MAJESTIC

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 855, 26 December 1929, Page 15

MAJESTIC

“ISLE OF LOST SHIPS” A highly imaginative story based on scientific fact from the pen of Crittenden Marriott, and a startling First National-Vitaphone film adapted from the story, may result in the first exploration of the Sargasso Sea.

This great central eddy in the Atlantic, if it is to be explored, must be explored from the air. Seaweed Hundreds of miles in extent renders all other methods of approach impracticable. The story of “The Isle of Lost Ships,” a thrilling dramatic film coming to the Majestic Theatre today, takes for granted that the Sargasso Sea is inhabited, Many scientists share this belief, since it undoubtedly contains the wreckage of hundreds, perhaps thousands of derelict ships. These, it is supposed, gravitate toward the centre, safe from storms and buoyed by a veritable island of seaweed so that they can never sink. Several plans for an air expedition to the slowly shifting location of the Sargasso Sea, in the North Atlantic, have been under consideration. One may be undertaken in about a month from the Pacific Coast. It will be sponsored by Ned Marin, film producer, and Alvin Knecktel, noted film pilot, will make the journey in his own airplane from the nearest land. Other plans include the use of amphibian planes and a mother ship. A particularly fine programme of supporting items has been chosen, and this evening’s entertainment should be a most enjoyable one.