Goofs

When the ship is about to leave the Galapagos, Dr Maturin is on deck and has a growth of beard/moustache. He goes down to the cabin to remonstrate with Aubrey but appears there clean shaven. On deck again, slightly later, he has re-acquired his stubble.

Prior to the first encounter with the Acheron we see the watch glass turned and eight bells struck (at around 3 mins). A few moments later (at around 26 mins), we see the glass turned again and six bells is struck which would mean that three hours had passed, yet the ship is still clearing for action - something which would have taken ten to fifteen minutes.

When Maturin is wounded, the bullet is removed from his left side (at around 1h 30 mins). However, when he and Aubrey are discussing the length of their stay at the Galapagos, he is holding his right side and using a cane on that side as well (at around 1h 35 mins).

When Mr. Blakeney and Padeen runs to the Dr. on Galapagos, it is clearly visible, that Padeen has lost the cover of the small pot and a plant pops out from the box. Also Padeen laughing on this. But later when the two arrives to the Doc, the cover of the jar is back again.

In the opening scene when Surprise is attacked by Acheron, Captain Aubrey gives the command to "run out the starboard battery" (at around 28 mins). We then cut to the gun deck showing the guns not yet run out (at around 38 mins). However, Calamy ordered beat-to-quarters at 06:20 and while the boats were being lowered at 08:18 the port guns can be seen already run out and in a long shot from the stern at 08:24 the starboard guns appear to have been run out as well.

During the Storm when the Surprise is chasing the Acheron around Cape Horn, Barrett Bonden is shown alone at the wheel. It was customary on a Royal Navy vessel of the time to always have at least two men at the wheel both as a security measure in case one man was injured in battle, and because the rudder itself was extremely heavy and difficult to turn. During any sort of heavy weather there would certainly have been four or more men at the wheel as one man would not be able to control the rudder (which is why the ship has two connected wheels).

Throughout the movie, Captain Howard of the Royal Marines is referred to as "Captain Howard". British Naval Tradition would have dictated that he would have been given a "courtesy promotion" to Major. This "courtesy promotion" would not have been a permanent promotion, but rather just a change in wording to avoid confusion between the ship's captain and the Marine captain.

Dr. Maturin presents Captain Aubrey a "stick insect" (order Phasmatodea) collected on the Galapagos. No species of Phasmatodea has ever been recorded as native to the Galapagos or otherwise established there.

In many scenes HMS Surprise/HMS Rose is clearly motoring, as the sails are either hanging limp or aback. In one scene the ship seems to be making at least 5 knots with all sails backed (at around 1h 12 mins).

At the beginning of the movie, Midshipman Calamy issues the order to "beat to quarters". This would not have been ordered by a midshipman. He would have reported to the officer of the watch (one of the lieutenants or the Master, certainly not another midshipman, as was shown) who would then have woken the Captain and reported that a sail had been spotted. It would then be up to the Captain to give the order.

As two seamen enter Aubry's cabin to present him with a model of the "phantom's" hull, both salute the captain (at around 28 mins). However, one salutes with his left hand while the other salutes with his right. It is often assumed that a proper salute is completed with the right hand. The salute was not standardized in the Royal Navy until the late Nineteenth Century. Before that enlisted "saluted" by "tugging the forelock". While typically done with the right hand, this form of "salute" could be performed with either hand.

Lord Nelson is spoken of very fondly and respectfully among officers and crew. Yet, by the time the movie is set, Nelson had fallen into public disgrace because of his illicit and open affair with Lady Emma Hamilton, the wife of the British ambassador to Naples. The Admiralty and fellow commanders felt that Nelson had put his personal life before of his duties and was heavily criticized by it, even being cold-shouldered by the king George III himself and at one point his removal of command was considered. The open admiration the crew in the movie expresses was more likely to happen in 1812, after Nelson's death and when the original novels are set. However, in the novels Jack Aubrey (and by extension those under his command) is a staunch admirer and firm supporter of Nelson.

Mr. Blakeney has his right arm amputated after the first encounter with the Acheron, but later when Captain Aubrey is teaching the midshipmen how to work their sextants to determine noon, it appears that Mr. Blakeney still has both hands on his sextant (at around 38 mins). However, Captain Aubrey is assisting the midshipman by holding the sextant upright while Blakeney makes adjustments.

The distinctive Pinnacle Rock seen in the Galápagos was created by the US Navy using it for target practice in World War II.

In the montage finale, much of the footage used of crew going to their station is reused footage from the opening including; the Marine drummer and a shot along the deck that cuts before Mr. Allen is visible. **This could have been intentional, in an effort to show the repetitiveness of a typical seaman's life-out of one danger and into another similar one-instead of giving the film a typical "happily ever after" ending.**

After the doctor has been shot, we see him in the hammock being tended to. He is very pale. However, as the hammock shifts, you can see the makeup line just below his neck while the rest of his upper body is still normal color (At 01:29:03 to 01:29:06).

When the crew is shown battling a leak below the waterline, the boat is pitching on the sea. However the water is not sloshing back and forth in the bilge/hold because the "pitching" of the boat is simulated by camera movement.

In the closing credits there are two credits for the recorded cannon sounds. In both instances the word 'artillery' is misspelled 'artillary'.

At about 65 minutes in, while in the Galapagos island, when the Surprise picks up the sailors from the Albatros from the small life boat, Captain Aubrey orders "food and water for these men." While the Captain of the Albatros is telling his story, the camera pans to the right, and targets a sailor who is drinking from a cup. When the cup is raised to his mouth, one can clearly see his lips are firmly closed.

Most of the cast, especially the younger men, are seen to have clear complexions. However, epidemiologists have estimated that about half of all Europeans born in the eighteenth century would have had significant facial scarring, due to the then-common prevalence of smallpox as a childhood disease.

The Lesser of Two Weevils scene is lit by flickering candles. The closeup of the plate shows steady lighting, not flickering.

In the "making of" featurette, at 56m 44s the word "mathematician" is miss spelled in the captions as "mathmetician".

The captured 'Acheron' is despatched by Aubrey under a prize crew into Valparaiso, Chile, an enemy (Spanish) port in 1805, the date to which the plot had been altered by the film. By the time of Patrick O' Brian's original plot in the novel, set in the War of 1812, the Spanish had again become allies of Britain (the UK), so that would have been logical then.

In the closing scenes, as the dead are buried at sea, the crew is saying the Lord's Prayer (at around 2h 00 mins). Given the year, they would be using the version known by all from The Book of Common Prayer (1662 edition): "Our Father, which art in heaven..." Instead they say, "Our Father, who art in heaven..." the first instance of which actually appeared in the American Book of Common Prayer (1892 Revision). As a ship of the King's Navy, the established Anglican Book of Common Prayer would be the normative source of liturgy and prayer.

Captain Aubrey rejects sailing into the "rain forest" of Brazil for a new mast (at around 23 mins). The word "rain forest" was brought into English by a literal translation of the German word "regenwald" from a book written in 1898 and translated into English in 1903.

While Dr. Stephen Maturin describes the iguana-like lizards that live in the Galápagos as "vegetarians", a word not coined until 1842.

During the cricket match on the Galapagos, the bowler is shown delivering the ball overarm (at around 1h 30 mins). A technique that was illegal under the laws of cricket until 1864, in 1805 only underarm bowling was deemed legal.

During the final scene when Aubrey and Maturin are playing their instruments together, Aubrey briefly stops strumming his violin to put it to his neck. A violin can still be heard strumming (at around 2h 07 mins) as he does this, even though Maturin has stopped playing his cello with his bow and is also strumming at a lower key.

Despite his abundant talent and the hard work he put in to learn the violin, it is apparent on several occasions that Russell Crowe is miming the violin part.

When all the men are singing at the captain's table, the camera moves round the table. At one point it is knocked by something (at around 1h).

Reflections of studio light visible on the brass edge of Mr. Hollom's spy-glass in the beginning of the movie when the ship is inside of a fog bank.

The geography of the Galapagos is misrepresented several times, e.g., having the dialog imply that they are next to Isabela Island when they are sailing near Pinnacle Rock, which is on Bartolome.

The two insects referred to as 'weevils' at the Captain's Mess table (at around 34 mins) were most certainly not weevils. The insects historically referred to as 'biscuit weevils', at the time, were extremely small and would not have shown up on camera therefore some artistic licence was taken to make the scene work.

Traditionally, toasts in the British Navy are not preceded by "to". For example, "Lord Nelson" not (at around 20 minutes) "To Lord Nelson".

Dr. Stephen Maturin observes the Galápagos marine iguana and later captures specimens of various local flora and fauna. The iguana he captures and then releases later on are green iguana, one of the most common types of iguana, a land animal that isn't found on the the Galápagos islands. This can be explained by the fact that marine iguana are a rare species, while many green iguana live in captivity and as pets.

When Captain Aubrey orders the Surprise due South after battling around the horn, Lieutenant Pullings says, "Due South, Mr. Bonden," to Barrett Bonden, who is at the wheel. The honorific "Mr." was used only for officers and would not have been used to refer to Bonden, who was the captain's coxswain and so not an officer.

While the crew of the H.M.S. Surprise are practicing firing the cannons, Jack encourages them to do better by rhetorically asking "do you want to call Napoleon your king?" Even if the crew were defeated by the French, they certainly wouldn't call Napoleon "king", since Napoleon was the Emperor of France and not its king. He was also the King of Rome, but that wasn't his first title.