STORIES ACROSS A CONTINENT… AND BEYOND
HFX has produced videos detailing stories across the United States in over 20 different states and two Canadian provinces.
Ghost Ship Mary Celeste: The 150 Year Mystery
The story of the Mary Celeste is one that I've wanted to do for a while but had no plan to make any time soon. In December, 2022, I figured I'd shoot the footage I need and finish the video whenever convenient (probably late 2023).
I worked with the Age of Sail Museum and the local Titanic society (since they more so cover general local maritime history), and in discussing this video, we realized the 150th anniversary is now. She was found on December 4th, and returned to Gibraltar on December 13th. None of the local museums had anything prepared to commemorate the anniversary of one of their most famous vessels, so we decided to light a fire under this project.
The documentary you're seeing was researched, written, filmed, edited, and animated all within about a week. It wouldn't have been at all possible without the help of my friend Alex, who did these beautiful animations for the project.
The Full Story of the Eastland Disaster
One of the worst maritime disasters in the United States actually occurred in downtown Chicago, at the Clark Street Wharf in 1915. The top-heavy, unstable SS Eastland took over 2,500 souls onboard and prepared to depart when she rolled over at her mooring.
The causes over the long, slow-burning lead up to the Eastland Disaster are muddy and a bit confusing, but with the help of detailed computer recreations in Unreal Engine 5 and in cooperation with the Eastland Disaster Historical Society our best to paint a broad picture of the life and death of the unlucky ship, looking at the happy memories, the near catastrophes, and the changes over her career that built up to this disaster.
This documentary features a recording of the historical song '“On the Boat Eastland”, recorded specifically for this video from an original piece of sheet music from my collection. The full song can be heard here.
The Terrible Disaster of the SS Arctic
In September, 1854, the Collins Liner “ARCTIC” was struck by the fishing steamer “VESTA” off the coast of Newfoundland. Utter chaos ensued as the ship slowly settled into the sea. The captain, try as he might, lost command of his crew and the ship devolved into absolute anarchy in one of the most horrific tales in maritime history.
This documentary features original CGI animations and the first authentic retelling of the sinking in video form, recounting the events leading up to the disaster and the terror that unfolded.
This documentary was met with popular acclaim and is one of my most popular videos on my channel. Funny enough, several comments said they believed the tagline to be clickbait, until they finally watched it through and realized how truthful the claim is.
Metropolis: Nevada’s Garden of Eden
Metropolis was a failed attempt to set up a Mormon mega-city in the remote, dry deserts of Northern Nevada. Actually, the city would have succeeded if the town planners had simply gone the legal route in acquiring water rights. After plagues, fire, and pests, the city was eventually abandoned.
This video flew under the radar for a while on my channel until other ghost town videos began to take off, and this one became a secondary hit. I feature it mainly because this is the ruin that sparked my interest in ghost towns, long before I ever had a chance to visit it.
Titanic Sinks in Real Time “Historian Edition”
In 2016, I directed a real-time sinking animation of the Titanic that went viral. It was shared and reshared, with several news outlets doing stories on it. It was a simple concept that I had wanted to do for a long time, but it captivated many and currently has over 70,000,000 views. The animation, however, was rushed and not completely authentic.
In 2021, sticking to the same format but with more planning, effort, and with hand-in-hand cooperation with renowned Titanic historians J Kent Layton, Tad Fitch, and Bill Wormstedt (authors of the book “On a Sea of Glass”), the animation was recreated.
This animation is also the basis of our annual Titanic commemoration livestream, which is held every April 14th/15th.
Wreck of the Schooner “WYOMING”
The Wyoming was the largest known wooden ship of all time, built by Percy & Small of Bath, Maine in 1909. She carried coal for years until wrecking in a storm off Nantucket in 1924.
The Wyoming is still legendary and I wanted to make this video to pay tribute. What started as a small research project evolved into a larger endeavor, requiring a drive up to New England to look further into the ship and piece together all I could to tell her story.
This video was met with surprising success after its publication and is still growing steadily.
Sailing with the Hudson River Day Line
The Hudson River Day Line brought passengers up and down the Hudson River between Albany and New York City, passing rich history and interesting American icons all along the way.
This video acts as a guided tour for a hypothetical trip across the Atlantic, through New York City, and up the river to Albany. It was particularly fun to make. Rather than focusing on the tragedy of a wreck, this was simply recreating a peaceful, every day voyage of a different era. It’s a step back in time for the viewer, to an era when travel was slower and more deliberate.
More videos on Hudson River and New York City history can be found here.
The Story of the Ning-Po
The Ning Po was the bane of the Chinese seas; an ancient pirate ship terrorizing the Imperial Chinese and British forces, raiding villages, and smuggling slaves. Every time she was captured, she somehow managed to escape and continue her life of crime. It wasn’t until she was finally bought by an American collector and brought across the Pacific to California that her spree ended, finishing off her days as a restaurant and museum ship at Catalina Island.
This was an exciting video to make, being one of my first experiences exploring a shipwreck first hand (albeit very little of her exists). Walking around the remains of the Ning Po was one of my first experiences at Catalina Island on a camping trip with a friend who had been studying the ship, and it was wonderful to finally detail the ship’s full story in this video.
The Bryn Athyn Train Wreck of 1921
On December 6, 1921, two trains collided on a blind curve of track along the Newtown branch of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad. The resulting fire killed 27 people and led to the banning of wooden carriages in passenger rail in the United States.
This is a local story for me, only 15 minutes from my home. I had always heard the briefest of summaries of this story, so I put this video together mainly as a personal project so I could piece together the timeline and finally understand this story.
The Last Signals (Independent Film)
The true story of Titanic’s two telegraph operators, Harold Bride and John Phillips, who stood by the telegraph calling for help as the lifeboats left, finally leaving their post as the ship sank from under them.
This was a high school film and is therefor technically lacking, having been shot on an extremely low budget (around $2,500 (most of which went into building the sets and buying camera equipment). It is nonetheless the result of one of the most fun summers I’ve ever had, working with good friends and accomplishing something greater than we expected.