Although not exactly a marine vessel (depending on how much you've had to drink) we will shortly be celebrating the 40th anniversary of a famous movie ship:
The Nostromo.
Those of you who remember the film
Alien will probably remember that this was a merchant ship, rather than all the interstellar military monsters of Star Wars and the like. It had a small crew of people whose job was the familiar one of getting the ship and its cargo from point A to point B.
I particularly liked the round the table scenes when people were whinging about their wages, and the hint of a bit of needle between deck and engine crew (sound familiar ?)
Of course this crew was wholly unprepared for their somewhat unfriendly visitor. They didn't have blasters and energy weapons like their Star Wars counterparts, and had to make do with a bit of netting, a cattle prod and home made flame throwers (which looked as dangerous to the user as the nasty they were chasing.)
To top it off, the nasty shipping company had planted a robot crew member in their midst as part of their plan to increase their profits.
Director Ridley Scott is a Geordie, I can't help but think there's a bit of Tyneside lore in this film. And what about those model builders of the ship, and it's detachable parts (the landing vehicle.) This was pre CGI so true anorak types get to build wonderful models of what is a not very pretty, but wonderfully complex working cargo and processing ship.
I never had a nasty alien invade the ship when I was at sea, but I think I might have sailed with a few ….
