‘Master and Commander’: My Favorite Travel Ad

I hate the ocean with a passion. I can’t swim and so it terrifies me to be on or anywhere near a body of water that I can’t save myself from. The biggest body of water I’ll brave is a bathtub. You may think that Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World would probably be a movie that I hate.

You couldn’t be further from the truth.

Master and Commander has the ability to both scare its audience of the terrors that the sea and naval combat hold while also enticing them to metaphorically join the adventure. It’s a tourism ad from the 19th century that beckons people to a time they can no longer live in.

Join the Navy!

Master and Commander focuses on the HMS Surprise, captained by Jack Aubrey (Russell Crowe). It’s on a mission to hunt down and destroy the French vessel, The Acheron. The British navy faces almost insurmountable odds, as the French vessel is far more powerful and agile than theirs, but Aubrey perseveres to fulfill his orders.

The crew of the Surprise numbers around 300 people, including seamen, young boys looking to join the navy, doctors, and old salts keeping it all afloat. Everyone has their job and their specialties. It reminds me of children playing soldiers, just with a little more discipline. There was so much camaraderie and adventure that the whole situation looked like a lot of fun.

I found myself wanting to be aboard the Surprise, manning the cannons, pulling the ropes, and joining in the hustle and bustle of sea life. Do I know how to swim? Nope. But, like a Navy recruiter once told me in high school when I told him I couldn’t swim, “You’re not actually in the water. You’re on a ship. If you’re in the water, we have a problem.”

Storms Upon the Sea

Storms out at sea are powerful. Even out on large bodies of water, like Lake Superior (RIP to the crew of the Edmund Fitzgerald), weather events can turn deadly. Master and Commander depicts some strong storms that devastate the Surprise upon the sea.

As one might expect, these storms turn deadly. It’s a frightening part of being at sea; no matter how prepared you may be, the sea is unpredictable. Captain Aubrey is an experienced seaman, but even he cannot best Nature. The storms make tough naval battles even tougher.

And yet, the danger strangely attracts me. I want to be part of the crew all working together to keep our temporary home afloat. There’s a sense of togetherness that you can’t get in an office crunching numbers. Only through hard work can bonds like these be welded.

Booze and Dancing

I’m not one to partake in alcohol today, but in the early 1800s on a naval ship, all bets are off. All seamen receive rations of rum as part of their standard equipment. During off hours, the men drink alcohol and laugh and dance into the night. It’s the type of relaxation you will not fully embrace until you’ve been in the same situation.

Most of the men on the ship gather nightly to talk about the day and swap stories. Even the Captain himself joins in on the fun. It’s not like a group of white-collar coworkers going out for drinks. The men on the Surprise have been through hard combat, chasing the Acheron around for weeks. It’s a tension that can only be broken by times to truly let loose.

Some of the humorous moments of Master and Commander come when the men are drunk and off-duty. My favorite is the groan-worthy pun Captain Aubrey makes about weevils during a dinner with his officers. It’s stupid, but it’s some light comic relief during heavy times.

Adventure Awaits

Being in the British Navy at this time wasn’t just about sailing around for an unspecified amount of time and attacking foreign ships. Ships didn’t have unlimited supplies and would have to dock periodically. As the Surprise was stationed off the coast of modern-day Brazil, that’s where it often docked. There, the men would meet all sorts of people, trying all sorts of food, and doing all sorts of activities.

The modern-day navy advertises adventure as a perk of signing up, but I don’t think the adventure one gets today is as exciting as it may have been in the 1800s. In the 1800s, there was no social media to spread how other people in other countries lived. The only way you would know what people in a different country looked like or sounded like was if you had read it (if you could read) or if someone had told you about it. The world was new and fresh and discoveries were still to be made.

Adventure was truly one of the biggest benefits of being in the 19th-century British Navy. It could give you life experiences that you couldn’t get anywhere else, at least without a lot of money and resources. Getting to be a part of that sounds fantastic and I would have braved the sea just to join. I probably would have fallen overboard three weeks later because I got my foot stuck in a rope, but those three weeks would be amazing.

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