A Sea voyage on 8mm film

This post on Vintage Home Movies features a film made during a Sea Voyage and subsequent trip to what seems to be the US in the 1960s.

The film is nearly 5 minutes long so was the result of editing together more than one reel of film. Unfortunately the start of the film has a rather serious colour cast which I couldn’t remove after I’d scanned the film; I don’t know if this is the result of using a film made for a different light colour((i.e. using a tungsten film in daylight conditions )), or if this has happened as a result of the film ageing. It’s fortunate that this only affects the start of the film.

Interestingly there seem to be two sea voyages in the outward section of the film – an initial sea voyage followed by a train journey, and then there are pictures of a Manchester Lines ship – the Manchester Fame – which presumably took the photographer onward on their journey. It’s possible that the photographer started their trip in Ireland and the initial sea voyage, which was obviously on a ship with a lot of passengers, was to the UK from Ireland.

The date of the film is probably in the 1960s. It seems the Manchester Fame was commissioned in 1954 and the Manchester Lines shipping company moved to freight in 1968 – although as I note below it is possible that the second part of the outward journey this film shows was taken on board a freight ship which could date it a bit later.

The first scenes shot when the sea voyage was completed are of very icy conditions and show what seem to be american cars. It is possible however that this is Canada rather than the US.

There is surprisingly little action shot in the destination country other than of the ships in the docks and some freight being loaded. This made me wonder if the photographer was actually employed by the shipping company and the ship was a freight carrier.

Following this brief stop in the US, the rest of the film shows the voyage back to the UK. I was surprised to see how many ships were within a few miles of the vessel the photographer was on.