 RedCorvette wrote: |
Seems like they'd be better off re-boxing a Revell Constitution, since the computer-generated movie Acheron was supposedly based on her. But, like Chuck said, it's all fiction anyway, not forgetting that even the nationality of the ship in the book was changed from American to French for marketing purposes. Of course if it had really been an American heavy frigate, they probably would have just stood off and pounded the Surprise to splinters instead of getting close enough to get boarded. But that probably wasn't the ending the movie producers wanted... ;) Mark |
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In the original book, the adversary was a fictional American frigate on a mission modelled on the real mission of USS Essex. The book also implied that the american frigate was a standard 32 or 38 gun frigate, and not one of the heavy frigates, and thus a ship which the 28 gun Jackass frigate Surprise has a chance against, particularly under Jack Aubrey's leadership and training.
But the book didn't feature any of the exciting sea battles shown in the film. In the book the Surprise ran agrounded while on the way to intercept the American, and lost a whole month waiting for the next spring tide to float off. She was never quite able to make up the lost time to catch sight of the American frigate. Eventually the Surprised chanced upon the American crew shipwrecked on an island, and the book ended with a somewhat unconvincing land fight between the crew of Surprise and the treacherous Americans whom they were going to rescue.
So the book, in addition to its potential for offending American sensibility, also didn't have a good sea fight that would go down well in an nautical action film.