In de Tropische Zee

In de Tropische Zee
(In the Tropical Seas)

(One reel of approximately 1,000 feet, date of release unknown)
Print source: Nederlands Filmmuseum, 12 minutes 52 seconds.
Photographed by Carl Louis Gregory.
Co-production of Submarine Film Company and Thanhouser, using the Williamson Submarine Tube, with the participation of J. Ernest Williamson and George M. Williamson.
Edited for Netherlands release, from 20,000 feet of film taken by
Original music composed and performed by Ben Model.

Thanhouser’s cinematographer Carl Louis Gregory in Nassau Harbor, Nassau, Bahamas, April-June 1914. Includes use of the “Photosphere,” a Williamson invention consisting of an underwater tube with a large window on one end for viewing and photographing.

In April through June of 1914 a joint project by Thanhouser and the Williamson Submarine Company produced some 20,000 feet of underwater footage in the Bahamas. Carl Louis Gregory, an important cinematographer in film history, was the Thanhouser cameraman, using the newly-perfected Williamson Submarine, aka Photosphere, a nine-foot-long underwater tube with a viewing window at one end where the camera operator could work perfectly dry while capturing actual underwater views in their natural settings. George M. Williamson and his brother J. Ernest Williamson, sons of the tube’s inventor Capt. C. Williamson, participated both in front and behind the camera.

The first Thanhouser release from this footage was the five-reel The Terrors of the Deep—after three or four special screenings in July 1914 it was finally released in September. More material was assembled into Thirty Leagues Under the Sea (also released in September).

The shark footage of In de Tropische Zee is either the final reel of Thirty Leagues Under the Sea or additional footage not used in the two Thanhouser releases, here assembled in a special Dutch or European release by a Dutch distributor or exhibitor. This title is not mentioned in the Thanhouser records or in the U.S. trade press.

Universal’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916) used the Williamson Submarine.