SS Venture

The Steam Ship Venture (The Moving Picture Ship by Ann Darrow) was a tramp steamer which was mostly used to ship exotic animals all across the world. Her only known captain was Captain Englehorn, with the first mate being Jack Driscoll. However, in the 2005 remake, the first mate is rather Ben Hayes, until his death.

Journey to Skull Island[]

On October 12th, 1933, while under the charter of Carl Denham, she suffered damage to her bow when she collided with the outer walls of Skull Island, the crew managed to reverse her off the wall successfully but she later ran aground on rocks further out in the fog and got beached, the crew then tried to stem the leaks sustained in the collision and attempted to free the ship by waiting for the rising tide and removing as much excess weight as possible, the captain, Englehorn, exclaimed "Lighten the ship! Anything that's not bolted down, throw it overboard!"

In this fray, it gave the natives of Skull Island enough time to infiltrate the ship and capture Ann Darrow for a sacrifice. Jack Drsicoil, Carl Denham, Herb, Preston, Jimmy, Bruce Baxter, Hayes, Captain Englehorn, Lumpy, Choy, and some of the sailors sent out to rescue Ann, by taking the life boats, some of their guns and equipment. Some of the Crew sent out to continue rescuing Ann further inland, while Englehorn and some of the sailors stay in the Native Village to await the rescue party's return, while the rest of them stay at the ship to continue repairs.

Many of the sailors had died from the many unknown, thought to be extinct animals on the island, ranging from being stepped on, getting crushed in a pile of Brontosaurs, getting devoured by a Piranhadon, getting grabbed by a deplector's claw, getting tossed and falling to their deaths, many including known crewmen like Choy, Lumpy and other passengers like Herb dying in the trek. Only Jack, Carl, Jimmy and Preston survived the entire expedition.

Denham decided to captured Kong alive after losing his camera and film and half of the ship's crew tried to captured him using ropes, anchors, nets, and chloroform, but Kong broke free and killed several more sailors, but many of them managed to survived and eventually captured Kong after Denham threw Chloroform in his face: finally putting him to sleep.

The crew were eventually able to repair the ship, and later SS Venture was used to transport Kong back to New York City.

Known Crew Members[]

2005 Remake[]

Captain Englehorn, Captain
Ben Hayes, First mate (Deceased, thrown by Kong)
Lumpy, Cook (Deceased, devoured by Carnictis)
Jimmy, Lookout
Choy (Deceased, fell to his death from the log to Kong's lair)
Venture Crewman 1 (Deceased, shaken off log to Kong's lair, fell to his death)
Venture Crewman 2 (Deceased, thrown off log to Kong's lair, fell to his death)
Venture Crewman 3 (Deceased, landed on a hard surface as the log stopped in the Insect Chasm, died on impact)
Venture Crewman 4 (Deceased, tried to climb the Insect Chasm, snatched by a Deplector)
Venture Crewman 5 (Deceased, snatched and devoured by the Piranhadon on the swamp shore)
Venture Crewman 6 (Deceased, snatched and devoured underwater by the Piranhadon)
Venture Crewman 7 (Deceased, snatched and devoured by the Piranhadon)
Venture Crewman 8 (Deceased, stomped by a Brontosaurus)
Venture Crewman 9 (Deceased, depending on the canon: snatched and eaten by a Venatosaurus in the stampede (in the deleted scene), or in canon was trampled in the pileup of the Brontosaurs)
Venture Crewman 10 (Deceased, kicked off cliff by a Brontosaurus, fell to his death)
Venture Crewman 11 (Deceased, crushed between leg and wall of the Brontosaur after being attacked by a Venatosaurus, crushed to death)
Venture Crewman 12 (Unknown, but likely survived but was seen off-screen going with Bruce Baxter)
Venture Crewman 13 (Deceased, killed by the Natives)
Venture Crewman 14 (Deceased, crushed by Kong's arm, crushed to death)
Venture Crewman 15 (Deceased, killed by a Native)
Venture Crewman 16 (Deceased, head bitten off by Kong, decapitated)
Venture Crewman 17 Radio Operator (Unknown, most likely survived but sustained injuries when his raft was thrown by Kong)
Venture Crewman 18 Helmsmann
Venture Crewman 19 (Deceased, crushed by Kong's arm, crushed to death)
Venture Crewman 20 Stoker
Venture Crewman 21 (Unknown, most likely survived but sustained injuries when his raft was thrown by Kong)
Venture Crewman 22 (Unknown, most likely survived but sustained injuries when his raft was thrown by Kong)
Venture Crewman 23 (Unknown, most likely deceased since he is sitting near the nose of the raft that it hits the cove, most likely causing him to be killed by impact and force of the raft hitting)
Venture Crewman 24 (Unknown)
Venture Crewman 25
Venture Crewmember 26
Venture Crewman 27
Venture Crewmember 28
Venture Crewmember 29 (Unknown)
Venture crewmember 30 (Deceased)
Venture Crewman 31 (Unknown)
Venture Crewman 32 (Unknown)
Venture Crewman 33 (Unknown)
Venture Crewman 34 (Unknown)
Venture Crewman 35
Venture Crewman 36
Venture Crewman 37
Venture Crewman 38
Venture Crewman 42
Unknown Crewmembers (An unknown number of Crewman seen during Kong's captured.) (Deceased/Unknown)

Known Passengers[]

Carl Denham
Ann Darrow
Jack Driscoll (2005)
Bruce Baxter
Preston
Herb (Deceased)
Mike (Deceased)

Cargo[]

Various Exotic Animals
Chloroform
Assorted weaponry
Kong (Deceased)

Trivia[]

The freighter in The Lost World: Jurassic Park is also called the SS Venture, and like King Kong's Venture, is used to transport a large creature to a major city. It is likely that the Venture in Jurassic Park is a reference to the one in King Kong.
A ship named the Venture is one of the wrecks seen on the sea floor in Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.
The Venture appeared to carried 3 times the crew it needs, explaining why there were more during Kong's capture.
The Venture appears to be registered in Surabaya in Indonesia, as it is under the ship's name.
Some people have noted that it was still written as "Soerabaja" in 1933, but the spelling "Surabaya" was, in fact, already accepted in English at that time.
Despite the life-size prop ship's Antiquated look and design, the ship was a 1950s light cargo ship, and was rebuilt heavily for the film. After filming, the ship was stripped of all equipment inside, and sunk as a coral reef around Australia or New Zealand.