Master and Commander - Anybody going to see this?

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Sikander
I saw it last week, and it was ok. I was disappointed because the reviews had been so good. Was anyone else disappointed that the movie changed the story from that of the book, and switched the Americans and the French?

That would have been an interesting movie to watch. How did they explain the privateer nature of the ship the Brits were hunting if it was American? I don't recall much of that taking place from our side.

[MichaeltheGreat]

We did a bunch of it, with smaller ships though. We had precious few warships, and the best way to ease the RN blockade on American ports was to have them off protecting their own ports and trade. Given that a huge portion of the RN was still stuck making sure the French weren't too rambunctious during the first part of the war, they had limited naval resources with which to abuse us.

[Sikander]

Originally posted by DinoDoc
That would have been an interesting movie to watch. How did they explain the privateer nature of the ship the Brits were hunting if it was American? I don't recall much of that taking place from our side.

The U.S. captured over 600 British ships during the War of 1812, raiding all over the world to do so. We had fewer and smaller ships, but much better crew quality because we had so many people employed in the maritime trades and didn't press people into service. This more than made up for our rather inglorious performance on land during the peace negotiations.