Comments by "Andrew Brendan" (@andrewbrendan1579) on "The Sinking of the SS Poseidon | A Short \"Documentary\" | Fascinating Horror" video.

  1. I've been saying for years that "The Poseidon Adventure" must be partially based on the loss of the Heraklion in 1966, three years before the novel was published that was made into a movie. The Heraklion was a British passenger ship that was sold to a Greek company and given a name from mythology. The ship carried passengers and was made into a ferry as well. The company was poorly managed (I'm not sure about the ship's safety situation) and the Heraklion was lost in a storm in the Mediterranean. The R.M.S. Atlantis was a British liner sold to an international consortium and given a name from mythology: Poseidon. Much of the Poseidon's original Second and Third Class accommodations were turned into cargo space. The ship was badly managed (no ballast) and was lost because of a tsunami, another nature-related situation. The similarities are too many for coincidence. Paul Gallico who wrote the novel had been aboard the Queen Mary in 1937 when she took a heavy list to one side and he was against a dining room window with only glass between himself and the ocean. This was re-created in the first chapter of the novel. The author had wondered what would have happened had the Queen Mary not righted herself and eventually "The Poseidon Adventure" came from this. Mr. Gallico consulted with engineers about a scenario in which a liner could remain afloat, for a while anyway, upside-down. Going by the history of ocean liners and what is mentioned in the novel, had the Poseidon disaster been real, it would have taken place in the early 1960's.
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