# The original "Ship of the Damned"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176 "2005-04-20T02:17:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/1 "2005-04-20T02:17:09Z")
I was watching Masterpiece Theatre last night,\* and someone made a reference to “The Ship of the Damned,” referred to as a “famous short story…about a boat that had a hole in it.” Now, I’ve heard the term about a billion times throughout the years, but I can’t seem to remember the original source. And a google search only turned up a novel based on the “Philidephia Experiment,” and some sites on the _S.S. St. Louis_. So, can anyone enlighten me? What WAS the “Ship of the Damned”? \*By which I mean “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” on the Cartoon Network. There, ya happy? ---
**Author:** ![Kaspar\_Hauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b3f665/32.png) [@Kaspar\_Hauser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaspar_Hauser)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/2 "2005-04-20T02:35:20Z")
I immediately thought of ATHF when I read the thread title, and I didn’t even watch it last night. ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/3 "2005-04-20T03:09:09Z")
[This is the only thing I found](http://print.google.com/print?id=p7FF_FTK3TQC&lpg=9&prev=http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3Dship%2520of%2520the%2520damned%26oi%3Dprint&pg=0_1&printsec=0&sig=CKyhBXzUPbWqK19RPhaon2xttCk). ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/4 "2005-04-20T12:49:35Z")
Not sure if this fits, but I first thought of the Marie Celeste when I read the OP. Conan Doyle did a short story and he changed the name to the Mary Celeste. [http://www.maryceleste.net/part2.htm](http://www.maryceleste.net/part2.htm) ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/5 "2005-04-20T12:54:13Z")
Nothign to add, other than I remember seeing at least one parady of it, poissibly more. There was an ep. of The Simpsons where Homer has to donate a kidney to Abe, but runs away and is on a “ship of the damned” which includes other people who had to run away from society. One person’s story had tigers! From the way the scene looked, it semed to be set either jsut before or just after WWII, most likely French. This makes sense, cause I seem to recall Frylock saying he had a French name for his costume. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/6 "2005-04-20T13:12:40Z")
Looking at [www.snpp.com](http://www.snpp.com), I have found out it is called either the “Ship of Lost Souls” or “The Island of Lost Souls.” Hmm…“Island of Lost Souls” is a 1930s’ movie of _The Island of Dr. Moreau._. Near as I can tell, a ship of lost sould/the damned is just a general reference made to a collection of people who for whatever reason have turned away from society, usually because of something wrong they did. I would imagine it harkens (ha! first time I think I’ve ever used that word) back to an original short story by _someone_, but odds are it’s not called “The Ship of Lost Souls/The Damned,” but something different…something probably French. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/7 "2005-04-20T17:47:53Z")
For some reason, the flying dutchmen came to mind when I read the op. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/8 "2005-04-20T18:27:47Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > the _S.S. St. Louis_. That would be the [Voyage of the Damned](http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/faqs/St_Louis.html). A book–a good one, as I recall–of the account was published in 1974 and a movie starring Faye Dunaway was released two years later. ---
**Author:** ![Judith\_Prietht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@Judith\_Prietht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Judith_Prietht)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/9 "2005-04-20T20:55:41Z")
I thought The Flying Dutchman as well, where they’re forced to sail the seas forever. I just saw that Simpsons episode repeated yesterday or the day before. “The name on the back says ‘Honeybunch.’ ‘Yarrr, I’ve been meaning to paint over that.’” ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/10 "2005-04-20T21:12:14Z")
Chiming in. When I see “Ship of the Damned,” I also assume the reference is to [The Flying Dutchman](http://www.music-with-ease.com/flying-dutchman-source.html). As you can see from the link, there’s a Wagner opera on the subject. Don’t know about a short story, though. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/11 "2005-04-20T21:52:47Z")
I don’t know if it’s called “The Ship of the Damned” but the wreck of the French frigate Medusa off the African gold coast certainly meets most requirements for that. Especially the actions of the survivors on the raft that many tried to used to get to shore. Basically, if you can think of some horror perpetrated by humans on other humans, it happened: Cannibalism, tossing snotty people off the raft to the waiting sharks, murder… When the news got out, it shocked the world, and there’s at least one famous [painting](http://www.answers.com/topic/the-raft-of-the-medusa) of the raft in question. I don’t know if this is what the Masterpiece theatre was thinking of, with “Ship fo the Damned,” but it fits, far more than Mary Celeste. And at least as well as Flying Dutchman. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2005, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-original-ship-of-the-damned/300176/12 "2005-04-20T22:27:37Z")
First thing I thought of was The Pogues’s [_Turkish Song Of The Damned_](http://www.lyricsfreak.com/p/pogues/109740.html): > [@](#): > > You remember when the ship went down > You left me on the deck > The captain’s corpse jumped up > And threw his arms around my neck > For all these years I’ve had him on my back > This debt cannot be paid with all your jack