Georges Melies, the magician turned pioneering filmmaker envisioned how a salvage operation on the USS Maine, sunk in Havanna harbor would look. This very old ,very short film from 1898 takes a fanciful look at what the divers might have encountered. Painted set of the wreck was filmed in front of a large glass tank with fishes swimming about give it a sort of real look even though the film has a very stylized, almost dream like quality to it. From what I understand, the first and last parts of it are missing, so only this this middle part survives. Maybe someday they'll turn up. Karel Zeman, the Czech animator-director of fantasy films was obviously inspired by the underwater scenes when he made 'The Fabulous World of Jules Verne' A. K. A 'Vynalez Zkazy' (1958).
