Sports on Board Ship

An improvised deck game to pass the time en voyage

Advertised in an 1897 catalogue of the Prestwich Manufacturing Company - a Tottenham firm specialising cinematographic devices - among a collection of 'New English Subjects', this short film has all the hallmarks of a typical piece of early film. An excitable crowd gathers around a singular piece of action: someone repeatedly falls on their bum! What else do you need to make an audience happy? This game might have been improvised to while away some time on a long voyage, but happily this film preserves it in all its oddity.