Victrix 1973 - 1993

When Worlds of Fun opened it was full of artifacts purchased by Hunt Midwest in the 1970 MGM Backlot auction, one of the largest purchases included two full-size ships, the Cotton Blossom and the Victrix. The Victrix was a 110' foot-tall, full-size, three-masted pirate ship that served as a man-o-war cannon firing range in the early years of the park. Like Cotton Blossom, Victrix was a movie star in its own right. It was originally built in 1950 for the movie "The Running of the Tide" which was canceled before completion. It was converted to a whaling ship and re-christened as the Nathan Ross for the 1953 movie "All the Brothers were Valiant". The art director of "All The Brothers were Valiant" was Randall Duell who would twenty years later design Worlds of Fun, as well as many other theme parks of that time period. Over the next decade, Victrix was reused for several other movies include "Young Bess" in 1953, "Scarlet Coat" in 1955, and the rigging and sail areas were used in the 1962 "Mutiny on the Bounty". Victrix also appeared notably in many television productions including "The Man From Uncle". Victrix was sold as part of Lot #3, on May 15th for an unknown amount, it's catalog id was 3/710.

Victrix like Cotton Blossom was supposably numbered and disassembled, then they were both transported to the Hunt Midwest caves where they sat, unassembled waiting to rise again into the sky. The story of Cotton Blossom is more widely known since it is the more widely recognized of the two, but the story is most likely the same with Victrix. The story goes that not all the "supposedly" numbered pieces weren't numbered and it became a literally three-dimensional puzzle to put both Victrix and Cotton Blossom back together again for opening in 1973. Thankfully, both seemingly impossible tasks were completed.

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