thomas ( Escape Room , Monster Hunter ) focused a lot of their efforts on the cargo hold, from which Dracula's rampage emanates. "That had to be graphic and impressive and kind of frightening as a place to be."

A number of indoor sets were built atop a gimbal that simulated the rocking of the ocean. This worked a little too well, according to leading cast member Corey Hawkins (Clemens), who recalled how a number of actors became genuinely "seasick." He describes it as an incredibly "strange" sensation in the production notes (also collated before the strike).

RELATED:  The Last Voyage of the Demeter Images and Featurette Reveal "Scariest Depiction of Dracula Ever"

When does  The Last Voyage of the Demeter  open in theaters?

Written by Bragi Schut Jr. ( Escape Room ) and Zak Olkewicz ( Bullet Train ) ,  The Last Voyage of the Demeter  sets sail on the big screen this coming Friday — Aug. 11. Demeter is rated R for bloody violence.  Click here  to sink your fangs into some tickets!

Want to satisfy your craving for undead fare in the meantime?  Renfield  and  Vampire Academy  are now streaming on Peacock. Looking ahead,  SYFY's Reginald the Vampire   is  set to return  later this year for a second season.

**The quotes from Cunninghman and Hawkins were given to Universal Pictures before the actors' strike.**

• Andre Ovredal
• Production Design
• The Last Voyage Of The Demeter
• Universal Pictures

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A Summary and Analysis of ‘The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’ is a 1968 short story by the Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014). The story, which consists of one long sentence, tells of a mysterious ocean liner which appears near a coastal village one night every March.

As with much of the fiction of writer Gabriel García Márquez, ‘The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’ is an example of magic realism (of which more shortly), so a few words of analysis are needed to understand the narrative. Before that, though, here’s a brief summary of the story’s plot.

‘ The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’: plot summary

The story is about a young man who recalls, one night when he was still a boy, seeing a vast ocean liner coming past the coastal village where he lives on the Caribbean. The ship is making its way towards the nearby bay. However, this gigantic ship, which had no lights on, only appeared to be there when no lights shone on it (other than the natural light from the moon or stars). Whenever the lighthouse beacon flashed upon it, it seemed to disappear.

The morning after he sighted the mysterious ship, the boy wondered if he had dreamt it. But the following March, one year after the initial appearance of the ship, he spotted the ship again, and rushed home to tell his mother, who was convinced the boy was imagining things because he spent too long sleeping during the day and going out at night to watch the dolphins in the water. The boy’s father had died eleven years before. Shortly after he sighted the ship again, his mother died, with local village rumour attributing her death to a curse laid on the old rocking chair his mother sat in while remembering her dead husband.

The boy became known as a local orphan, but none of the villagers showed much interest in seeing the mysterious ship on the night when it appeared. The boy became more determined to convince them that the liner is real. When the liner next appeared, he deduced that it had run off its correct course and needed guidance to set it right again. He took out a small boat and used a light to guide the ocean liner into the port, where its lights came on and the orchestra on board the ship began to play again, and all that had been dead on the ship came to life again. The dead animals that had been floating within the ship were dislodged and the ship was able to continue into the harbour.

The ship ran aground in front of the village church, and the boy – who had become angry that none of the villagers believed his story of the ghost ship – was vindicated when the people of the village came out and saw the destruction. The ship’s name was Halálcsillag , which means ‘death star’ in Hungarian.

‘ The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’: analysis

‘The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’ is structured in a deliberately confusing and almost dizzying manner: it comprises one single sentence, making it a headlong, breathless piece of writing, and the voice of the apparently omniscient third-person narrator merges with the young man who is the story’s principal character, making it difficult for us as readers to follow the narrative.

The story also fuses myth or fantasy with realism, as is common in works of magic realism : a literary movement in which the fiction-writer offers a realistic view of the world while also adding magical elements, and frequently blurring the lines between what is real and what is not. The ocean liner in ‘The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’ appears to belong to the latter category, having the quality of a phantasm or apparition which only appears on one night of the year, every March (the anniversary of its sinking?).

Indeed, the Halálcsillag or ‘death star’ carries a mythic or symbolic quality: it represents death whereas the village represents life. The ship’s encroachment upon the village represents the incursion of death into the realm of the living; indeed, the ocean liner represents the biggest (if not the best) of both worlds, the world of the living and the world of the dead. As the narrator tells us, it was the largest ocean liner ‘in this world and the other ’ (emphasis added): the ship crosses the boundary between this world and the next, between life and death.

It is also deeply significant that this symbol of death, which is ninety-seven times longer than the village and thus easily dwarfs and consumes the world of the living, should stop in front of the church. A church is traditionally and symbolically viewed as a kind of ship of God: the central part of the church, the nave, takes its name from the Latin navis , meaning ‘ship’, for this reason. (Indeed, this is where the words navy and naval are derived.)

Churches are also buildings in which the gulf between life and death, or between this world and the next, is ‘managed’ via a connection with God, who promises a ‘good’ afterlife for those who follow his laws. The fact that the Halálcsillag is twenty times taller than the church steeple should leave us in no doubt as to which of these two ‘ships’ has the greater power and might.

In the last analysis, ‘The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’ is a kind of fable – as most of the short stories of Gabriel García Márquez are – and, specifically, in this case, the story is a fable about the ways in which people living their daily lives are reluctant to confront or address the reality of death. The villagers are quick to disbelieve the orphan boy who is the protagonist of the story – a boy who, perhaps because he has lost his parents while he was himself still so young, is able to ‘see’ death more clearly than most people.

And in this connection it is worth remarking that the story is also a kind of coming-of-age story, in that the unnamed protagonist begins as a boy but becomes a man when he guides the ship into the port and, in doing so, makes the villagers realise the reality of the ship (and, by extension, of death itself). He takes the initiative by going out with a light and getting the liner back on its proper course. He has taken his place in the world and asserted himself as an individual capable of making his own decisions.

However, we might regard ‘The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship’ as a coming-of-age story with a difference, in that it is not the young protagonist himself who gains any new knowledge or undergoes any kind of epiphany. Instead, he leads others to realise something.

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The Last Voyage of the Demeter

A crew sailing from Varna (Bulgaria) by the Black Sea to England find that they are carrying very dangerous cargo. A crew sailing from Varna (Bulgaria) by the Black Sea to England find that they are carrying very dangerous cargo. A crew sailing from Varna (Bulgaria) by the Black Sea to England find that they are carrying very dangerous cargo.

• André Øvredal
• Bram Stoker
• Bragi F. Schut
• Zak Olkewicz
• Corey Hawkins
• Aisling Franciosi
• Liam Cunningham
• 440 User reviews
• 196 Critic reviews
• 52 Metascore
• 2 wins & 11 nominations

• Captain Eliot

• Deputy Fisher

• Deputy Hirsch

• Fletcher - Whitby
• Harbour Master
• Old Romani Wiseman
• One-Eyed Sailor
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Dracula's look is based on Count Orlok from the unauthorized adaptation Nosferatu (1922) . This was also the model for the look of the vampire Barlow in the original Salem's Lot (1979) .
• Goofs (~1h 35m) Wojchek locks himself inside the cargo hold by inserting a wooden board through the handles, but they're sliding doors, so they would still open.

Clemens : I... do not... fear you!

Dracula : You will!

• Connections Featured in YellowFlash 2: FlashCast: Hollywood actors going BROKE from strike! Lizzo DUMPED on a beach! Disney BROKEN? (2023)
• Soundtracks Hangin' Johnny Traditional Arranged by Thomas Newman Performed on Hardanger fiddle by Kathleen Keane

User reviews 440

• garrinschlink
• Aug 12, 2023
• How long is The Last Voyage of the Demeter? Powered by Alexa
• August 11, 2023 (United States)
• United States
• United Kingdom
• Official Facebook
• Dracula: Quỷ Dữ Thức Tỉnh
• Dreamworks Pictures
• Reliance Entertainment
• Storyworks Productions
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $45,000,000 (estimated)
• $13,637,180
• Aug 13, 2023
• $21,786,275

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• Runtime 1 hour 58 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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Unveiling the Haunting Tale: The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship by Gabriel García Márquez

• Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez is one of the most celebrated authors of the 20th century, known for his magical realism and vivid storytelling. In his short story, “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship,” García Márquez weaves a haunting tale of a ship that appears out of nowhere, carrying a mysterious cargo and an even more mysterious crew. This article will delve into the themes and symbolism of this eerie and captivating story.

Background Information

Gabriel García Márquez is a renowned Colombian author who is best known for his magical realism style of writing. He was born in Aracataca, Colombia in 1927 and grew up in a small town where he was exposed to the stories and myths of the region. These stories would later influence his writing and become a hallmark of his work. García Márquez’s literary career began in the 1950s when he worked as a journalist in Colombia and later in Europe. He published his first novel, “Leaf Storm,” in 1955, but it was his 1967 novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude” that brought him international acclaim. García Márquez went on to write many other novels, short stories, and essays, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” is one of García Márquez’s most famous short stories, first published in 1972. The story is a haunting tale of a ship that mysteriously appears and disappears in the Caribbean Sea, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction.

The Plot of the Story

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship by Gabriel García Márquez is a haunting tale that revolves around a mysterious ship that appears out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly. The story is set in a small coastal town where the locals are familiar with the legend of the ghost ship. However, when the ship actually appears, it creates a sense of fear and unease among the people. The protagonist of the story is a young boy who is fascinated by the ship and decides to investigate its origins. As he delves deeper into the mystery, he uncovers a tragic tale of love and betrayal that has haunted the ship for centuries. The plot of the story is intricately woven, with each twist and turn revealing a new layer of the ship’s history. The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship is a gripping tale that will keep readers on the edge of their seats until the very end.

Characters Involved in the Story

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship by Gabriel García Márquez is a haunting tale that revolves around a few key characters. The protagonist of the story is a young boy who is fascinated by the sea and the ships that sail on it. He is the one who first sees the ghost ship and becomes obsessed with it. The boy’s father is a sailor who is away at sea for long periods of time, leaving his son to fend for himself. The father is a practical man who does not believe in ghosts or superstitions.

The ghost ship itself is a character in the story, with its eerie appearance and mysterious origins. The ship is said to have been lost at sea for many years, and its crew is rumored to have died under mysterious circumstances. The ship is said to be cursed, and those who see it are said to be doomed to a terrible fate.

Another character in the story is the captain of a nearby ship who agrees to take the boy out to sea to search for the ghost ship. The captain is a gruff, no-nonsense man who is skeptical of the boy’s claims. However, he agrees to help the boy in his quest, and the two set out to find the ghost ship.

As the story unfolds, the characters become more and more entwined in the mystery of the ghost ship. The boy becomes increasingly obsessed with finding the ship, while his father and the captain become more and more concerned for his safety. The ghost ship itself becomes more and more menacing, as its presence seems to bring bad luck and misfortune to those who encounter it.

Overall, the characters in The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship are well-drawn and memorable, each playing a key role in the unfolding of the story. From the young boy who is fascinated by the sea to the gruff captain who agrees to help him, each character adds depth and complexity to this haunting tale.

The Ghost Ship

The Ghost Ship, also known as the Mary Celeste, has been a mystery for over a century. The ship was discovered in 1872, adrift in the Atlantic Ocean, with no crew on board. The cargo and personal belongings of the crew were still intact, but there was no sign of a struggle or foul play. The ship’s logbook was missing, and the only clue was a half-finished meal on the captain’s table. Theories about what happened to the crew range from piracy to mutiny to a giant octopus attack. Gabriel García Márquez’s novel, The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship, explores the eerie and haunting tale of the Mary Celeste, weaving together fact and fiction to create a gripping and unforgettable story.

The Haunting Atmosphere

The haunting atmosphere of Gabriel García Márquez’s “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” is palpable from the very beginning. The story takes place on a ship that has been lost at sea for years, and the eerie silence and emptiness of the vessel are immediately unsettling. As the narrator explores the ship, he discovers clues that hint at the tragic fate of its crew, and the sense of foreboding only grows stronger. The descriptions of the ship’s decay and the ghostly apparitions that haunt it are vivid and haunting, creating a sense of unease that lingers long after the story has ended. García Márquez’s masterful use of atmosphere makes “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” a truly chilling tale.

Mystery and Suspense

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship by Gabriel García Márquez is a haunting tale that will leave readers on the edge of their seats. The story follows a group of sailors who embark on a journey to find a mysterious ghost ship that has been spotted in the waters. As they get closer to the ship, strange things begin to happen, and the sailors start to question their own sanity. The suspense builds as the sailors uncover the truth behind the ghost ship and the fate of its crew. García Márquez’s masterful storytelling and vivid descriptions create a chilling atmosphere that will keep readers guessing until the very end. This is a must-read for anyone who loves a good mystery and suspenseful tale.

Symbolism in the Story

Gabriel García Márquez’s “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” is a haunting tale that is rich in symbolism. The ghost ship itself is a symbol of death and the unknown, as it appears out of nowhere and disappears just as quickly. The ship’s crew, who are all dead, represent the past and the memories that haunt us. The captain, who is the only living person on the ship, represents the present and the fear of death.

The sea is also a powerful symbol in the story. It represents the vastness of the unknown and the inevitability of death. The sea is described as “black and infinite,” which adds to the ominous tone of the story. The storm that the ship encounters is a symbol of the chaos and unpredictability of life.

The lighthouse is another important symbol in the story. It represents hope and safety, as it is a beacon of light that guides ships to shore. However, in this story, the lighthouse is abandoned and dark, which adds to the sense of isolation and despair.

Overall, the symbolism in “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” adds depth and meaning to the story. It allows readers to interpret the story in different ways and to connect with the themes on a deeper level.

The Role of Fate

In Gabriel García Márquez’s “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship,” the role of fate plays a significant role in the haunting tale. The story follows a group of sailors who embark on a journey to find a mysterious ghost ship that has been rumored to appear in the waters. As they navigate through treacherous waters and encounter supernatural occurrences, it becomes clear that their fate is intertwined with that of the ghost ship. The sailors are unable to escape their destiny, and ultimately, their journey ends in tragedy. García Márquez’s use of fate adds a sense of inevitability to the story, emphasizing the power of the supernatural and the unknown.

The Theme of Death

The theme of death is a prevalent motif in Gabriel García Márquez’s “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship.” The story follows the journey of a ghost ship that appears out of nowhere and disappears just as mysteriously. The ship is said to be cursed, and those who see it are doomed to die. The crew of the ship is made up of ghosts, and their mission is to ferry the souls of the dead to the afterlife.

Death is a constant presence in the story, and it is portrayed as both frightening and inevitable. The characters in the story are aware of their mortality and the fact that death can come at any moment. The ghost ship serves as a reminder of this fact, and its appearance is a harbinger of death.

The theme of death is also explored through the character of the captain of the ghost ship. He is a ghost himself, and his mission is to ferry the souls of the dead to the afterlife. He is resigned to his fate and accepts that death is a natural part of life.

Overall, the theme of death in “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” is a haunting reminder of our mortality. It serves as a warning that death can come at any moment and that we should be prepared for it. The story is a powerful exploration of the human condition and the inevitability of death.

The Significance of the Title

The title of a book is often the first thing that catches a reader’s attention. It sets the tone for the story and gives readers a glimpse into what they can expect. In the case of Gabriel García Márquez’s “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship,” the title is significant in several ways.

Firstly, the title immediately creates a sense of mystery and intrigue. The idea of a ghost ship is inherently eerie and unsettling, and readers are likely to be drawn in by the promise of a haunting tale.

Secondly, the title hints at the central theme of the story: death and the afterlife. The idea of a ghost ship suggests that the story will explore the supernatural and the unknown, and readers can expect to encounter themes of mortality and the afterlife.

Finally, the title is significant because it sets the story apart from other works of fiction. “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” is a unique and memorable title that is sure to stick in readers’ minds. It captures the essence of the story and gives readers a sense of what they can expect.

Overall, the title of “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” is significant because it creates a sense of mystery and intrigue, hints at the central theme of the story, and sets the story apart from other works of fiction.

The Writing Style of Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez is known for his unique writing style that blends magical realism with political commentary. His use of vivid imagery and symbolism creates a dreamlike atmosphere that transports readers to a world that is both familiar and surreal. In “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship,” García Márquez employs this style to tell a haunting tale of a ship that mysteriously appears and disappears, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. Through his writing, García Márquez explores themes of power, corruption, and the human condition, leaving readers with a sense of unease and a deeper understanding of the complexities of life.

The Influence of Magical Realism

Magical realism has been a prominent literary genre in Latin American literature for decades. It is a style that blends the real and the fantastical, creating a world that is both familiar and strange. Gabriel García Márquez, one of the most celebrated Latin American writers, is known for his use of magical realism in his works. In “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship,” García Márquez employs this style to create a haunting tale that explores the themes of death, memory, and the supernatural. The influence of magical realism is evident throughout the story, as the boundaries between reality and fantasy are blurred, and the reader is left to question what is real and what is not. Through his use of magical realism, García Márquez creates a world that is both eerie and enchanting, leaving a lasting impression on the reader long after the story has ended.

The Historical Context of the Story

The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship by Gabriel García Márquez is a haunting tale that takes place in the historical context of the 16th century. During this time, Spain was a dominant world power, and its explorers were sailing the seas in search of new lands and riches. The story is set in the Caribbean, where Spanish galleons were a common sight. These ships were used to transport goods and people between Spain and its colonies in the New World. However, the seas were also filled with pirates and other dangers, making every voyage a risky endeavor. The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship captures the sense of adventure and danger that characterized this era, as well as the superstitions and beliefs that shaped the lives of sailors and other seafarers. Through the story of the ghost ship, García Márquez explores themes of mortality, fate, and the power of the unknown. The historical context of the story adds depth and richness to the narrative, making it a compelling read for anyone interested in the history of the Americas and the age of exploration.

The Reception of the Story

The reception of Gabriel García Márquez’s “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” has been mixed. While some readers have praised the story’s haunting atmosphere and vivid imagery, others have criticized its lack of clear resolution and confusing narrative structure. Some have also questioned the story’s historical accuracy, as it is based on a real-life incident involving a shipwreck off the coast of Colombia in the 19th century. Despite these criticisms, however, “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” remains a popular and widely-read work of fiction, and continues to captivate readers with its eerie and unsettling portrayal of a doomed voyage at sea.

The Legacy of Gabriel García Márquez

Gabriel García Márquez, also known as Gabo, was a Colombian novelist, journalist, and screenwriter who is considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982 for his masterpiece, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Gabo’s works are known for their magical realism, a literary style that blends magical elements with reality. His writing has influenced many writers and has left a lasting legacy in the literary world. Gabo’s works continue to be read and studied by people all over the world, and his influence can be seen in contemporary literature and popular culture.

The Importance of the Story Today

In today’s world, where technology and science have taken over our lives, the importance of storytelling has not diminished. In fact, it has become more crucial than ever before. Stories have the power to connect us with our past, present, and future. They help us understand our emotions, our fears, and our dreams. They provide us with a sense of identity and belonging. And most importantly, they allow us to empathize with others and see the world from their perspective. Gabriel García Márquez’s haunting tale, “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship,” is a perfect example of the power of storytelling. Through his vivid descriptions and haunting imagery, Márquez takes us on a journey that is both terrifying and mesmerizing. He shows us the dark side of human nature and the consequences of our actions. He reminds us that even in the face of death, there is still hope and beauty to be found. In a world that is often chaotic and uncertain, stories like “The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship” provide us with a sense of comfort and understanding. They remind us that we are not alone in our struggles and that there is always a way forward. So, let us embrace the power of storytelling and continue to share our stories with one another. For it is through our stories that we can truly connect and understand each other.

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the last voyage of the demeter.

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As those of you with a decent grasp of horror trivia already know, the Demeter was the ship whose ultimately doomed journey to deliver some especially dangerous cargo from Transylvania to London was chronicled in the seventh chapter of the Bram Stoker classic Dracula . Although this section, running 16 pages in my copy, contains some of the most evocative imagery in that sometimes clumsily written book, the whole episode is not that important to the narrative. It simply illustrates how the title character got from point A to B, and on the rare occasions when filmmakers have chosen to bring this story to the screen, the journey is either reduced to a brief montage or newspaper headline or ignored entirely. Now comes “The Last Voyage of the Demeter,” a feature-length expansion of those 16 pages that fully examines the strange occurrences aboard one of the most doomed sea journeys in literary history.

Upon hearing this movie's premise for the first time, I wasn’t entirely convinced it could work. This would be a film where practically every audience member would not only know exactly what the supernatural force at the center of the story is before the Universal logo hits the screen. But they would also—barring some unexpected deviation from the well-known narrative—know exactly how the on-screen events would play out. To me, it looked like just another attempt by Universal to introduce the character that played such a key role in the studio’s history to contemporary audiences following the misfired likes of “Dracula: Untold” and the recent and dreadful “ Renfield .” That may have been the case, but the results are a big step up from those previous stumbles, an often striking take on the tale that makes up for what it lacks in surprise with a lot of style and some undeniably effective scare moments.

Set in 1897, the film opens as the Demeter is about to set sail from Transylvania to London, carrying Captain Eliot ( Liam Cunningham ), loyal first mate Wojchek ( David Dastmalchian ), his grandson Toby ( Woody Norman ), and a small crew that grows even smaller when some of the locals recruited for the journey get skittish when they see that the cargo contains many large crates being sent by an unknown figure to Carfax Abbey in London. Among those recruited at the last second is Clemens ( Corey Hawkins ), who signs on as the ship’s doctor to get passage home to England. His expertise comes in handy when one of the boxes is accidentally opened, and an apparent stowaway ( Aisling Franciosi ) is discovered with a mysterious malady that requires numerous blood transfusions. 

Soon, strange things begin happening on the ship. All the livestock on board and Toby’s beloved dog are slaughtered throughout one grisly evening. Sailors begin seeing and hearing odd things at night while on watch, and even the ship’s rats appear to have vanished, leading up to the deathless line, “A boat without rats—such a thing is against nature.” The members of the crew soon begin disappearing, driving the already skittish ones who remain further into paranoia that is not helped when the stowaway, whose name proves to be Anna, finally wakes up and informs Clemens and the others that to steal a line from Mel Brooks , yes, they have Nosferatu. As Dracula ( Javier Botet ) continues snacking through the ship, the rapidly dwindling survivors try to figure out how to stop him before they reach London.

The film was directed by André Øvredal , whose previous credits include such intriguing horror-related efforts as “ Trollhunter ,” “ The Autopsy of Jane Doe ,” and the underrated “ Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark .” This time, he is trying to figure out how to tell a story in which everyone in the audience will be ahead of the characters on the screen at virtually every given point. He accomplishes that primarily by focusing heavily on visual style, creating a moody and haunted atmosphere throughout—even during the scenes set in the daytime—that is both eerily beautiful and just plain eerie. "The Last Voyage of the Demeter" is one of the better-looking horror films to come along in a while. The cat-and-mouse games between Dracula and the crew are staged in a manner that suggests a seafaring variation of “ Alien ,” with Øvredal milking scenes for maximum tension before culminating in some nasty business. 

Bear in mind, some of that business is indeed quite nasty—the visualization of Dracula shown here is a particularly grotesque and demonic variation, the scenes of slaughter are definitely gory enough to earn the “R” rating, and not only does the one character you are conditioned to expect to somehow avoid a gruesome demise end up suffering just that, but they also do so more than once. The performances, especially the ones from genre MVP Dastmalchian, Franciosi (so effective in “ The Nightingale ”), and Botet, are all strong and convincing, which helps to raise the emotional stakes to make up for the lack of surprise.

There are two points where the film stumbles a bit. Although the relatively slow and measured pacing employed by Øvredal to generate suspense is mostly effective and preferable to the quick-cut approach others might have taken, a few scenes here run on too long for their own good. Also, the film—Spoiler Alert!—indulges in one of the most irritating elements of contemporary horror cinema, a final scene that exists solely to set up future movies if this one does well at the box office. 

And yet, the rest of the movie works enough so that these flaws don’t hurt things too badly. “The Last Voyage of the Demeter” may not be a classic in the annals of Dracula cinema along the lines of the Terence Fisher's Hammer production “Horror of Dracula,” Werner Herzog ’s version of “ Nosferatu the Vampyre ,” or Francis Ford Coppola ’s “Bram’s Stoker’s Dracula.” But it is a smart, well-made, and sometimes downright creepy take on the tale that both horror buffs and regular moviegoers can appreciate in equal measure. 

In theaters now.

Peter Sobczynski

A moderately insightful critic, full-on Swiftie and all-around  bon vivant , Peter Sobczynski, in addition to his work at this site, is also a contributor to The Spool and can be heard weekly discussing new Blu-Ray releases on the Movie Madness podcast on the Now Playing network.

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Film Credits

The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023)

Rated R for bloody violence.

118 minutes

Corey Hawkins as Clemens

Aisling Franciosi as Anna

Liam Cunningham as Captain Eliot

David Dastmalchian as Wojchek

Chris Walley as Abrams

Stefan Kapičić as Olgaren

Martin Furulund as Larsen

Nikolai Nikolaeff as Petrofsky

Woody Norman as Toby

Jon Jon Briones as Cook

Javier Botet as Dracula / Nosferatu

• André Øvredal

Writer (based on the chapter "The Captain's Log" of Dracula by)

• Bram Stoker

Writer (screen story by)

• Bragi F. Schut
• Zak Olkewicz
• Christian Wagner
• Patrick Larsgaard
• Julian Clarke

Cinematographer

• Bear McCreary

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Fallout 4: The Last Voyage of the USS Constitution Walkthrough

Quick links, how to start the uss constitution quest, should you side with the scavengers or ironsides, continuing the last voyage of the uss constitution.

Fallout 4 is an amazing RPG by Bethesda that allows players to explore an alternate reality in which the United States had a Great War that caused the entire country to turn into a wasteland. Even though the game is an alternate version of reality, there are a lot of historically accurate areas (and some that aren't so accurate) .

One place that has some historical significance is the USS Constitution, which was a real ship built in 1797 in the United States. During the events of the game, players will be able to find this ship and help it set sail once more. Here's how to find the ship and help it out.

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In order to start the quest "The Last Voyage of the USS Constitution," players must first head to the ship's location. The USS Constitution is a pretty easy location to get to. All players need to do is head to the east from Bunker Hill , which is a major location within Boston . Once there, speak to the robot outside to start the quest.

The robot outside will ask the player to go meet with the captain of the ship, who needs help getting things together for their final voyage. To reach the captain, enter the bank (the building below the ship), and from there, climb up the inside of the building until reaching the entrance to the ship. Inside the ship, navigate up the stairs until reaching the deck level, which is where the captain is. The captain, Ironsides , will ask the player to help them repair the ship's systems. Once the quest is accepted, the ship will be attacked by Scavengers.

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After defeating the Scavengers, head back inside and speak to Bosun . He will ask that the player obtain some wires from a nearby crate and repair the boxes scattered around the inside of the ship. (Instead of collecting the wires, the boxes can be repaired by anyone with 3 or higher Intelligence .) Once those are fixed, Bosun will ask to obtain relays for the ship. To do this, either replace the relay coil or have a level 5 or higher Intelligence (which is one of the best starting stats ).

After Bosun's quests are completed, the player can head outside and speak to Mr. Navigator. He will ask the player to obtain the Guidance Chip from the Scavengers who are holed up in an outpost nearby. Upon finding the Scavengers, they will tell you that those on the USS Constitution are evil and will ask that the player help them sabotage the ship.

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Once the player speaks to Mandy in the Scavenger's outpost, they are forced to choose between the Ironsides inside the USS Constitution or those there. Here are the outcomes of both:

• Siding with the Scavengers: If they are sided with, the player will need to bring ship parts to them so they can sabotage them and they will split the profit with the player. However, once the quest is completed, they will turn on players.
• Siding with the Ironsides: If they are sided with, the quest will go on as normal without having to sabotage things. However, the player will need to steal the Guidance Chip, causing them to turn hostile (even if the player sneaks it out of the area). They will then need to kill all the Scavengers.

Considering both options lead to the Scavengers dying, the best option is to help Ironsides. However, if players want to be evil, the Scavengers are the best choice.

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No matter which side is chosen, players will need to install the Guidance Chip and then speak with Captain Ironsides. He will then ask that the player help him by heading to a specific location to obtain the final piece. ( This location is completely random ; however, it is known that Fort Hagen and General Atomics Factory are two options.) Once the piece is obtained, take it back to Ironsides (unless the player sided with the Scavengers, then head to Mandy and then Ironsides). The piece will need to be installed in the Captain's Quarters directly below the main deck.

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Finally, Captain Ironsides asks the player to head to the nearby building and turn on the power to the ship. If Ironsides is sided with, the ship will fly off once the power is restored and if not, the ship will remain where it is, and the robots will attack the player.

• Finishing the quest with Ironsides: If he is sided with, head to Faneuil Hall and access the USS Constitution. From there, speak to Ironsides, who will give the player the Lietenant's Hat.
• Finishing the quest with the Scavengers: If they are sided with, meet Mandy in Cabot House. She will say that they decided not to split the profits and attack the player, forcing them to kill her and her crew.

Platform(s) Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS5, PS4, PC, Xbox One

Released November 10, 2015

Developer(s) Bethesda

Publisher(s) Bethesda

The Last Voyage of the Demeter

The crew of the merchant ship Demeter sets sail from Carpathia to London to deliver a cargo of 50 unmarked wooden crates. However, they soon discover they're not alone as Dracula's unholy presence turns the trip into a nightmarish fight for survival. more

The crew of the merchant ship Demeter sets sail from Carpathia to ... More

Starring: Corey Hawkins Aisling Franciosi Javier Botet

Director: André Øvredal

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The crew of the merchant ship Demeter sets sail from Carpathia to London to deliver a cargo of 50 unmarked wooden crates. However, they soon discover they're not alone as Dracula's unholy presence turns the trip into a nightmarish fight for survival.

Starring: Corey Hawkins Aisling Franciosi Javier Botet Liam Cunningham David Dastmalchian

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The last voyage of the demeter: cast, story details, trailer & everything we know about the 2023 dracula movie.

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Furiosa rotten tomatoes score debuts with mad max franchise's second-lowest (but it's still fresh), the one chronicles of narnia book that greta gerwig's reboot should skip over, quick links, the last voyage of the demeter latest news, the last voyage of the demeter release date, the last voyage of the demeter cast, how the last voyage of the demeter's dracula is different, the last voyage of the demeter story details, what chapter of dracula does the last voyage of the demeter adapt, the last voyage of the demeter trailer.

• The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a unique adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, focusing solely on the ill-fated journey of the ship and offering a new approach to the vampire story.
• The 2023 Dracula movie features a strong cast, including Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian, Aisling Franciosi, Woody Norman, Corey Hawkins, and Javier Botet as a terrifying and monstrous Dracula.
• The movie, set to be released on August 11, 2023, promises to be a chilling experience with its Gothic tone, terrifying portrayal of Dracula, and expansion of the small chapter from the novel into a larger and haunting tale.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is an eerie 2023 adaptation of part of Bram Stoker's Dracula , and its cast, nautically-themed story, and — above all — its nightmare-fuel interpretation of Dracula himself has drawn intense speculation as the August release date approaches. Based solely on a single chapter from the legendary novel, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a Dracula adaptation like no other, telling only the story of the ill-fated journey of the titular ship. Universal Studios' legacy of classic monsters continues with this 2023 Dracula movie, and yet it manages to find a new approach to the seminal vampire story by focusing on one part instead of the whole.

The production of The Last Voyage of the Demeter has been anything but smooth. Director Neil Marshall was to direct the Dracula film , as announced back in 2012, but his involvement eventually fell through. Various casting announcements came and went with nothing coming to fruition until the project finally picked up steam in 2019 with director André Øvredal taking the helm. Amid a slew of other book-accurate portrayals of Dracula , The Last Voyage of the Demeter stands out with its Gothic tone and a strong cast that truly does justice to the story that has been told and retold for over a century on film.

The latest The Last Voyage of the Demeter news comes just ahead of the movie's release. The final teaser for The Last Voyage of the Demeter has been released, showing off the movie's version of Dracula in all his undead glory — and this Dracula which is much more monstrous than the seductive gentleman image seen in many previous adaptations. While The Last Voyage of the Demeter's marketing has been doing an effective job of hiding the beast and letting the terror of the unknown do its work, it is not surprising that the final push before release is more willing to put its most iconic aspect front and center.

Along with the movie's impressive trailer, it was announced that The Last Voyage of the Demeter will be released on August 11, 2023. Though that date misses the typical Halloween season of September and October, it does reduce the amount of horror competition that Universal's 2023 Dracula movie will have to contend with. August is the tail-end of the summer movie season, but it could still give The Last Voyage of the Demeter a blockbuster feel.

The key to any successful horror film is a strong cast, and the actors announced for The Last Voyage of the Demeter cast promise a star-studded affair. The cast of the film is headed up by veteran character actor Liam Cunningham ( Game of Thrones) as the captain of the doomed ship. Additionally, David Dastmalchian ( The Suicide Squad) joins the cast as Wojchek, the Demeter 's first officer while Aisling Franciosi ( The Nightingale ) appears as Anna. Newcomer Woody Norman ( C'mon C'mon ) also co-stars with Corey Hawkins ( The Walking Dead ) as Clemens, the ship's doctor. Rounding out the cast, Javier Botet ( REC ) plays Count Dracula.

The best Dracula movies all manage to do something new with the iconic vampire, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter tweaked their Count Dracula by ratcheting up the terror. Unlike most adaptations that portray the Count as a suave and distinguished man, Javier Botet's Dracula is anything but gentlemanly. As seen in the trailer, Dracula has reverted to an almost bat-like form as he preys on the unwary crew of the Demeter. Count Dracula has always been a monster, but The Last Voyage of the Demeter has turned the Count into a living nightmare, more akin to Nosferatu, that will stick with the audience long after they have left the theater.

Declared by David Dastmalchian to be the scariest Dracula movie yet , The Last Voyage of the Demeter story expands what is only a small sliver of the novel into a much larger tale. Though little is actually known about the story of the movie, it can be assumed it will flesh out the absolutely eerie chapter and finally show what actually happened to the doomed crew of the Demeter. The deck of the Russian ship plays host to a story of paranoia and terror as the crew of the ship find themselves victim to the hellish desires of the ancient Count Dracula as he sails towards his new home in England.

Judging by the size of the cast, the nightmare of The Last Voyage of the Demeter will take place not just aboard the ship but on land as well. Though the movie aims to focus on the singular chapter of Bram Stoker's Dracula , it will most likely include other familiar moments from the book to expand the story beyond the confines of the ship. Regardless, The Last Voyage of the Demeter promises to be a chilling experience whether it is confined on board the Demeter or continues to haunt those on land as well.

RELATED: 10 Rules Of Vampire Movies

Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula was unique because it is told through the use of diary entries, journals, news clippings, and police reports as opposed to a conventional prose narrative. As such, many of the book's creepiest moments are merely suggested through second-hand accounts instead of explained in detail by the author's brilliant pen. While that did allow for the reader's mind to take its own journey into fear, it also left a lot unsaid about Dracula's deadly tour of England, which is where the idea for The Last Voyage of the Demeter was born.

The movie adapts the chapter "The Captain's Log," which offers a first-hand account of the tragic events aboard the Demeter as recorded by the captain himself. Coming somewhat early in the novel, the chapter shows just how dangerous the Count can be when unleashed, which makes his eventual arrival in the bustling country of England all the more terrifying. Even so, the book is notoriously scant on actual details, and The Last Voyage of the Demeter has reimagined those blank spaces as absolutely horrifying and gruesome occurrences.

The trailer for The Last Voyage of the Demeter introduces the characters and the basic premise of the movie while also showing off its unique gothic visual style. It also promises a variety of scares beyond the usual monster movie jumps and chills. Turning the cramped confines of the Demeter into Dracula's own personal hunting grounds, the movie's trailer shows the creeping paranoia and surreal claustrophobia that elevates it beyond just a simple horror film. Most importantly, the trailer for The Last Voyage of the Demeter features the sea as an inescapable landscape scarier than the dusty old castles of other Dracula adaptations.

• The Last Voyage of Demeter (2023)
• Upcoming Releases

Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution

• View history

Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution is a side quest in Fallout 4 . The Sole Survivor has been drafted by Ironsides to assist him and his robot crew in their quest to return the USS Constitution to the ocean.

• 1 Quick walkthrough
• 2.1 Repairing the ship's systems
• 2.2 Siding with Ironsides
• 2.3 Siding with the scavengers
• 3 Companion reactions
• 4 Quest stages
• 6 Behind the scenes
• 8 References

Quick walkthrough [ ]

Detailed walkthrough [ ].

Upon approaching the USS Constitution , the Sole Survivor is greeted by Lookout , who tells them to meet with Captain Ironsides on the ship's main deck. Finishing this conversation starts the quest.

Enter the bank building and turn north, up the clutter ramp to the second floor and up the stairs to the third floor. Once there, turn south, head through a broken wall and to the ship's bow, and enter the ship through the hatch located there. Once inside, head up two sets of stairs and meet the First mate on the third deck, upon which a small conversation takes place. After this, the main deck can be entered through either of the hatches, at the stairs behind the First mate.

Speaking with Ironsides reveals that the captain requires assistance with repairing the ship's systems. Asking for a reward and passing the easy persuasion check, allows the Sole Survivor to deduct a 100 cap upfront payment from the terminal called Ship's Purser, which is sitting on some crates at the north end of the main deck. They are then tasked to speak with both the bosun and Mr. Navigator about the repairs. As the conversation with Ironsides ends, the ship gets attacked by scavengers . They can be dealt with in any way possible, firing the ship's cannons by flipping the circuit breaker on the starboard side is entirely optional. Note that hitting robot allies with stray fire may result in turning the entire crew hostile and therefore failing the quest; however, the cannons are safe to fire as they do not affect the robots.

Repairing the ship's systems [ ]

Talk with the bosun, who is located on the third deck in front of the captain's quarters, and wants to have three power cables either repaired (requires Intelligence 3+) or replaced with new power cables , which can be taken from a nearby metal box . The cables in need of fixing are stored in yellow utility boxes, whose lid must be opened first. One is located on the third deck, on the ground near the western ship hull. The other two can be found one deck below, one on the ground near the stairs to the first deck, and the second on the western ship wall.

Once the cables are fixed, return to the bosun and receive the next task, which consists of fixing the power relays for the ship. This can be done by either repairing an eroded power relay coil (requires Intelligence 5+) or by installing a replacement coil. The fuse box housing the relays is located at the western wall on the third deck. After power is restored, return to the bosun and receive praise by him.

Next, find and speak with Mr. Navigator, who needs the ship's guidance chip retrieved from the scavenger's outpost, which is located a small trip west. Once there, talk with Mandy Stiles , who tries to persuade the Sole Survivor to turn on Ironsides and his crew and instead plunder the ship with her and her scavengers. At this point, one can either side with Ironsides or with the scavengers, with different effects on the quest's progression:

• If helping Ironsides, the chip must be stolen from the scavengers' camp, doing so turns the local scavengers hostile, even if the theft is undetected.
• If helping the scavengers, they give up the guidance chip for free, while requesting that any repair parts for the ship are being brought to them first, so that they can sabotage them.

Regardless of which side was chosen, once the chip is acquired, return to the Constitution 's main deck and install the guidance chip into the core guidance system at the bow. After doing so, Mr. Navigator appears for another short talk. One is then tasked with either repairing (requires Intelligence 9+) the guidance radar or retrieving the Poseidon radar transmitter and installing it afterwards. After the radar is repaired, speak again with Mr. Navigator and receive instructions to talk with Ironsides again.

Ironsides then gives the player the key to his quarters, as he requires them to retrieve and install the FLL3 turbopump bearings there. They can be retrieved from a specific location, with known locations being the Corvega assembly plant , Fort Hagen , and the General Atomics factory . With the bearings in their possession, the Sole Survivor must now decide if they side with Ironsides or the scavengers.

Siding with Ironsides [ ]

Upon retrieving the bearings, head back to the USS Constitution , and install them at the turbopump in the captain's quarters on the second deck. Head back to the main deck and speak with Ironsides, after doing so, another wave of scavengers attacks the ship, later even making their way through the lower decks. If they reach the main deck, the quest fails. After eliminating them, return to Ironsides, who awards the Broadsider and asks the player character to complete a final task of firing up the auxiliary power to launch the ship. Head down to the street and enter the second building on the southern side of the road. Head to the attic, open the lid, flip the circuit breaker, and watch the ship take off and subsequently crash into a skyscraper in the distance.

Afterwards, head over to Faneuil Hall , enter the adjacent tower, and use two elevators to access the ship. Speaking with Ironsides will award the Lieutenant's hat and conclude the quest.

Siding with the scavengers [ ]

Once the FLL3 turbopump bearings are retrieved, take them to Mandy instead of Ironsides, where Davies will sabotage them so that the ship will explode when the rockets are fired up. Then install the sabotaged turbopump bearings in the captain's quarters on the second deck and talk to Ironsides again. Go ahead and agree to turn on the auxiliary power. Head down to the street and enter the second building on the southern side of the road, where the player can optionally meet with Mandy, but she only tells them to start up the power. Head to the attic, open the lid, flip the circuit breaker, and watch the ship's rocket fail, as it remains landlocked. Ironsides and his crew turn hostile, and all that is left to do is to storm the ship with the scavengers and defeat all the robots.

Meet up with Mandy after claiming the ship, she has relocated to the nearby Cabot House . She reveals that the scavengers held a vote and are not going to split the cut, and instead decided to kill the Sole Survivor. As there is no way to resolve the situation peacefully, the two scavengers as well as Mandy and Davies need to die in order to complete the quest.

Companion reactions [ ]

Quest stages [ ].

• Killing Mandy Stiles before having to speak with her allows one to avoid even going to her. It will still be possible to obtain the guidance chip and progress the quest.
• During the player's first chat with Mandy Stiles, Piper voices her doubts about both eventual choices (siding with the robots or the scavengers), but neither option directly affects her affinity.
• Even after Ironsides grants use of the captain's quarters, the items inside it are still marked as owned.
• When siding with Ironsides, the ship can be boarded after flipping the auxiliary power switch. Sprinting towards the ship grants the chance to jump onto the main deck as it leans toward the building; wearing a jet pack does also help. Note that the ship's crash sequence likely results in instantaneous death and potential bugs , which can be avoided by entering the lower deck while the ship is still flying.
• After crash-landing into the tower, Ironsides is able to assist with fighting raiders and super mutants. However, the range is minimal and only applies to the area around the ship. Shooting enemies from the deck also triggers Ironsides to open fire on them.
• When the ship launches, it is possible to ride it, either by having a companion activate the circuit breaker while the player returns to the ship, or leaping off the roof in front of the circuit breaker as the ship passes by. However, when the ship impacts the Baxter building, the player will die if they are standing on the main deck. This can be avoided by going inside the ship before it begins to move (the entrance hatch will be disabled once in flight), or standing at the far rear end of the ship near where the dinghy is. Do not stand on the dinghy itself, however, as shortly before the impact it will be removed and the player will fall, likely to their death.
• Upon giving the player the lieutenant's hat and access to the captain's quarters, Ironsides claims that he cannot fit below decks. However, he goes below decks when the Constitution launches, and if the player accesses the ship at this time and goes below decks, they can find Ironsides there, though he may be clipping into environment objects. Once the ship crashes into the Baxter building and Ironsides finishes his dialogue, he will be removed from the ship's interior and can be found on the main deck again.
• MacCready will react to your conversation with Mandy, however which side you choose to ally won't affect your affinity with him.

Behind the scenes [ ]

This quest was created and designed by Ferret Baudoin . He performed research related to rockets and how to tamper with them, which he later joked about, saying that he was likely put on a watchlist. [1]

References [ ]

• ↑ Bethesda Fallout 76 Interview ~ QuakeCon At Home 2020 : Ferret Baudoin : "I did the Last Voyage of the U.S.S. Constitution and so I was doing all sorts of research about rockets. My searches would be like, 'rockets how do I tamper and make them explode.' Like, that would be my search, right? And then I'd be like, 'oh no, that wouldn't quite do it, we need to make the rocket explode in a different way' so that you could tamper with it. So I kept doing search after search, and I'm like, 'if I'm not on a watchlist...'"
• 1 The Ghoul
• 2 Fallout 4 perks
• 3 Vault-Tec bobblehead (Fallout 4)

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How the Shipping Industry Sails through Legal Loopholes

A murky world of shell companies, flags of convenience, and end-of-life flags allows companies to dodge accountability and dispose of ships cheaply., authored by, article body copy.

On December 16, 2018, the container ship Cecilie left Mauritius for Dubai. Sailing from the tiny island nation in the Indian Ocean to the United Arab Emirates was a shift from the typical route it had traveled for 20 years while shuttling goods.

The Cecilie wasn’t particularly big for its era, and it withers in comparison to today’s largest ships. But it could still carry more than 11,000 tonnes of cargo—equivalent to roughly 7,500 Honda Accords—in thousands of metal containers, each as large as a small studio apartment. The ever-expanding carrying capacity of ships offered the Cecilie ’s owner, AP Moller-Maersk A/S of Denmark, economies of scale not possible with earlier ship designs. Three other Maersk ships of the same vintage—the Clara , the Thomas , and the Claes —were about as large as the Cecilie . All four had spent more than two decades plying the waters off Europe and the west coast of Africa, rarely calling at other ports after 2004.

A week after the Cecilie traveled to Dubai, the Thomas arrived there from a Spanish port. The Clara left Spain for Dubai next, followed by the Claes . Shortly after those voyages, Maersk sold all four ships. Three went to companies known for scrapping ships on beaches in South Asia. The Claes went to a company with two employees headquartered at an address in the Caribbean associated with shell companies, which companies that buy ships for scrapping are known to use. The movements and transactions are notable—particularly the three ships’ voyages from Spain—because the European Union has a regulation that bars hazardous waste from leaving its ports for countries that are not members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Since ships contain toxic material, they qualify as hazardous waste under the European Union’s Waste Shipment Regulation (WSR). Countries in the OECD, an intergovernmental group of 38 member countries around the world, generally have stronger environmental and labor standards than nonmembers.

The Cecilie was a cargo ship once owned by AP Moller-Maersk A/S of Denmark. Photo by Archive PL/Alamy Stock Photo

But like hundreds of ships each year, the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas, and the Claes ended up in India, a non-OECD country, on a beach where workers dismantled them in dangerous conditions and with little regard for the hazardous materials they contained: cadmium, lead, asbestos, mercury, hydrocarbons from the burning of fuel, and residue oils. Hundreds of workers have died in shipbreaking yards in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh in recent years.

Taking the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas , and the Claes to Dubai—where only one of those ships had ever called, and only once—raises questions. If Maersk decided to sell the ships once they were in Dubai, Spain could not enforce the waste shipment regulation.

“Why did Maersk bring the ships to Dubai?” asks Ingvild Jenssen, executive director of NGO Shipbreaking Platform, a Belgium-based nonprofit that monitors the disposal of ships worldwide and advocates for sustainable ship recycling. It’s a question that vexes Jenssen. If a shipping company decides to dispose of a ship before it leaves the European Union, that would make the export a breach of the WSR.

The unusual destination wasn’t the only change in the ships’ operations that alarmed Jenssen.

On December 31, 2018, a new law took effect in the European Union: the Ship Recycling Regulation (SRR). It requires companies to scrap EU-registered ships in EU-approved facilities that maintain environmentally sound operations and ensure worker safety. Less than six months before the SRR took effect, Maersk reregistered the Danish ships in Hong Kong.

The last voyages of the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas , and the Claes— each with a new owner and reregistered yet again — were to a shipbreaking yard in Alang, India, where there are no EU-approved facilities.

The shipbreaking yard in Alang, India, is considered by many experts to be a subpar enterprise. Photo by Dinodia Photos/Alamy Stock Photo

By requiring EU-registered ships to be dismantled safely in an EU-approved facility, the SRR is meant to bolster the older, and ineffectual, waste shipment regulation. But if a company registers a ship outside the European Union just prior to dismantling—a process that’s cheap and easy—it can evade the ship recycling regulation.

Repeated requests for comment to Maersk senior press officer Christian Kjærgaard-Winther went unanswered.

The cases of the four Maersk ships are emblematic of a dark side of the globalized economy and the international shipping industry. Every day, nearly 100,000 container ships, oil and chemical tankers, vehicle carriers, and other vessels sail the oceans carrying the products we buy, the raw materials that go into manufacturing those products, and the fuels that power it all. The OECD reports that 90 percent of all goods are transported by ship. The ships themselves emit more than one million tonnes of carbon dioxide per day, more than twice that of the entire United Kingdom. Once they’ve reached the end of their useful lives, more than 70 percent of ships of all types—which includes not only cargo carriers and tankers but drilling platforms, cruise ships, tugs, and more—end up in shipbreaking yards in India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh, according to analysis by NGO Shipbreaking Platform. (The ships that end up there tend to be among the bigger ones; they represent 90 percent of the discarded gross tonnage.) In 2021, the share of broken ships and offshore units heading to the three countries was 76 percent, representing close to the entire volume of gross tonnage scrapped worldwide. The yards are not EU-approved for safe dismantling under their ship recycling regulation. At least two yards, both in Alang, have applied for EU approval but were rejected.

Dodging regulations is possible because of the dramatic rise in the use of flags of convenience (FOCs). Ships must be registered in a country. Flags of convenience are countries that allow ship owners to pay a fee to register with a country that fails to police international maritime law or regulations. Once sold in Dubai, the new owners reflagged the four former Maersk ships to FOC nations for that last voyage to Alang.

Welcome to the murky world of shipping.

The rise of flags of convenience

Until the Ever Given ran aground in the Suez Canal last spring, and supply chain disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors brought the shipping world into the headlines, the industry had been content to maintain a low profile. Though the world has suddenly woken up to shipping’s role as the most critical part of the globalized economy, its enormous effect on global trade and world affairs goes back thousands of years.

Phoenician and Roman ships carried olive oil, wine, and timber for trade around the Mediterranean. In the early 1400s, Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He commanded seven voyages, on ships more than four times the length of Christopher Columbus’s, from China through the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, reaching as far as southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope and trading silks and porcelain for goods from across the known world. The Dutch designed a ship in the 1400s that could withstand treacherous deep waters, allowing them to fish farther from their own shores and bring the catch to market before it spoiled. The additional revenue juiced the economy, and turned a swampy backwater into a global power, buttressed by slave labor, that would defeat the powerful empires of England and Spain in major naval battles in the 1600s. Galleons moved commodities and enslaved people from Asia and Africa to Europe and the Americas well into the late 1800s. It was the first wave of globalization.

Flags of convenience made their first appearance in 1915, when a new US law limited working hours and guaranteed wages for seafarers on US ships. Within a few years, Panama and Honduras began offering flags of convenience, which helped shipping companies keep down costs by skirting the new US law. FOCs accelerated after the Second World War, during what’s considered the second wave of globalization, as new industry-led organizations with access to more capital and new transportation technologies allowed for the rapid and cheap movement of goods. Competition became fierce and FOC states charged into the fray offering cut-rate registration fees and low taxes. Lax labor laws and less stringent inspection regimes added to the savings. Fewer inspections mean fewer repairs, and hence lower operational costs—almost three times lower. With all this ballast to their bottom line, owners can charge less for freight. The savings, of course, are passed on to everyone who purchases goods that arrive on their shores by ship.

Guillaume Vuillemey, an associate professor of finance at the business school HEC Paris, analyzed decades of data for a study about FOCs published in 2020. He found that owners are more likely to switch to an FOC when the rates that shippers can charge for freight are low, reducing revenue, an indication that cost-cutting is indeed a principal incentive. Shipping companies that don’t “flag out” can lose customers to competitors that can offer a lower price.

The number of container ships worldwide using a flag of convenience has increased dramatically over the past four decades. Graph by Mathew Brown, data supplied by Guillaume Vuillemey

In the past four decades, FOCs have exploded. In his study, Vuillemey found that in 1980, 20 percent of the global tonnage of container ships—vessels like the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas , and the Claes —flew flags of convenience. By 2019, the figure was 82 percent. By lowering taxes and fees, FOC states have spurred governments in Europe to reduce their own taxes on the industry.

The amount of revenue FOC nations are deriving from their open registries is not easy to come by. The most recent national budget published online by Antigua and Barbuda, a small Caribbean nation that offers an FOC, does not list any revenue from its shipping registry. Is one to infer that it is included under the heading Foreign Affairs, International Trade, and Immigration? In that case, it would be less than one percent of funds the country is bringing in. (For comparison’s sake, OECD nations receive almost 10 percent of revenue, on average, from corporate taxes.) Palau, with annual revenue of around US $86-million , brought in under $1-million from its shipping registry in 2018, with the anticipation of more as it renegotiated its deal with the contractor that operates the registry. Perhaps all FOC states are just getting fleeced by the firms to which they have outsourced their registries.

While the rewards to FOC states may not be high, the costs to the environment can be: vessels operating under flags of convenience have caused major oil spills, including the worst oil spill ever in US waters, which was caused by the Deepwater Horizon. Oil platforms, too, must be registered as seagoing vessels, and the US government found that the doomed vessel’s flag state, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, had failed to properly inspect the platform prior to the spill and the subsequent explosion. Eleven workers were killed.

The 1958 Convention on the High Seas and the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea require flag states to maintain a “genuine link” with a ship’s owner. Though neither convention defined the term, legal scholars have stated that the best way to demonstrate a genuine link is for a flag country to be able to enforce relevant standards on ships in its registry. In any case, the conventions are seldom enforced, and a 1986 agreement intended to clarify matters never went into effect for lack of ratification by a sufficient number of member states.

The genuine link is not the only legal fiction that the shipping industry employs to evade responsibility for the liabilities they float in the commons, including through virtually all marine protected areas, in the form of their hulking, floating barges of toxicants (and, often, toxic cargo, such as crude oil). The expanding use of FOCs is part of a larger pattern of evasion of responsibility by the shipping industry.

In recent decades, Vuillemey found, shipping firms have increasingly formed subsidiaries consisting of a single ship—shell companies—to disassociate their assets from the potential liabilities the ships represent. The trend began after a blowout of an oil well in 1969, off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, horrified Americans.

When a blowout of an oil well in 1969, off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, horrified Americans, shipping companies began forming subsidiaries consisting of a single ship to disassociate their assets from the potential liabilities the ships represent. Photo by Santa Barbara News-Press /ZUMApress.com/Alamy Stock Photo

Previously, the oil industry’s negative effect on the environment had been largely confined to faraway and remote places, but the spill from Union Oil’s Platform A sent 19 million liters of oil to the beaches and harbor of a US city, one of the jewels of California. The disaster galvanized the modern environmental movement, and regulators and advocacy organizations began searching for ways to make shipping companies liable for damage they caused to natural resources. In March 1978, a tanker ran aground off the coast of France, and a US judge ordered Amoco (now part of BP), the oil company that owned the ship, to pay more than $85-million (over $364-million in today’s dollars). Then, in 1989, the Exxon Valdez , a 300-meter-long oil tanker with a radar system the company knew was broken and hadn’t bothered to fix, ran aground in Alaska’s Prince William Sound. It remains the second-largest oil spill in US waters, after the Deepwater Horizon. Exxon paid fines, damages, and interest of nearly $1-billion. The US Oil Pollution Act of 1990 then put the party responsible for any spill on the hook for cleanup and restoration costs.

To avoid paying for their misdeeds, shippers could disassociate their assets from their ships. By making a ship its own separate company, damaged parties could only go after an amount equal to the value of the ship and its cargo. If the ship caused damage, such as by running aground and spilling its cargo, that amount would be small. Today, about 90 percent of merchant ships are subsidiary companies with no assets except the ship. Suing for a catastrophe would be like trying to dredge the Mariana Trench. Bigger, older, and single-hull ships, which are arguably more likely to cause the most damage in the event of an accident, are more likely to be owned by single-ship shells, Vuillemey found—suggesting that evasion of liability is the impetus for creating subsidiaries.

The subsidiary is referred to as the “registered” owner. This severs the assets of the ultimate owner (or “beneficial” owner, since it’s the entity that benefits from the business activity of the registered owner of the ship) from harm caused by the ship. A 2003 OECD report found that it’s both cheap and easy to create a complicated screen of corporate entities to shield the beneficial owner. So cheap and easy, in fact, that a typical ship spends none of its life registered with the beneficial owner.

All these cost-cutting measures are paying off. London’s Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd. predicts profits nearing $100-billion in 2021, with freight rates jumping 50 percent as shipping capacity lags behind increasing demand. Construction of new ships to replace scrapped old ships—like the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas, and the Claes —is not keeping up. The stock price of Taiwan-based Evergreen Marine, owner of the ship that got stuck in the Suez Canal, is up 1,361 percent since 2020 ; the company ordered 24 new container vessels in 2021. (A Bangladeshi worker died in 2019 during the dismantling of a ship Evergreen Marine had owned; the company disavowed responsibility, claiming the buyer had assured Evergreen the ship would be scrapped in a facility that met certain standards.) Last year, Maersk’s stock rose 62 percent as shippers planned for record-high levels of traffic . And it turned out to be as good as expected: Maersk reported record earnings.

The industry’s high profits are at least in part because they don’t have to pay for their mistakes. The companies have transferred the risk of their inherently risky operations onto society.

Island nations enabling ocean pollution

Enabling these practices, ironically, are several island nations whose livelihoods and very existence rely upon the continued health of their surrounding oceans . Comoros, off East Africa; Saint Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean nation; and Palau, in the South Pacific, have been the dominant flags of convenience in recent years.

To drum up business, FOC states offer further discounts, and other incentives, for short-term registration of ships—a last-voyage flag—on the way to the graveyard. It’s another means the industry has developed to veil its practices, and it’s increasingly popular. “While last-voyage flags were close to nonexistent in the early 2000s, they represented 55.2 percent of all end-of-life ships globally in 2019,” Vuillemey writes in his study.

This diagram shows flags flown by container ships that were decommissioned in 2018 and 2019. From their first flag (on the left) to the end of their lives (on the right), two-thirds of the ships changed flags at least once, and more than one-third changed flags at least three times. Graph by Mathew Brown, data supplied by Guillaume Vuillemey

For the last voyage, a ship’s ultimate owner sells the vessel to a company that specializes in scrapping ships, which registers it to an FOC, and sails the ship to a beach in South Asia. This was precisely the scenario with the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas, and the Claes .

This animation shows the transitions of flags for ships decommissioned from 2015 to the end of 2019. Orange dots indicate the final flag a ship used before being broken up. Notice the growing popularity of Palau and Comoros, which had only one ship between them at the beginning of the period. Visualization by Mathew Brown, data supplied by Guillaume Vuillemey

Palau is a useful example. It’s one of the most popular last-voyage flags. Vuillemey found that in 2019, its registry held less than 0.001 percent of the world’s fleet, but 59.5 percent of last-voyage flags.

For ships decommissioned in 2018 and 2019, this graph shows when in their final year of life ships got a new flag and what flag it was switched to. Palau is one of the most popular last-voyage flags. In 2019, its registry held less than 0.001 percent of the world’s fleet, but 59.5 percent of last-voyage flags. Visualization by Mathew Brown, data supplied by Guillaume Vuillemey

Palau only began selling its flag in 2012, outsourcing the management—as many FOC countries have done—to a Greek firm. In August, International Transport Workers’ Federation added Palau to its list of registries designated as FOCs, bringing its total of FOCs to 42.

Landisang L. Kotaro, chief of staff to the president of Palau, declined repeated requests for an interview.

The vessel and the damage done

Flagging ships for their final voyages to the scrapping yards of South Asia is a practice that ultimately causes significant harm in the communities where those scrapping yards are located.

The companies that specialize in last voyages—such as NKD Maritime Limited of the United Kingdom, Ace Ship Recycling Pte. Ltd. of Singapore, Best Oasis Ltd. of Greece, and GMS of the United States, which claims to be the largest such company—are called “cash buyers” because they make their purchases in one lump sum. These companies in turn sell the ships to yards in Alang, or Chattogram, Bangladesh, or Gadani, Pakistan.

Of all tonnage dismantled globally in 2019, 90 percent was in India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. Visualization by Mathew Brown, data supplied by NGO Shipbreaking Platform

The facilities lack the capacity to handle ship toxicants which end up in the ocean. The communities gain jobs but generally lack the healthcare and other infrastructure to manage the dismantling risks. NGO Shipbreaking Platform has counted 429 deaths and 344 injuries in shipbreaking accidents since 2009, all at facilities not approved by the European Union. At least one worker died in a yard where Maersk ships have been dismantled (Maersk says none of its ships were at the site at the time of the accident). Of all tonnage dismantled globally in 2019, 90 percent was in India, Pakistan, or Bangladesh. Last-voyage flags flew on close to 64 percent of ships scrapped in 2018, and 55 percent in 2019, Vuillemey found; nearly all of them were broken in one of the three South Asian countries.

Companies that buy ships for scrapping have been known to falsify documents. Bangladesh requires that owners of ships coming into the country for scrapping file papers declaring their ships free of certain toxic materials prior to arrival. But a 2020 investigation by Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper and Finance Uncovered , a journalism organization based in the United Kingdom, found 28 certificates that experts suspect were worthless. Out of the 28, 17 of the certificates were filed by shell companies. Since these companies exist only on paper, with no physical office or employees, it would be hard—especially for a country with few resources, such as Bangladesh—to find a person or entity to prosecute for illegally filing such papers. Bangladesh’s Supreme Court in 2019 noted “a plethora of illegalities, omissions, deficiencies, and discrepancies” pertaining to the importation of another former Maersk ship, the Producer . The court determined that the importation constituted illegal trafficking of a toxic ship into Bangladesh.

Jenssen of NGO Shipbreaking Platform says it’s extremely likely that “every ship that enters Bangladesh for scrapping enters with a fake certificate.”

Cracking down on violators

In 2013, Maersk’s head of sustainability, Jacob Sterling, wrote on gCaptain , an industry news website, “NGOs argue that beaching must end now. We agree.” But three years later, Annette Stube, described at the time as Maersk Group’s head of corporate social responsibility, told another trade journal, ShippingWatch, that if flying an EU flag “hinders our ability to use the yards in Alang, which we believe deliver a responsible shipbreaking service, then we will consider changing the flag.”

Maersk changed the flags of the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas , and the Claes in July 2018, and within a year sold each of the ships to cash buyers, which scrapped them in South Asia. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), where Maersk is based, investigated possible breaches of the toxic waste regulations and the ship recycling regulation. It found that because Maersk had reflagged the four ships before the ship recycling regulation went into effect, it did not apply. “The vessels were either outside the territorial waters of any country when the decommissioning decision was made, and did not sail within the waters of the EU/OECD after the decision or [were] not in Danish territorial waters since before 2012,” wrote the legal officer of the circular economy and waste division, Anja Freitag-Weigt, in an email. Since three of the ships left the European Union from Spain, Denmark’s environmental authority says it referred the case to that country. The press office of Spain’s environmental authority says it never received any such referral, but that nevertheless it had no jurisdiction in the matter because the owner did not officially communicate that the ships were going to be scrapped.

Ship owners based in the European Union account for around one-third of the end-of-life tonnage beached in South Asia. Clearly, EU countries bear some responsibility for solving the problems that the two EU regulations have failed to fix.

Sometimes, the relevant authorities do act—often at the behest of watchdog groups like NGO Shipbreaking Platform. Jenssen says she is constantly monitoring changes of ownership and flag registries for telltale signs of imminent dismantling: “Who’s the new owner? What’s the flag? Who was crewing? What’s the market outlook for the vessel?”

In 2014, the Global Spirit , a Japanese-owned ship flagged to Panama that was in a Belgian port at the time, appeared to NGO Shipbreaking Platform to have been sold for scrapping. The organization alerted Belgian authorities. They forbade the Global Spirit from leaving Belgian waters until its owners agreed to recycle it in an approved facility. The International Chamber of Shipping, a trade organization, objected. The chamber argued that the waste shipment regulation was intended for toxic cargo, not the ships, therefore the regulation did not apply. Whether lawmakers intended it or not, the text of the law and the fact that ships contain toxic waste make this argument irrelevant at best. Belgium’s ultimatum stood.

“Unfortunately, in most cases, we only know that there’s been an illegal export when it’s too late,” Jenssen says. But there have been several instances when NGO Shipbreaking Platform or another organization alerted authorities to an apparent sale of a ship that would be leaving EU waters for breaking in South Asia and nothing was done.

It seems Denmark or Spain could have gone further in their investigations. In 2018, a court in the Netherlands fined the shipping company Seatrade and two of its executives €750,000 ($92,422 at the time of the ruling), and banned the executives from working in the industry for one year for selling vessels that left the European Union for disposal in South Asian yards. Evidence in the case included email exchanges between Seatrade executives and the sellers, which Dutch prosecutors seized.

Freitag-Weigt, the Danish EPA official, wrote that the date of decommissioning, on which the EPA based its determination that the waste shipment regulation did not apply, is established through publicly available information in a Danish Maritime Authority register. But the act of decommissioning is not the same as the “decommissioning decision,” which, Freitag-Weigt wrote, is what is relevant in determining whether the regulation was violated.

Somewhere, at some point, there likely existed on Maersk’s servers emails concerning the sale of the Cecilie , the Clara , the Thomas , and the Claes , which would establish the timing. Documents indicating breaches of the law have been found on board other scrapped vessels, and companies can be subpoenaed for sale documents. Recent cases show the Dutch action could lead to an indictment in other countries. In August 2021, German prosecutors alleged that the sale of three vessels to an entity the sellers knew would have them scrapped in Pakistan violated the ship recycling regulation, the WSR. And in March, a Norwegian appeals court confirmed the six-month prison sentence of a shipowner involved with selling a ship to a cash buyer and fined his company 2-million kroner (about $230,000).

“It comes down to knowledge and proactiveness and willingness and the amount of resources EU states have for enforcement,” Jenssen says.

Potential solutions are far-off, and indirect at best

Requiring countries that issue flags of convenience to better oversee the ships they register seems far off. The International Maritime Organization, which regulates ship registries, claims that it wants to ensure that all flag states maintain adequate control over the ships they’ve registered. But its delegates include representatives from industries with close ties to shipping and an interest in keeping freight costs down, such as oil companies, mining companies, and shipbuilders.

A ship ready for breaking in Chattogram, Bangladesh, in 2016. Photo by Katiekk/Shutterstock

Leaning on the levers of finance is one way to bring an end to unsafe shipbreaking. In 2018, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund—Norway’s Government Pension Fund Global, also known as the Oil Fund—decided to divest from four companies that sell their ships for dismantling in South Asia. The country’s largest pension fund, Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP), soon followed suit. Withholding capital from shipping companies because of their recycling practices, some advocates believe, could lead them to change. Lenders and insurers could also require in their agreements with ship owners that they properly recycle their assets.

Jenssen says the organization is now advocating for a return scheme for vessels, similar to the refund that some jurisdictions offer for recycling glass bottles. “All vessels trading in EU waters would chip in throughout their operational life, and that money would be paid back to the last owner, if the vessel is recycled in a proper facility,” she says.

The European Union recently put forth a proposed amendment to the WSR that would enable ships sailing under the flags of member countries to be recycled by shipbreakers outside the OECD, provided they appear on the EU list of approved facilities. Industry critics contend that currently, non-OECD shipbreakers are discouraged from applying for approval because the WSR would still forbid them from importing ships (though the Alang facilities’ applications would argue against this). The amendment would obviate the need for reflagging for the final voyage. EU policymakers are expected to discuss the proposal in May.

In November 2021, Maersk became a founding member of the First Movers Coalition, formed by the World Economic Forum “to make purchasing commitments that create new demand for low carbon technologies.” It was the latest in a string of public statements by major industry players late last year to show their commitment to decarbonize shipping by 2050. “We have high ambitions and we are fully committed to addressing the emissions in our operations,” said Mikael Gutman, the head of APM Terminals, Maersk’s port operations subsidiary, on October 18.

While the industry has been very public about efforts to limit its contribution to climate change, it continues to contribute to fouling the oceans and endangering the lives of people in developing countries where its ships are dismantled. The third quarter of 2021, during which at least the second conference of the year on decarbonizing shipping was held in Copenhagen, Denmark, saw seven deaths in Bangladesh’s shipbreaking yards. While the industry might eventually make progress on reducing its carbon footprint, as long as flags of convenience and last-voyage flags prevail it will have a convenient means of evading the legal guardrails in place to direct it toward ethical operations.

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'The Last Voyage of the Demeter': Release Date, Cast, Trailers, and Everything We Know So Far

Based on a single chapter from Bram Stoker's Dracula...

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When and where is the last voyage of the demeter releasing, watch the trailers for the last voyage of the demeter, who's making the last voyage of the demeter, where and when was the last voyage of the demeter filmed, who’s in the cast of the last voyage of the demeter, so what's the last voyage of the demeter about.

After many script rewrites and production changes, the film's release date was moved from January 27, 2023, to August 11, 2023 . As of now, The Last Voyage of the Demeter will only be available to watch in theaters, as no streaming date has been announced yet. The film has been given an R-rating and has a runtime of 119 minutes.

The first trailer for The Last Voyage of the Demeter was released on Universal Picture's YouTube channel on April 13, 2023. Set to a moody remix of The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings," the trailer unleashes plenty of vampire carnage.

This was followed by a teaser trailer released on July 18, 2023. The fifteen-second video doesn't show much, but it does plenty to raise the scare level, with mysterious deaths and a terrifying look at the movie's Dracula. See it here:

On July 31, a Look Inside featurette for The Last Voyage of the Demeter was released via Rotten Tomatoes, promising an Alien -esque story. See it here:

Bragi F. Schut ( Escape Room ) wrote a story and screenplay based on Chapter 7 of Dracula all the way back in 2002, but the film languished in development limbo for nearly two decades. Along the way, numerous interested directors came and went from the project, including Robert Schwentke ( RED ), Marcus Nispel ( Friday The 13th ), David Slade ( 30 Days of Night ), and Neil Marshall ( Hellboy ). Ditto for onscreen talent; at one point, Viggo Mortensen ( Lord of the Rings ) was cast to play the captain but dropped out after the production hit numerous snags. Ben Kingsley ( Ghandi ) and Noomi Rapace ( Girl With The Dragon Tattoo ) were also attached at one point . Finally, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark director André Øvredal took the helm in 2019 , working off a screenplay written by Bragi and Zak Olkewicz .

The film is produced by Brad Fischer , Mike Medavoy , and Arnold Messer , and executive produced by Matthew Hirsch . The production companies involved include Amblin Entertainment, Amblin Partners, Latina Pictures, New Republic Pictures, Phoenix Pictures, Universal Pictures, and Viola Film, with distribution by Universal Pictures. Roman Osin and Tom Stern serve as the cinematographers and Thomas Newman composed the film's score.

Related: Comparing Universal's Dueling 1931 'Dracula' Films – Which Is More Unsettling?

Principal photography began in June 2021 in Berlin. The film was also shot in Malta and production on the movie wrapped in the fall of the same year with Amblin announcing the end of filming with a Twitter post dated September 30, 2021.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter stars Corey Hawkins ( The Tragedy of Macbeth ) as Clemens, a doctor who comes aboard the ship. Hawkins is also set to star in the upcoming remake of The Color Purple later this year. Aisling Franciosi , who appeared in Game of Thrones and the upcoming film The Nightingale , plays Anna, a young stowaway who helps battle the merciless count. Liam Cunningham ( Clash of the Titans ) will play the ship's captain, who might go down even if his boat doesn't. David Dastmalchian ( The Suicide Squad ) plays the ship's first mate, Wojchek.

And of course, the man of the midnight hour, Count Dracula is played by Javier Botet . When he was five years old, Botet was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition called Marfan syndrome, which affects the body’s connective tissues, giving him unusually flexible and long limbs. In a rather inspirational way, Botet has used his rare physical traits to make a career playing surreal and often nightmare-inducing characters like the Slender Man in the movie of the same name, the Crooked Man in Conjuring 2 , and the terrifying title character from the 2013 horror film Mama . Considering his unique talents, fans can probably expect Botet's portrayal of Dracula to be less "jaded and debonair aristocrat" and more "horrifying wall-crawling monster"--with a serious case of the munchies. Other members of the ensemble cast include Jon Jon Briones , Stefan Kapicic , Nikolai Nikolaeff , Woody Norman , Martin Furulund , Nicolo Pasetti , and Chris Walley .

In Chapter 7 of Stoker's novel, the captain's diary entries recount the ship's journey from Carpathia, where they pick up some strange private cargo: 24 strange, heavy wooden crates that are to be delivered to London. At first, the journey seems normal, but things very quickly take a sinister turn. Everyone is anxious but can't figure out why they continue to face one extremely unfortunate event after another. First, a strange man is spotted on board, then crew members start disappearing. A terrible storm hits the ship and the first mate goes crazy, throwing himself overboard. The captain finally realizes that some sort of evil supernatural creature is stalking his crew, picking them off one by one. In the spine-tingling final entry, he's holding a rosary in his hands and lashing himself to the mast, determined to defy the monster and the storms to the very end. He leaves his log in a bottle in the hopes that someone who finds it may be able to decipher the terrible truth behind the events that have befallen him and his ship. By the time the nearly ruined schooner pulls into its next port, there's no one on board except one clearly insane man.

Expanding a little on the events of the chapter, the film follows various characters, including a doctor, the captain, and first mate of the ship, and a stowaway who clearly picked the wrong boat to sneak onto. No one thinks to check the wooden crates in cargo where Dracula rests during the day, and by the time the sun sets, it's too late: Dracula is hungry. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Øvredal described the film as " Alien -on-a-ship in 1897." That rather nicely sums up the story, don't you think?

The Last Voyage of the Demeter: release date, reviews, trailer and everything we know about the horror movie

Evil is on board in The Last Voyage of the Demeter.

Since the beginning of movies, Dracula has been one of the screen's most iconic characters. The legendary vampire returns to the big screen with the 2023 summer blockbuster movie The Last Voyage of the Demeter .

This is actually the second new movie in 2023 that features Dracula as a main character, as Nicolas Cage plays the iconic monster in the action comedy Renfield . But The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a straight up horror movie, chronicling a specific chapter from Bram Stoker's original novel of Dracula .

Here is everything that we know about The Last Voyage of the Demeter .

The Last Voyage of the Demeter release date

Sailing into movie theaters as part of the summer blockbuster season, The Last Voyage of the Demeter premieres on August 11 worldwide. Here is what you need to know about how to watch The Last Voyage of the Demeter .

The Last Voyage of the Demeter plot

Most people know the basics of Dracula's story, but what makes The Last Voyage of the Demeter different is that rather than tell Bram Stoker's entire legend, the movie is focusing on a single chapter from the book, "The Captain's Log," about Dracula's journey to London. Check out our more in-depth breakdown of what The Last Voyage of the Demeter is based on .

Here is the official synopsis from Universal Pictures:

"Based on a single chilling chapter from Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula , The Last Voyage of the Demeter tells the terrifying story of the merchant ship Demeter , which was chartered to carry private cargo — 50 unmarked wooden crates — from Carpathia to London. 

"Strange events befall the doomed crew as they attempt to survive the ocean voyage, stalked each night by a merciless presence onboard the ship. When the Demeter finally arrives off the shores of England, it is a charred, derelict wreck. There is no trace of the crew."

The script was written by Bragi F. Schut, Stefan Ruzowitzky and Zak Olkewicz. 

Check out our The Last Voyage of the Demeter ending explained feature for a quick recap of what happens.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter trailer

The eerie, Victorian-era look of the horror movie in the trailer is great, but things get taken up to another level with the needle drop of The Smashing Pumpkins' "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." Watch the full trailer directly below: 

You can also check out this clip from the movie, courtesy of IGN:

And here are a few more advance clips from the movie:

The Last Voyage of the Demeter cast

In the Heights and Straight Outta Compton star Corey Hawkins plays the protagonist of The Last Voyage of the Demeter , Clemens, a doctor who joins the crew of the Demeter on its voyage. He is joined by Aisling Franciosi ( Game of Thrones , The Nightingale ) as Anna, a stowaway on the boat, Liam Cunningham ( Game of Thrones , Hunger ) as the captain of the Demeter and David Dastmalchian ( Boston Strangler , The Suicide Squad ) as his first mate.

Other members of the cast include Jon Jon Briones ( Ratched , American Horror Story ), Stefan Kapicic ( Deadpool , Better Call Saul ), Nikolai Nikolaeff ( Stranger Things , Bruised ) and Javier Botet ( IT , Mama ), who plays Dracula.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter reviews

What to Watch's The Last Voyage of the Demeter review unfortunately finds the movie only delivers a passable level of entertainment, failing to captialize on its enticing presence.

That seems to be the broader sentiment, as the Rotten Tomatoes score for the movie, combining the scores of other critics, have it at just 40% positive (as of August 10), which ranks it as "Rotten."

How long is The Last Voyage of the Demeter?

The Last Voyage of the Demeter runtime comes in at just under two hours (credits included), officially clocking at one hour and 58 minutes.

What is The Last Voyage of the Demeter rated?

In the US, The Last Voyage of the Demeter is rated R for "bloody violence."

The Last Voyage of the Demeter director

Steering the ship, if you will, as The Last Voyage of the Demeter director is André Øvreda, a Norwegian director who is well versed in the horror genre. His previous movies include Troll Hunter and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark . 

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Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca , Moulin Rouge! , Silence of the Lambs , Children of Men , One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars . On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd .

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Investigation continues into 4 electrical blackouts on ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse

Investigators say the electrical blackouts experienced by the container ship Dali before it left Baltimore’s port were “mechanically distinct from” those that resulted in the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge hours later.

Federal Highway Administration Administrator Shailen Bhatt, left, listens as Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, testifies, during a House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on the federal response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

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Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board attends a House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on the federal response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier, Deputy Commandant for Operations, attends a House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on the federal response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

U.S. Army Major General William Graham, Deputy Commanding General, Civil and Emergency Operations, attends a House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on the federal response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

From left, U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Peter Gautier, Deputy Commandant for Operations, U.S. Army Major General William Graham, Deputy Commanding General, Civil and Emergency Operations, Federal Highway Administration Administrator Shailen Bhatt, with the Department of Transportation, and Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board testify during a House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on the federal response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Federal Highway Administration Administrator Shailen Bhatt, left, speaks next to Jennifer Homendy, Chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, during a House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on the federal response to the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse, Wednesday, May 15, 2024, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

BALTIMORE (AP) — The electrical blackouts experienced by the container ship Dali before it left Baltimore’s port were “mechanically distinct from” those that resulted in the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge hours later, according to congressional testimony Wednesday.

“Two were related to routine maintenance in port. Two were unexpected tripping of circuit breakers on the accident voyage,” National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy testified.

The Dali was headed to Sri Lanka, laden with shipping containers and enough supplies for a monthlong voyage. Shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore early on March 26, the ship lost power and propulsion and crashed into one of the bridge’s supporting columns, killing six construction workers .

Homendy’s remarks came the day after the safety board released its preliminary report into the bridge collapse. Their full investigation could take a year or more.

The ship’s first power outage occurred after a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust damper while conducting maintenance in port, causing one of its diesel engines to stall, according to the report. A backup generator automatically came on and continued to run for a short period — until insufficient fuel pressure caused it to kick off again, resulting in a second blackout.

While recovering from those power outages, crew members made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching to a different transformer and set of breakers, according to safety investigators.

“Switching breakers is not unusual but may have affected operations the very next day on the accident voyage,” Homendy testified Wednesday morning before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

She said the board is still gathering more information about what exactly caused the various power outages. The FBI has also launched a criminal investigation into the circumstances leading up to the collapse.

When the breakers tripped as the Dali approached the bridge, Homendy said the ship’s emergency generator kicked on. That generator can power the ship’s lights, radio and other operations, but it can’t restore propulsion.

“Without the propeller turning, the rudder was less effective,” Homendy said. “They were essentially drifting.”

While there is redundancy built into the ship’s systems, she said it’s not unlike other vessels in terms of the functions of its emergency generator and other factors. She said investigators are working closely with Hyundai, the manufacturer of the Dali’s electrical system, to pinpoint what went wrong after it left the Port of Baltimore.

“We are still on scene and evaluating everything about this accident,” Homendy said.

She also reiterated another finding from the report, which said testing of the ship’s fuel revealed no concerns about its quality.

The safety board launched its investigation almost immediately after the collapse, which sent six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths. Investigators boarded the ship to document the scene and collect evidence, including the vessel’s data recorder and information from its engine room.

The preliminary report details the chaotic moments prior to the bridge collapse while crew members scrambled to address a series of electrical failures that came in quick succession as disaster loomed.

At 1:25 a.m. on March 26, when the Dali was a little over half a mile away from the bridge, electrical breakers that fed most of the ship’s equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped, causing a power loss. The main propulsion diesel engine automatically shut down after its cooling pumps lost power, and the ship lost steering.

Crew members were able to momentarily restore electricity by manually closing the tripped breakers, the report says.

The ship was less than a quarter of a mile from the bridge when it experienced a second power blackout because of more tripped breakers. The crew again restored power, but it was too late to avoid striking the bridge.

A last-minute mayday call from the ship allowed police to stop traffic, but they didn’t have enough time to warn a team of construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge. One man was rescued from the water. A road maintenance inspector also survived by running to safety in the moments before the bridge fell.

The last of the six victims’ bodies was recovered from the underwater wreckage last week.

On Monday, crews conducted a controlled demolition to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed bridge, which landed draped across the Dali’s bow. The ship is expected to be refloated and guided back to the Port of Baltimore early next week, officials said Wednesday.

Cargo ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse had power blackouts hours before leaving port

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Investigation continues into 4 electrical blackouts on ship that caused Baltimore bridge collapse

BALTIMORE (AP) — The electrical blackouts experienced by the container ship Dali before it left Baltimore’s port were “mechanically distinct from” those that resulted in the  deadly collapse  of the Francis Scott Key Bridge hours later, according to congressional testimony Wednesday.

“Two were related to routine maintenance in port. Two were unexpected tripping of circuit breakers on the accident voyage,” National Transportation Safety Board Jennifer Homendy testified.

The  Dali  was headed to Sri Lanka, laden with shipping containers and enough supplies for a monthlong voyage. Shortly after leaving the Port of Baltimore early on March 26, the ship lost power and propulsion and  crashed  into one of the bridge’s supporting columns, killing six  construction workers .

Homendy’s remarks came the day after the safety board released its  preliminary report  into the bridge collapse. Their full investigation could take a year or more.

The ship’s first power outage occurred after a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust damper while conducting maintenance in port, causing one of its diesel engines to stall, according to the report. A backup generator automatically came on and continued to run for a short period — until insufficient fuel pressure caused it to kick off again, resulting in a second blackout.

While recovering from those power outages, crew members made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching to a different transformer and set of breakers, according to safety investigators.

“Switching breakers is not unusual, but may have affected operations the very next day on the accident voyage,” Homendy testified Wednesday morning before the U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

She said the board is still gathering more information about what exactly caused the various power outages. The FBI has also  launched a criminal investigation  into the circumstances leading up to the collapse.

When the breakers tripped as the Dali approached the bridge, Homendy said the ship’s emergency generator kicked on. That generator can power the ship’s lights, radio and other operations, but it can’t restore propulsion.

“Without the propeller turning, the rudder was less effective,” Homendy said. “They were essentially drifting.”

While there is redundancy built into the ship’s systems, she said it’s not unlike other vessels in terms of the functions of its emergency generator and other factors. She said investigators are working closely with Hyundai, the manufacturer of the Dali’s electrical system, to pinpoint what went wrong after it left the Port of Baltimore.

She also reiterated another finding from the report, which said testing of the ship’s fuel revealed no concerns about its quality.

The safety board launched its investigation almost immediately after the collapse, which sent six members of a roadwork crew plunging to their deaths. Investigators boarded the ship to document the scene and collect evidence, including the vessel’s data recorder and information from its engine room.

The preliminary report details the chaotic moments prior to the bridge collapse while crew members scrambled to address a series of electrical failures that came in quick succession as disaster loomed.

At 1:25 a.m. on March 26, when the Dali was a little over half a mile away from the bridge, electrical breakers that fed most of the ship’s equipment and lighting unexpectedly tripped, causing a power loss. The main propulsion diesel engine automatically shut down after its cooling pumps lost power, and the ship lost steering.

Crew members were able to momentarily restore electricity by manually closing the tripped breakers, the report says.

The ship was less than a quarter of a mile from the bridge when it experienced a second power blackout because of more tripped breakers. The crew again restored power, but it was too late to avoid striking the bridge.

A last-minute mayday call from the ship allowed police to stop traffic, but they didn’t have enough time to warn a team of construction workers who were filling potholes on the bridge. One man was rescued from the water. A road maintenance inspector also survived by running to safety in the moments before the bridge fell.

The last of the six victims’ bodies was recovered from the underwater wreckage last week.

On Monday, crews conducted a  controlled demolition  to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed bridge, which landed draped across the Dali’s bow. The ship is expected to be refloated and guided back to the Port of Baltimore early next week, officials said Wednesday.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Breaking news, norwegian cruise ship employee arrested after stabbing 3 passengers with scissors on alaskan voyage.

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The FBI has arrested a  Norwegian cruise ship worker  in Alaska after he allegedly stabbed three people with medical scissors while onboard, reports say. 

The suspect, identified as Ntando Sogoni from South Africa, was recently hired by Norwegian and boarded its Encore cruise ship in Seattle on Sunday, the Juneau Empire newspaper reports, citing an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Matthew Judy.

The ship left that day for a weeklong, round-trip excursion to Alaska with stops including Glacier Bay National Park and Victoria, British Columbia.  

“According to court documents, on May 6, 2024, Ntando Sogoni, 35, was working on the cruise ship when other ship employees observed the defendant attempting to deploy a lifeboat,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska said in a statement.

“Sogoni was contacted by ship security and escorted to the ship’s medical center for an assessment. 

“Upon arrival, Sogoni physically attacked a security guard and a male nurse inside an examination room and proceeded to enter another examination room where a woman, who is a U.S. citizen, was being examined,” the statement continued.

“He grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed the woman multiple times in the arm, hand and face. He also stabbed two security guards who intervened — one in the head and one in the back and shoulders.” 

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Sogoni, who officials say was detained in the ship’s jail, was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday in Juneau, Alaska. 

He is now facing a charge of assault with a dangerous weapon within maritime and territorial jurisdiction. 

If convicted, he faces a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine. 

Norwegian did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOX Business. 

The alleged stabbing happened as the ship was passing west of Vancouver Island in British Columbia, on the way to Alaska, The Associated Press reports. 

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Cruise ship arrives at New York City harbor with dead whale caught on bow

The 44ft-long whale corpse was an endangered sei whale, which will now be examined to determine how it died

A cruise ship has journeyed into New York City’s harbor bearing a gruesome cargo in the form of a huge, dead whale sprawled across its bow.

The incident happened on Saturday, according to local US media reports , and the event is being held by some as further evidence of the unfortunate impact on sea life that large vessels can have.

The 44ft-long whale corpse was an endangered sei whale and was caught on the ship’s bow when it arrived at the Port of Brooklyn, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries spokesperson, Andrea Gomez.

The boat involved was the Meraviglia, which docked in New York before sailing on a journey to ports in New England and Canada. It is owned by Geneva-based MSC Cruises .

“We immediately notified the relevant authorities, who are now conducting an examination of the whale,” officials with the cruise line said in a statement, who added that the company had regulations in place to avoid collisions with whales and other animals at sea.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of any marine life,” the statement said.

The whale is now the subject of a necropsy to try and determine how it died, notably if it was already dead when hit by the cruise ship. Sei whales are one of the largest whales and are a protected species.

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