--------------A look at Captains and Sailors of the 1800’s---------------- 

 ----------------------------- Costumes at Sea: Issue 1--------------------------------------------    

 Featured Movie –  

    Master and Commander: The far side of the world

 After watching these movies I was fascinated by the costumes because they look so authentic. They are not “play” versions of the costumes, but look like the real thing. The trims and embroidery are worn; fabrics and buttons were carefully chosen to look authentic. Most of the times these style of costumes go unnoticed when watching a film because they look so real. These were garments that people wore….it was their everyday life.

       ------------------Master and Commander--------------------    

                                      "For Home and for the Prize"

                                                                           -Captain Jack Aubery 

 Over two thousand uniforms.... for the Surprise officers, sailors and enlisted men as well as the French officers and crew of the Acheron were made historically accurate. Each of the costumes was carefully research and many of them were copied from original garments

"The costume department used fabrics from Pakistan, India, Scotland, Ireland, England and China, and had the officers and midshipmen’s costumes made in England. They waited until the last minute to fit the young actors portraying midshipmen, as they were growing every day. By the end of the film many of them had almost grown out of their costumes. Distressing and maintaining the costumes was a major challenge..."We put the costumes on some of the actors and aged them specifically, according to their line of work on the ship and their personality", says the costume designer. “We took into account their job aboard ship, how it would affect their clothes, and where it would be worn or torn.” Teams of textile experts worked in shifts seven days a week, continually maintaining the aging and weathered look required by the story." - Making of Master and Commander

Fun Fact:

Kirsti Buckland, a Welsh woman whose family has been knitting seamen’s caps since the 1700s, created over 150 “Monmouth” knit hats for the film’s sailors from original patterns.

Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World might not be the swashbuckling adventure you might have been expecting but it is far better for it. More historical drama than no-brainer action flick, the movie relies more on putting you into the time and showing what it was like to be onboard a ship in Napoleonic times. In fact the main villain of the piece is a ship, with a Captain and crew that you never see until the final battle but you can't help but have that sense of foreboding every time you see the silhouette on the horizon. -Making of Master and Commander

                                               Interested in the movie?

  Check out this very cool site about Master and Commander.

(I don’t normally link to other sites, but this one is really good….)

You can view the trailer here also...

                    www.masterandcommanderthefarsideoftheworld.com 

               Horatio Hornblower Series......

                              coming soon!