Wreck of the Serendipity

“	We believe Van Der Linde is holed up with a group of renegades near the wreck of the Serendipity riverboat.	„
	—Archer Fordham

The Wreck of the Serendipity is a grounded riverboat wreck in Red Dead Redemption in the Great Plains region of the West Elizabeth territory.

It is situated at a decrepit jetty called Quaker's Cove on Flat Iron Lake.

Background[]

In 1911 and later, the Serendipity is a large steamboat which has partially sunk and settled on the lakebed, with most of the ship above the waterline. What caused the sinking of the Serendipity is unknown.

In the Edgar Ross mission "Bear One Another's Burdens", Marston must rescue a government informant named Nastas from the Serendipity. During the mission, Edgar Ross comments about the derelict boat being a criminal hideout for many years.

Theories[]

There is only one in game campfire story related about what befell the Serendipity.

In the Great Plains region of West Elizabeth, Marston can find a campsite with a storyteller. The storyteller is talking to a person about how the wife of the captain of the Serendipity got cheated on (most likely by the captain). The storyteller further explains how she cursed the Serendipity and how her husband died in a terrible way. afterwards the storyteller also states that the Serendipity is still cursed.^[1]
- The Delta Queen, sister ship to the Delta King, shares a similar story to this legend surrounding the Serendipity. Mary Becker Greene, a former ship captain, died aboard the boat on April 22, 1949, and since then, employees and passengers have reported sounds and activity on board, which they attribute to her spirit.

Trivia[]

The Serendipity is an American Sternwheeler Steamboat.
The boat is not present at Quaker's Cove in 1899 or 1907, meaning it was towed there sometime between 1907 and 1911. The wreck being covered with algae and seaweed suggests that the Serendipity sank in deeper waters, likely at another location, before being raised and towed.
Prior to the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, the Serendipity was speculated to have been the ferry that the Van der Linde gang raided, where Dutch van der Linde murdered Heidi McCourt and John Marston was shot. However, available details of the heist and resulting shootout from both games never mention the name of the ferry involved or indicate that it sank as a result of the incident, leaving this theory without any supporting evidence.
- In addition to lack of supporting evidence for the theory, Arthur Morgan's sketch of the Blackwater ferry in his journal depicts it as a sidewheeler steamboat, as opposed to the Serendipity, which is a sternwheeler model. And according to newspaper descriptions, the Blackwater ferry was a "bank boat", whereas the Serendipity is a riverboat made for commercial travels.^[2]
In "Bear One Another's Burdens", it is mentioned that the place is occasionally filled with low-lives, but when visited before or after the mission, there is nobody present at the wreck.
The ship's mysterious backstory and sunken position could possibly be inspired by the Delta King, a sternwheel steamboat that was once in a similar half-sunken position to the Serendipity.^[3]
- In the 1950s, the Delta King was towed and served for a long time as a bunkhouse for employees of the ALCAN aluminum plant and the Kermano Dam power project; the Serendipity was used as a occasional gang hideout for many years.
- In 1981, the riverboat sank for unknown reasons, with the government leaving her to decay; the state of West Elizabeth abandoned the boat after towing it to the jetty.
- The Delta King was raised a year later and the city of Sacramento began a five-year restoration plan which cost 9 million dollars at the time; the wreck is supposedly being "restored to her former glory" at some point.
Horses will occasionally fall from the nearby cliffs.
To the east of the wreck is a small peninsula jutting out to the south. A money chest is located on the far side of this area.
On the top deck in front of the wheelhouse is a bell which can be rung by bumping into it or firing at it.
The ship could possibly be a homage to a location featured in the 2005 video game Gun, the first sandbox western video game. In an early level, a similar-looking boat is shown wrecked.
The sign on the Serendipity makes reference to Tallulah Jetty, a location that was later planned and cut from Red Dead Redemption 2, that was also derived from Tallulah Place. However, it is misspelt as "Tellulah Jetty", a possible oversight by Rockstar.^[4]
- Tallulah Jetty, the cut location where the Serendipity hailed from, remains canonical within the Redemption Universe, as confirmed by mentions in the newspaper and a street in Blackwater named after said location. It is possible that the boat may have been submerged in deeper waters of Flat Iron Lake, east of Blackwater, during the events of 1899/1907, or simply docked away in Tallulah Jetty.^[5]