Messing about in boats: Master and Commander

[vilakins]

No spoilers!

While I was with my sister, we went to see Master and Commander. It was an involving and fascinating story of another time, and a friendship between two very different men: the captain, driven by duty, pride, and patriotism; and the doctor, basically a Napoleonic-era geek. Both were very likeable people; in fact the whole crew were.

I was surprised by the life on board ship not being as brutal as I'd imagined, and by the young midshipmen. These boys, some as young as 12 or so, were obviously not seen as children at all. In fact, they gave orders to grown men who seemed to find nothing odd at all in that.

I have to say I couldn't help but remember astrogirl2's comments about it in her blog, comparing naval stories to space ones, citing the old 'hide in the fog / nebula' trick. The French ship was even sighted 'two points off the starboard bow' which made me think of Klingons.

I highly recommend this film for its characters, action, and intelligent script and dialogue.

Comments

[hafren.livejournal.com]

In fact, they gave orders to grown men who seemed to find nothing odd at all in that

The grown men didn't like it much but could do sod all about it (officers and men were seen as more like different species than different ranks). Hence the seaboard proverb: as useless as a middy. Some middies were even younger than 12. I think their parents saw it as a cheaper version of boarding school...

How brutal life was depended almost entirely on the captain. If you got a gentle one (like Bligh, believe it or not) you might never see a flogging. But Sir John Franklin, when he first went to sea as a middy, was physically sick at what he saw.