Trivia for
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

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• Peter Weir shot footage of an actual typhoon specifically to be used during the movie.
  
  
• The movie contains many elements recognizable from the novels: Two cannons are shown with the names, ("Jumping Billy" and "Sudden Death") but the camera pulls up before we see the name of the next cannon. All fans know the next cannon would have been "Willful Murder" (Barret Bonden's gun), although never mentioned. Killick is preparing toasted cheese for Jack and Stephen for after their music sessions.
  
  
• The French frigate "Acheron" was modeled after the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"). The film crew spent quite a bit of time taking pictures and filming the Constitution. The images were then digitized to make the movie. Originally based in Providence, Rhode Island, The HMS Surprise was actually the HMS Rose, a reproduction tall ship built in 1970 at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia by Smith and Rhuland Ltd. The film crew made several alterations to her design to match the 1802 design of the HMS Surprise. The Rose/Surprise is currently docked in San Diego, but in previous years the HMS Rose was available for tall ship cruises.
  
  

• 20th Century Fox bought The Rose, the ship which doubles up as HMS Surprise in the film, for $1.5 million.
  
  
• Two historical advisors were on set at all times.
  
  
• The miniatures of the Surprise and the Acheron were built by WETA workshops in New Zealand who then spent five weeks filming them in action.
  
  
• Ralph Fiennes was considered for the part of Dr. Maturin.
  
  
• Russell Crowe parked his participation in Cinderella Man (2005) to make this film. By the time he returned to the boxing project, it had lost its original director, Lasse Hallström, who was subsequently replaced by Ron Howard.
  
  
• Russell Crowe broke from the production midway through to fly to London for the funeral of his friend and Gladiator (2000) co-star Richard Harris.
  
  
• After filming, the HMS Surprise was purchased by the San Diego Maritime Museum for an undisclosed sum, and with the proviso that the ship be loaned back to 20th Century Fox for any future film productions.
  
  
• Although the book is set in 1812, the film is set 7 years earlier. This afforded the writers the chance to make the enemy of the piece not the United States but France, England at the time having declared war against Napoleon.
  
  
• The first movie to ever film on the Galapagos Islands.
  
  
• The production used two ships. One was the replica Rose, dressed up to be the HMS Surprise, which could be put to sea within 45 minutes at any time. The other was a replica of the replica, built on a gimbal in the giant tank at the Baja Studios, Mexico. Construction of the replica took approximately three and a half months.
  
  
• About 27 miles of rope was used on the rigging of the replica Rose. Most of the rope had to be made especially, as modern day rope has a right hand lay (the direction the strands run in) whereas it would have had a left hand lay in Napoleonic times.
  
  
• To create an authentic sense of camaraderie among the cast, they were all housed in special quarters, away from the rest of the crew. Designed like a gentleman's club, there was no TV, and no crew member was allowed in without being invited. It was nicknamed "The Monkey Bar".
  
  
• 12 of the extras comprising the crew were drafted in from Poland as they had a "lived in" look and quite clearly hadn't been enjoying the life of plenty that most Westerners do. Weir was attracted to this as it would emphasize the privations and hardships of serving on a frigate.
  
  
• The cast endured a two week boot camp where they literally learned the ropes, and what to do on board a frigate including the loading and firing of cannons. They also all learned basic sword skills.
  
  
• The production utilized approximately 2,000 costumes.
  
  
• Coincidentally, during the film's pre-production, the replica of Captain James Cook's ship, HMS Endeavour, was circumnavigating the globe. The production was able to fly 2 cameramen to the ship as it was about to sail round the bottom of South America, a route the HMS Surprise takes in the film. Thus, the footage of the stormy seas from that part of the voyage is genuine.
  
  
• Shooting took up nearly 100 days at the Baja studios in Mexico, as well as 10 days at sea.
  
  
• The sails for the small scale model version of the Surprise were woven in Hong Kong. Their weight was calculated to be proportionately accurate to the real thing (although the real sails probably didn't contain Lycra).
  
  
• Some filming was done in the same tank that was built for the filming of Titanic (1997), in Rosarito, Mexico.
  
  
• 'Russell Crowe (I)' had the crew of his ship play rugby together while they were not filming so they could bond and better work as a team.
  
  
• 'Russell Crowe (I)' did most of the violin playing on camera.
  
  
• 'Russell Crowe (I)' learned to play violin for the film and referred to it as the hardest thing he'd ever done for a film.
  
  
• Over 90% of the film takes place on water.
  
  
• 'Russell Crowe (I)' wanted to form a sense of authority on set, so he had all the actors wear shirts according to their characters' rank. Officers wore a dark blue, midshipmen wore a light blue, the marines wore red and everyone else wore white. The actors also had to sew their own name tags on each shirt, a tank top, a short-sleeved shirt and a long-sleeved top.
  
  
• The name of the French vessel "Acheron" comes from the name of a river in Hades in Greek mythology.
  
  
• When Capt. Jack Aubrey and his crew disguise their ship to lure in the French frigate "Acheron", the name of The Surprise is changed to "Syren", a play on the word "Siren", a sea nymph from Greek mythology, who lured sailors to their doom.
  
  
• In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", a ship encounters an albatross which the sailors believe brings the breeze and gives the ship good luck. The Mariner kills the albatross and he and the ship are cursed with bad luck. In the film, one of the seamen remarks to Maturin, the doctor, that a bird flying close to the HMS Surprise may be an albatross. A redcoat trying to kill this bird of good faith accidentally shoots Maturin, certainly an omen of bad luck for the crew.
  
  
• Paul Bettany (Dr. Maturin) was one of the only actors who did not get seasick during filming. This was because he was a member of Sea Cadets when he was a kid.
  
  
• In the original story, the ship that was attacked was American. It was changed to a French ship by the filmmakers and the studio.
  
  
• 'Russell Crowe (I)' brought in Akiva Goldsman to polish up the script.
  
  
• In the quest for authenticity, the props team working on the movie, called on the resources available from luxury watchmaker company Breguet. The Breguet company designed and supplied the period timepieces featured in the film.
  
  
• The movie combines two novels - "Master and Commander" and "The Far Side of the World". Both deal with chasing down a privateer, and the movie combines the long chase of the latter with the furious climactic battle of the former.
  
  
• Visa d'exploitation en France # 109370
  
  
• To research for his role, Paul Bettany went to the Royal College of Surgeons in London to learn how to use 18th century surgical instruments.
  
  
• At one point, the writers toyed with the idea of adding a love interest for Russell Crowe's character. Although this idea was later rejected, Keira Knightley was first choice for the part.
  
  
• Heath Ledger was in talks to join the film, presumably to play the part later taken by Paul Bettany.
  
  
• The original HMS Rose (the replica of which became the HMS Surprise for the film) was actually a French ship, captured by the British in 1757. When she was in dry dock in Hull, England, she was modified along British lines and saw action under the British during the American Revolution. She was scuttled in 1779. The replica, based on the same plans as the original which were housed at the Admiralty in Whitehall, London, was built in Nova Scotia in 1970 by Rhode Island historian John Fitzhugh Millar. It was the only remaining working frigate in the world when Peter Weir came across it at a maritime festival. When he learned that it was for sale, Weir concluded that he was fated to make "Master and Commander" after all, a project he had previously turned down.
  
  
• Although Russell Crowe had reservations about the first drafts of the script that he had been sent, the chance of working with Peter Weir was what ultimately convinced him to commit to the project.
  
  
• The real HMS Surprise accompanied HMS Isis up the St. Lawrence river to relieve Quebec in May of 1776, in the wake of Benedict Arnold's failed attempt to capture that city. It ended the American rebels' invasion of Canada during the American Revolution.
  
  
• Paul Bettany also co-starred with Russell Crowe in the 2001 film "A Beautiful Mind". As in "Master and Commander", the two are friends and confidants.
  
  
• According to Aubrey's letter to his beloved, the year is 1803.
  
  
• Before filming, Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany and a large part of the cast and crew visited HMS Victory in Portsmouth to get a feel of what serving on a ship during the 1800's would have been like.
  
  
• A 50-gun HMS Surprise was at the shelling of Fort McHenry in Sept. 1814. This was the famous bombardment that resulted in Francis Scott Key writing "The Defence of Fort McHenry" later to become "The Star Spangled Banner".
  
  

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