Master and Commander: Chasing Acheron to the Galápagos

In April 1805 the British frigate HMS Surprise is caught off Brazil by the French privateer Acheron and badly mauled. Captain Jack Aubrey will not run for port: he insists on having his ship repaired at sea. When Acheron strikes again, Surprise slips away with a decoy raft. The chase is on, and it will run south, away from any coast. The film never fixes the exact spot on the open water, so this stop has no pin.

Location precision: The film places the opening ambush only 'off Brazil', on open water; no pin is given.

Aubrey follows Acheron southwards to stop her attacking British whalers, and the road south runs round the bottom of the world. The film's storm sequence was enhanced with digitally composited wave footage shot aboard a modern replica of Cook's Endeavour rounding Cape Horn. The pin marks the Horn itself, the southernmost tip of South America; the story's exact position at sea is not given.

Location precision: The film gives no position for the storm; the pin marks Cape Horn, where the wave footage was shot.

Surprise reaches the islands where Aubrey had promised his friend, the surgeon Stephen Maturin, several days to explore the unique flora and fauna. Instead she rescues survivors of a whaler burnt by Acheron and the chase resumes. Later Maturin performs surgery on himself with a mirror, back on the islands. Master and Commander was the first non-documentary film shot on location in the Galápagos, between June and November 2002.

Location precision: The archipelago is large and the film names no single island; the pin marks the group's centre.

Visitor guidance: Visits are by licensed tours within the national park.

Searching for a flightless cormorant, Maturin finds Acheron on the other side of the islands. A phasmid specimen gives Aubrey an idea about camouflage, and he orders Surprise disguised as a whaler. Acheron falls for it and is dismasted in the ambush. The fight happens at sea off the islands, so this stop, too, is left unpinned.

Location precision: The film shows the fight only as 'the other side of the islands'; no pin is given.

Much of the ship life was filmed on land. A full-scale replica of the ship was mounted on gimbals in a tank of nearly 20 million gallons at Baja Studios in Mexico, built for the filming of Titanic (1997). Construction of the studio began on 6 June 1996, next to a small fishing village. Only ten days of filming took place at sea.

The Maritime Museum of San Diego keeps HMS Surprise, a 1970 replica of a Royal Navy frigate, and this is the ship that was used in the film. The same hull also appeared as HMS Providence in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.

Visitor guidance: The ship is moored with the Maritime Museum of San Diego's collection and can be seen with a museum visit.