Poseidon (fictional ship)

The Poseidon is a fictional cruise ship that first appeared in the 1969 novel The Poseidon Adventure by Paul Gallico and later in four films based on the novel.

In the 1969 novel, the steamdriven cruise ship is traveling across the Atlantic on a month long tour of African and South American ports, after being converted from an ocean liner into a cruise ship. On December 26, the ship capsizes when a landslide on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge produces a huge rogue wave. The description of the ship is slim, but the novel mentions it as a quadruple screw ocean liner of 81,000 tons, as long as four city blocks and as high as an apartment building. It also says it has 3 "massive" funnels.

In the 1972 film, The Poseidon Adventure, the ship is in the Mediterranean on its final voyage, which will take it to the breaker's yards in Greece, when an undersea earthquake produces the rogue wave that capsizes the ship just after midnight on New Year's Eve. The film uses the RMS Queen Mary as a stand-in for the Poseidon, using actual onboard locations as well as model shots.

In the 1979 film, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, which is a direct continuation of the story from the first film, Poseidon is an abandoned overturned wreck that hasn't yet sunk. It is boarded by a small group of salvagers and a group of terrorists in disguise (who are looking for gold and a lost plutonium shipment). Eventually trapped in the ship, they encounter a group of passengers and crew who are still aboard. As the water continues to submerge more decks, the chances of escape becomes less and less likely.

In the 2005 TV film, The Poseidon Adventure, the Poseidon is a modern motor driven cruise ship using propeller pods, which is sailing from Cape Town in South Africa on a cruise through The INDIAN Ocean. The events that lead to the capsize of the ship vary greatly from the original book, as it is a partly foiled [...] plot to sink the ship using explosives below the water line which leads to the Poseidon rolling over.

In the 2006 film, Poseidon, the ship is not a cruise ship, but a British modern ocean liner registered in Southampton, which is sailing from an unnamed port in the United Kingdom (presumed to be London as one of the characters mentions it briefly) to New York. This Poseidon is also struck by a huge rogue wave just after midnight on New Year's Eve and capsizes, but the cause of the wave is never explained. As the first film used the Queen Mary as a stand-in for the Poseidon, the ship in this film was inspired by the ocean liner RMS Queen Mary 2. The ship uses propeller pods and possibly a CODAG propulsion system.

In the bulk of each story, a group of survivors try to make their way to the overturned top of the capsized ship, which will lead them out toward rescue.

Portrayals

The Poseidon has been portrayed in:

• The Poseidon Adventure - the original novel (1969)
• The Poseidon Adventure - the first film (1972)
• Beyond the Poseidon Adventure - the sequel to the first film (1979)
• The Poseidon Adventure - the first remake (2005)
• Poseidon - the second remake (2006)

fr:Poséidon (navire de fiction) pl:Posejdon (statek) pt:SS Poseidon