EP016

← EP015 : Battle Aboard the St. Anne

Original series

EP017 : Island of the Giant Pokémon →

Pokémon Shipwreck

EP016   ポケモンひょうりゅうき Pokémon Adrift

First broadcast Japan July 15, 1997 United States September 29, 1998

English themes Opening Pokémon Theme Ending

Japanese themes Opening めざせポケモンマスター Ending ひゃくごじゅういち

Credits Animation Team Ota Screenplay 武上純希 Junki Takegami Storyboard 井上修 Osamu Inoue Assistant director 井上修 Osamu Inoue Animation director 江藤真澄 Masumi Etō Additional credits

Screenshots on Filb.de

Pokémon Shipwreck (Japanese: ポケモンひょうりゅうき Pokémon Adrift) is the 16th episode of the Pokémon anime. It was first broadcast in Japan on July 15, 1997 and in the United States on September 29, 1998.

Spoiler warning: this article may contain major plot or ending details.

Synopsis

At the end of the previous episode, the St. Anne overturned and sank into the sea, taking Ash, his friends and Team Rocket down as well. The next morning, a police ship pulls up at the location. Officer Jenny gives a short speech to commemorate the missing characters, presumed dead. She tosses a bouquet of white flowers into the sea of debris as a memorial. Jenny and the other officers salute, and one plays the trumpet as the flowers sink underwater.

Meanwhile, Misty, Brock and Pikachu call to Ash to wake him up. Ash wonders why everyone seems upside down, but he is really the one upside down because his jacket is caught on a fixed table. He falls off the table and lands on top of Pikachu. Misty points to the porthole and Ash looks out, noticing fish swimming. He realizes that the ship has sunk, the image panning out and showing the ship upside down atop a seamount, positioned at the mouth of a trench.

The scene shifts to a tropical beach, where Jessie and James are getting a tan. They recite their motto as they enjoy the sun's rays. As they do, the light intensity grows until James feels himself burning, then Jessie as well. They are actually dreaming, and Meowth wakes them up. Jessie and James are under stoves, the burners of which are bathing them in fire. Jessie and James jump out, both with burning hair, as they run to broken pipes, putting out the fire under a blast of water. They run out into the hall and notice everything upside down. Meowth informs them that the ship capsized and sank. James panics as Jessie brings out Ekans. She orders it to use Acid to open a hole in the floor. Meowth tries to stop her, but is too late.. the attack opens a hole, through which water begins to shoot as the ship rumbles. Jessie and James try to block the jet of water, but fail, as the water fills the hall and washes Team Rocket away.

Meanwhile, Ash and his friends head out into the stairwell, the water level preventing them from going to the deck. Misty notes that the ship will take time to fill with water, but time is still critical. Ash wants to dive down to the deck, but Brock says that it could be dangerous. Ash realizes he is right, as he has a vision of running into a locked hatch and drowning. Misty sends out her Goldeen to scout the hall. It swims down and finds a dead end, but runs into the members of Team Rocket, who are unconscious.

As Ash and his friends wait for Goldeen, James’s head pops out of the surface, scaring them. Goldeen then comes into view as it pushes Team Rocket, who are blue in the face from nearly drowning, up onto the deck. Jessie and James regain consciousness and stand up, ready to battle. They send out Ekans and Koffing as Ash and Brock send out Charmander, Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Geodude. Before any of them can launch an attack, the ship begins to tip, sending everyone sliding. Ash orders the Pokémon to go to the other side, but it causes the ship to tilt the other way. After sliding back and forth, Misty orders everyone to recall their Pokémon and forget the battle in order to survive. They do so and the ship regains balance.

Misty wants everyone to work together, but the sides are still divided. She orders everyone to shake hands. Jessie and Ash shake hands to form a temporary truce. James and Brock shake as well. Meowth and Pikachu shake, but Pikachu shocks Meowth, earning him a quick scolding from Misty. With the truce, Misty reveals that she knows the ship blueprints, because she once built a model of it, and that they should go up to the bottom of the ship and cut through the hull to escape. They approach a staircase, and Brock sends out Onix to allow everyone to climb up.

The ship’s lights begin to fail as the group approaches a darkened portion of the hall. Ash brings out Charmander to light the way. They enter the next room and find it impossible to cross over to the engine room hatch due to the large gap and the raging fire below them. Ash has Pikachu shock him to get him to think. He then sends out Bulbasaur to use Vine Whip to create a bridge to the opposite hatch. Ash and his friends begin to slowly cross the vines, but James is too scared to cross, begging Jessie and Meowth to go on and leave him behind. Jessie slaps him and helps him regain his composure, but Ash and his friends are already across. Jessie orders Bulbasaur to send back the vines.

Everyone makes it safely to the engine room, though Team Rocket is virtually exhausted. Ash brings out Charmander to use Flamethrower to cut an opening through the hull. Misty instructs everyone to strap onto a Water-type Pokémon, but Team Rocket doesn't have one. The hull opens and water pours in. Ash recalls Charmander, who is running from the water. Ash and Pikachu strap onto Squirtle while Misty gets Goldeen and Brock gets Starmie. While Ash and his friends swim into the waterfall and escape to the surface, Team Rocket is still stranded. James suddenly starts snickering, as he reveals the golden Poké Ball holding his Magikarp, which has proved useful after all. Team Rocket straps onto Magikarp and attempt to escape, but they find that Magikarp can't swim. The water picks up and washes the ship into the trench, leaving Team Rocket's fate unknown.

Ash and friends climb onto a makeshift platform, noticing Team Rocket hasn't yet made it to the surface. Ash looks out to sea and is unable to spot any land. Brock brings up the story of Noah sending out a bird to search for land and Ash does the same thing by sending Pidgeotto out to scout. Pidgeotto flies out and finds Team Rocket on the surface, still attached to the splashing Magikarp. Pidgeotto brings them back to the platform, and Ash and his friends presume that they have passed on. They attempt to push them back into the sea as a traditional burial, but Jessie and James wake up just in time. Ash and his friends are startled at first, thinking they are zombies. Meowth, who was pushed into the sea, struggles to swim as it climbs back onto the platform. Pikachu snaps its fingers, visibly frustrated that Meowth is alive.

The two groups have no choice but to stay on the platform for the night. They wake up the next day and all are starving. Everyone looks at Magikarp and daydream of eating the helpless Pokémon. Meowth makes the first move and bites it, but Meowth breaks its teeth since Magikarp is just scales and bones. The fact that Magikarp isn't even good for food angers James enough that he kicks the fish Pokémon off the platform, not wanting to be its master. The Pokémon begins to flash as it evolves into Gyarados. Ash checks his Pokédex as James attempts to reclaim his role as master, but he is scared. Misty sends out Goldeen, Staryu and Starmie. Brock thinks she will battle it, but she only plans to run away, with the Water Pokémon pulling the platform as everyone else attempts to row. Gyarados begins to pursue them, but suddenly stops. They think it is tired, but Misty remembers Sailor stories about Gyarados’s Dragon Rage attack. The waves pick up as more Gyarados appear. They swim in a circle, forming a powerful water cyclone. The Gyarados advance towards the raft. Brock urges everyone to flee again, but Misty says that nobody has ever survived the attack before. The attack sends everyone spiraling into the cyclone. Ash and his friends try to hold together, but they lose grip and spiral out of control.

Major events

• Jessie's Ekans is revealed to know Acid.
• James's Magikarp is revealed to know Splash.
• Ash, his friends and Team Rocket escape from the sunken St. Anne.
• James's Magikarp evolves into Gyarados, learns Dragon Rage, and leaves him.

For a list of all major events in the animated series, please see the history page.

Pokémon debuts

• James's Gyarados

Characters

Humans

Dare da?

• Ash
• Misty
• Brock
• Jessie
• James
• Officer Jenny
• Other police officers aboard the PM-16

Pokémon

Who's That Pokémon?

Who's That Pokémon?: Magikarp

• Pikachu (Ash's)
• Meowth (Team Rocket)
• Pidgeotto (Ash's)
• Bulbasaur (Ash's)
• Charmander (Ash's)
• Squirtle (Ash's)
• Goldeen (Misty's)
• Staryu (Misty's)
• Starmie (Misty's)
• Geodude (Brock's)
• Onix (Brock's)
• Ekans (Jessie's)
• Koffing (James's)
• Magikarp (James's; evolves)
• Gyarados (James's; newly evolved; leaves)
• Gyarados (multiple)

Trivia

• The narrator makes a reference to the Titanic, a luxury liner that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912.
• PM-16 was the name of the ship on which the memorial service was held. The initials appear to stand for Pocket Monsters and the number corresponds with the episode number. A similar Easter egg appears in Misty Meets Her Match.
• Real fish are seen once again in this episode.
• This is the first time that Ash and friends and Team Rocket have to work together.
• In the engine room scene, James refers to Jessie as Jessica.
• Brock makes a reference to Noah and his Ark.
• Though Misty never returned her Goldeen, Staryu and Starmie to their Poké Balls when the Gyarados attacked the raft, they were not lost.
• Some events in this episode may parody or reference The Poseidon Adventure.
• The book Island of the Giant Pokémon is partially based on this episode.

Errors

• During the scene when the Pokémon are running back and forth to give the ship more balance, Brock yells for Geodude to come back, part of Ekans can be seen to the left of Brock, even though Ekans just went to the other side.
• When Brock calls out Onix to make a staircase, the ship doesn't move around like it did when the other smaller Pokemon despite Onix being much heavier.
• When James shows Jessie and Meowth the gold-plated Poké Ball containing the Magikarp he bought in the last episode, the Ball doesn't have scratch marks anymore (Meowth had scratched the front of the ball out of anger at James in the previous episode).
• When the group is hungry, Misty laments that she should have stuffed herself full of food on the St. Anne. However, in the previous episode she was doing just that. She could be delirious from hunger though and not remember that she had eaten.
• In the Latin American dub, Jessie states that she'll always remember the "Wonderful brother" James was. This is not true, as Jessie and James are not siblings.
• When Ash and his friends get hit by Gyarados' Dragon Rage, Team Rocket yells 「やなかんじ！」 "Yana Kanji!" "Bad Feeling!" in their Japanese voices, which is the Japanese equivalent of "Team Rocket is blasting off again!".

Dub edits

• The Titanic reference was in the dub only.
• The scene where Misty tells them to retrieve their Pokémon is slightly different between the two versions. The original version had Misty threatening Team Rocket that if they don't return their Pokémon, she'll throw them into the water. In the dub, she states "What's more important? A Pokémon battle or your life?"
• The part where Jessie and James mention their being "good dressers" was actually a "they'll never forget each other" in the original version.
  • Jessie also mentions that if James doesn't come with them, he'll definitely die down there in the Japanese version.
  • Also in the Latin American dub, Jessie states that she'll always remember the "Wonderful brother" James was. This is fake as Jessie and James are not brother, though it was most likely a dub mistake.
  • Also, Misty states she doesn't want to die in the original version.
• In the Hindi dub, Lataak ki Rassi, the Hindi name for Vine Whip was by mistakenly called "Dhaga Chodo" by Ash which literally means "release thread".
• When Ash and his friends mention their condolences when they are about to put the seemingly-drowned Team Rocket into the sea as a funeral, they also mentioned the fact that they regretted the way Team Rocket died in the original version.
• Originally, the scene where Gyarados evolved had Misty saying that she heard about Magikarp evolving into Gyarados.

In other languages

Language		Title
Arabic		بوكيمون السفينه المحطمه
Mandarin Chinese		神奇寶貝漂流記 / 神奇宝贝漂流记
Czech		Ztroskotání
Dutch		Pokémon Schipbreuk
Finnish		Pokémonin haaksirikko
French	Canada	Naufrages Pokémon
	Europe	Naufrage Pokémon
German		Das Schiffswrack
Hebrew		אבודים בים avoodim bayam
Hungarian		A hajótörés
Italian		Il naufragio
Korean		탈출! 육지 찾아 삼만리 talchul! yugji chaj-a sammanli
Polish		Wrak Pokémonów
Portuguese	Brazil	O Naufrágio Pokémon
	Portugal	Naufrágio Pokémon
Romanian		Epava Pokémon
Russian		Кораблекрушение
Spanish	Latin America	¡Naufragio Pokémon!
	Spain	Naufragio Pokémon
Swedish		Skeppsbrott
Vietnamese		Pokemon phiêu lưu kí

← EP015 : Battle Aboard the St. Anne

Original series

EP017 : Island of the Giant Pokémon →

This episode article is part of Project Anime, a Bulbapedia project that covers all aspects of Pokémon animation.