GoPro Footage Shows Astonishing View Underneath Cruise Ship

A Greek photographer has given cruise lovers and marine life enthusiasts alike a rare and unique view underneath a cruise ship by dropping his GoPro camera into the water and sharing the resulting video. To date, the astonishing video has garnered more than 5.3 million views.

What’s It Look Like Under a Cruise Ship?

Greek photographer, naval architect, and marine engineer Odysseas Froilan Papageorgiou recorded an amazing perspective from a cruise ship in a video posted on November 24, 2021.

The seven-minute video starts by showing a crew-only area of the ship in the bow where ropes are stored, before moving out an open window and overboard into the water. The ship, which is unidentified, has its pilot access door open and is anchored at the time of the video.

After entering the water, the view of the ship’s stem bulb – the “knob” under the bow – is obscured by a school of curious fish who seem to be investigating the camera, probably as a potential food source. In the background, the ship’s hull fades off into the distance.

Throughout the video, various fish of different species and sizes are seen up close and with beautiful clarity in the relatively clear water.

The ship’s anchor chain is also visible at some points, especially when the camera lands in the sand right next to the chain at the 1-minute, 33-second mark in the video. The detail is so clear that individual shells and pebbles can be seen in the sand as the camera pans along the chain for about one minute.

At 4:15 and again at 5:15, the ship’s bow thrusters can be seen, another sight most cruise passengers never get.

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At the 5:25 mark, the video switches to nighttime footage and the change is extraordinary. While the low-light video quality is somewhat poorer and the range shorter, the camera’s light does still illuminate some fish nearby, and surprisingly, multiple sharks are swimming close to the camera.

There is no narration to the video and the audio is minimal, though the overall image quality is superb. Commenters on the video have identified some of the visible fish as snapper, barracuda, and crevalle jack. At least two types of sharks are also present.

To date, the remarkable video has received more than 5,348,000 views – a stunning milestone for Papageorgiou, whose next most popular video has fewer than 100,000 views.

What Cruise Ship?

While the vessel used for the video shoot is not officially identified, Papageorgiou does list that he has been a marine engineer with Celebrity Cruises since April 2019 on a LinkedIn profile.

Furthermore, for few seconds beginning at the 4:41 mark in the video, the camera resurfaces on the ship’s port side. The blue hull and a glimpse of a “Ce” where the ship’s name would be painted do seem to confirm that the video was taken from a Celebrity Cruises ship.

The shape of the hull – which slants backward above the waterline – is not consistent with the newer Edge-class vessels, but several other Celebrity ships do sport a blue hull, including Celebrity Equinox, Celebrity Millennium, Celebrity Summit, Celebrity Silhouette, and Celebrity Reflection.

No other identifying features are visible, nor is there any glimpse of a particular port facility to indicate where in the world the video may have been taken. At least some of the fish visible are found worldwide, from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean and through the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans.

Though the video was posted in November 2021, there is also no indication of when it may actually have been recorded. It is even possible that the video was recorded sometime during the industry-wide pandemic shutdown, as the full Celebrity fleet did not resume sailing until Celebrity Infinity resumed cruises in June 2022.

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