Elysium (The Elysium)

You may wish to consult Elysium (disambiguation) for other, similarly-named pages.

History[]

Main article: The Crash of the Elysium

On 17 July 1888, the Elysium catastrophically grounded herself on rocks half a mile away from "the extremities of the South Coast" during a storm that measured a force 12 on the Beaufort scale, with winds over ninety knots. Her cargo included valuable metals including over £1000 worth of gold ingots, as well as industrial machine parts for the cotton trade. Captain T. A. Solomon and the rest of the eight man crew were reported missing to the coastguard's office in the early hours of the morning and salvage rights were under dispute by local agencies. On 18 July, The Manchester Guardian reported the crash. (PROSE: Pride of Mayfield Star Lines Beached in Devastating Storm ^[+]North West Historical Society (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).)

The Elysium gained notoriety among the diving community if the ship actually had gold ingots included in its cargo. Some believed that the claims of gold were part of an insurance scam. (PROSE: Enthusiastic Amateur Diver Shares His Discoveries With You! ^[+]Daryl the Diver (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).) It appeared as if, since the initial beaching of the Elysium in 1888, (PROSE: Pride of Mayfield Star Lines Beached in Devastating Storm ^[+]North West Historical Society (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).) the Elysium later sank. (PROSE: Enthusiastic Amateur Diver Shares His Discoveries With You! ^[+]Daryl the Diver (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).)

In the 2010s, the North West Historical Society began researching "the Crash of the Elysium", with them launching a website in which they documented the Elysium; (PROSE: The North West Historical Society ^[+]North West Historical Society (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).) in particular, they transcribed the 18 July 1888 edition of The Manchester Guardian, which curiously differed from the scan of the newspaper they included. Their transcript instead claimed that, in addition to the cargo of precious metals and machinery, there was a piece of confidential cargo transported under government warrant, and that there was no storm in that sector at the time of the crash. They further elaborated that Whitehall had been recorded by not commenting on the cargo, that crew records at left at Mortimer House imply that the secret cargo was a valuable statue, and that eyewitness saw an angelic woman emerge from the wreckage, but officials dismissed the claims as "wild fancy". (PROSE: Pride of Mayfield Star Lines Beached in Devastating Storm ^[+]North West Historical Society (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).)

Amateur diver Daryl Christofi also took interest in the Elysium, citing it as his latest diving project. (PROSE: Daryl Christofi ^[+]Daryl the Diver (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).) Documenting his efforts on his website, he explained he had obtained salvage rights to the ship; his efforts were focused on retrieving the ingots of gold, which were, by the 2010s, worth over £10000000, after consulting the shipping logs. After several unsuccessful attempts, his first successful dive had him locate the ship, whereupon he noted the ship's good condition despite the surrounding area being silty; he also managed to retrieve some pottery on this dive, which he loaned to a touring exhibition about the Elysium. Daryl planned another dive to the Elysium for the next month. (PROSE: Enthusiastic Amateur Diver Shares His Discoveries With You! ^[+]Daryl the Diver (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).)

While not stated explicitly in any source, valid or not, the implication set by Pride of Mayfield Star Lines Beached in Devastating Storm is that is was sunk by the Weeping Angel that was being transported; however, no explanation is given for why the North West Historical Society's transcript of The Manchester Guardian differs from the scan of the newspaper.
This ship is the titular ship from The Crash of the Elysium, however, despite the beginning of that immersive experience taking place at an exhibition about the steamer Elysium, the story actually revolves around a different Elysium, a spaceship that was also carrying a Weeping Angel as its cargo. No explanation is given, either, for this coincidence.
- Furthermore, the web tie-ins for The Crash of the Elysium were released in 2011 to coincide with the initial release of the immersive experience, but they were not updated when the experience was moved from Manchester to Ipswich in 2012, leaving the contradictory setting of the experience only present in the experience itself.
- Additionally, no explanation of what happened to this Weeping Angel is given.
This ship has no relation to the SS Elysium from the 1993 Virgin New Adventures novel Iceberg.

In either Manchester 2011 or Ipswich 2012, depending on the variation of the source, there was an exhibition about the Elysium which a group of humans visited. However, coincidentally, a spaceship called the Elysium crash landed at the same time, leading the army to evacuate and enlist the humans to explore the second Elysium with them. (STAGE: The Crash of the Elysium ^[+]Tom MacRae, Doctor Who immersive experiences (Punchdrunk and BBC, 2011).)