Hi I think interior ship scenes in Sphere (1998) were filmed on SS Jeremiah O-Brien. In a still from the film there are many certificates on the wall. Do you know what those are? – John Boyle, from the internet.
We get a lot of questions about Liberty Ships in the movies. Right after we put our website live we got a message from a movie buff John Boyle, asking about this scene in SPHERE. This is a familiar sight to any of us on the ship. It’s the forward bulkhead of the interior boat deck, where the certificates for the engineers hang. The chief engineer’s office is just beyond the certificates. The Jeremiah O’Brien relies on an all-volunteer crew but our engineers, oilers, and firemen must have certifications to run the ship. It’s one of the few operating triple expansion steam engines in the world, so most of these certificates are specific to the O’Brien herself!
Of course, the O’Brien is no stranger to the big screen. Our engines stand in for the Titanic’s engines in the James Cameron film! This scene is so famous that we found this animated GIF online for this article. A fun fact is that for the film the O’Brien went out on the San Francisco Bay and performed the same maneuvers to reverse the engines that the Titanic did, and we’ve got the logbook in our museum to prove it! It’s one of the exhibits on the ship you can see when you visit.
Films that portray Liberty Ships
But what about actual Liberty Ships in the movies? The films people ask about are mostly fiction. Although the Titanic actually sank, we only helped with the movie’s magic to bring her back to life -it wasn’t about the reason liberty ships exist. Very few films exist that depict Liberty Ships, but a recent one that shows the harrowing nature of the Battle of the Atlantic is GREYHOUND, starring Tom Hanks. GREYHOUND is based on a novel by C.S. Forester called The Good Shepherd. It’s a thrilling depiction of 48 hours of U-boat attacks during the height of the Battle of the Atlantic. This film doesn’t take place on a liberty ship. The protagonist is in charge of a destroyer whose duty is to protect a convoy of liberty ships. The source material is well-written and researched. It shows in the final film!
No liberty ships were harmed in the making of this movie – and none were used in filming.
Liberty Ships were first featured in the 1943 release ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC . It stars Humphrey Bogart himself! You can watch it on Youtube by clicking that link! Bogie portrays First Officer Joe Rossi. A U-boat attack wounds the captain of the SS Seawitch. Rossi takes command and leads the crew to port. The action takes place on a liberty ship but most of it is filmed on a soundstage with accurate representations of Liberty Ship features. The photo here shows a flybridge set, which is very close to what the flybridge on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien looks like.
The SS Jeremiah O’Brien is still available for use in movies! Talk to us today!
(This means you, Tom Hanks!)
Darren McKeeman is a technologist, writer, and consultant who is a volunteer docent and webmaster for the SS Jeremiah O'Brien.
Matt Hess
Retired plumbing foreman at the Port of San Francisco, volunteer photographer crew member SS Jeremiah O’Brien, volunteer photographer for the National Park Service