Object
A monumental bronze Cthulhu
Approximately three metres high, subject to foundry, mass, lifting and environmental constraints, designed from the outset as a marine-engineering object rather than a garden ornament with delusions of grandeur.
The Point Nemo Project
Put Cthulhu
at Point Nemo.
Working hypothesis: Cthulhu does not exist, R'lyeh is fictional, and the expedition will encounter no supernatural opposition whatsoever.
Probably...
We propose to test this hypothesis in what may be the most unnecessarily elaborate manner possible: design and cast a monumental bronze Cthulhu, carry it across the South Pacific and, if the legal and environmental work permits, lower it to the abyssal seabed in the vicinity of Point Nemo.
This is deliberately ridiculous. The expedition itself is not.
Independent project page. Donations are not yet being accepted here.
Oceanic pole of inaccessibility
48°52.6′S
123°23.6′W About 2,688 km from the nearest land.
123°23.6′W About 2,688 km from the nearest land.
The undertaking
Why?
Because there are very few opportunities in life to do something simultaneously absurd, beautiful, technically difficult, culturally interesting and sufficiently improbable that people may still be telling the story decades later.
Point Nemo is the place in the ocean farthest from land. Lovecraft placed R'lyeh somewhere in the South Pacific. Humanity has also spent decades directing obsolete spacecraft towards a remote South Pacific disposal region. These facts have no known causal relationship.
Nevertheless, it seems only polite to send something back.
Destination
Point Nemo
The oceanic pole of inaccessibility: about 2,688 km from the nearest land and inconveniently far from any sensible place to fetch a forgotten spanner.
Method
Absurdity, properly engineered
Structural review, lifting calculations, marine logistics, legal and environmental advice, vessel charter, satellite communications and documented deployment.
Geographical coincidence
Point Nemo and Lovecraft's R'lyeh.
Point Nemo lies at 48°52.6′S, 123°23.6′W, the oceanic point farthest from land. In The Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft placed the fictional city of R'lyeh at approximately 47°9′S, 126°43′W.
They are not the same place. They are, however, sufficiently close on the scale of the South Pacific to make the coincidence rather too good to waste.
Point Nemo coordinates follow NOAA. The R'lyeh marker is literary, not geographical evidence.
Scale of the voyage
This is not a day trip.
A realistic planning model is an 18-22 day expedition, depending on embarkation port, vessel speed, weather routing and the operational window at Point Nemo. From southern Chile, a great-circle passage is roughly two thousand nautical miles each way before allowances for routing and weather.
At expedition-vessel speeds of roughly 10-12 knots, the outward and return passages alone consume around 14-17 days. The remaining time is needed for loading, weather margins, deployment, filming and the possibility that the Pacific declines to cooperate with the timetable.
18-22 daysWorking expedition duration.
~2,000 nmIndicative one-way distance from southern Chile.
6 placesMaximum provisional civilian expedition berths.
£30,000Provisional separate-contract berth price per person.
Indicative passage
From southern Chile into the empty Pacific.
Punta Arenas is shown as a plausible planning reference, not a confirmed embarkation port. The final port will depend on vessel availability, freight, permits and operator requirements.
The plotted track is an indicative great-circle route. The ship's actual course would be determined by weather routing, sea state, operational constraints and the Master.
Pre-registered hypothesis
A brief statistical note: scientists often begin with a null hypothesis, written H0. It is the ordinary, default explanation that remains in place unless the evidence gives us a good reason to reject it.
H0 - the null hypothesis: Cthulhu does not exist, R'lyeh is fictional, and depositing a bronze likeness in the vicinity of Point Nemo will produce no supernatural consequences.
So an uneventful voyage, successful deployment, no cyclopean architecture rising from the ocean, no sudden alteration in stellar geometry, and the continued existence of human civilisation afterwards would all be observations consistent with the null hypothesis. Anything substantially more tentacular would require further analysis.
The monument
Artwork meets marine engineering.
The sculpture cannot simply be thrown overboard. Its centre of gravity, structural strength, lifting points, deployment frame, corrosion behaviour and seabed stability have to be engineered. The final design must also respond to whatever legal and environmental conditions apply to permanent placement.
The intention is to publish design development, principal calculations, foundry progress and the deployment concept as the project advances.
Engineering drawing: the approved statue and deployment render can be installed at
assets/cthulhu-engineering.webp when finalised.How the funding works
£350,000 is the full expedition target, not an all-or-nothing switch.
GoFundMe fundraising is not an all-or-nothing mechanism. Funds can be transferred before the headline target is reached, so this project is structured in stages: each phase should produce useful work in its own right, and no major commitment is made merely because a particular total has appeared on the campaign page.
The full Point Nemo expedition is currently modelled at approximately £350,000. That figure covers the complete undertaking. It does not mean that nothing happens until £350,000 is sitting in the account.
Stage I - Feasibility
Early funds support legal and environmental scoping, engineering feasibility, foundry consultation, vessel enquiries, insurance discussions and development of a credible deployment method.
This stage remains useful even if the full expedition never proceeds. It converts an entertaining idea into something that can be costed, tested and, if necessary, rejected before anyone commissions several tonnes of bronze.
Stage II - Design and fabrication
Only once the feasibility work produces a credible route forward would the project commit substantial funds to final sculpture design, structural engineering, lifting arrangements and bronze fabrication.
A fundraising milestone is therefore not an automatic instruction to spend. Reaching a figure such as £100,000 may make the next stage financially possible, but the project proceeds only if the preceding technical and legal work still supports it.
Stage III - Mobilisation
Once fabrication, permissions and the deployment plan are sufficiently mature, expenditure moves towards vessel charter, fuel, freight, port handling, lifting equipment, insurance, satellite communications, documentation and specialist personnel.
This is likely to be the point at which provisional allowances are replaced by actual contractual quotations. If those quotations show that the present £350,000 estimate is wrong, the published budget will be revised accordingly. The Pacific is unlikely to honour a number merely because we once typed it into a website.
Stage IV - Expedition
The final stage is the voyage itself: transport to the embarkation port, loading, passage to Point Nemo, the authorised deployment or alternative operation, documentation and return.
The current planning model assumes approximately 18-22 days, but the final duration, route and vessel will be determined by real-world quotations and operational requirements.
What if the full target is not reached?
Funds below the full expedition target would first be used for the stages that can responsibly be completed. If the campaign funds feasibility, design and regulatory work but not the vessel charter, those earlier stages would still be completed and documented.
The project will not quietly redefine success after the event.
If the expedition becomes impracticable
We will publish how much was raised, what has been spent, what work has been completed, what remains unspent, and what realistic options remain for the project.
Major commitments will not be made simply because money is available. Each stage has to justify the next.
Donations and expedition berths are separate.
GoFundMe donations support the project. They do not purchase goods, services or passage aboard the expedition vessel. Any civilian berths would be sold separately under their own contract after a vessel, itinerary, insurance requirements and passenger terms have been confirmed.
The current working figure is £30,000 per person, with a maximum of six civilian places. No berth will be sold until there is actually a ship to put it on.
Transparency
Significant quotations, material budget changes and major expenditure commitments should be published as the campaign develops. Crowdfunding income should be kept distinct from any separate commercial income such as expedition berths.
The joke is Cthulhu.
The accounting should be boring.
Funding & participation
Two tracks, kept deliberately separate.
GoFundMe: donation-based public fundraising for the project itself. GoFundMe's current rules do not permit ordinary paid reward tiers or the sale of goods and services through donations.
Project supporter programme: acknowledgements, limited physical items and any paid expedition berths are described on this microsite and would be administered separately where necessary, with their own terms and accounting.
Important: a £30,000 expedition berth is not a GoFundMe donation reward. It would be a separate contractual purchase, offered only after a vessel, itinerary, insurance position and operator approval exist.
Tone, clarified
Is this a joke?
Yes. Also no.
The humour is intentional. The ship, sculpture, engineering, money, Pacific Ocean and laws of physics are not.
Much of Lovecraft's enduring appeal lies in the disparity between human ambition and an overwhelmingly indifferent universe. Few things illustrate that disparity better than deliberately carrying several tonnes of bronze thousands of miles across the Pacific merely to leave it where almost nobody will ever see it.
That is precisely why we think it is worth doing.