Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World around Cape Horn is taken from the novel "Desolation Island", although the "Acheron" replaced the Dutch 74-gun warship "Waakzaamheid", the "Surprise" replaced the "Leopard", and in the book it is Aubrey who is being pursued around the Cape of Good Hope. The episode in which Aubrey deceives the enemy by means of a raft bearing lanterns is taken from "Master and Commander", and the episode in which Maturin directs the surgery on himself, while gritting his teeth in pain, to remove a bullet is taken from "HMS Surprise". Other incidents in the film come from other books in O'Brian's series.
The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey Sam Mputa, his mother's last name, is a papal nuncio, and that Maturin pursues Christine Wood and again sees his daughter Brigid, who is beginning to hold her own with her older cousins, the Aubrey twin girls. The sailors and the families of Maturin and Aubrey get as far as the island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon is firmly exiled, and there the writing stops, with no hint of what might have happened in South Africa, had the squadron arrived there. There is wide acclaim for the Afterword by Richard Snow, included in the book. The published work appears with