Cabin Fever (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Cabin Fever is an RTÉ
reality TV show
which was meant to have been broadcast over eight weeks starting on 3 June 2003. Disaster struck however two weeks into the broadcast when, on Friday 13
June 2003, the ship ran aground off Tory Island
off the north-west coast near County Donegal
.
Cabin Fever consisted of a group of ten contestants chosen specially for the show, most of whom had no sailing experience (though they had received a quick course in sailing technique prior to setting sail), who were to be put on the 27.4 metre (90 foot), two-masted schooner
with a professional crew of two. The wind-powered sailing ship would then sail around the Irish coast
. Each week one contestant was scheduled to quite literally "walk the plank
" after being voted off the ship by TV viewers. The final surviving contestant was to be considered the winner and would receive €100,000.
The show was named after cabin fever
, the claustrophobic
reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period.
. It was heavily refurbished for the programme.
The Cabin Fever II was brought from Dartmouth
. It was registered as the Johanna Lucretia
.
Placings:
, a small island off the north-west coast near County Donegal
. All the 9 remaining contestants1 and two crew were rescued by the nearby Arranmore
Lifeboat, but the wooden sailing ship broke up on the rocks. Ironically the accident was not filmed by the RTÉ film crew; they had left the ship some hours earlier to catch some sleep after 15 hours continuous filming. The incident was however filmed by a local man who happened to have been recording the schooner's movements at the moment she ran aground. The Irish media made much tongue-in-cheek mention of the fact that the disaster occurred on Friday the 13th
, a date often linked to supposed curses and disasters and also the fact that the ship's name had been changed for the programme: sailing lore suggests that any ship which is renamed prior to setting sail will meet with disaster.
Stuart Switzer, a Coco Television Productions producer responsible for the programme said:
, which supplies lifeboat coverage around the Irish coast.
RTÉ and Coco TV hired a second boat. The captain, Peter Culleton, was replaced and the show began again, though three of the original team declined to come back. They were replaced by two new contestants. The series was further hit when the boat experienced engine trouble and required a new gearbox
but the problem was ultimately solved. Partly due to the controversies, the series regularly topped the TAM ratings on RTÉ.
party, questioned “the wisdom of sending out 10 people with no sailing experience with just two qualified sailors.” He said the destruction of the ship “shows that so-called reality television has gone too far, with people being asked to carry out challenges that are too dangerous.”
Raidió Teilifís Éireann
Raidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
reality TV show
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
which was meant to have been broadcast over eight weeks starting on 3 June 2003. Disaster struck however two weeks into the broadcast when, on Friday 13
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year...
June 2003, the ship ran aground off Tory Island
Tory Island
Toraigh is an inhabited island 14.5 km off the northwest coast of County Donegal, Ireland. It is also known in Irish as Oileán Thoraigh, Oileán Thoraí or Oileán Thúr Rí.-Language:The main spoken language on the island is Irish, but English is also understood...
off the north-west coast near County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
.
Cabin Fever consisted of a group of ten contestants chosen specially for the show, most of whom had no sailing experience (though they had received a quick course in sailing technique prior to setting sail), who were to be put on the 27.4 metre (90 foot), two-masted schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
with a professional crew of two. The wind-powered sailing ship would then sail around the Irish coast
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
. Each week one contestant was scheduled to quite literally "walk the plank
Walking the plank
Walking the plank was a form of murder or torture thought to have been practiced by pirates, mutineers and other rogue seafarers. The victim was forced to walk off the end of a wooden plank or beam, the final six feet of which extended over the side of a ship...
" after being voted off the ship by TV viewers. The final surviving contestant was to be considered the winner and would receive €100,000.
The show was named after cabin fever
Cabin fever
Cabin fever is an idiomatic term for a claustrophobic reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period...
, the claustrophobic
Claustrophobia
Claustrophobia is the fear of having no escape and being closed in small spaces or rooms...
reaction that takes place when a person or group is isolated and/or shut in a small space, with nothing to do, for an extended period.
The ships
The Cabin Fever was built in 1947 in FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. It was heavily refurbished for the programme.
The Cabin Fever II was brought from Dartmouth
Dartmouth, Devon
Dartmouth is a town and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is a tourist destination set on the banks of the estuary of the River Dart, which is a long narrow tidal ria that runs inland as far as Totnes...
. It was registered as the Johanna Lucretia
Johanna Lucretia
The Johanna Lucretia is a British tall ship and is an oak wooden two masted topsail schooner built at the Rhoos Shipyard, Ghent in Belgium in 1945...
.
The contestants
The contestants — five men and five women — were selected from among 6,724 applicants.Placings:
- Elaine Power (30), Dunmore EastDunmore EastDunmore East is a popular tourist and fishing village village in County Waterford, Ireland. Situated on the west side of Waterford Harbour on Ireland's southeastern coast, it lies within the barony of Gaultier : a reference to the influx of Norman settlers in the area.-History:Iron Age people...
, County WaterfordCounty Waterford*Abbeyside, Affane, Aglish, Annestown, An Rinn, Ardmore*Ballinacourty, Ballinameela, Ballinamult, Ballinroad, Ballybeg, Ballybricken, Ballyduff Lower, Ballyduff Upper, Ballydurn, Ballygunner, Ballylaneen, Ballymacarbry, Ballymacart, Ballynaneashagh, Ballysaggart, Ballytruckle, Bilberry, Bunmahon,... - Cat Sheridan (26), MidletonMidletonMidleton, historically Middleton , is a town in south-eastern County Cork, Ireland. It lies some 22 km east of Cork City on the Owenacurra River and the N25 road, which connects Cork to the port of Rosslare...
- Fiona McGonnell (29), CavanCavanCavan is the county town of County Cavan in the Republic of Ireland. The town lies in the north central part of Ireland, near the border with Northern Ireland...
- David Yaffe (29), RathfarnhamRathfarnhamRathfarnham or Rathfarnam is a Southside suburb of Dublin, Ireland. It is south of Terenure, east of Templeogue, and is in the postal districts of Dublin 14 and 16. It is within the administrative areas of both Dun Laoghaire-Rathdown and South Dublin County Councils.The area of Rathfarnham...
- Andrew Fowler (27), Dublin
- Marie Walsh (45), CastleislandCastleislandCastleisland is a town and commercial centre in County Kerry in south west Ireland. The town is renowned for the width of its main street. Castleisland has a population of 2,170....
, County KerryCounty KerryKerry means the "people of Ciar" which was the name of the pre-Gaelic tribe who lived in part of the present county. The legendary founder of the tribe was Ciar, son of Fergus mac Róich. In Old Irish "Ciar" meant black or dark brown, and the word continues in use in modern Irish as an adjective... - Lee Gooch (30), LetterkennyLetterkennyLetterkenny , with a population of 17,568, is the largest town in County Donegal, part of the Province of Ulster in Ireland. The town is located on the River Swilly...
- Ciara Dunne (23), CarlowCarlowCarlow is the county town of County Carlow in Ireland. It is situated in the south-east of Ireland, 84 km from Dublin. County Carlow is the second smallest county in Ireland by area, however Carlow Town is the 14th largest urban area in Ireland by population according to the 2006 census. The...
- Noel Hogan (27), EnnisEnnisEnnis is the county town of Clare in Ireland. Situated on the River Fergus, it lies north of Limerick and south of Galway. Its name is a shortening of the original ....
(quit on July 3rd)
Disaster
Disaster struck however two weeks into the broadcast when, on 13 June 2003, the ship ran aground off Tory IslandTory Island
Toraigh is an inhabited island 14.5 km off the northwest coast of County Donegal, Ireland. It is also known in Irish as Oileán Thoraigh, Oileán Thoraí or Oileán Thúr Rí.-Language:The main spoken language on the island is Irish, but English is also understood...
, a small island off the north-west coast near County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...
. All the 9 remaining contestants1 and two crew were rescued by the nearby Arranmore
Arranmore
Árainn Mhór is the largest inhabited island of County Donegal, and the second largest in all of Ireland, with a population of 528 in 2006, down from 543 in 2002, and over 600 in 1996. The island is part of the Donegal Gaeltacht...
Lifeboat, but the wooden sailing ship broke up on the rocks. Ironically the accident was not filmed by the RTÉ film crew; they had left the ship some hours earlier to catch some sleep after 15 hours continuous filming. The incident was however filmed by a local man who happened to have been recording the schooner's movements at the moment she ran aground. The Irish media made much tongue-in-cheek mention of the fact that the disaster occurred on Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th occurs when the thirteenth day of a month falls on a Friday, which superstition holds to be a day of bad luck. In the Gregorian calendar, this day occurs at least once, but at most three times a year...
, a date often linked to supposed curses and disasters and also the fact that the ship's name had been changed for the programme: sailing lore suggests that any ship which is renamed prior to setting sail will meet with disaster.
Stuart Switzer, a Coco Television Productions producer responsible for the programme said:
“The back of the boat has broken. It is actually in two pieces, and the waves are knocking the planks and timber around. There is debris all over the water and all over the shore.”
Aftermath
RTÉ and the programme makers, Coco TV, announced that all money earned from phone-in votes in the previous week (and which, due to the disaster, would not now lead to some contestant leaving the ship on 16 June as planned), would be donated to the Royal National Lifeboat InstitutionRoyal National Lifeboat Institution
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity that saves lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, as well as on selected inland waterways....
, which supplies lifeboat coverage around the Irish coast.
RTÉ and Coco TV hired a second boat. The captain, Peter Culleton, was replaced and the show began again, though three of the original team declined to come back. They were replaced by two new contestants. The series was further hit when the boat experienced engine trouble and required a new gearbox
Transmission (mechanics)
A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...
but the problem was ultimately solved. Partly due to the controversies, the series regularly topped the TAM ratings on RTÉ.
Reaction
Barry Andrews, a politician from the then governing Fianna FáilFianna Fáil
Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party , more commonly known as Fianna Fáil is a centrist political party in the Republic of Ireland, founded on 23 March 1926. Fianna Fáil's name is traditionally translated into English as Soldiers of Destiny, although a more accurate rendition would be Warriors of Fál...
party, questioned “the wisdom of sending out 10 people with no sailing experience with just two qualified sailors.” He said the destruction of the ship “shows that so-called reality television has gone too far, with people being asked to carry out challenges that are too dangerous.”