as Cannibal Chief Production After the disappointing reception of Sherlock Jr., Keaton and his production team's morale was low and they were looking for a project that would be both exciting and successful. While Keaton's Art Director Fred Gabourie was scouting shipyards in San Francisco for another project, The Sea Hawk, he was shown the former USAT Buford, a 5,000 ton, 500 foot ship that was being sold for scrap metal. The actual vessel was a combination passenger/cargo liner that had served as an Army transport during the Spanish–American War and World War I. Prior to The Navigator, the Bufords most controversial service had occurred in 1919–20, during the First Red Scare, when it was used as the "Soviet Ark" to deport 249 "undesirables" from the United States to revolutionary Russia, among them the noted anarchist Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. Gabourie was told that a film production could do anything with the ship, including set it on fire or sink it. Gabourie rushed back to Los Angeles to tell Keaton about the ship. Keaton immediately began planning a film centered around the Buford and had producer Joseph Schenck charter the boat for $25,000 with a crew and sail it to Los Angeles. Keaton renamed the ship Navigator and his crew began remodeling the interior, installing film lights and painting it. Of the 60 person film crew about half were real sailors hired to handle the ship. Filming on board the Navigator took 10 weeks, mostly off Catalina Island. Keaton initially hired Donald Crisp to direct the dramatic scenes, leaving himself free to concentrate on the comedic ones. However, Crisp was uninterested in drama and "turned gagman overnight on me!" according to Keaton. Keaton found Crisp difficult to collaborate with and informed Crisp that the shooting was over just as an excuse to get rid of him. Keaton then resumed filming without Crisp. After completing production on board the Navigator, Keaton began shooting the underwater scenes in the Riverside municipal pool. They had to extend the pool's concrete walls to 20 feet and submerged a 12-foot prop propeller. However the extra weight in the pool caused the bottom to cave in and Keaton had to move production to Lake Tahoe to finish the underwater scenes. To cope with the cold temperature of the lake, Keaton and his cameraman drank bourbon. It took Keaton several weeks to complete what would become