The Ghost Ship

"The Ghost Ship" is the third episode of Stingray, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films (APF) for ITC Entertainment. Written by Alan Fennell and directed by Desmond Saunders, it was the eighth episode filmed and was first broadcast on 18 October 1964 on the Anglia, ATV London, Border, Grampian and Southern franchises of the ITV network. It subsequently aired on ATV Midlands, Channel and Westward on 20 October. The series follows the missions of the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP), an organisation responsible for policing the Earth's oceans in the 2060s. Headquartered at the self-contained city of Marineville on the West Coast of North America, the WASP operates a fleet of vessels led by Stingray: a combat submarine crewed by Captain Troy Tempest, Lieutenant "Phones" and Marina, a mute young woman from under the sea. Stingrays adventures bring it into contact with undersea civilisations – some friendly, others hostile – as well as mysterious natural phenomena. In "The Ghost Ship", the Stingray crew encounter a seemingly deserted galleon while investigating the disappearance of an ocean liner. Plot The ocean liner Arcadia disappears at sea. Her last radio transmission – in which the crew reported seeing an old galleon – reaches World Security Patrol (WSP) headquarters, who relay it to the World Aquanaut Security Patrol (WASP) in Marineville with orders to investigate. Captain Troy Tempest (voiced by Don Mason), Lieutenant "Phones" (voiced by Robert Easton) and Marina depart in Stingray, joined by Commander Shore (voiced by Ray Barrett). Stingray arrives at Arcadias last known position and makes visual contact with the galleon, which does not respond to Troy's hails. Shore and Phones board the ship and find its upper decks deserted. However, they fail to notice a platform built into one of the floors and are lowered into a watertight section in bowels of the ship, where they are met by an undersea pirate called Idotee. Holding them at gunpoint, Idotee explains that he converted the galleon into a submarine and used its cannons to sink Arcadia. Now he intends to kill the Stingray crew for crimes against the undersea races.