Venture II
 The Venture II (left) in Wellington Harbor, June 2005
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The Venture II was a general cargo ship that entered service as Mypuck in 1956 . In its almost fifty years of service, the ship was in service under different owners and names. It gained notoriety mainly through the remake of King Kong from 2005, in which it was seen as a venture . After filming was completed, the ship lay unused in Wellington for a few years before it was sunk as an artificial reef off the coast of New Zealand in 2010 .
history
period of service
The Mypuck was built under shipyard number 251 at Gebr. Niestern & Co in Delfzijl and launched on May 24, 1956. On November 7, 1956, the ship was delivered to NV Transport & Handelsonderneming D. Lijnzaad in Rotterdam .
In 1960 Mypuck went as Vingaren to the Swedish R. Berndtsson Partrederi based in Skärhamn . In the following years the ship changed hands several times: 1976 as Borneland to Jean Osborne Oscarsson in Edshultshall , 1981 as Alta Mar to J. Belfraga in Stockholm and in the same year as Susanne to KVG Hermansson in Skärhamn.
In 1982 Susanne went to A / B Widenia in Åmål as Widenia . After another four years of service under the Swedish flag, the ship was sold in 1986 to St. Lucia with Castries as its home port. After a year in service, the Widenia was sold as Sakanaivalu to Suva in 1987 , where it was sold under the Fijian flag for Sukanaivalu Shipping Co. Ltd. was in use.
In 1988 the ship returned to service in Åmål, where it was renamed Widenia again. After only one year, however, in June 1989 it went to Tevele International Ltd. in Port Vila before it was commissioned in 1990 as Manuia for the Manuia Shipping Company in the Cook Islands . In December of the same year was Manuia but in Auckland launched since several deficiencies such as a hole was found in one of the ballast tanks.
After four years of lay-in, Windomere Shipping Ltd. bought in Belize City, the ship is now registered in Belize and equipped it with new engines from Caterpillar . In 1996 the Manuia was converted to transport tuna before it was retired in 2003 after 47 years of service.
As a film prop
In 2004 Universal Studios bought Manuia to use it for their remake of King Kong . Since the film is set in the 1930s, the ship was rebuilt with an extra deck and an old-fashioned-looking chimney to make it look like a pre-war freighter. Although it is called Venture in the movie , it was officially registered as Venture II . The filming took place off Kapiti Island and lasted two weeks.
With the Venture II only the exterior shots of the ship were filmed. All interior shots were made in a film studio. For the scenes in which the ship has to avoid rocks jutting out of the water and collide with some of them, a model of the Venture was used, which can be viewed today at Universal Studios Hollywood .
After filming was completed, the Venture II was launched in Wellington harbor after all props and the artificial structures had been removed from the ship.
Sinking as an artificial reef
Shortly after filming was over, a Wellington-based businessman bought the Venture II to restore it and have it on display in the city's harbor. However, this was not realized. Instead, the ship was put up for sale. After a further three years of lay, the Venture II was in such poor condition that it was feared that the ship would sink in the harbor basin. It was therefore completely gutted in February 2010 and sunk as an artificial reef on February 9, 2010 off the coast of New Zealand.
Web links
literature
- Jenny Wake: The Making of King Kong: The Journey Behind the Magic Pocket Books 2005, ISBN 978-1-4165-0518-1
Individual evidence
- ^ Dutch Coasters In New Zealand. Retrieved May 17, 2016 .
- ↑ King Kong Model Set. Retrieved May 17, 2016 .
- ^ The Dominion Post: Liquidator seeks Kong ship buyer. August 29, 2007, accessed May 17, 2016 .
- ↑ King Kong boat scuttled. (No longer available online.) February 10, 2010, archived from the original on May 17, 2016 ; accessed on May 17, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
