@@memesupreme2400dude, it's obviously a cruise ship and people are only mostly ever paying attention to John/Arthur wtv main chr they play as in rdr1/2 not everyone is a lore hunter and News paper hunter, every player is different.
@@v0x712fr, my first play through of rdr 1 and 2 I focused on the story and my second play through I focused on lore and some other stuff like side quests and collectibles
Ships, and yes that includes the "riverboats" which are in fact ships themselves, commonly in the 19th century would be raised after sinking for salvage alone, and if floated away could be sent closer to a shoreline for actual salvage to begin.
A video about the Van Horn Trading Post would be interesting. Like what happened to make it become abandoned/lawless or how it became populated with criminals.
Van Horn was town that had life, there is even Sheriff Building there. And all. It was alive. But then it got abandoned because of it location. It might seem nice location. But… well. All recourses produced in Annesburg, got delivered in Saint Denis. Van Horn got totally forgotten… and then it got abandoned. Law moved to Annesburg and Saint Denis, people moved to these towns too. These who didn’t move, are these mean people of Van Horn…
When I was playing RDR1 for the first time and saw Nastas tied to the chair with a bag over his head, I thought “damn, who would tie up Dutch like that?”.
RDR2 for whatever reason actually still uses the 1899 version of the map for New Austin & the great plains rather than a 1907 version, and so that could actually mean they intended to put the serendipity in 1907 but forgot to, and that could possibly mean that the Serendipity sunk prior to 1907 but after 1899
Also there is a picture of 1907 Blackwater in Arthur's journal in 1899 which is weird (you can see the bank and new police station which only begin construction in 1907)
the serendipity easily could have been raised after the events of rdr2, which would explain why the wreck is talked about as being older than she actually was present at quaker's cove. it would explain the rot above the waterline, but the ship's wooden nature strikes me as rather odd, given how it seems to be in such a good condition. i think that might be an oversight on the dev's part; they just searched for pictures of a sunken ship/river boat and used that for reference.
The state of the boat shows it has been there for several years. A ship wouldn't look like that after three or four years, unless the weather aged it that badly.
Thank you for not giving up on these rdr2 vids, your rdr2 vids are timeless, they feel just like back in 2018, never stop what you do with these rdr2 vids, never change. This is gold.
One of my favourite SA mods of all time was one that actually put all these myths and legends to life by actually making these mythical creatures appear in game.
here's what I think happened. The Serendipity was carrying wealthy passengers and was attacked by pirates which resulted in the ship sinking in the lake. Some years pass and for whatever reason they recover the ship and move it to where it is now when it suddenly partially sinks again. Perhaps that sudden sinking is what started the story of it being cursed. A ship that is supposed to be dead was brought back and its trying to return back too its rest. Or perhaps it was going to be restored and renamed and ships that are renamed are said to be cursed. Perhaps the captain cheating on his wife was completely made up or maybe it did happen but aren't actually connected.
@@shaneypoo2022 River pirates are a thing. Especially on major trade routes. A paddle boat like that one may have had groups of wealthy passengers to make for an easy score.
It's possible the Serendipity was a smuggler, running illegal cargo from Mexico to either Van Horn or Thieves' Landing. She has damage to her bow, so she may have crashed into something while sneaking about at night. Thus sinking all the way to her stacks in the lake. Eventually she was refloated (in a very sketchy way) and dragged to her current home. More to recover the cargo than salvage her. After she settled and the bottom decks flooded, any thought of salvaging her was abandoned, and she was simply left to whoever wanted her.
@@Foxfire_forty-nineStrange Man is not aware of GTA's three universes, Red Dead's separate canons, along with a ton of basic lore from both series. That's a minus in my book.
Great video, there's also street/avenue in Blackwater named Tallulah. I'm certain that the absence of the Serendipity in RDR2 is purely down to an oversight or more likely time constraints/laziness on Rockstar's part. The entirety of the returning map shows obvious signs of being rushed in order to get the game out and avoid further delays, buggy staircases, missing interiors and structures just to name a few.
I think the ship not being there in 1907 is more of an issue of how rushed the Epilogue areas of the map were. There's a lot of evidence in the gamefiles that points to Online's 1899 version of West Elizabeth and New Austin were meant to be a fair bit different to the Epilogue versions, presumably the final game simply merging the two into a weird mishmash was a compromise to get the game released in time for deadlines.
Growing up near the water, I always thought the Serendipity was laid up for years, then sank at its moorings. There were 2 Canadian Coastguard cutters that got moved all over San Francisco Bay in the 90s, and I heard stories of packs of wild dogs aboard, mysterious owners, and it being in limbo because of the Jones Act. Don't know what's true. Figured the algae was just the developers not knowing the biology of sea plants.
The street in Blackwater that is closest to and runs parallel with the dock is called Tallulah Pl. The next parallel street closest to the general store is called Van Horn St., and the intersecting street on the west end of town by the stagecoach is Wapiti Ave. The street where the tailor can be found is called Sisika Ave. They are all named after places aside from Main St., so it would be a safe bet that “Tallulah” is the correct spelling
It’s honestly amazing and a credit to R* that all these years later we can find out about things we still didn’t know. Thank you for your dedication to this universe
This is similar to the story of the MS World Discover, a ship which was grounded in a bay in the Solomon Islands in 2000 and remains there to this day. It's eerie to see what was once a perfectly good ship lost to time but still mostly above water.
When I first played RDR I believed the Serendipity was likely involved in illicit arms smuggling due to Mexico's ongoing revolution, and it was was scuttled to prevent capture by either the law or rival smugglers. That's was my teenage imagination wondering about this wreck.
Whenever I pass by the wreck of the serendipity in Red Dead Redemption, it always reminds me of the terrible naval disaster that happened back in 1865. The steamboat Sultana in April of that year that lead to massive casualties. Especially given when mentioned in game that it was there for a while and the western setting, is why it reminded me of that infamous disaster. Which I remember was caused by the ship being overburdened with way past their passenger load as it had prisoners of war which made the ship weigh a bit more in the water and couple that with the system of how the steam engine for those steamboats operate that due to pulling water from the water it is propelling through ended up pulling in the sediments and dirt into the engine because it was riding lower than it should from the passenger load. One of the boilers for the boat was also faulty as it had a ruptured seam, but despite the mechanic wanting to replace the boiler due to the time it would take and shipping those prisoners, Captain Mason who commanded the vessel, convinced the mechanic to make temporary repairs which took one day as opposed to 2-3 if replaced. With is swaying side to side water would spill from one of the interlocked boilers to the other causing one to be empty so a sudden rush of water back on it would instantly create steam which caused a surge of pressure.
I don’t know how creditable this is but I remember hearing about files that mentioned the original name for the grand koriggan was the serendipity. Maybe in the original mission it sank and years later it was resurfaced
my theory about the extensive damage is that the vessel capsized and stayed like that for a few months before being righted and taken to Quaker's Landing for a salvage op only to for it to be abandoned when a gang of hardened criminals decided they wanted it as a hideout
I highly doubt this, but I like to think the Serendipity could be a reference to the game Gun which kind of set the ground work for open world westerns. At the beginning of the game, the main character is on a steamboat when it's attacked by ex-confederate bandits. It's highly unlikely but it'd be a nice little reference to the first and a really good open world Western game. Only issue would be the ship in Gun was blown to pieces
So I learned that originally they were going to have a big pirate and even sea monster situation over in Guarma. There was a LOT of content that was cut from the game, either because the developers ran out of time or because they thought it trailed away from the main game too much. Originally though there was going to be a bunch of pirate content and other ships around the Guarma area. I can't help but wonder if perhaps they had planned to have the serendipity be used to escape Guarma and then perhaps it would have been damaged and ended up wrecking out where it is in the OG RDR game. This could have been the segway into West Elizabeth since Arthur was originally supposed to be able to go there. So perhaps the wreck was actually meant to happen in Red Dead 2, but because of the removal of most of Guarma's content, it's possible they didn't even finish the model for it and just decided to leave it out altogether. This is all just a possibility of course. There is a pirate skeleton model in the game files that was unused, so the pirate situation wasn't just speculation. And the map of Guarma with more content involved in it was actually shown as a tattoo in one of the Grand Theft Auto games. (I'm fairly new to this channel by the way so if any of this was covered at any point by Fizhy, I apologize for repeating).
This was my favorite spot for a hideout in red dead redemption 1 online it was so fun playing back then I remember getting the golden double action revolver cause it was my favorite gun next to the high power pistol
It was likely targeted by pirates and thieves because most paddle wheelers at the time in the American west were basically floating casinos so that would explain it being a target and partially sunk during a potential attack or raid
it would be a cool story idea if thats the ferry the black watter raid in 1899 went down, like imagine that reminder for John every time he passed by that is when everything went down hill
My theory is that the ship had sunk in a storm on the lake because if it was fully submerged for longer it would be heavily damaged and crusted. The captain is cursed hence the reason it seemed to moved because the captain steered it's wreck to try to break it's curse and there's no sign of struggle as if the passengers were terrified it's almost like everyone was calm as it went down as if something was controlling them.
@fizhy can you please make a video about the battle site of Riley's Charge in cholla springs, it exists both in RDR 1 and RDR 2 and it seems very intresting
I have a theory that stems from cut content in RDR2: It's cut content in 2. Let me explain. New Austin is "stuck" in 1899. Arthur being unable to go there made it quite pointless to update anything for John in the epilogue. I think it sank after 1899 and between 1907. We'll never know for sure, unfortunately.
Bro that’s crazy I was literally searching for this like a week ago to see if you did a video on it and you didn’t and now here we are !!! Crazy ! ❤ love bro .
maybe after it was raised, it was left somewhere just off the RDR2 map to be slavaged/scrapped. but the people hired to do it never got around to it because criminals used it as an occasional hideout. then it was sold to another salvager/scrapper that had it brought to its 1911 location. that would explain ross saying that it's been used by ciminals for years and the campfire people mentioning the "old timers." so in this way, none of them are wrong/misleading, its history just happened in a different location.
I hope RDR 3 shows some insight into what happened between 1907 and 1911 because so much happened in New Austin and West Elizabeth during that time. The clearing and construction of Thieve's Landing exploded, the Serendipity wreck appeared, it looks like a bomb went off in Tumbleweed, and Armadillo went from a cholera-infested mass burial site to a thriving town.
13:15 Crazy to hear you mention the Delta Queen. I used to watch that boat race the Belle of Louisville in the Great Steamboat race as part of the Kentucky Derby Festival Every year until the last several years there has been a different steam boat racing the Belle. Last I heard the Delta Queen is in port now and no longer water worthy due to lack of maintenance from issues with ownership or something like that. Can't remember the exact reason but it was sad to see it in bad shape. Anyway cool video man.
I’m guessing the serendipity sank sometime in the 1870’s and 80’s and was raised for salvaging sometime after the rdr2 epilogue and was instead just left to rot where it sits now
50k views in 3 days is insane. props to you brother❤the moment i seen the title you unlocked a memory. cheers to this video man thanks bringing me back to childhood for 15 minutes
I have a few theories in regards to the Serendipity: - River bandit robbery gone wrong. The Serendipity was probably carrying either a valuable cargo, wealthy passengers, or both, and was set upon during the night by bandits in small boats. Either the crew, in a bid to keep their charge fron falling into the hands of thieves, sabotaged the ship's engines or deliberately rammed the ship into a sunken tree, rock, or some other hazard to send it to the bottom, or the thieves screwed something up and accidentally sank the ship due to lack of experience with a larger vessel, poor visibility, or something else leading to the ship's demise. - Bad weather. The lack of severe damage to the Serendipity leads me to believe that the steamship went down in a storm. The Serendipity would either sink in shallow waters or down into deeper water, but would be partially raised in order to reopen the channel it was blocking. It would finally find its way to Quaker Cove to be stored there until it can be restored. I think there was supposed to be some dialogue in RDR that mentions how there are plans to restore the Serendipity to her former glory, much like how the Delta Queen was restored irl. Also, I'm not entirely sure that's supposed to be algae hanging off of the rails on the ship. It could be Spanish moss or some other type of moss that hangs like a sheet, implying that the Serendipity may not have sunk in deep waters, and was therefore easier to move from wherever it sunk to Quaker Cove.
Van Horn is based on Natchez, a trading post on the Mississippi River back in the old West days which I believe was known to have shady goings on. Looking at old Pictures from that time, Van Horn is practically a carbon copy! It was a popular destination for Riverboats. I think Tallulah Jetty is maybe just an oversight, the name changed for whatever reason during development. Map leaks suggested Tallulah Jetty was pretty much in the spot Van Horn is. I do wish we'd got more info on the Serendipity though. But it does make a great mystery and an interesting location! Shame it didn't appear in Red Dead, at least in 1907.
here's a theory from someone who doesn't play RDR. The ship sunk before RDR2. Something/someone thought the ship important enough to be raised and moved to Quaker's Cove. Could have been a navigation hazard in the area or whoever owned the ship deemed it important enough to be raised. Either way hip gets raised and placed in Quaker's Cove possibly to get repaired but repairs stall and the ship sinks again in the shallow river. Criminals move in and use it as a hideout for a while before whatever law enforcement exists decide that its too much trouble to keep the ship around due to the criminal activity and possibly has it dismantled or destroyed which is why its not in the other game.
What if it was outlaws or "pirates" from talula jetty. They used the serendipity to attack other ships or as a mobile hideout disguised as a passenger ship. Eventually they were caught and run around where it lies.
It just hit me.... the serendipity might have been sunk before 1907 and then was brought up which makes sense for the sea life possible because of gold or Recovering Whoever was on it
If I may put my own theory forward, i could not help but to nootice, that the wreck lies in such a position that is is easily bardable form the pier in the intended way. This suggests, that the the vessel has been likely been positioned as such, meaning that likely sank while laying up at the jety. Therefore I'd lieke to propoese, that the vessel had reached the end of ots usefull life as a cargo-passenger carrier and got layed up until a buyer could be found. maybe serving as a hulk along the way. We can see a lot of tang dangeling from exposed fixtures someitmes quite high up the vessel. Since tang is an underwater plant, pnly particularily violent storms could have put it there. I suggest therefore, that such a storm wrecked the vessel. That's quite likely when a vessel is not attendet to.
i think the reason as to why the ship isn't there in the epilogue of RDR2 even though it takes place only 4 years earlier is because the devs rushed that part of the game,you can notice that in various parts of the game
It would be an intresting story line with two cities called Tallulah Jetty but they spell their names diffrently and they fight constantly ovr which the "real" Tallulah Jetty
The going theory I always used was that the Serendipity was entirely underwater during the time of Red Dead Redemption 2 after being attacked by thieves, striking some underwater rocks, and sinking, thus explaining the 'Old-Timers' comments and story. With rumors of remaining riches aboard, she was pulled from the water, and placed where she was. Whatever was left was taken, and it was left there. It was used, at a time, as a basic hideout, before being used as a trap during the events of Red Dead Redemption. Truth be told, given her mainly wooden construction, she couldn't have been under for long, though..
Strange it wasn't included in RDR2. I always thought it was odd that Serendipity was so green n moldy in such an arid part of the map. The boats in VanHorn aren't even that moldy. Maybe it was wrecked more near to San Denis and broke free, floated all the way down there and got stuck. The high water marks on the banks in that spot are well above the deck of the boat. Maybe it got washed down when the water was really high. Idk. Maybe I think about it too hard 😂.
If we’re including cut content, we actually know quite a bit more about the Serendipity AFAIK - because the name is applied to the Grand Korrigan in the files for RDR2. So originally that mission in 2 was going to take place aboard the Serendipity in her prime. Not sure why they changed that - maybe the design of the Serendipity didn’t work for the gambling mission?
The state of the Serendipity looks like it was a jalopy boat on its last leg. It was already old and possibly scary looking, and the final operators were most likely quite rough themselves. But like the Serendipity, their time ran out. Wild west shows and games feature shootouts on old paddleboats and the Serendipity could have come to a similar fate and sat or drifted uncontrolled to its current resting place, conjuring a legend of a curse as the details became muddled with ignorance and lies to cover its true fate. The possibility of the captain cheating on his wife and her hiring a band of robbers to take care of him and his property doesn't seem so far-fetched.
@@Fizhy no problem you put a lot of work in effort into your videos I've actually got a question if you don't mind answering I very recently have decided to make my own UA-cam videos how would you recommend someone who doesn't really have all that much experience goes about doing it
Maybe the Serendipity did sink years ago, and it was dredged up because it created an obstacle for ships using the river? Perhaps before it sank, it was a criminal hideout. Or a pirate ship haha I gotta say, a paddleboat steamer is not a ship I would commandeer as a criminal, because where will you get coal, other than a registered port? Unless it was powered by wood., It's a good little boat, considering it's still afloat despite being worse for wear
Nothing says the boat has to sink, boat could look the way it does just literally from being in the water, boats age really fast if left unmaintained. The biggest guess it got grounded by a sandbar and it got damaged and couldn't be used anymore and probably had sat there for a while until it has to be moved, and it was towed to a jetty to be out of the way. It probably was already scrapped (if the boat had any metal left in the boiler room. They probably had to push the boat into the much shallower water and its probably not even floating but just resting on the bottom (but I have to like no clip under it to see)
With my myth I think there was a storm that isn't mentioned in the game and thus the ships covered in seaweed and other things because of the waves and maybe it came from Mexico after being lost and pirated then in thus storm caused by the curse the ship ran aground
I think the serendipity was going to be the boat you took to guarma in 1899, but some time before 1907 it got sunk so somebody moved it out of the way (to its current location) but of course most of guarma got cut and the serendipity was cut with it.
What if the ship sank somewhere between 1899 and 1907? It sank in a deep part of the river, and after 1907 it was raised and plans were made for it to be rebuilt, but those plans never happened.
I guess the wreck of the Serendipity disappeared into the same pocket universe as the barn at MacFarlane's Ranch... or more likely, the RDO world is the anomalous pocket universe, which somehow lost those items when it forked from the prime universe, as it seems frozen in time, anyway. ;-)
I know its a bit farfetched, but I wonder if its actually a reference to the real life disaster of the Civil War era steamboat Sultana, which killed over 1000 people after a faulty boiler explosion. Im no theory crafter though, so thats about as far afield as my mind goes.
Van horn was actually base on a real town in the USA I believe that it was batton rouge Louisiana anyway there's apart called the under the hill district which was where the river boats docked so that boat might actually be from van horn
The Serendipity would have been a cool gang hide out in RDR 2
Or something similar anyway. The Serendipity is ofc in the no-go region of the world map until the epilogue (unless you're feeling very brave 🤭)
@@HelFrostKara Mods :
Either way I would've liked more gang hideouts, the ones that were present in the game were good enough though.
@@worldburnerbreadman7886that’s not even part of the lore. It was a cruise ship you would know this if you played the first game and read news papers
@@memesupreme2400dude, it's obviously a cruise ship and people are only mostly ever paying attention to John/Arthur wtv main chr they play as in rdr1/2 not everyone is a lore hunter and News paper hunter, every player is different.
@@v0x712fr, my first play through of rdr 1 and 2 I focused on the story and my second play through I focused on lore and some other stuff like side quests and collectibles
The ferry coming from a scrapped location in RDR2 makes me feel like they planned for the ferry to sink during a mission
Ships, and yes that includes the "riverboats" which are in fact ships themselves, commonly in the 19th century would be raised after sinking for salvage alone, and if floated away could be sent closer to a shoreline for actual salvage to begin.
A video about the Van Horn Trading Post would be interesting. Like what happened to make it become abandoned/lawless or how it became populated with criminals.
You know van horn always reminds me of something from hp lovecraft more specifically the town of innsmuth
Van Horn was town that had life, there is even Sheriff Building there. And all. It was alive. But then it got abandoned because of it location. It might seem nice location. But… well. All recourses produced in Annesburg, got delivered in Saint Denis. Van Horn got totally forgotten… and then it got abandoned. Law moved to Annesburg and Saint Denis, people moved to these towns too. These who didn’t move, are these mean people of Van Horn…
When I was playing RDR1 for the first time and saw Nastas tied to the chair with a bag over his head, I thought “damn, who would tie up Dutch like that?”.
Is nastas played by the same actor because they sound the exact same
@@TheFoxBoyGaming yeah, that’s the reason they have the same exact voice. I literally thought Nastas was Dutch wearing a mask or something.
Wow.. Interesting viewpoint for me guys. Because i played RDR 1 last time circa 2016.
Spotted the part 2 bandwagoner. Best way is to play RDR1 first like a true og
RDR2 for whatever reason actually still uses the 1899 version of the map for New Austin & the great plains rather than a 1907 version, and so that could actually mean they intended to put the serendipity in 1907 but forgot to, and that could possibly mean that the Serendipity sunk prior to 1907 but after 1899
This kind of stuff is why i'd love a story DLC for RDR2 that just adds in RDR1's story mode to the game
Also there is a picture of 1907 Blackwater in Arthur's journal in 1899 which is weird (you can see the bank and new police station which only begin construction in 1907)
the serendipity easily could have been raised after the events of rdr2, which would explain why the wreck is talked about as being older than she actually was present at quaker's cove. it would explain the rot above the waterline, but the ship's wooden nature strikes me as rather odd, given how it seems to be in such a good condition. i think that might be an oversight on the dev's part; they just searched for pictures of a sunken ship/river boat and used that for reference.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is a prequel to Red Dead Redemption.
yes, the serendipity was rased after the events of rdr2 (after 1907) which would explain why its then only there during rdr1 (1911)
fellow ocean liner fan, nice pfp of Mauretania
@jos3ph.d indeed, I never get tired of looking at the grand old lady.
It having sunk earlier and then being raised makes the most sense
The state of the boat shows it has been there for several years. A ship wouldn't look like that after three or four years, unless the weather aged it that badly.
I just blame Rockstar for designing the original map very poorly
@@cheemsg.i.7130 Or it could just be a continuity error.
Thank you for not giving up on these rdr2 vids, your rdr2 vids are timeless, they feel just like back in 2018, never stop what you do with these rdr2 vids, never change. This is gold.
This a rdr1
@@k4m1_playz no its just rdr
I don't know why it's hard for him to make more videos on it, when theres so much he's never covered shcokingly yet.
@@_sim0nn637 no rdr Stan’s for red dead revolver rdr1 Stan’s for red dead redemption hop that clears this up
If you do the myths and legends of san andreas its gona be about an hour long
Probably
That’s how it should be
One of my favourite SA mods of all time was one that actually put all these myths and legends to life by actually making these mythical creatures appear in game.
Is there a. Chance that you could do a manhunt, bully max Payne, and other less well known rockstar games on lore videos@@Fizhy
@@GTAVictor9128 Misterix Mod. ohh the memories
lol I just watched your “Myths of RDR” and started looking into the Serendipity this morning!
here's what I think happened. The Serendipity was carrying wealthy passengers and was attacked by pirates which resulted in the ship sinking in the lake. Some years pass and for whatever reason they recover the ship and move it to where it is now when it suddenly partially sinks again. Perhaps that sudden sinking is what started the story of it being cursed. A ship that is supposed to be dead was brought back and its trying to return back too its rest. Or perhaps it was going to be restored and renamed and ships that are renamed are said to be cursed. Perhaps the captain cheating on his wife was completely made up or maybe it did happen but aren't actually connected.
Pirates attacking a river paddle boat. Are you special??
@@shaneypoo2022 River pirates are a thing. Especially on major trade routes. A paddle boat like that one may have had groups of wealthy passengers to make for an easy score.
@@talonus202by the same logic just rob it like a train from the shore? This whole notion is beyond dumb, and a stretch at best.
@@talonus202 oh I'm the super special one LMFAO
It would be interesting if someone raised it and was trying to restore it
It's possible the Serendipity was a smuggler, running illegal cargo from Mexico to either Van Horn or Thieves' Landing. She has damage to her bow, so she may have crashed into something while sneaking about at night. Thus sinking all the way to her stacks in the lake. Eventually she was refloated (in a very sketchy way) and dragged to her current home. More to recover the cargo than salvage her. After she settled and the bottom decks flooded, any thought of salvaging her was abandoned, and she was simply left to whoever wanted her.
Talula Jetty kinda sounds like the creepypasta Welcome To Sandalwood.
I was thinking that too, maybe it was inspired by it?
@@shilohthelonelygoose8888 Doubtful.
nice to see you making more red dead content again! love your work!
love your videos man best rdr2 creator on youtube
Better than strange man? 😂
@@Foxfire_forty-nineStrange Man is not aware of GTA's three universes, Red Dead's separate canons, along with a ton of basic lore from both series. That's a minus in my book.
Great video, there's also street/avenue in Blackwater named Tallulah.
I'm certain that the absence of the Serendipity in RDR2 is purely down to an oversight or more likely time constraints/laziness on Rockstar's part.
The entirety of the returning map shows obvious signs of being rushed in order to get the game out and avoid further delays, buggy staircases, missing interiors and structures just to name a few.
I think the ship not being there in 1907 is more of an issue of how rushed the Epilogue areas of the map were. There's a lot of evidence in the gamefiles that points to Online's 1899 version of West Elizabeth and New Austin were meant to be a fair bit different to the Epilogue versions, presumably the final game simply merging the two into a weird mishmash was a compromise to get the game released in time for deadlines.
Growing up near the water, I always thought the Serendipity was laid up for years, then sank at its moorings. There were 2 Canadian Coastguard cutters that got moved all over San Francisco Bay in the 90s, and I heard stories of packs of wild dogs aboard, mysterious owners, and it being in limbo because of the Jones Act. Don't know what's true. Figured the algae was just the developers not knowing the biology of sea plants.
The street in Blackwater that is closest to and runs parallel with the dock is called Tallulah Pl. The next parallel street closest to the general store is called Van Horn St., and the intersecting street on the west end of town by the stagecoach is Wapiti Ave. The street where the tailor can be found is called Sisika Ave. They are all named after places aside from Main St., so it would be a safe bet that “Tallulah” is the correct spelling
It’s honestly amazing and a credit to R* that all these years later we can find out about things we still didn’t know. Thank you for your dedication to this universe
This is similar to the story of the MS World Discover, a ship which was grounded in a bay in the Solomon Islands in 2000 and remains there to this day. It's eerie to see what was once a perfectly good ship lost to time but still mostly above water.
When I first played RDR I believed the Serendipity was likely involved in illicit arms smuggling due to Mexico's ongoing revolution, and it was was scuttled to prevent capture by either the law or rival smugglers. That's was my teenage imagination wondering about this wreck.
Whenever I pass by the wreck of the serendipity in Red Dead Redemption, it always reminds me of the terrible naval disaster that happened back in 1865. The steamboat Sultana in April of that year that lead to massive casualties. Especially given when mentioned in game that it was there for a while and the western setting, is why it reminded me of that infamous disaster. Which I remember was caused by the ship being overburdened with way past their passenger load as it had prisoners of war which made the ship weigh a bit more in the water and couple that with the system of how the steam engine for those steamboats operate that due to pulling water from the water it is propelling through ended up pulling in the sediments and dirt into the engine because it was riding lower than it should from the passenger load. One of the boilers for the boat was also faulty as it had a ruptured seam, but despite the mechanic wanting to replace the boiler due to the time it would take and shipping those prisoners, Captain Mason who commanded the vessel, convinced the mechanic to make temporary repairs which took one day as opposed to 2-3 if replaced. With is swaying side to side water would spill from one of the interlocked boilers to the other causing one to be empty so a sudden rush of water back on it would instantly create steam which caused a surge of pressure.
I don’t know how creditable this is but I remember hearing about files that mentioned the original name for the grand koriggan was the serendipity. Maybe in the original mission it sank and years later it was resurfaced
Im amazed you havent run out of rd1/2 content
best rdr videos on youtube fr
My first playthrough i was not playing attention i thought it was the blackwater ferry boat
If you use mods to remove the water in RDR2, you can find it off the coast of Blackwater
my theory about the extensive damage is that the vessel capsized and stayed like that for a few months before being righted and taken to Quaker's Landing for a salvage op only to for it to be abandoned when a gang of hardened criminals decided they wanted it as a hideout
I highly doubt this, but I like to think the Serendipity could be a reference to the game Gun which kind of set the ground work for open world westerns. At the beginning of the game, the main character is on a steamboat when it's attacked by ex-confederate bandits. It's highly unlikely but it'd be a nice little reference to the first and a really good open world Western game. Only issue would be the ship in Gun was blown to pieces
Well, back in 1911 we actually perceived time and used it, now in 2024, we just look down at our phones until suddenly we're not young anymore
So I learned that originally they were going to have a big pirate and even sea monster situation over in Guarma. There was a LOT of content that was cut from the game, either because the developers ran out of time or because they thought it trailed away from the main game too much. Originally though there was going to be a bunch of pirate content and other ships around the Guarma area. I can't help but wonder if perhaps they had planned to have the serendipity be used to escape Guarma and then perhaps it would have been damaged and ended up wrecking out where it is in the OG RDR game. This could have been the segway into West Elizabeth since Arthur was originally supposed to be able to go there. So perhaps the wreck was actually meant to happen in Red Dead 2, but because of the removal of most of Guarma's content, it's possible they didn't even finish the model for it and just decided to leave it out altogether. This is all just a possibility of course. There is a pirate skeleton model in the game files that was unused, so the pirate situation wasn't just speculation. And the map of Guarma with more content involved in it was actually shown as a tattoo in one of the Grand Theft Auto games. (I'm fairly new to this channel by the way so if any of this was covered at any point by Fizhy, I apologize for repeating).
I would say it’s an oversight and I’d have figured they intended to have the boat in that location in the 8 years later epilogue.
This was my favorite spot for a hideout in red dead redemption 1 online it was so fun playing back then I remember getting the golden double action revolver cause it was my favorite gun next to the high power pistol
It was likely targeted by pirates and thieves because most paddle wheelers at the time in the American west were basically floating casinos so that would explain it being a target and partially sunk during a potential attack or raid
it would be a cool story idea if thats the ferry the black watter raid in 1899 went down, like imagine that reminder for John every time he passed by that is when everything went down hill
Finally a rdr fizhy lore video been wanting a long time for these always enjoyed watching them!
The mystery of the serendipity is truly fascinating.
The fact the rdr1 map is heavily less detailed in rd2 make me believe it was likely a second thought to add it given how it seems very rushed
love your work, every video is a masterpiece!
Talulah jetty was probably the docks and a saloon and those burnt buildings. That’s it, Van horn and its terrain was moved there
My theory is that the ship had sunk in a storm on the lake because if it was fully submerged for longer it would be heavily damaged and crusted. The captain is cursed hence the reason it seemed to moved because the captain steered it's wreck to try to break it's curse and there's no sign of struggle as if the passengers were terrified it's almost like everyone was calm as it went down as if something was controlling them.
@fizhy can you please make a video about the battle site of Riley's Charge in cholla springs, it exists both in RDR 1 and RDR 2 and it seems very intresting
ngl, your voice is perfect for those kind of videos. great tone, not too high or low
I have a theory that stems from cut content in RDR2:
It's cut content in 2. Let me explain. New Austin is "stuck" in 1899. Arthur being unable to go there made it quite pointless to update anything for John in the epilogue. I think it sank after 1899 and between 1907. We'll never know for sure, unfortunately.
Bro that’s crazy I was literally searching for this like a week ago to see if you did a video on it and you didn’t and now here we are !!! Crazy !
❤ love bro .
I have never clicked on a video so fast in my life.
Your content is amazing man!
maybe after it was raised, it was left somewhere just off the RDR2 map to be slavaged/scrapped. but the people hired to do it never got around to it because criminals used it as an occasional hideout. then it was sold to another salvager/scrapper that had it brought to its 1911 location. that would explain ross saying that it's been used by ciminals for years and the campfire people mentioning the "old timers." so in this way, none of them are wrong/misleading, its history just happened in a different location.
Here's hoping for a successor to Red Dead one day that continues the legacy of a fun/cool/weird open world.
I hope RDR 3 shows some insight into what happened between 1907 and 1911 because so much happened in New Austin and West Elizabeth during that time. The clearing and construction of Thieve's Landing exploded, the Serendipity wreck appeared, it looks like a bomb went off in Tumbleweed, and Armadillo went from a cholera-infested mass burial site to a thriving town.
The screamin in the mission was haunting my first 100 playthroughs
Always love poking around here during red dead redemption.
I really like the idea of a river pirate paddle steamer that eventually gets sunk and then raised to retrieve its loot
13:15 Crazy to hear you mention the Delta Queen. I used to watch that boat race the Belle of Louisville in the Great Steamboat race as part of the Kentucky Derby Festival Every year until the last several years there has been a different steam boat racing the Belle. Last I heard the Delta Queen is in port now and no longer water worthy due to lack of maintenance from issues with ownership or something like that. Can't remember the exact reason but it was sad to see it in bad shape. Anyway cool video man.
I’m guessing the serendipity sank sometime in the 1870’s and 80’s and was raised for salvaging sometime after the rdr2 epilogue and was instead just left to rot where it sits now
I always thought it would’ve been cool if the Wreck of the Serendipity was the same ferry Dutch and the gang robbed.
50k views in 3 days is insane. props to you brother❤the moment i seen the title you unlocked a memory. cheers to this video man thanks bringing me back to childhood for 15 minutes
I have a few theories in regards to the Serendipity:
- River bandit robbery gone wrong. The Serendipity was probably carrying either a valuable cargo, wealthy passengers, or both, and was set upon during the night by bandits in small boats. Either the crew, in a bid to keep their charge fron falling into the hands of thieves, sabotaged the ship's engines or deliberately rammed the ship into a sunken tree, rock, or some other hazard to send it to the bottom, or the thieves screwed something up and accidentally sank the ship due to lack of experience with a larger vessel, poor visibility, or something else leading to the ship's demise.
- Bad weather. The lack of severe damage to the Serendipity leads me to believe that the steamship went down in a storm. The Serendipity would either sink in shallow waters or down into deeper water, but would be partially raised in order to reopen the channel it was blocking. It would finally find its way to Quaker Cove to be stored there until it can be restored. I think there was supposed to be some dialogue in RDR that mentions how there are plans to restore the Serendipity to her former glory, much like how the Delta Queen was restored irl.
Also, I'm not entirely sure that's supposed to be algae hanging off of the rails on the ship. It could be Spanish moss or some other type of moss that hangs like a sheet, implying that the Serendipity may not have sunk in deep waters, and was therefore easier to move from wherever it sunk to Quaker Cove.
Why are all of your videos so good. Best Red dead UA-camr and no one else comes close
Always wondered what was up with this place but i could never find anything online great video👍
Love a good shipwreck video, I've been hooked on them for a week now. Even better that its Fizhy doing one in Red Dead 2
I think the implication in RDR1 was that it was the boat from the ferry job, but with RDR2 they had other creative directions.
Untrue.
Good to see some good thoreys keep up the good work
its been a while since i have seen fizhy but whats up man? love your videos!
Welcome back, I hope you enjoy!
@@Fizhy am so!!
Van Horn is based on Natchez, a trading post on the Mississippi River back in the old West days which I believe was known to have shady goings on. Looking at old Pictures from that time, Van Horn is practically a carbon copy!
It was a popular destination for Riverboats.
I think Tallulah Jetty is maybe just an oversight, the name changed for whatever reason during development. Map leaks suggested Tallulah Jetty was pretty much in the spot Van Horn is.
I do wish we'd got more info on the Serendipity though. But it does make a great mystery and an interesting location! Shame it didn't appear in Red Dead, at least in 1907.
i lean towards the idea of it sinking on flat iron lake for unknown reasons and there was an effort to salvage it which ran out of funds.
here's a theory from someone who doesn't play RDR.
The ship sunk before RDR2. Something/someone thought the ship important enough to be raised and moved to Quaker's Cove. Could have been a navigation hazard in the area or whoever owned the ship deemed it important enough to be raised. Either way hip gets raised and placed in Quaker's Cove possibly to get repaired but repairs stall and the ship sinks again in the shallow river. Criminals move in and use it as a hideout for a while before whatever law enforcement exists decide that its too much trouble to keep the ship around due to the criminal activity and possibly has it dismantled or destroyed which is why its not in the other game.
What if it was outlaws or "pirates" from talula jetty. They used the serendipity to attack other ships or as a mobile hideout disguised as a passenger ship. Eventually they were caught and run around where it lies.
It just hit me.... the serendipity might have been sunk before 1907 and then was brought up which makes sense for the sea life possible because of gold or Recovering Whoever was on it
If I may put my own theory forward, i could not help but to nootice, that the wreck lies in such a position that is is easily bardable form the pier in the intended way. This suggests, that the the vessel has been likely been positioned as such, meaning that likely sank while laying up at the jety. Therefore I'd lieke to propoese, that the vessel had reached the end of ots usefull life as a cargo-passenger carrier and got layed up until a buyer could be found. maybe serving as a hulk along the way. We can see a lot of tang dangeling from exposed fixtures someitmes quite high up the vessel. Since tang is an underwater plant, pnly particularily violent storms could have put it there. I suggest therefore, that such a storm wrecked the vessel. That's quite likely when a vessel is not attendet to.
The Serendipity sank in a zombie outbreak and was then raised by aliens, obviously.
i think the reason as to why the ship isn't there in the epilogue of RDR2 even though it takes place only 4 years earlier is because the devs rushed that part of the game,you can notice that in various parts of the game
It would be an intresting story line with two cities called Tallulah Jetty but they spell their names diffrently and they fight constantly ovr which the "real" Tallulah Jetty
It sorta cosmetically looks like the Flying Dutchman from pirates of the Caribbean
I like to think itˋs a reference to the river boat in the beginning of gun (the western game by neversoft).
The going theory I always used was that the Serendipity was entirely underwater during the time of Red Dead Redemption 2 after being attacked by thieves, striking some underwater rocks, and sinking, thus explaining the 'Old-Timers' comments and story. With rumors of remaining riches aboard, she was pulled from the water, and placed where she was. Whatever was left was taken, and it was left there. It was used, at a time, as a basic hideout, before being used as a trap during the events of Red Dead Redemption. Truth be told, given her mainly wooden construction, she couldn't have been under for long, though..
it probably just got beached in a swamp and tugged to that dock and was left to rot, a swamp after a year could do that to anything
My god this is shot and edited really well good job!
I never understood why they didn't made it yet another bandit hideout you can clear later like the canyon, the ghost town, the mine, etc.
The people of Bristol, much like Liverpool made a good living on trading on the commodity known as "Human Beings".
Strange it wasn't included in RDR2.
I always thought it was odd that Serendipity was so green n moldy in such an arid part of the map.
The boats in VanHorn aren't even that moldy.
Maybe it was wrecked more near to San Denis and broke free, floated all the way down there and got stuck.
The high water marks on the banks in that spot are well above the deck of the boat. Maybe it got washed down when the water was really high.
Idk. Maybe I think about it too hard 😂.
My favourite type of content as of late. Keep it coming, please!
Yes! I'm looking forward to this one. You could say the upload was serendipitous 🤔 lol Keep these deep dive Rockstar lore videos coming 😊
If we’re including cut content, we actually know quite a bit more about the Serendipity AFAIK - because the name is applied to the Grand Korrigan in the files for RDR2. So originally that mission in 2 was going to take place aboard the Serendipity in her prime. Not sure why they changed that - maybe the design of the Serendipity didn’t work for the gambling mission?
The state of the Serendipity looks like it was a jalopy boat on its last leg. It was already old and possibly scary looking, and the final operators were most likely quite rough themselves. But like the Serendipity, their time ran out. Wild west shows and games feature shootouts on old paddleboats and the Serendipity could have come to a similar fate and sat or drifted uncontrolled to its current resting place, conjuring a legend of a curse as the details became muddled with ignorance and lies to cover its true fate. The possibility of the captain cheating on his wife and her hiring a band of robbers to take care of him and his property doesn't seem so far-fetched.
Love all your videos keep up the great work
Cheers
@@Fizhy no problem you put a lot of work in effort into your videos I've actually got a question if you don't mind answering I very recently have decided to make my own UA-cam videos how would you recommend someone who doesn't really have all that much experience goes about doing it
Love these videos! Great work!
I’d argue that it’s more aquatic since it’s fully submerged now
Maybe the Serendipity did sink years ago, and it was dredged up because it created an obstacle for ships using the river?
Perhaps before it sank, it was a criminal hideout. Or a pirate ship haha
I gotta say, a paddleboat steamer is not a ship I would commandeer as a criminal, because where will you get coal, other than a registered port? Unless it was powered by wood., It's a good little boat, considering it's still afloat despite being worse for wear
Nothing says the boat has to sink, boat could look the way it does just literally from being in the water, boats age really fast if left unmaintained.
The biggest guess it got grounded by a sandbar and it got damaged and couldn't be used anymore and probably had sat there for a while until it has to be moved, and it was towed to a jetty to be out of the way.
It probably was already scrapped (if the boat had any metal left in the boiler room.
They probably had to push the boat into the much shallower water and its probably not even floating but just resting on the bottom (but I have to like no clip under it to see)
With my myth I think there was a storm that isn't mentioned in the game and thus the ships covered in seaweed and other things because of the waves and maybe it came from Mexico after being lost and pirated then in thus storm caused by the curse the ship ran aground
Time for more Red Dead Lore!
I think the serendipity was going to be the boat you took to guarma in 1899, but some time before 1907 it got sunk so somebody moved it out of the way (to its current location) but of course most of guarma got cut and the serendipity was cut with it.
thqt doesn't make any sense. rdr1 is after rdr2
Also, it's a riverboat. Trans-Oceananic Paddle Boats weren't a thing anymore in 1899.
Pirates could have took it intending to turn it into a smuggling ship if that actually would have been a thing at the time
What if the ship sank somewhere between 1899 and 1907? It sank in a deep part of the river, and after 1907 it was raised and plans were made for it to be rebuilt, but those plans never happened.
I guess the wreck of the Serendipity disappeared into the same pocket universe as the barn at MacFarlane's Ranch... or more likely, the RDO world is the anomalous pocket universe, which somehow lost those items when it forked from the prime universe, as it seems frozen in time, anyway. ;-)
Aka Developer's Oversight.
This is it boys, the ship that will take us to Tahiti. -Dutch probably
I know its a bit farfetched, but I wonder if its actually a reference to the real life disaster of the Civil War era steamboat Sultana, which killed over 1000 people after a faulty boiler explosion. Im no theory crafter though, so thats about as far afield as my mind goes.
Van horn was actually base on a real town in the USA I believe that it was batton rouge Louisiana anyway there's apart called the under the hill district which was where the river boats docked so that boat might actually be from van horn
No, that'd be Natchez, Mississippi.