#btw lusitania my beloved you will always be famous

[the-girl-in-the-high-castle]

Finding myself bored this evening, I will do a completely useless analysis no one asked for in this longish post. Since this show will never leave me alone and neither will my years long obsession with old ocean liners (especially the ones laying at the bottom of the ocean), here it is:

I don't know how it is today (the new cruise ships are no longer a thing of beauty to me, even though I've seen a similar thing there too), but at the time, every steamship company had its color displayed on the ship's funnels. We had major rivial companies such as Cunard Line, White Star Line, and Norddeutscher Lloyd.

Cunard Line ships had their familiar mostly dark red funnels with a black top.

White Star Line ships' funnels were yellowish with the black top.

And we also have the example of Norddeutscher Lloyd ships having full yellow funnels.

Now, these colors were there so that you could tell the difference, aka which company does a certain ship belong to (among other things such as design, call sign, etc), unless it's painted in dark gray or black war colors or as hospital ships.

Now, I don't know if Bo and Jantje or other people involved in the show went that deep into all of this, but the show doesn't follow these rules. Here, we have Prometheus and Kerberos belonging to the same company, but having different colored funnels. Kerberos red and Prometheus yellow. You can clearly see it in multiple shots, like the archive or the poster itself, and there's also a sketch:

You can see the real examples in history, such as the White Star Line: Titanic and Olympic (yellow with black top)

Cunard Line: Lusitania and Mauretania (this is particularly interesting because it was said by the people involved in the show that Kerberos was based off of Lusitania) red with black top

Or Norddeutscher Lloyd: Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (all yellow)

So, looking at the show following these rules, it would suggest Prometheus and Kerberos did not operate for the same company. But it's obvious those rules do not apply in the show, and I don't think the reason for that was that the showrunners didn't care, know, or find it relevant, I think it's simply because it was important for the audience to see the difference between these two ships. The difference is quite obvious when the Prometheus was found, since it was all dark and only floating, while the Kerberos was fully operating. On the other hand, in the graveyard, aka the archive, without the different funnels, it's impossible to tell the difference. I am convinced that the difference between them is very, very important for the plot. I have already written about that, so I will not repeat myself. Anyway, enough with the useless trivia.

#1899 netflix #1899 #1899 analysis #too much time on my hands #sorry for the long post #this is just me rambling because I'm a champion in useless information #my obsession with steamships and ocean liners and maritime disasters was what got me obsessed with this show in the first place #anyway bring me back my boat show #when will this misery end #useless knowledge about boats for my beloved boat show #i borrowed the pictures and am very thankfull for other people's great effort in creating them #btw lusitania my beloved you will always be famous