The Thirty-Fathom Grave
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| “The Thirty-Fathom Grave” | |||||||
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| The Twilight Zone episode | |||||||
 Scene from "The Thirty-Fathom Grave" |
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| Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 104 |
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| Written by | Rod Serling | ||||||
| Directed by | Perry Lafferty | ||||||
| Guest stars | Mike Kellin : Chief Bell Simon Oakland : Captain Beecham David Sheiner : Doc John Considine : McClure Bill Bixby : OOD Conlan Carter : Ensign Vincent Baggetta : Crewman |
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| Production no. | 4857 | ||||||
| Original airdate | January 10, 1963 | ||||||
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| List of Twilight Zone episodes | |||||||
"The Thirty-Fathom Grave" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.
Contents |
[edit] Opening narration
| “ | Incident one hundred miles off the coast of Guadalacanal. Time: the present. The United States naval destroyer on what has been a most uneventful cruise. In a moment, they're going to send a man down thirty fathoms to check on a noise maker--someone or something tapping on metal. You may or may not read the results in a naval report, because Captain Beecham and his crew have just set a course that will lead this ship and everyone on it into the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Synopsis
In 1963, a U.S. Navy destroyer is on a routine patrol just off Guadalcanal when sonar picks up the sound of metallic clanging beneath the waves. The crew speculates that it sounds like a hammer.
It's soon discovered that a submarine is on the ocean floor, where it's probably been since the great naval battles of World War II. The joking suggestion that the sub may be haunted sends fearful Chief Bell into a frenzy of bizarre behavior, including fainting spells. The destroyer's commander, Captain Beecham, orders a diver to investigate the sub below. They find out that it is an American submarine from WWII, and there is definite hammering coming from inside! "Who could be inside that sub?" wonders a crewman. Beecham replies, "Somebody who dies damn hard!"
The discovery that the sub is a U.S. relic sends Chief Bell into even greater neurosis. Bell once served aboard that sunken submarine, and was the only survivor when it was shelled. Now he feels that the spirits of his former crew mates are calling for him to join them. They appear to him as ghosts in the hospital, soaking wet and beckoning. Feeling horrible and guilty, Bell hurls himself into the ocean. Later, the diver from the destroyer explores the abandoned wreckage, and reports back to Beecham, saying that a metal device was repeatedly swinging against the hull. However, he also found eight corpses inside, one of which was holding a hammer.
[edit] Closing narration
| “ | Small naval engagement, the month of April, 1963. Not to be found in any historical annals. Look for this one file under 'H' for haunting--in the Twilight Zone. | ” |
[edit] Trivia
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- The ship's hull number in the opening, exterior shot is different from the one shown immediately thereafter in the opening scene. The opening shot is stock footage of the U.S.S. Mullinnix, but in the very next shot, the ship number on the wall-mounted life preserver designates the ship as the U.S.S. Edson. Both ships were Forrest Sherman-class destroyers.
