#white thunder

The Viking

Released in 1931, The Viking was the first film to record on-location (sync) sound. But despite this major achievement, the film is remembered for something else: it was the deadliest set in the history of film.

The movie depicts a graphic story of dramatic events taking place during a seal-hunting expedition along the coast of Newfoundland. In order to accurately portray the hardships of seal hunting and to film action scenes on ice floes, director Varick Frissell and his crew boarded actual sealing ships.

After the screening, Frissell decided that it didn’t contain enough quality shots of Canadian icy wastelands, so he and his crew boarded the SS Viking on it's annual seal hunt off the coast of Labrador. They filmed ice floes, icebergs, and some gruesome and incredibly violent footage of seal hunting.

On the water, the boat got stuck in the ice. Frissel and his crew even walked around on thick ice to film the stuck boat. After manual attempts failed, the ship's crew prepared charges of dynamite to break up the ice. One of the men accidentally ignited one of them in the powder room. As a result, the 25 crates of dynamite exploded, destroying the rear part of the ship and killing 27 people, including the director (Frissell), whose body was never found. Among the other casualties were cinematographer Alexander Penrod, 24 of the ship's crew members, and a stowaway (E. Cronin).