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 Far Side of the World Recurring characters in the Aubrey–Maturin series" This novel references actual events with accurate historical detail, like all in this series. In respect to the internal chronology of the series, it is the fourth of eleven novels (beginning with "The Surgeon's Mate") that might take five or six years to happen but are all pegged to an extended 1812, or as Patrick O'Brian says it, 1812a and 1812b (in the Author's Note for "The Far Side of the World", the tenth novel in this series). The events of "The Yellow Admiral" again match up with the historical years of the Napoleonic