Free Documentary Screening Recalls Vintage Vessel Voyage
On December 2, aboard the tall ship Wavertree docked at Pier 16, the South Street Seaport Museum hosted a free screening of the documentary “All Hands on Deck: A Modern-Day High Seas Adventure to the Far Side of the World.” The film chronicles the real-life misadventures of a crew of 30 mariners who signed on to sail the HMS Rose, a 1970 replica of a British warship that saw combat during the American Revolution, from Newport, Rhode Island, to the coast of southern California, where it would be used in the filming of the 2003 epic “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.”
This assignment posed a few problems. First, the Rose was in some ways a too-faithful replica of the original ship from 1700s. It carried onboard almost no modern technology. This meant that even seasoned contemporary sailors would have little experience handling such a vessel. Second, the modern Rose was built as a dockside attraction to amuse tourists in Newport. It had never really been intended to sail on the open ocean, as would be necessary to get the vessel to her destination on the far side of the continent.
This semi-seaworthy condition became an issue when, just a few days after departure from Rhode Island, a hurricane-strength storm came close to sinking the ship. Even after the storm had passed, a rogue wave snapped off one of the masts on the full-rigged ship and nearly killed several of the crew. In the meantime, studio executives in California were frantically pressuring the sailors (who were deemed expendable) to deliver the ship (which was not), so filming could commence on the $150-million movie. All of which appears to have induced the mental equivalent of sea sickness among the crew, who divided into feuding factions during the month-long, 6,000-mile journey.
The documentary is based on the book of the same name by Will Sofrin, who signed aboard the Rose as a deckhand and carpenter for her voyage to California, by way of the Panama Canal.