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       MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD



                        Written by

                 John Collee & Peter Weir




   1. THE OCEAN - DUSK

   From blackness, a pattern slowly emerges - shimmering,
   abstract lines form into waves cresting above steep-sided
   valleys of water.

   Finally the picture settles into a high, wide shot of the
   ocean and an adjacent coastline.

   In a corner of the screen, the last rays of sunlight touch a
   small, dark shape causing it to glow in the gathering
   darkness: A three-masted sailing vessel.

   2. THE SHIP - DUSK

   [   ] She passes close enough to touch: hawsers as thick as a
   man's trunk, massive black-painted timbers, muzzles of her
   great guns projecting from every gun-port.

   As the ship glides past and away from us, her name is
   visible, picked out in dull gold on the transom - Surprise.

   3. ANOTHER ANGLE - DUSK

   The ship in silhouette - RUN CAPTION:

           HMS Surprise
           Armament: 28 guns Crew: 197 souls.
           Location: Coast of Brazil, November 1806
           Mission: Intercept and destroy French
           Privateer, Acheron


   5.   THE GREAT CABIN - DUSK

   CAPTAIN JACK AUBREY, with his back to us, bends over the
   table, studying charts.

   His servant, KILLICK, a pig-tailed, ear-ringed man of
   indeterminate age, refills the glass at his elbow.

   JACK drinks. The glass catches the setting sun as it drops
   below the great casement windows.

   KILLICK lights a lamp, places it next to his captain and
   retires.
                    JACK
          (Absently) Thankee Killick

   4. THE CHARTS:

   a beautifully drawn chart of the South American coastline.

   Jack's hands place a second chart on top of the first,
   bringing the north-east coast of Brazil into view. Then
   another, each one enlarging the view of the preceding one.

   On the final chart we can read navigational symbols and
   detailed information in fine copperplate script:

          6 fa. Shoals suddenly to half fa. Rocks
          (exact position unknown). Hidden reef.

   6. BELOW DECKS - NIGHT

   Another lamp illuminates 1st lieutenant TOM PULLINGS, his
   pleasant open face marred by a diagonal sabre scar running
   from brow to chin.

   He is making a final tour of inspection before lights out.

7. THE DOCTOR'S CABIN - NIGHT

Dr STEPHEN MATURIN, a keen naturalist, sits at his desk
surrounded by specimen jars, books and scientific
instruments.

[   ]

TOM PULLINGS glances in as he moves past the cabin door, but
the doctor, placing weights on some finely-balanced
structure, is too engrossed to notice him.

8. MIDSHIPMAN'S BERTH - NIGHT

In the quarters for the 'young gentlemen', boys trained from
an early age to become officers, four lads play at marbles.

PETER CALAMY (16) and LORD BLAKENEY (13) are arguing about
whether a marble was inside outside the circle as their berth
mates BOYLE (15) and WILLIAMSON (14) wait for the game to
resume.

                    BLAKENEY
          In
                      CALAMY
          Out.

                    BLAKENEY
          In. It was here. The line is in.

                    CALAMY
          It was there. It was out. Out

                    BLAKENEY
          In. Tell him Boyle. It was in I say.

The lamp moves on, illuminating a fifth midshipman, much
older than the rest. This is HOLLOM, aged 24. He's a
sensitive-looking fellow, idly strumming a guitar, glancing
up briefly as TOM PULLINGS passes.

9. GUN-DECK - NIGHT

By the galley stove at the forward end of the gun-deck a few
of the foremast hands enjoy a last smoke and a mug of grog.

Faster Doudle passes his mug to Higgins who guzzles it down
greedily

One man, BECKETT, sits shirtless while another, AWKWARD
DAVIES, brow furrowed with concentration, tattoos the first
link of what will be a great chain round BECKETT's waist.

JOE PLAICE, at 45 one of the oldest men on board, stops in
the middle of a story as PULLINGS passes, everyone knuckling
their foreheads in deference to the officer.

10.    BETWEEN TWO GUNS - NIGHT

Boys no more than eight or nine years old play a game of
'jacks' with some sheep bones. ADDISON, RYE and SWIFT are the
powder-monkeys who ferry powder from the hold to the guns
during action.

11.    BERTH DECK - NIGHT

A hundred hammocks swing like strange pods, close packed
under the immense beams. Most of the occupants are already
asleep: here an arm, there a lolling head

                    HOLLAR
          Lights out!

On the bosun's command, the last of the off-duty men climb
into their hammocks.

The last lights are extinguished. Only PULLINGS' lamp
remains, moving up the ladder to...

12.   WEATHER DECK - NIGHT

The uppermost or weather deck consists of two parallel
gangways linking the forecastle (forward) to the quarterdeck
(aft).

The lead is dropped from the bows. As PULLINGS walks aft to
the quarterdeck as each man lets go his coils of the deep sea
line.

                     CREWMEN
           Watch there! Watch

Somewhere a bell sounds and the silent figures of the watch
call from their stations.

                     WATCH CAPTAINS
           - Lifebuoy all's well!
           - Starboard gangway all's well!
           - Starboard bow all's well!

Over this, the splash of the lead and the repeated cry of
"Watch there! Watch!"

13.     QUARTERDECK - NIGHT

Pullings has joined the officer of the watch, 2nd Lieutenant
MOWETT, a short tubular man in his early 20s.

JACK climbs up a ladder and we see him properly for the first
time: a heavy-set man in his thirties, thick blonde hair
clubbed at the back

At the binnacle, by the ship's great wheel. The helmsman,
BONDEN - a London cockney with a boxer's face - gives JACK
their current course.

JACK nods, then moves to the gunwale with PULLINGS. Jack
sniffs the air and speaks in a low voice.

                     JACK
           How I do hate a lee shore

                     PULLINGS
           You think we'll have long to wait?
                    JACK
              (shrugs)
          Intelligence reports had her leaving
          Boston on the 12th, that should put us at
          least a week ahead.

                    PULLINGS
          She'll be in for a surprise, Sir.

The pun on the name of their ship was unintentional, but JACK
lets out a great hoot of laughter, shattering the tense,
expectant silence.

                    JACK
          In for a "Surprise". Now that's wit. "In
          for a Surprise". 'Pon my word I shall
          have to tell the Doctor.

He leaves, still laughing. Those on the quarterdeck are more
amused by JACK's unique sense of humour than by the feeble
joke itself.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
              (calls back)
          Don't put her on the reef, Tom.

                    PULLINGS
          I'll try not to, Sir.

13A    INT. STEPHEN'S CABIN

Jack looks around the door

                    JACK
          What do you have there, Stephen?

He enters. Stephen has wired together the thorax of a bird's
skeleton and is suspending lead weights from it

                    STEPHEN
          The breastbone of a frigate bird. Do you
          remark its prodigious strength.

Jack bends forwards into the candle-light, sharing his
friends keen interest in this strange assembly

                    JACK
          I do and I am not in the least surprised,
          for it reminds me of nothing so much as a
          ship under sail. See here the bowsprit.
          Here the mast, and here the backstays
          running aft.

                    STEPHEN
              (adds another weight)
          Ten pounds sixteen ounces. I am preparing
          a paper for the Royal Society.

Jack straightens, moving with care between the bottled
specimens, open books and brass measuring instruments

                    JACK
          I was thinking when our business here is
          finished, we will have to put in to
          Recife for provisions. You may care to
          take a tour round the forests of Brazil,
          botanizing and collecting specimens. An
          anaconda or two. A giant cassowary.

                    STEPHEN
          I should like it of all things, Jack.
          Thankyou.


14.     WIDE ON THE SURPRISE - NIGHT

Time passes. The fog intensifies. White coils of mist drift
and eddy over the glassy sea, RUN FINAL TITLES as the ship
moves slowly through the night.

15-16   (ADDED TO SC 12)

17.     IN THE GREAT CABIN, LATER - NIGHT

The chronometer ticks. The coffee-pot swings on its gimbals.
JACK lies awake in his hanging cot. Finally he gives up
trying to sleep.

                    JACK
          Killick! Killick there! Strong coffee,
          and light along my topcoat.

18.     ON THE QUARTERDECK - NIGHT

JACK on deck again.

                    QUARTERMASTER
          Six bells and all's well.

A hint of daylight to the east. The mist beginning to shift
as an offshore breeze picks up.
                    LEAD-MAN
          90 fathoms, white shelly sand.

                    CALAMY
          Four knots, Sir.

BONDEN is still at the wheel.

                    BONDEN
          Oi reckon as she's liftin' Sir, if you
          feels like putting your éad down.

JACK takes his advice and goes below again.

19. - THE SHIP (TIMELAPSE)

The sky a shade paler. A wind coming up.

20.    ON THE STARBOARD GANGWAY - DAWN

The lookout, VINCENT, peers into the mist.

                    VINCENT
          Starboard gangway ahoy.

HOLLOM, the oldest of the midshipmen, whose watch it now is,
appears at his shoulder.

                    HOLLOM
          What is it, Vincent?

                    VINCENT
          I heard something. A bell.

HOLLOM peers out into the fog, then turns.

                    HOLLOM
          Native fisherman perhaps.
          (shouts) Mr. Calamy!

Midshipman CALAMY comes running forward.

                    HOLLOM (CONT'D)
          The lead, if you please.

Young CALAMY takes the lead, scrambles into the chains at the
bow of the ship and throws out the lead line.

HOLLOM takes up a telescope and searches through the eddies
of fog.
Over HOLLOM's P.O.V. we can hear CALAMY sounding the depth.

                     CALAMY (O.S.)
           Sixty fathoms, white sand!

Hollom folds his telescope

                     HOLLOM
           Well. It can't have been a reef marker.

CALAMY, unconvinced, checks through his own telescope

                     HOLLOM (CONT'D)
           False alarm Mr CALAMY

CALAMY ignores him, still scanning

21.   TELESCOPE POV

The telescope pans. A dark shape in the distance. The mist
parts a little. A ship. Coming straight toward them.

Close on CALAMY as he turns to camera, screaming -

                     CALAMY
           Enemy on the larboard bow! Beat to
           quarters!

22. JACK'S SLEEP CABIN

JACK instantly awake, piling out of his bed, still dressed.

23.     BERTH-DECK - DAWN

A drum blazes as the off-duty watch tumble out of their
hammocks and run to their battle stations.

24. COCKPIT, ORLOP DECK

Rows of wicked-looking instruments are hastily thrown on the
operating table by PADEEN, MATURIN's servant - saws,
retractors and knives glistening in the lamp-light.

DR. MATURIN hurries in blinking sleep out of his eyes as he
ties on his black apron - behind him, HIGGINS, the assistant
surgeon.

25.   POWDER MAGAZINE

Little ADDISON and his team of powder-monkeys run with their
boxes of gunpowder to the...

26. GUN-DECK

As LAMB, NAGEL and the other carpenters bash down cabin
partitions, transforming the entire gun-deck into a single
continuous space, from the bows to the Captain's Great Cabin
in the stern.

As the crews swarm about their guns, grotesque shadows are
thrown on the walls and ceiling by the numerous battle-
lanterns arriving to illuminate the scene.

27. WEATHER-DECK

JACK and PULLINGS stride the length of the deck toward the
bow [ ] . They pass crews manning the carronades while
others swing the ship's small boats out and over the side to
be towed behind the ship.

28. FORECASTLE

JACK and PULLINGS join HOLLOM.

                    JACK
          Where away?

CALAMY points forward and a little to the left of the
Surprise's bow.

                    CALAMY
          Not two miles distant, Sir.

JACK and PULLINGS stare through telescopes into the fog,
which is beginning to lift. JACK lowers his telescope.

                    JACK
          Mr. Hollom?

                    HOLLOM
          I saw nothing, nor heard anything either.
          Shall I ask them men to stand down?

JACK steps closer to the bow, and again lifts his telescope.

29. TELESCOPE P.O.V

A slow pan across the sea, past a darker patch of fog. What
was that? The lens pans back toward the darker area to see a
series of flashes.
30. CLOSE ON JACK

He turns and shouts to the crew -

                     JACK
           Lie down! Everybody lie down!

His words are underscored by a series of distant explosions,
followed by a deep rumble, then a tearing, howling sound.

31. ANGLE ON THE SKY

Chain shot and grape, bar and canister shriek through the
air. A blizzard of iron.

32. ON THE DECK

The crew hit the deck, the last to drop is BONDEN hanging
grimly to the wheel.

33. MIDSHIPMAN BLAKENEY

Close, as he tries to bury himself in the deck timbers.

34. DELETED

35. DELETED.

36. QUARTERDECK

The broadside hits the bows and a cloud of splinters and
metal scythes the length of the deck at head height. This is
rapidly followed by billowing smoke from a small fire now
burning on the forecastle.

CALAMY is working at putting the fire out as JACK issues a
stream of orders.

                     JACK
           Run out the guns! Marines to the tops,
           and get that wounded man below!

He pulls a gold watch from his pocket and checks the time.

36A.   GUN DECK

Hollom is nervously supervising a gun crew which includes
DAVIES and his mates.
                     HOLLOM
           ...C-cast loose now... Um swab. That's
           right. Run out your guns.

The men work as a team, largely ignoring Hollom's hesitant
instructions. The shot rack is empty

                     DAVIES
           Shot. There's no shot!

37.   QUARTERDECK (CONTD)

As red-coated marines led by Captain HOWARD climb into the
rigging JACK calls to his clerk -

                     JACK
           Note the time Mr. Watt.

An anxious TOM PULLINGS appears.

                     PULLINGS
           She's out of our range, Sir!

JACK calls to his sailing master, ALLEN.

                     JACK
           Closer, Mr. ALLEN. You must lay me
           alongside her at pistol-shot.

ALLEN purses his lips. He knows what he's doing and slightly
resents the instruction

                     JACK (CONT'D)
           Mr. Pullings - bow-chasers to fire as she
           bears.

38. P.O.V. ENEMY SHIP

She's crossing their bows, about a mile distant.

39. ON DECK

PULLINGS is racing up the larboard gangway to the forecastle,
past men stacking hammocks as blast protection.

40. ON THE FORECASTLE

Gun-captains stand ready, the slow-match burning in the tubs.

                     PULLINGS
           Fire on the uproll.

The little drummer's huge eyes are fixed on PULLINGS' face.
The ship rolls.

                       PULLINGS (CONT'D)
           Fire!

The drum-roll is all but drowned by the blast of the guns.

The smoke clears, the gunners look on baffled as their balls
bounce harmlessly off the side of the enemy ship.

                     OLD SPONGE
               (In Greek)
           Witchcraft!

                     DOUDLE
           Never seen the like of it

                     PULLINGS
           Damn and blast you! See to your guns!
           Fire high! Fire for the masts and
           rigging!

As the enemy's murderous long guns run out again.

41.   WIDE ON THE ENEMY SHIP

Her French ensign clearly visible as she swings broadside on
to the approaching Surprise - again her side lights up in a
series of red flashes.

42.   IN THE COCKPIT

By the dim light of a battle-lantern STEPHEN struggles to
hold a wounded man on the table, his feet slipping in pools
of blood on the deck.

                     STEPHEN
           More sand on the floor, Mr. Higgins!

The slightly hung-over HIGGINS reaches for the sand bucket
and is thrown over by the awful jarring shock as the
Acheron's third broadside hits home.

43.   IN THE GREAT CABIN -

The Captain's crockery smashes to the deck. KILLICK, cursing
freely, stows what he can.
44.   IN THE ORLOP

Shards of timber implode, followed by a great spout of water
knocking the massive AWKWARD DAVIES sideways as he runs for
the ladder carrying two cannon-balls.

A second explosion, a second jet of water and DAVIES, finding
his feet, starts yelling for the carpenter.

                       DAVIES
             Wood and Lead! Mr Nagel! Mr Lamb!!

45. STAIRS

Follow DAVIES as he runs up to the gun-deck with the shot
under his arms past the powder-monkeys ADDISON and SWIFT,
canisters of gun-powder slung over their shoulders, then he
sees MR. LAMB, the carpenter.

                       DAVIES
             Orlop! We're holed!

As LAMB dives for the ladder.

46.   ON THE GUN-DECK

DAVIES arrives to find a gaping hole opposite where his own
gun once stood. Its crew lie scattered, horribly wounded or
dead.

The dismounted gun and twelve pound shot are rolling around
dangerously. HOLLOM, the sole survivor, is backed against
the bulkhead, cradling an injured arm.

CALAMY emerges from the smoke, meets DAVIES's horror-struck
gaze and takes command.

                       CALAMY
             Davies! Get those bodies overboard!
                 (to HOLLOM)
             Mr. Hollom sir!

HOLLOM sits immobilized by fear. CALAMY grabs the poulterer,
JEMMY DUCKS, who has been rescuing the ship's goat, Aspasia.

                       CALAMY (CONT'D)
             Jemmy - leave the damned goat and take
             Mr. Hollom below.

                        JEMMY DUCKS
           Aye, sir!

The ship heels as she turns.

Midshipman BLAKENEY, Calamy's rival in the game of marbles,
turns to see the dismounted gun rolling free. He throws a
hammock net under it, stopping its roll before it crushes
CALAMY against the bulkhead.

CALAMY shoots him a brief look of gratitude and runs aft.
BLAKENEY carries on shouting to the powder-monkeys -

                     BLAKENEY
           More shot! More cartridge!

47.   HULL OF THE SURPRISE

In the great jagged hole on the gun-deck where the gun was
destroyed, JACK stands framed, a wrathful soot-stained
figure. He glances back at his men, hunched and ready,
itching to fire.

                     JACK (bellows)
           Steady... Wait for it!

48. WIDE ON THE BATTLE

to see the two ships about to pass abreast, the Surprise
heading south as it were, the enemy ship, north.

The French vessel is clearly the bigger ship, and from both
come the sounds of shouted orders and the thunder of drums.
They will pass broadside to broadside, 500 yards apart.

49.   GUN-DECK, SURPRISE

JACK watching the enemy, judging the moment.

                     JACK
           ...wait WAIT! And FIRE!

The great guns go off all together. The cannons leaping back
between their crews. JACK snatches a powder-monkey, ADDISON,
out of the way of the lethal recoil.

50.   QUARTERDECK

Smoke clears to reveal holes in the enemy's foretopsail, a
bowline hanging loose, but again many of her balls have
failed to penetrate the enemy timbers.
                     BONDEN
           By all that's holy what is that ship made
           of?

His question coincides with a third full broadside from the
Frenchman. The Surprise's wheel shattered. BONDEN thrown
aside, MR. WATT jerked back to the taffrail, the mizzenmast
hit.

A rope sheers and JOE PLAICE is smacked on the skull by a
swinging boom.

Midshipman BLAKENEY, running up on deck, goes to help PLAICE
and is struck down by a flying splinter - a shocking wound to
his upper right arm.

51. COMPANIONWAY

JACK is half-way up the ladder when he falls, scored across
the forehead by a musket-ball.

Eyesight blurred. Hearing gone. He is dimly aware of small
arms cracking above his head, and someone trying to lift him.

                     JACK
           Belay there ye poxed son of a whore!

                     MOWETT
           You must go below, Sir, you must let me
           help you below!

JACK puts a hand to his bleeding forehead and drags himself
back up the ladder.

52. IN THE TOPS

A furious exchange of fire between CAPTAIN HOWARD's marines
and the sharpshooters in the enemy's rigging.

Howard, a big red-faced man, is in his element, laughing
madly every time he scores a hit.

53. QUARTERDECK

JACK emerges into bloody chaos: screams of the wounded all
around, the enemy ship moving astern in mist and gun-smoke.

He wipes blood from his eye as he raises his telescope.

54/55.   TELESCOPE P.O.V.
As the ship passes, her name is visible on the transom -
Acheron.

                     PULLINGS V.O
           Sir....

Jack lowers his telescope. Pullings' expression spells
catastrophe

                     PULLINGS
           It's the rudder.

56.   STERN OF THE SURPRISE

Grim-faced, JACK hobbles to the shattered taff-rail, sees
BONDEN soaked, having climbed down onto the stern-post.

                     BONDEN
               (shouts up)
           It's shot away below the waterline!


58. COCKPIT

STEPHEN, up to his armpits in blood, operating on a wounded
man, looks up to see three more seriously injured men
arriving.

He pauses, aware of some change.

                     STEPHEN
           Why are we not firing?


57.   GUN-DECK

Spirals of drifting smoke. Blackened bleeding men, their guns
pointing at nothing


                     FASTER DOUDLE
           No steerage.

                     NEHEMIAH SLADE
           We're fish in a barrel



59.   HIGH SHOT
The fog has rolled back, like a great curtain, to reveal the
two frigates.

The badly damaged Surprise, drifting rudderless.

The Acheron, most of her sails intact, beginning the turn
which will put her in position to finish off the Surprise.

60. QUARTERDECK

JACK is joined by ALLEN as the enemy vessel starts crossing
their wake.

                     ALLEN
           He's coming about, Sir.

                     MOWETT
           Should I strike the colours?

All eyes on Jack, poised on the brink of awful defeat.

                     ALLEN
           I'm afraid there's nothing else for it.

JACK looks from the wall of fog to the three little boats
they are towing astern.

                     JACK
           Damned if there ain't. We'll tow her.

61.   STERN OF THE SURPRISE

Sudden feverish activity, running and shouting as men
scramble down into the boats. DAVIES settles himself beside
NAGEL in the cutter, turning to look at the approaching
Acheron.

His P.O.V.: puffs of smoke from its bow-chasers.

                     PULLINGS
           Sail trimmers away, Warley, make what
           sail you can!

                     JACK
           Stern-chasers to fire when she's in
           range!

62.   STERN OF SURPRISE

Gouts of water from the enemy gunfire rise not fifty yards
from them, acting as little needed encouragement for the
boats to get clear of the stern and pull around towards the
bows as....


64.   MAINMAST/FOREMAST

Men scramble up the ratlines, and through the shattered
rigging.

65.   THE GREAT CABIN

Two long brass nine-pounders set up through the open windows
of the Captain's day cabin, open fire on the approaching
Acheron.

                        MOWETT
           Fire!

65A. MAINMAST

WARLEY, captain of the maintop, directs his men about the
mare's nest of rigging, getting a tattered top-sail to fill
with what little breeze there is.

                     WARLEY
           Sharp now with that fancy-line! To the
           clew line from the reef points, Cully,
           double up and run her back again!

66. QUARTERDECK

Through PULLINGS' telescope: the enemy ship coming straight
at them, her guns now getting the range of the Surprise.

                     PULLINGS
           She's gaining on us.

                     JACK
           Start the water, carronades over the
           side.

67.   ANGLE ON THE QUARTERDECK

Crewmen furiously at work cutting the ropes securing the guns
on the quarterdeck.

68.   ANGLE ON THE STERN

Water spouts from the pumps, while at the same time the
quarterdeck guns tumble into the ocean.
(NOTE: they only abandon guns on the quarterdeck, not their
main armament on the gun-deck.)

69. FORECASTLE

JACK races to the bows. Towlines strain as the three small
boats pull the great ship toward the curtain of fog and
cloud. He yells to the straining oarsmen -

                     JACK
           Pull! Pull for your lives.

70.   ANGLE FROM THE BOATS

The men heave on their oars, faces bathed in sweat, the
towlines taut behind them, dragging the Surprise toward the
safety of the fog-bank.

71. WIDE

to see the Surprise slipping into the cover of fog and low
cloud, only her top masts visible, before they too disappear.

72. QUARTERDECK

JACK joins his officers looking back into the white-out, in
the direction of the enemy.

                     JACK
           Quiet now. No calls, no shouts. Mr.
           ALLEN, signal the men in the boats to
           head due east.

ALLEN hurries toward the bows, as behind them the fog is
momentarily illuminated by flashes of gunfire from their
pursuer.

73.   THE LEADING JOLLY BOAT

CALAMY, in the prow of the jolly-boat, sees ALLEN on the
ship, signalling the turn to eastward.

CALAMY signals to BONDEN in the stern of the jolly-boat.

                     BONDEN
               (urgent whisper)
           Starboard haul. And stroke! Stroke!

One side stops rowing and the boat turns.
74.   THE SURPRISE

A low angle, the ship coming slowly toward us.

Beyond, the rowers strain at their oars, the great ship
rearing out of the mist above them, as though carried on
their backs.

75.   QUARTERDECK OF THE SURPRISE

Somewhere astern and to the left JACK can hear shouting on
the Acheron. Flashes of cannon fire, directed away from them.

                     PULLINGS
           He's beating inshore.

                     JACK
           Keep rowing

76 MASTS OF THE SURPRISE, (TIMELAPSE) - NIGHT

The tortured sounds of exhausted men rowing as skeins of mist
drift away to reveal a dim, yellow moon. On the horizon the
battered ship in silhouette, lines stretching ahead to her
three small boats.

77 QUARTERDECK OF THE SURPRISE - NIGHT

Some of the wreckage has been cleared aside, the wounded
moved below. We can hear their moans, and the constant
creaking of the bilge pumps.

JACK and his officers scan the moonlit sea through
telescopes.

JACK's telescope POV: A long slow pan along the dark horizon.

                     ALLEN
           I believe we've lost her, Sir.

JACK collapses his telescope.

                     JACK
           Pass the word to ship oars


78 IN THE JOLLY BOATs. - NIGHT

The rowers slump forwards in their seats, their hands raw and
crabbed.
79 STAIRWELL - NIGHT

JACK moves down a ladder past LAMB coming up from below,
soaking wet and exhausted with his mate Nagel.

                    LAMB
          Three feet of water in the hold, Sir, but
          the pumps are keeping it from gaining.

                    JACK
          Very good, Mr. Lamb.

The constant creaking and sloshing of the pumps becomes
louder as he continues down past men handing up food and
powder from the flooded levels below.

81. SICK-BAY

Stephen, his face spattered with blood, is adjusting the wick
of a lantern when Jack arrives beside him

                    JACK
              (sotto)
          What's the butchers bill?

                    STEPHEN
          Six dead, thirteen wounded.

He notices the gash on Jack's forehead

          Your head ...

                    JACK
              (Brushes him away)
          Later.

STEPHEN raises his lantern to reveal groaning bloodstained
men close-packed in the gloom.

Together they make the rounds, passing men propped upright by
their mates, pale with shock or tense with pain, some
struggling to breathe, some barely alive.

JACK clasps hands, whispers encouragement.

A bandaged head swims into the glow of the lamp, streaked
with blood and deeply unconscious.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Who's this - Joe Plaice?
                    STEPHEN
              (sotto)
          A severe depressed fracture of the
          skull. I am not sure he will see out the
          night.

Moving on to another barely recognizable face: young
Blakeney, pale and sweaty, breathing hard from the pain and
the blood loss.

                    JACK
          Mr. Blakeney?

                    BLAKENEY
          Just a broken arm, Sir.

JACK looks at STEPHEN, whose expression is grim, but he says
nothing, steering Jack forward to the foot of the ladder
where they can speak more privately

                    STEPHEN
          I will do everything possible. I know you
          were close to his father.

Jack nods, defeat weighing heavily, and makes to go. Stephen
puts a restraining hand on his shoulder.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          One moment Jack let me look at that brow
          of yours.

                    JACK
          Its a scratch.

                    STEPHEN
          I will tell you if its a scratch or not.
          Sit down.

Jack submits meekly, and sits on a lower rung while Stephen
puts a bandage round his forehead

                    JACK
          How did he find us Stephen?
          Seven weeks sailing and he happened in
          darkness on our exact position. Its
          uncanny. He really is a phantom

                    STEPHEN
          Unless she was alerted to our presence,
          and looking for us.
                    JACK
          Tosh. How could that be?

                    STEPHEN
          The French have their spies, in Britain
          as elsewhere.

                     JACK (astonished)
          You're saying there are traitors in the
          Admiralty?

                    STEPHEN
          I am saying do not imagine it was a lone
          privateer who did this to us. He is
          working for Napoleon himself, with access
          to all that tyrant commands, overtly and
          covertly. So do not let defeat weigh too
          heavily upon you.

82.    THE GREAT CABIN - DAWN

Wan dawn light reflects off the ceiling onto the bloody,
bandaged officers, conducting an angry post-mortem as KILLICK
serves coffee.

                    ALLEN
          ...Call her a frigate? Ha! You ask me
          she's no more a frigate than a painted
          Dutchman. More like a ship of the line, a
          two-decker more'n a frigate.

MOWETT is trying to staunch a persistent nosebleed.

                    MOWETT
          One does wonder what manner of hull she
          has. Our balls seemed to bounce right off
          her.

Jack enters, his head newly bandaged. He walks past the
seated officers and stands looking out through the stern
windows. The officers continue their conversation, though
their words are intended for Jack

                    PULLINGS
          She had the weather-gauge and long
          eighteens which could hit us beyond our
          effective range. That's the sum of it

                     ALLEN
          And   40 guns to our 28, I counted the
          muzzle flashes.

                    PULLINGS
          It was an unfair match, no dishonor in
          defeat no dishonor at all.

Jack still has his back to them. He puts his hand in his
pocket and finds something there - the shattered fragments of
his gold pocket watch.

                    ALLEN
              (sighs)
          Well, we can patch up our main and mizzen
          the foresail is too far gone so we'll
          bend our spare.

                      PULLINGS
          Sir.

Jack finally turns.

                    PULLINGS (CONT'D)
          Mr. Allen is confident, with basic
          repairs, we can get home as we are...
          allowing for a stop in Jamaica.

                     ALLEN
          At Port Royal we can haul her into dry-
          dock, and hopefully get her home
          without...

                    JACK
          We're not going home.

An expectant hush. KILLICK is all ears, as he picks up the
coffee cups and places them carefully on a silver tray.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          What is our purpose here gentlemen? Why
          were we sent? To punish a blackguard
          privateer who has decimated our Atlantic
          whaling fleet and now threatens to do the
          same in the pacific. Are we to leave
          those ships to his mercy and slink back
          into Portsmouth - another defeat to add
          to the list. Is that what we draw our
          wages for? I say we pursue her and pay
          her back with interest

                    ALLEN
          With respect, Captain, she could be half-
          way to Cape Horn by the time we're
           repaired and underway.

                     JACK
               (sternly)
           Then there's not a moment to lose.

83.   OUTSIDE THE GREAT CABIN

KILLICK exits the cabin with the tray of coffee cups. As he
passes them to his mate, BLACK BILL -

                     KILLICK (a whisper)
           We're for the Horn.

84.     THROUGHOUT THE SHIP - DAWN

Word passes like lightning from the wounded in the orlop, to
the beak of the ship

                      MUTTERED VOICES AD LIB
           -   The Horn you say?
           -   Never! In this condition?
           -   Eh? What news mates
           -   Heading for where?!

85.     FORECASTLE - DAWN

A few of the old 'Surprises' have gathered for a smoke, all
of them men who've sailed with JACK before: Jittery alcoholic
Higgins, loyal Nehemiah Slade, sharp-faced tobacco-chewing
Faster Doudle, and the big Welshman Awkward Davies, still
shaken by the loss of his gun-crew.

                     higgins
           We're for hell in a hand-barrow if you
           ask my opinion

                     slade
           I'm game. If the captain says we can take
           her we can take her.

                     DAVIES
           Can we catch her is the question.
           And if we do what's different? She'll
           just hold us off with them long eighteens
           til she sends us all to the bottom. All
           for what?

                     DOUDLE
           I'll tell you for what, matey. She's a
           privateer, loaded with all the gems of
           Araby. Think of the gold. Think of the
           prize-money.

                     HOLLAR
           Hoi there! You men jump to it!

86.     WAIST OF THE SHIP - NOON

The gratings are hauled aside and light floods down into the
gun-deck.

87.     GUN-DECK - DAY

Part of a huge tree-trunk - spare timber for repairs - is
manhandled by a dozen crewmen.

                     HOLLAR
           Heave. And heave. Handsomely now. One
           long pull. Belay!

88.     QUARTERDECK - DAY

Crewmen labour at the capstan.

                     HOLLAR (O.S.)
           Two six heave! Two six heave!

The huge log rises from below and hangs suspended from its
gantry. JACK shouts down from the quarterdeck -

                     JACK
           Have her placed along the gunwale for
           now, Mr. Hollar, and the guns moved to
           that side also.

89.   ABOVE JACK'S HEAD

Men are hanging in the rigging throwing down damaged sections
of rope.

                     FASTER DOUDLE
           All clear below!

90.     QUARTERDECK - DAY

JACK dodges the falling rope, moving back, past NAGEL and his
men who are cutting out damaged sections of the gunwale with
saws and adzes, prizing up decking and wrestling with the
wrecked steering mechanism.

91.     THE STERN - DAY
JACK looks down to where PULLINGS and others have lifted the
broken rudder from its hinges.

92.    WIDE SHOT - DAY

The ship swarming with men, cutting, splicing, hammering and
hauling. Every able-bodied soul hard at work.

93.    QUARTERDECK - DAY

An optimistic breeze has picked up, fluttering the tattered
ensign.

The deck is now sloping at a forty-five degree angle. KILLICK
hands a sandwich to Pullings who passes it down to JACK.

                    JACK
          Damn this wind, Mr. Pullings! The Acheron
          will be making a hundred and fifty miles
          a day in this.

                    PULLINGS
          Aye, but hugging the coast, and stopping
          to board the odd merchantman

JACK smiles at this and bites into his sandwich.

To the uphill side, carpenters are erecting a scaffolding
over the side of the ship.

94.    THE SHIP - DAY

The ship's copper-plated keel is partly revealed as the men
clamber and slip about on the steeply-sloping side erecting
scaffolding. The tropical heat resounds with shouts, curses
and hammering.

95.    SIDE OF THE SHIP - DUSK

Carpenters working inside the scaffolding, are fitting new
sections of wood into the holes low in her hull.

                    LAMB
          Down. Down. Stop.

The new piece of wood is an almost perfect fit. MR. LAMB
marks the places where it is jamming.

                      LAMB (CONT'D)
          Up again.
Then he begins to work on it with his rasp.

96.    UNDERWATER - DUSK

Among tropical fish, a diver, a Greek crewman, 'OLD
SPONGE' (father of YOUNG SPONGE) a hammer at his belt, plugs
a few smaller holes with hemp fibre, then surfaces to...

97.    THE SIDE OF THE CUTTER - DUSK

                    OLD SPONGE
              (In Greek)
          The smaller bit. No. That bit there.

YOUNG SPONGE passes him a piece of lead and some nails and
OLD SPONGE dives again.

Our P.O.V. descending into the sea as...

98.    WAIST OF THE SHIP - NIGHT

Roaring flames, flying sparks, the clang of metal on metal. A
forge has been set up. Powder-monkeys sweat on the bellows.
The ship's blacksmith is churning out iron bolts, pintles and
gudgeons, which are snatched away by NAGEL with tongs and
thrown into a bucket of water to cool.

A few yards away, wood chips fly from LAMB's adze as the
ship's massive new stern post takes shape.

The new rudder is laid out flat, already cut to its final
shape and being strengthened with great nails and iron bands
which NEHEMIAH SLADE and AWKWARD DAVIES are nailing into
place.

The hammering travels through the ship to...

99.    THE SICK BERTH - NIGHT

BLAKENEY with his splinted arm jerks awake, feverish and
confused.

                    BLAKENEY
          No. No. Not through my nose!

                    CALAMY
          Its alright. William. You were dreaming.

Blakeney looks around, disoriented and finds Calamy by his
side.
                    BLAKENEY
          Joe Plaice told me when you die they sew
          you up in your hammock with the last
          stitch through your nose... to make sure
          you're not just sleeping

                    CALAMY
          You know old Joe, always telling [ ]
          stories.

                    BLAKENEY
          Is it true though? [    ] About the last
          stitch?

                    CALAMY
          Come on, you'll be stitching me in mine
          first.

                    BLAKENEY (drifting)
          Not through my nose. You'll tell them.

                     CALAMY
              (nods)
          Nor any other part of you.

Trying to make light of it, though he fears BLAKENEY is
dying.

100.       SICK BAY, LATER - NIGHT

CALAMY has fallen asleep by BLAKENEY's side. He wakes to find
STEPHEN sniffing BLAKENEY's wound.

                    CALAMY
          Is it mending, sir?

                    STEPHEN
          No, I'm afraid it will not do.

101.        THE COCKPIT - NIGHT

BLAKENEY is lowered onto the table, delirious. CALAMY holds
his head and PADEEN, MATURIN's giant manservant, his legs,
which are lashed together.

                    BLAKENEY
          No. Mamma. Mamma.

                    STEPHEN
          It is the laudanum speaking. You will be
          a regular Nelson.

He tests the edge of his knife with his thumb.

CALAMY places the leather gag between BLAKENEY's teeth.
Padeen mumbles a Gaelic prayer. STEPHEN turns and grips
BLAKENEY shattered arm.

A sharp, grating noise as STEPHEN works out of shot, cutting
off the arm.

Close on STEPHEN, lips compressed, utterly focussed.

He puts down the bloody knife and reaches for the spatula in
the pail of hot tar.

BLAKENEY has not uttered a sound, though he is shaking
uncontrollably and his face is wet with tears. CALAMY has
tears in his eyes also.

STEPHEN finishes his work, breathing hard, a gentle smile to
BLAKENEY.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          There. I have never seen a braver
          patient.

102.        SICK-BERTH - NIGHT

An exhausted CALAMY keeps vigil by BLAKENEY's cot. The boy
wakes, and looks for CALAMY in the darkness.

                    BLAKENEY
          Peter? Is that you? I dreamed they cut my
          arm off.

Then he realizes, with sudden horror, that it wasn't a dream

                    CALAMY
          You would have died else.

Blakeneys eyes brim with tears and he turns away

                    CALAMY (CONT'D)
          Come. You can still sup your grog with
          your left. And I shall take your turn at
          marbles.

103.        MIZZEN TOPGALLANT - DAY

MOWETT stands in the cross-trees, making a final check on the
lashings round the new mizzen top. Below him the great work
is nearing completion, men swarming like ants over every part
of the hull.

MOWETT climbs down past FASTER DOUDLE who has one leg looped
through the shrouds and is splicing a rope with both hands
and his teeth.

Farther down, a patched sail is being furled up tight in its
gaskets.

Beyond that, at the base of the main-mast a fascinated group
of men have gathered to watch the Doctor trepanning JOE
PLAICE.

104.        BASE OF THE MAINMAST - DAY

STEPHEN's drill carves out a neat disc of bone to reveal a
purplish mass which he starts spooning from the cavity.

A small crowd of crewmen pause in their work, watching the
doctor with morbid fascination as he drops the purple stuff
in a dish.


                    SLADE (shouts)
          Is them his brains, Doctor?

                    STEPHEN
          No, that is just blood. These are his
          brains.

Exposing them to view. Several of the crew move in for a
closer look. The armourer hands STEPHEN a flattened coin,
which he begins to screw in place over the cavity as the old
hands whisper his praises to the men who have never seen
Stephen at work.

                    SLADE
          Physician he is, not one of your common
          surgeons.

                    FASTER DOUDLE
          Cured Prince Billy of the marthambles and
          the strong fives, wouldn't look at you
          for under ten guineas on land.

                    DAVIES
          [   ] Knows his birds and beasts too
          boyo, show him a beetle and he'll tell
          you what it's thinking.
105.           THE SURPRISE - DAY

A wind causes the ship to turn on its moorings, stirring
impatiently, like a racehorse ready to be off as...

106.           QUARTERDECK - DAY

...JACK jumps down from the mizzen ratlines.

                    JACK
          Let us be off, Mr. Allen!

                    ALLEN
          Weigh anchor! All hands to make sail. Mr
          Hollom!

107. ON DECK

Barefoot men are suddenly running to their stations, racing
above and below, running out along the bowsprit, up the
ratlines, along the yards.

A small group, supposed to be assisting Hollom, are
contrasting slow off the mark

                    HOLLOM
          Bear a hand there you fellows!

The men he is addressing, shoot him a look of distaste which
unsettles Hollom slightly, then they assist him pulling on a
rope

108.       QUARTERDECK - DAY

                    MOWETT
          Up and down Sir, thick and dry for
          weighing.

109.           WAIST OF THE SHIP - DAY

Men strain on the capstan bars.

110.           BOWS - DAY

The anchor bursting up out of the sea.

111.           MASTS OF THE SURPRISE - DAY

The shrouds darken with climbing figures, framed against the
sun.
                    HOLLAR (O.S.)
          Trice up. Lay out.
          Sheet home!
          Hoist away!

112.        QUARTERDECK - DAY

HOLLAR staring up as the sails unfurl and fill with wind.

                    HOLLAR
          Cheerly there in the foretop, our
          William!
          T'garnsl sheets!
          Hands to the braces!

Men slide down ropes from high amongst the shrouds, then
swing out and drop down to the deck like monkeys, pulling
ropes and sails tight with the weight of their bodies.

113.        WIDE SHOT - DAY

The ship spreading its wings. A sudden cracking of canvas as
she turns and runs directly downwind.

114.        QUARTERDECK - LATE AFTERNOON

The sun has sunk lower. BONDEN, solid as the rock of
Gibraltar is back at the helm, the wind stronger and directly
behind.

                    JACK
          Speed, Mr. Boyle

BOYLE heaves the log clear of the ship's side. The log line
races out on its reel. BOYLE checks the run, pulls the pin.

                    BOYLE
          Ten and a half knots, Sir.

JACK makes no comment but the news seems to please him.

115.        CLOSE TO THE WATER - DUSK

The great hull powers past us.

116.   DELETED

117.        OUTSIDE THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

KILLICK prepares toasted cheese in his small serving-area.
From inside the cabin, the sound of a violin and a cello
tuning up. KILLICK glances irritably at the door and elbows
his mate, BLACK BILL.

                    KILLICK
          Here we go again: scrape, scrape,
          screech, screech and never a tune you
          could dance to, not if you were drunk as
          Davey's sow.

118.    INSIDE THE GREAT CABIN

JACK and STEPHEN are both keen amateur musicians - JACK,
violin, STEPHEN cello.

As Stephen completes his tuning, Jack experiments with a
refrain.

                    STEPHEN
          Is that one I know, or are we breaking
          new ground?

                    JACK
          I am trying to remember that air they
          played all those years ago at the
          Governors house in Port Mahon. You
          remember When we first met.
          Corelli if I'm not mistaken.

He plays another riff

                     STEPHEN
          If that is your "A" you are very much so.
          This is A.

Jack corrects his A string, plays another few bars

                    JACK
          Or Locatelli. pom pom pom pom

                    STEPHEN
          All I remember is you being unable to sit
          in your seat the entire performance.

                    JACK
          Aye and you practising apon that poor
          bishop with your "puddings athwart the
          starboard Gumbrils" or some such arrant
          nonsense.

                    STEPHEN
              (laughs)
          No. That was off Toulon, during the
          blockade. At our first meeting they
          played this:

He plays a short refrain

                    JACK
          No. No. Entirely off the mark.   pom-pom-
          POM I have now

He plays another variation

                    STEPHEN
              (enjoying the game)
          Or was it something like this....

Cello answers violin, as they hand it back and forth,
improvising freely now with an infinity of variations,
sometimes playing together, sometimes separately, suddenly
hitting it, the music soaring and continuing over

119.        A HIGH POINT OF VIEW, TIME LAPSE - DAY

The tiny ship on the vastness of the ocean. From its side,
cotton-wool puffs of smoke.

120.        GUN-DECK - SAME TIME

A rippling broadside, the crews sweating over their guns.

                    JACK
          And pitch 'em up! It's spars and rigging
          we want!

MOWETT timing the gap between each broadside.

                    MOWETT
          Three minutes ten, Sir.

                    JACK
          Not good enough! We must fire three
          broadsides to her two. Again!

Turning to BLAKENEY, who though much recovered, still looks
pale and a little unsure of himself.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Mr. Blakeney? Think you can supervise a
          gun?
                    BLAKENEY
          As you will. Sir.

                    JACK
          'Spitfire', hop to it.

BLAKENEY takes command of the gun. To one side CALAMY is in
charge of 'Beelzebub', on the other side HOLLOM is now
directing 'Sudden Death'.

Once again the orders are given, and the crews, now competing
with each other, go through the sequence: 'Out Tompions',
'Cast loose your guns', 'Cartridge. Ball. Prime. Run out your
gun. Prime. Aim. Stand clear... Fire!!'

121.        AND AGAIN - DUSK

As another broadside shakes the deck, STEPHEN hauls his
collecting net on board and empties out a glistening array of
sea creatures - shrimps, squid and minnows, glinting like
opals in the pink light.

                    MOWETT (O.S.)
          Two minutes five, Sir.

                    PULLINGS
          Again!

122.        AND AGAIN - NIGHT

It's a race. JACK's orders are just a formality, the sequence
having become so automatic now.

                    JACK
          Out Tompions... Run out your guns...
          Prime.

Seconds ticking away on MOWETT's stopwatch, barrels float on
the sea a hundred yards out.

                    JACK (CONT.) (CONT'D)
          As she bears, from forward aft. Point
          your guns... Fire!!

123.   THE OCEAN AT NIGHT

The black ship spouting tongues of flame, the water around
the target barrels erupting in great spouts.

                    MOWETT (O.S.)
          Two minutes dead.

124.   THE GUNPOWDER ROOM

Boom! Another splendidly coordinated broadside resounds
through the ship as the powder-monkeys come racing down
through the dreadnought screens to the magazine and back with
more cartridge.

For them too it's a race, little ADDISON just ahead of SWIFT,
RYE hot on his heels.

125.        STEPHEN'S CABIN - NIGHT

The sound of the guns is faint down here, at least when heard
from STEPHEN's perspective - his ears are stuffed with wax.

He is surrounded by his specimen bottles, and he looks from
his microscope to his ledger where he is documenting the
array of aquatic life-forms. He removes his ear-plugs, but
the noise of the guns is deafening and he hastily replaces
them.

126.        ON THE GUN-DECK - NIGHT

MOWETT watches the second hand of his stopwatch, glancing up
as he notes -

The concentrated fury of the men swabbing, ramming, heaving
in, heaving out, firing at a raft this time.

And he stops the watch as the first gun fires.

                    MOWETT
          One minute forty-nine, Sir!

His voice is drowned by the firing of the other guns in close
succession entirely demolishing the raft, the sound mixing
with cheering and the frenzied hammering of Nagel and his
mates as the gun-deck partitions are cheerfully re-erected.

127.        IN THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

The table is dragged back into place and settings laid for
dinner.

JACK enters, his face flushed with victory.

                    JACK
          Killick? Killick there.
KILLICK appears.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          What do you have for us tonight?

                    KILLICK
          Which it's, Soused Hoggs-Face.

                    JACK
          Aah! My favorite.

128.        MAIN DECK - NIGHT

The sky a great canopy of stars, the ship racing onwards
through the warm night.

Crew men and the recovering wounded have come up on deck. Now
they sit around in groups, supping their grog. Someone
produces a jaw-harp, someone else a drum.

A guitar is passed from hand to hand, stopping with BLACK
BILL who sings a ballad in an African dialect.

There's an effortless integration of race and rank, of age
and nationality - bonds forged by battle and hardship.

OLD SPONGE gets up and dances a Greek dance: obviously a
favorite among the crew. Cheering and cat-calls. Lanterns
coming up from below. More dancing, insults in many
languages, and a song.

                    GUN-CREWS
          Boneparte Boneparte
          That red-faced son of an old French fart
          Hey ho, stamp and go
          Stamp and go, stamp and go
          Hey ho, stamp and go

129.        THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

The singing mixes with the end of a lively dinner given by
JACK for his officers, including a special guest, young
BLAKENEY.

                    PULLINGS
          With your permission, Sir, Mr. Mowett has
          composed a short poem in honour of our
          mission.

                    JACK
          Let's hear it, Mr. Mowett.

Reactions around the table, glasses re-filled in
anticipation. MOWETT stands and declaims with a number of
precise airy gestures, like a conductor.

                    MOWETT
          Our brotherhood, some old, some new.
          In blood baptized, in strength renewed.
          In purpose unified and true.
          All thoughts of home forsaken.
          Where duty leads us, there we go.
          Nor rest nor comfort shall we know.
          Until the unrepentant foe, is boarded
          sunk or taken

                    ALL
              (raising their glasses)
          Aye! Capital! Well said! Hear him, hear
          him! 'Sunk or taken'...

                    JACK
          Aye and when we do take her we shall give
          her to Tom Pullings as his first command.
          If he don't die before then. Bumpers up
          Tom

                    ALLEN
              (A toast)
          'To wives and sweethearts'.

They raise their glasses -

                    ALL
          'To wives and sweethearts'.

                    PULLINGS
          And may they never meet.

Amid the laughter someone bumps Blakeney's stump. He winces,
then puts a brave face on it

                    BLAKENEY (to JACK)
          I believe you knew Nelson, Sir?

                     JACK
          Lord Nelson? Yes. I had the honour of
          serving under him at the Nile.
               (aside)
          Mr. Mowett, the bottle stands by you,
          sir.
               (as the bottle moves on)
          In fact I dined with him twice, and he
          spoke to me on both occasions.

The table goes quiet. BLAKENEY is wide-eyed, though partly
from his strenuous efforts to appear sober.

                    JACK (CONT.) (CONT'D)
          The first time he said to me - 'May I
          trouble you for the salt, sir?' I have
          always tried to say it as close as I
          could [   ] The second time someone had
          offered him a boat-cloak on a cold night
          and he said no, he was quite warm - his
          zeal for his king and country kept him
          warm.

Amid the general agreement - 'Hear him, hear him', etc.
STEPHEN is noticeably silent.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          It sounds absurd, I know, and were it
          another man you would cry out, "Oh, what
          pitiful stuff" and dismiss it as mere
          enthusiasm, but with him you felt your
          heart glow.

                    MOWETT
              (raising his glass)
          To Lord Nelson.

                    ALL
          Lord Nelson!

[ ] Stephen joins on the toast, but JACK knows that his
friend deplores such overt patriotism and seeks to draw him
back in with a joke.

                    JACK
          You see those two weevils, Doctor?

He points at a faint movement amongst the crumbs of a ship's
biscuit.

                    STEPHEN
          I do.

                    JACK
          Which would you choose?

The table tenses with anticipation of one of the Captain's
'jokes'. STEPHEN concentrates.
                    STEPHEN
          There is not a scrap of difference. They
          are the same species of curculio.

                    JACK
          But suppose you had to choose?

                    STEPHEN
          Then I would choose the right-hand
          weevil, it has a perceptible advantage in
          both length and breadth.

                    JACK
          There I have you. You are completely
          dished. Don't you know in the Navy you
          must always choose 'the lesser of two
          weevils'?

He thunders with laughter, the rest joining in, breathless
with mirth, tears of laughter streaming down their faces

                    ALLEN
          'Pon my life. He who would pun would pick
          a pocket. Dýe not smoke it doctor?

                    STEPHEN
              (poker faced)
          Sure there would be some poor thin barren
          minds that would catch at such a paltry
          clench.

Then he too cracks a smile and joins in their laughter

130.        MAIN DECK - NIGHT

The crew continue with their own celebration.

The excitement penetrates JOE PLAICE's stupor. Never having
woken since the trepanning he suddenly opens his eyes and
speaks.

                    PLAICE
          "...And the righteous shall inherit the
          earth."

The men around him stare in amazement.

                    BONDEN
          You hear that. He said something. Joe
          spoke! Say something else Joe
                     JOE
           Handy with that gasket

                     BONDEN
               (shouts up to the quarterdeck)
           He spoke doctor. Joe plaice spoke

131. QUARTERDECK

The officers have appeared on deck with their coffee and
Stephen raises a hand in acknowledgment.

132.   IN THE RIGGING - NIGHT

Midshipmen CALAMY RYE and BOYLE are eating from a bag of
broken biscuits ('ships nuts') as they sit perched up in the
rigging.

On seeing JACK, they break into their own song.

                     MIDSHIPMEN
           Our captain was very good to us.
           He dipped his prick in phosphorus.
           It shed a light all through the night.
           And steered us through the Bosphorus.

133. QUARTERDECK

JACK pretends not to have heard, but he can't hide his smile.
Beside him in a chair sits BLAKENEY, his empty jacket sleeve
pinned to his front 'Nelson' style, laughing incredulously at
the older boys cheek.

From somewhere on the forecastle, WARLEY and his top-men
start singing.

                     TOP-MEN
           Farewell and adieu you fine Spanish
           ladies Farewell and adieu to you ladies
           of Spain...

The older midshipman, HOLLOM joins in, his fine voice soaring
effortlessly over the others, hijacking their roistering
ballad and converting it to something much more poignant.

                     HOLLOM
           For we've received orders to sail for Old
           England.
           Perhaps we shall never more see you again
His singing is appreciated by STEPHEN on the quarterdeck.

                    STEPHEN
          What a wonderfully true voice Mr. Hollom
          does possess.

134.        IN THE WAIST - NIGHT

KILLICK and NAGEL are less than impressed with HOLLOM and
sing over him, led by ORRAGE the cook.

                    ORRAGE
          Come all you thoughtless young men,
          A warning take by me,
          And never leave your happy homes
          to sail the raging sea.

135.        OCEAN - NIGHT

The Surprise sailing away from us, the chorus drifting across
the darkness.

135a.   OCEAN. DAY

The colours are changing, from the rich hues of the tropics
to the cold muted colours of colder, more southerly climes.

Still the surprise sails on

136.        THE GREAT CABIN - DAY

Fingers trace a course down the east coast of South America.
Another, more detailed chart is placed on top of the first.

                    ALLEN
          This one's by Colnett, Sir. He travelled
          with Captain Cook and carried a pair of
          Arnott's chronometers.

JACK finds their position and marks it with pencil. A knock
on the door. Officers and crew are now dressed according to
the change in climate

                    KILLICK
          Couple of the men to see you, Sir.

                    JACK
              (without looking up)
          Show them in.
The door opens to reveal NAGEL and WARLEY carrying something.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          What's this?

A scale model of a ship, 15 inches long, perfect in every
detail. Jack takes it, delighted, the name picked out in gold
on the stern - Acheron.

                    NAGEL
          It were Warley's idea, Sir.

                    WARLEY
          I thought she were familiar like, then I
          remembered where I'd seen her - in
          Boston, during the Peace.

                     JACK
          [   ] In Boston?

                    WARLEY (nods)
          Yes, Sir. She's Yankee built. I seen them
          working on her, something right strange
          about her scantlings. Then I seen them
          balls bounce off her an' I got to
          thinking.

                    NAGEL
          If you look here, Sir. One side opens up.

He pulls a side off the model, exposing its construction.

                    WARLEY
          Mister Nagel here done it just like I
          seen her - a third layer 'tween the
          outer and inner ribbing - diagonal
          bracing, see?

                    JACK
          Just like the U.S. Constitution - our 12
          pounders couldn't penetrate except at
          close range.

He passes the model to ALLEN.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Killick. Killick, there.

KILLICK enters.
                    JACK (CONT'D)
          An extra ration of rum for these men,
          from my private store.

                    KILLICK
              (shaking his head)
          Which I was saving for Saluting Day, Sir.

                    JACK
          Rouse it up, Killick, and a bottle for
          Mr. ALLEN and me. Let us live whilst
          we're alive!

KILLICK goes to get the bottles

JACK hunkers down to bring his gaze level with the ship, as
though studying its tiny occupants.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          He's vulnerable here.

He taps the stern windows.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Cross her stern, rake her with a
          broadside through her length. But how to
          get close enough? Past those long
          eighteens. That's the devil of it.

136b    SURPRISE QUARTERDECK DAY

The Surprise has stopped level with a Spanish merchantman,
which lies three hundred yards away, headed in the opposite
direction.

The two boats have hove to and are communicating by
megaphone, Stephen translating the Spanish captains words,

                    STEPHEN
          He says they were chased for three days
          till they finally our-ran her. Forty gun
          French privateer headed due south.

                    JACK
          Capital. Thank him and let us be off.

The Spanish captain, already making sail, waves and shouts a
greeting, which Stephen calls back to him.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          What did he say there?

                    STEPHEN
          A Spanish farewell. "May no new thing
          arrive." New things being generally by
          their nature bad.

137.        STEPHEN'S CABIN - NIGHT

Stephen is with Blakeney, re-bandaging the younger man's
stump. Blakeney looks away, his eyes moving over the doctors
collection of books, learned texts in French Spanish, Greek
and Latin

                    BLAKENEY
          Do you have a manual of exercises sir.

                       STEPHEN
          Exercises?

                    BLAKENEY
          Physical exercises, to make the left arm
          as powerful as the right once was.

                    STEPHEN
          I think that will happen with usage, at
          least to a certain extent.

                    BLAKENEY
          But not completely. I will never be whole
          again, will I?

                    STEPHEN
          No but you will adapt to your new
          situation

          The natural world shows us any number of
          examples of how that is possible.

Blakeney bites his lip

                    BLAKENEY
          You know my father was a great fighting
          captain. It was always his expectation I
          would follow in his footsteps. I worry
          that with this arm I will now be good for
          nothing but book learning and philosophy.

                    STEPHEN
          Ah. Like me you mean.
                     BLAKENEY
               (becoming tearful)
           I cannot use a sextant, cannot tie a knot
           or climb the rigging. Cannot even dress
           myself. What chance to I have now of even
           making first lieutenant.

                      STEPHEN
           You have every chance. You hear me every
           chance. Only the other day I heard the
           captain singing your praises. Your
           courage, your fortitude in battle, your
           skill at logarithms and double elevations
           whatever they may be. And when you are
           rated lieutenant you shall have someone
           to tie your bootlaces for you. Aye and
           help you with your jacket. Here take my
           handkerchief. I believe we are summonsed
           to dinner.

139.         MAIN MAST - DAWN

The maintop captain, WARLEY, shouts to the deck, his breath
forming in the frosty air -

                     WARLEY
           Sail on the larboard bow!

140.   GREAT CABIN/LADDER

JACK throwing on a heavy boat-cloak, running for the ladder,
KILLICK behind him trying to get a scarf about JACK's neck
and a cap on his head.

141.         THE RIGGING - DAWN

Follow JACK as he runs up the ratlines, over the futtock
shrouds, then up the topmast shrouds, finally arriving at the
very top of the mast, to join WARLEY and PULLINGS.

                     JACK
           Where away?

                     PULLINGS
           Hull down, two points off the larboard
           beam.

JACK takes the telescope.

142.   TELESCOPE P.O.V.
Just the tips of masts, the hull below the horizon.

                    WARLEY (O.S.)
          She's a frigate all right, but no way of
          knowing if she be the phantom.

Beyond the distant ship, a line of black clouds.

143.        RIGGING - DAWN

JACK and PULLINGS slide to the deck on parallel back-stays,
as careless as a couple of midshipmen.

144.        QUARTERDECK - DAWN

JACK shouting -

                    JACK
          Set studdingsails and top gallants. Then
          wet the sails and have the idlers placed
          along the rail.

PULLINGS and HOLLAR bark out their orders. Men race to obey.

JACK steps up on the gunwale, spying out the distant ship.
BLAKENEY, nearby, rests his telescope on CALAMY's shoulder,
focussing with his left hand.

                    BLAKENEY
          Is it him, Sir?

                    JACK
          Touch wood, Mr. Blakeney. And I fancy
          she plans to out-run us. Ask Dr. Maturin
          to join us, he loves a good chase.

BLAKENEY goes below. Above, the topmen release more sail
which is tightened by the men on deck hauling on cables.

Those not working sit on a row along the windward gunwale,
like the crew of an ocean racing yacht, to counterbalance the
pull of the sails.


145.        WEATHER-DECK - DAY

Their speed is so great green seas are now sweeping the
forecastle. A man falls and rolls into the scuppers.

                    MOWETT
          Lifelines fore and aft!

                    JACK
          Speed, Mr. Calamy?

CALAMY heaves the lead and reads the log line, then shouts
back to JACK -

                    CALAMY
          Twelve knots, Sir!

146.        THE SURPRISE - DAY

Heeled over under a great press of sail, her copper showing
as she clefts the waves.

147.        FORECASTLE - DAY

Lined up along the starboard rails, the crew look back at
their captain riding the ship like a charioteer, one eye
aloft on the creaking topmost spar.

                    JEMMY DUCKS
          We're cracking on, eh?

                    FASTER DOUDLE
          We'll be cracking off presently if he
          doesn't watch it.

                    SLADE
          No, he knows this ship. He knows what she
          can take.

He touches wood, just the same and looks at Joe Plaice who
gives a meaningful roll of his eyes.

Ahead, the bank of storm clouds loom gunmetal grey.

148.        GREAT CABIN - DAY

PULLINGS knocks and enters, with an anxious looking MR. LAMB,
with whom he has been arguing a point.

                    PULLINGS
          We can just see her topsails. She's made
          her turn westwards.

                    LAMB
          I can't vouch for the mizzen Sir, not
          round Cape Horn.
                     JACK
          I'll not lose her now. Set a course
          westwards.

Both men accept this and leave.

149.        QUARTERDECK (TIMELAPSE) - DAY

The wind has increased considerably, the deck sloping like
the roof of a house, the masts bending like coach-whips.

PULLINGS and LAMB are looking up at the mizzenmast which is
making ominous creaks and groans.

                    JACK
          Mr Hollar, rig preventer backstays. Warps
          and light hawsers to the mastheads.

JACK stares ahead to the darkening sky as they move across a
switchback landscape of massive rolling waves.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Better get below, Mr. Pullings!

                       PULLINGS
          What, Sir?

                    JACK (GRINNING)
          Better get some food in you. Before it
          turns nasty.

150.        OCEAN - DAY

Wide to see the two ships. The Surprise and the Acheron with
a mile of sea between them. It's like some great ocean race,
with neither prepared to take in canvas despite the appalling
conditions.

151.        QUARTERDECK - LATER, DAY

They are running fast before a dangerous, following sea: a
landscape of hills and valleys, the whole thing in terrifying
motion.

The forecastle now vanishes in foam with every plunge, rising
each time with water pouring over the waist and spouting from
her scuppers.

KILLICK comes up with the coffee pot inside his jacket. JACK
drinks from the spout, peering ahead into the murk. A wild
unruly part of him is loving this.

Above him, more top-men struggle up the rigging, with the
mast drawing crazy figure of eights on a rushing sky.

152.   BELOW DECKS

The dog watch are wolfing their food, mugs and dinner plates
sliding over the table. Crewmen walk up hill to the grog
barrel, down their ration and head up top again.

                     HIGGINS
           You reckon Captain will keep chasing him
           'round the Horn with every stitch of
           canvas flying?

                     DAVIES
           I reckon he'd chase him to the gates of
           hell if he has to.

                     PLAICE
           And that's where we're all going if he
           doesn't take in sail.

Since his injury, Joe Plaice's startlingly random
pronouncements have acquired the quality of an oracle.

153.   ON DECK

The wind rising from yell to shriek. Waves blown flat by it,
the ship travelling at a drunken sideways angle across a
raging expanse of white foam.

Four men on the wheel, lashed to it, with the air around them
full of water.

In the distance a tower of black rock on the rim of the sea,
distant rollers breaking against it and surging up to a
preposterous height.

JACK looks up at the great press of canvas as he paces the
quarterdeck, the officers glancing from the sails back to
JACK.

                     JACK
           Strike the topgallants.

Men gratefully rush to the ratlines and begin climbing to the
masts.

STEPHEN staggers up onto deck. JACK calls to him, pointing at
the black rock.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Cape Horn, Doctor!

STEPHEN stares across at the legendary Cape. He's struggling
with his pocket-glass when a lurch of the ship sends him
tumbling. As men help him below, WARLEY, the maintop captain
reports to the bosun.

                    HOLLAR (to WARLEY)
          Help them with that mizzen topgallant!
          You go too, Mr. Hollom!

HOLLOM looks desperate as he follows WARLEY up the ratlines
of the mizzen.

154.   MIZZEN TOPgallant MAST

WARLEY works frantically. He's out on the yardarm high above
the raging sea. He shouts for HOLLOM to join him, but HOLLOM
is still in the top, some twenty feet below, unable or
unwilling to climb any higher.

155.        THE SURPRISE - DAY

Wide to see the ship. WARLEY working on the swaying mizzen.
The bow swinging a couple of points further south.

156.        QUARTERDECK - DAY

Wood and rope straining as they wrestle to turn. Then a
tremendous crack as the mizzen-topmast splits and flies
backward into the sea, carrying WARLEY along with it.

                    BONDEN
          Man overboard!

Sail and cordage falling over the men at the wheel. A loose
block and tackle swinging murderously in the gale.

JACK fights free from the tangle of ropes as WARLEY vanishes
in the foam. The mizzenmast is acting as a sea-anchor
dragging the ship's head northwards toward the black rocks.

JACK grabs a speaking-trumpet as WARLEY briefly reappears.

                    JACK
          Swim for the wreckage, man!

Then to PULLINGS.
                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Reduce sail!

As crewmen scramble frantically into the rigging, JACK turns
back to see WARLEY desperately swimming toward the trailing
wreckage, his mates shouting encouragement over the howling
wind.

With sails reduced the ship perceptibly slows, but the
dragging wreckage is swinging the ship broadside on to the
waves.

                    BONDEN
          She's broaching!

PULLINGS runs to JACK, pointing to the trailing mass of ropes
and mast.

                    PULLINGS
          It's acting as a sea-anchor! We must cut
          it loose, Sir!

WARLEY still struggling to reach the wreckage but going under
with each wave. JACK, agonized, makes his decision.

                    JACK
          Axes!

AWKWARD DAVIES scrambles up the ladder with an axe, but loses
his footing and falls sprawling over the quarterdeck.

JACK grabs the axe and attacks the ropes. He's joined by
NAGEL who has run to assist before realizing that the man
overboard is his friend Warley.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Set to then. Set to!!

NAGEL's face is a mask of horror, but he obeys Jacks orders
and starts chopping. He and Jack work shoulder to shoulder,
matching blow for blow [   ]

The prow keeps turning, wave after wave coming at right
angles to the ship.

157.        ON THE GUN-DECK - DAY

A hatch cover is torn off by the force of water, a sudden
mighty deluge pouring down into the lower levels drenching
the men and swamping the guns.
                    HOLLAR (yells below)
          All hands to the pumps!

158.        QUARTERDECK - DAY

JACK and NAGEL [   ] keep hacking at the tangle of ropes.
Knocking chips off the railing in their urgency to cut free
the dragging mast.

Finally they succeed. The last of the ropes [ ] whips away,
the broken mizzen disappears aft and the ship swings
southward, away from the rocks.

The wreckage is swept away by the next wave, leaving WARLEY
struggling, his last chance of getting back to the ship gone.

Then another wave breaks over him and he is gone.

NAGEL is bereft. JACK lowers his head.

159.        OUTSIDE THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

KILLICK and BLACK BILL.

                    KILLICK
          He's been at it again.

                    BLACK BILL
          Who's that then?

                       KILLICK
          The Jonah.

                    BLACK BILL
          What Jonah?

160.        THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

JACK sits at his desk. The model of the Acheron that WARLEY
helped make sits accusingly in front of him.

STEPHEN pours him a glass on wine, and one for himself.

                     STEPHEN
          The deaths in actual battle are the
          easiest.
              (beat)
          For my own part - those who die under the
          knife or from some consequent infection:
          I have to remind myself that it is the
          enemy who killed them, and not me.
              (beat)
          Warley was a casualty of war, as surely
          as if a French ball had taken him.

JACK nods. Obviously the death still weighs on his
conscience. [ ]

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
              (offering the wine)
          At the same time....

He breaks off

                    Jack
          At the same time, what?

Stephen hesitates, aware that he has to proceed carefully

                    STEPHEN
          You know that I wear two hats on every
          voyage. I am the captains particular
          friend and supporter, but also I am the
          ships doctor in which later capacity I am
          party to....

He catches a steely glint in Jacks eye and breaks off.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)

                    You don't want me to continue.

                    JACK
              (stiffly)
          On the contrary. I insist on it.

                    STEPHEN
          There is talk below decks of turning
          back. Or rather that we should have
          turned back some weeks ago. Of course the
          men would follow "Lucky Jack" anywhere,
          and usually in the confident expectation
          of victory. But that of course is the
          problem.

                    JACK
          What is the problem?

                    STEPHEN
          That you are not accustomed to defeat
          Jack. That you have taken it too
          personally. That chasing this larger,
          faster ship, with its long guns, is
          beginning to smack of pride 'which goeth
          before destruction'?

                    JACK
          It's not pride nor anything like it, it's
          a question of duty.

                    STEPHEN
          'Duty', ah yes. The naval signal for end
          of discussion.

                    JACK
          You can be as 'satiric' as you like,
          Stephen, but I have my orders. She is
          attacking our whalers. For why? Without
          whales we have no boot polish, nor any
          soap, nor oil for our lamps, not to oil
          our sabres and muskets. Destroying our
          whalers could win the war for Napoleon.
          Which is why we must catch this Acheron.
          As a man of learning surely you can see
          that.

                    STEPHEN
          At whatever the cost?

                     JACK
          Any whatever cost I choose to pay. And I
          will calculate that myself, Stephen
          without reference to your friends in the
          ward room.

160A MIZZEN-TOP

An icy wind whips at the men working on the temporary mizzen
mast.

Hollom, half way up the rigging is relaying instructions
between the men in the rigging and the men on deck

                      HOLLOM
          Cast off.

The new yard flails around on its pulley, bashing dangerously
against the mast. Almost claiming Nagel

                    HOLLOM (CONT'D)
          Belay. Sorry. Sorry.
161    QUARTERDECK

PULLING craning upwards. The topmen's shouted commands are
whipped away by the gale.

JACK joins him, still smarting from the conversation with
Stephen

                    JACK
          We'll have to go further south, get
          around this bloody west wind.

                    PULLINGS
          How far south?

                    JACK
          As far as is necessary, Mr. Pullings. The
          sixtieth parallel if need be.

162.        THE SHIP - DAY

Tacking southwards. The sun, a pale anaemic disc, gradually
disappearing behind layers of cloud.

The wind is a constant shrill whistle through the rigging, a
sound like some infernal drill which rises and falls but
never ceases.

                                                DISSOLVE TO -

163.        QUARTERDECK - DAWN

The sun rising in a clear sky which turns a sapphire blue.
White ice-islands lie all around them, some a pure, rosy
pink. Others bright ultramarine.

And still the wind howls, driving them further south.

MOWETT passes his telescope to STEPHEN MATURIN. As STEPHEN
studies some seals on an ice-beach, MOWETT launches into
verse, shouting against the wind -

                     MOWETT
          Then we upon the globes last verge shall
          go to view the ocean leaning on the sky
          from thence our rolling neighbours we
          shall know
          and on the hidden world securely pry!

He is interrupted by a bundle of guns clattering on board
from one of the small boats. They are followed by Mr Howard
clad in several thicknesses of sealskin and carrying a brace
of dead penguin.

164.   THE SHIP AT NIGHT

The ship scudding onwards, soundless at this distance, but
for the chilling high pitched whistle of the wind.

An iceberg passes in foreground, fantastic shapes of ice,
like a Gothic cathedral, sculpted by the elements.

165.         BERTH DECK - NIGHT

Hanging stoves provide some feeble warmth. Men huddle close
to them, their breath condensing, or lie shivering in their
bunks, unable to sleep for the cold.

HOLLAR appears with a lantern.

                     HOLLAR
           Rise and shine! Show a leg there, tumble
           up, tumble up - sleepers awake!

As the previous watch arrive downstairs, numb and dazed from
the cold, the next watch emerge from their hammocks and
dress. No-one speaks.

166.         THE GREAT CABIN - DAY

The officers take their places at dinner. Once again it's
penguin stew.

PULLINGS comes in, with an unexpected smile on his face and
whispers something to JACK.

                     JACK
           Praise be. At last.

The others seem to know what's going on, all except STEPHEN
who looks baffled.

                     STEPHEN
           Pray what is there to celebrate?

JACK holds up his hand for silence. A series of creaks and
groans from the ship. The coffee pot tilts on its gimbals.

                     JACK
           We have made our turn northward, Doctor.
           We are headed back toward the sun...
The officers give a slightly ragged cheer.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          ...in anticipation of which. I asked
          Killick to prepare something special.
              (shouts off)
          Killick. Killick there.

KILLICK comes in with his usual exasperated expression,
bearing a tray with a silver tureen lid on it.

                    KILLICK
          Which I was just coming.

He lays it on the table.

                    JACK
          Gentlemen, I give you... our destination.

He whips off the lid to reveal a strange glutinous mass, a
pudding cut in the oddest of shapes. Everyone stands to get a
better look.

                    STEPHEN
          The Galapagos Islands.

                    PULLINGS
          'Pon my word so it is. Look: here's
          Narborough, Chatham and Hood...

                     JACK
          That's where the whalers are, ain't it Mr
          Allen. So that's where the Acheron will
          be headed.

The mood is now taken over by the glee of recognition, as the
officers marvel over the pudding.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Mr. Pullings, if you'll permit me, a
          slice of Albermale. For you Doctor,
          Redondo Rock.

There's a tiny man-of-war made of icing, between the islands.
JACK picks it up in his spoon.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          And, with a fair wind behind us the
          Acheron for me.
167.        OPEN OCEAN, DOLDRUMS - DAY

Slow pan over a glassy expanse of water. JACK's head suddenly
breaks the surface, close to camera.

As he swims he brings the Surprise into view. The ship is
utterly becalmed, wallowing in the swell, her sails hanging
limp. A 'painted ship upon a painted ocean'.

JACK swims around the ship, which currently presents a less
than warlike picture with washing hanging from every part of
the rigging.

He calls up to PULLINGS -

                    JACK
          Best bowers chipped... Lot of rust on
          these forechains... black strake needs
          another coat.

168.   QUARTERDECK

JACK comes aboard, takes a towel from KILLICK and looks about
him.

The men are holystoning the deck and polishing the
brightwork. They look thin and exhausted and burnt dark-brown
by the sun and wind.

169.   FORECASTLE

Killick is with NAGEL and others tarring the ratlines as he
looks back at HOLLOM, patrolling the gangway.

KILLICK indicates him with a tilt of the head.

                    KILLICK
          That engagement off Recife: his whole gun
          crew killed and him not a mark on him.
          Soon as he went up the mizzen mast Warley
          falls. And whose watch was it when we
          lost our wind?

HOLLOM sees them looking at him.

170.        THE SCUTTLEBUTT, SHIP'S WAIST - DAY

A marine sentry, TROLLOPE, stands guard by the ship's water-
barrel - the level is very low. STEPHEN ladles some water
into a phial.
                     TROLLOPE
           One glass per man, sir, Captain's orders.

STEPHEN straightening, irritated by the challenge.

                     STEPHEN
           A mere thimbleful, Corporal, for
           scientific purposes only.

171.         STEPHEN'S CABIN - DAY

In the gloom of his cabin, STEPHEN angles the mirror of his
brass microscope toward the window, and places a slide
containing a droplet of water under the lens.

172.         MAINMAST-TOP - DAY

JACK climbs into the top. He adjusts his telescope, studies
the horizon.

173.   JACK'S TELESCOPE P.O.V.

He pans across the empty sea.

174.   STEPHEN'S MICROSCOPE P.O.V.

An assortment of mobile, transparent micro-organisms rotating
wildly.

                     STEPHEN (O.S.)
           My God, Padeen, a veritable zoo.

PADEEN takes a look, amazed then greatly amused.

175.         THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

Charts are spread all over the table, STEPHEN poring over
them when Jack comes in

                     [   ]

                     STEPHEN
           Show me where these Doldrums lie?

JACK joins him.

                     JACK
           Stephen. Will we never make a sailor of
           you? The doldrums is a condition, not a
           region. But you tend to strike 'em
          here...
              (pointing)
          ...between the trades, and the
          sou'easterlies. I hope the Acheron is
          having it as bad as we are.

STEPHEN considers their current position on the chart, the
tiny Galapagos Islands to the north and the vast emptiness to
the west of them.

                    STEPHEN
          Assuming he is heading for the Galapagos,
          and not some other point in all this
          vastness?

                    JACK
          Come. I'd have thought you'd be delighted
          to go there. It is said to be a natural
          paradise

                    STEPHEN
          In truth I'd be delighted with the merest
          guano stained rock provided it didn't
          sway beneath my feet

                    JACK
          Well, we'll take on food and water once
          we're there, and as compensation for not
          having put ashore in Brazil I pledge that
          during that time, several days at least,
          you can wander at will, catching bugs and
          beetles to your heart's delight. You will
          be the first naturalist to set foot on
          the islands. That is my solemn promise

                    STEPHEN
          I accept, provided the men have not
          mutinied and thrown us all overboard
          before we get there.

                    JACK
          Mutiny? No. They are already counting
          their share of the prize money.

                    STEPHEN
          Another week of this and they shall
          gladly give it up for a glass of clean
          water.

                    JACK
          Ach, Stephen. Stephen. Pray stop your
          bellyacheing. We shall have rain
          presently, and if not we shall damned
          well tow ourselves out of this.

176.        JOLLY BOAT - DAY

Disgruntled, under-slept men, in boats towing the ship.

NAGEL and DAVIES look back darkly at HOLLOM who sits in the
stern.

                    HOLLOM
          Stroke. Stroke...

                    DAVIES (whispers)
          I heard he were on the Fair Marion as
          foundered off Tresco. And he were on the
          Zephyrus what exploded at Trafalgar.

HOLLOM has heard this, as DAVIES intended, but he looks away
choosing to ignore them.

177.        FIGHTING TOP - DAY

A view from above of men towing the ship. Over this an
unpleasant scraping sound - chalk on slate.

                    BONDEN
          M-a-s-t... mast

STEPHEN is writing words on a slate then offering them to
BONDEN whom he is teaching to read.

                    BONDEN (CONT'D)
          S-u-n... sun

STEPHEN nods and scratches another word on the board. As
BONDEN struggles to decipher it there's the sound of a musket
shot and a seabird falls out of the sky.

HOWARD, the captain of marines, reloads his smoking musket
laughing aloud.

                    STEPHEN
          Is that man completely mad?
              (shouts down)
          Mr. Howard, a petrel is not good eating!

HOWARD looks up towards them, a broad smile on his red moon
of a face.

                    HOWARD
          Were you never a man for sporting,
          Doctor? Why you could shoot all day in
          these waters with two men loading!

178.        GUN-DECK - DAY

The midshipmen and powder-monkeys have assembled for weapons
practise, armed with cutlasses. CALAMY and WILLIAMSON divide
the group into two teams, choosing sides as for school-yard
football.

                    CALAMY
          Blakeney...

                      WILLIAMSON
          Rye...

                      CALAMY
          Swift...

                      WILLIAMSON
          Boyle...

                    CALAMY
              (the final choice)
          All right, come on Addison.

Little ADDISON joins CALAMY's side, trailing his too-large
sword. WILLIAMSON tosses a coin.

                      CALAMY (CONT'D)
          Heads.

                    WILLIAMSON
          It's tails. We attack.

CALAMY's side retire to a defensive position made of tar
barrels at one end of the deck. From here they are suddenly
aware of Jack idly watching their mock-fight from the
quarter-deck

WILLIAMSON's team give a yell and charge at them.

It's serious fighting. Heads are struck, fingers are rapped.
BLAKENEY, trying gamely with his left arm but frustrated by
his own ineptitude, goes down under the rush of attackers.

                      BLAKENEY
          Ow ow ow!

                      WILLIAMSON
          Yield.

                    CALAMY
          Let go of him.

                    WILLIAMSON
          Yield!!

CALAMY can't drag the bigger boy off. He whips a pistol out
of his belt and fires it at WILLIAMSON's head.

WILLIAMSON is blasted sideways, clutching his face and
yelling in pain. The other boys separate, horrified.

                    CALAMY
          It's just powder. There wasn't a ball in
          it, just powder.

He helps BLAKENEY to his feet.

                    CALAMY (CONT'D)
          Are you all right?

                    BLAKENEY
          No.

Angrily shaking free of him, he looks to where Jack stood,
but the captain is no longer watching.

                    CALAMY
          What's wrong? I saved you.

                    BLAKENEY
          I didn't need to be saved.

179.        ON DECK - DAY

Tar bubbling under the heat of the sun. Cannons fizzing and
steaming as they are washed.

There's been a change of crews in the long-boats, and HOLLOM
and his men are now back on board. NAGEL is approaching from
one end of the narrow gang-way, HOLLOM from the other. NAGEL
pushes past, deliberately bumping HOLLOM, who stumbles,
clutching for the gunwale.

180.        QUARTERDECK - DAY

JACK sees this outrageous act of indiscipline and yells out -

                    JACK
          Master at arms! Take that man below and
          clap him in irons. Mr. Pullings,
          defaulters at six bells.

181.        THE GREAT CABIN, DOLDRUMS - DAY

JACK stands behind his desk, brow like thunder. From outside
the sounds of the muster. HOLLOM stands in front of him,
twisting his hat between his hands.

                    JACK
          The man pushed past you without making
          his obedience. And yet you said nothing.

                    HOLLOM
          No, Sir, I intended to but the right
          words just didn't...

                    JACK
          'The right words'? He failed to salute
          you. It's deliberate insubordination.

HOLLOM looks at the floor, mumbles -

                    HOLLOM
          They don't like me, Sir.

                    JACK
          They what? Speak up, man!

HOLLOM raises his head and looks at JACK, his eyes shiny with
tears and when he opens his mouth the words tumble out in a
rush.

                    HOLLOM
          I've tried to get to know the men a bit,
          Sir, be friendly like, but they've taken
          a set against me. Always whispering when
          I go past, giving me looks. But, I'll set
          that to rights, be tougher on them from
          now on.

                    JACK
          You can't make 'friends' with the
          foremast jacks, they'll despise you in
          the end. Nor do you need be a tyrant.
          It's leadership they want, strength,
          respect.

                    HOLLOM
          I'm very sorry, Sir.
                    JACK
          You're what twenty-three, twenty-four?

                    HOLLOM
              (smiling weakly)
          Twenty-five next Friday.

                    JACK
          You've failed to pass for lieutenant
          twice. You can't spend the rest of your
          life as a midshipman.

                    HOLLOM
          I'll try harder, Sir.

KILLICK helps JACK on with his full-dress uniform.

                    JACK
          Well, it's an unfortunate business,
          Hollom. Damned unfortunate.

KILLICK seems to endorse this by placing the captain's hat
emphatically on JACK's head.

Jack turns and strides out of the cabin, HOLLOM following
slowly after him.

182.        QUARTERDECK, DOLDRUMS - DAY

The entire crew has been mustered. The uniformed officers
line the quarterdeck as JACK reads from the Articles of War.

                    JACK
          'Article Thirty-Six. All other crimes not
          capital, committed by any person or
          persons in the fleet... shall be punished
          according to the laws, and customs, of
          the sea.'
              (then, to NAGEL)
          Mr. Nagel, you're an old man-of-war's man
          and yet you failed to salute an officer.
          You knew what you were doing. Have you
          anything to say in your defence?

NAGEL looks at the deck.

                     NAGEL
          No, Sir.

                     JACK
          Have his officers anything to say for
          him?

DAVIES and KILLICK scowl across the deck at HOLLOM, who looks
wretched but says nothing.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Seize him up.

NAGEL is spread-eagled to the grating, his hands tied.

                    HOLLAR
          Seized up, Sir.

                    JACK
          One dozen. Bosun's mate, do your duty.

The mate takes the leather cat-o-nine tails out of its red
bag.

                                                   FADE TO BLACK

                                                   FADE UP ON -

183.        THE GREAT CABIN - DUSK

JACK stands alone, tuning his fiddle. No matter how much he
turns the peg the top string always sounds flat. He tunes
some more and breaks it.

                    JACK
          Red hell...

184.        QUARTERDECK - DUSK

                    JACK (O.S.)
          ...and bloody death!

Every word is plainly audible to the men on watch, who
pretend to hear nothing.

185.        THE GREAT CABIN - DUSK

JACK is fitting a new string. Widen to reveal STEPHEN sitting
opposite with his cello.

                    STEPHEN
          I was merely remarking that you have
          always prided yourself on not being a
          flogging captain and this...
                    JACK
          I am not a "flogging captain". I have not
          once rigged the grating on this voyage,
          not once in twelve thousand miles.
          Besides, I wager you will find a deal
          more brutality on land.

Tightening the new string. The note escalating as he turns.

                    STEPHEN
          I'm not a party to it on land.

                    JACK
          Well you are party to it on my ship.
          Men must be governed. Often not wisely I
          grant you, but there are hierarchies even
          in nature, as you've often said yourself.

                    STEPHEN
          Hierarchies. That is the excuse of every
          tyrant in history. Of Nero. Of Boneparte.

                    JACK
              (trying to call a halt)
          Yes. Fine words I'm sure

                    STEPHEN
              (continues regardless)
          ...We are not animals and I for one am
          opposed to authority, that egg of misery
          and oppression..

                    JACK
          Very fine words Stephen, but In these
          current circumstances, hard-work and firm
          discipline is what keeps our little
          wooden world together.

                    STEPHEN
          And grog I suppose.

                            JACK
          Of course. What of it? Of course they
          have their grog!

                    STEPHEN (sits) (CONT'D)
          You know Nagel was drunk when he insulted
          Hollom. And Higgins is never sober. Even
          the midshipmen...

                    JACK
          The men will have their grog Stephen. It
          is part of the immemorial tradition of
          the service

                    STEPHEN
          Well a shameful tradition it is too. To
          have them pressed from their homes, kept
          in a permanent state of dull inebriation.

                       JACK
          Stephen...

                    STEPHEN
          ...confined for months in a wooden
          prison, Never more than a few hours sleep
          and flogged when drunken idleness drives
          them to....

                     JACK (forcefully)
          ...Stephen! I warn you that friend or no
          I will not have you talk of the service
          like that.

                    STEPHEN
          I am stating plain facts

                    JACK
              (finally explodes)
          Well I will not hear them! From you or
          anyone. You understand! Things are as
          they are for good or bad whether or not
          they have a place in your damned papist
          philosophy. If you are here to make music
          then sit down and play. If not be gone,
          for you have come
          to the wrong shop for anarchy!

In stony silence Stephen puts down his cello bow and leaves
past Killick, who is lurking as always by the door.

186.        SCUTTLEBUTT - DUSK

Something disturbs the dark surface of the water as HOLLOM
dips the ladle and fills his cup.

A sense of someone moving up behind him. HOLLOM turns
abruptly. It's the marine sentry, moving in the shadows. He
stares at HOLLOM as he backs away toward the ladder and
hurries below.

187.        BERTH DECK - DUSK
To reach his quarters he is obliged to walk the length of the
berth deck, past HOWARD obsessively cleaning his pistol,
another man whittling with a knife, DAVIES adding another
link in the tattooed chain about BECKETT's middle.

No-one speaks as HOLLOM runs the gauntlet of their stares,
acutely aware of his own breathing. It now seems universally
to be held that he is the author of all the ship's
misfortune.

Nagle pointedly turns his back, the scars from the flogging
gleaming wetly in the lamplight

Hollom's breath quickens. He stumbles on someone's dunnage,
almost trips but is caught before he falls. It's one of
NAGEL's mates.

                    NAGEL's MATE
          Careful, sir.

188.        MIDSHIPMAN'S BERTH - DUSK

HOLLOM comes in, wild-eyed and goes to his berth, breathing
hard. CALAMY, BLAKENEY & BOYLE look up from a tense game of
cards.

                    BLAKENEY
          Are you all right, Hollom?

HOLLOM shakes his head miserably, hyperventilating.

                    CALAMY
          He's not sick. He's useless. He's just
          dodging work.

                    BLAKENEY (angrily)
          Oh shut up Calamay. What do you know
          about anything?

CALAMY glares at BLAKENEY.

189.   INT STEPHEN'S ROOM - DUSK

A shot from the deck above.

STEPHEN looks up from his book "Di Consolazione Philosophae".
Then the sound of bare feet approaching, followed by a knock
at the door.

Its Joe Plaice, looking agitated.
                    PLAICE
          Beg your pardon, your honour, but Mr.
          Howard just shot a sea-monster!

190.        GANGWAY - DUSK

STEPHEN and PLAICE stride along to where the marine captain,
HOWARD, peers down into the water with one of his men.

                    HOWARD
          Doctor! The very man.

STEPHEN moves to the rail, looks out.

                    HOWARD (CONT'D)
          [   ] I wished you'd seen it for
          yourself, Doctor. The crew never seen
          anything like it.

On the glassy sea, a smudge of blood and some ripples

                    HOWARD (CONT'D)
          It was prodigious like a human, though
          bigger, might have been a sea-elephant,
          it had a calf with it - I didn't mean to
          hit the calf, I missed my mark.

                    STEPHEN
          Mr. Howard, let me beg you, if the men
          can't eat it or I can't dissect it,
          please do not shoot every creature you
          see.

STEPHEN stares back down at the ripples spreading over the
glassy sea.

191.        THE SURPRISE - NIGHT

Wide, on the troubled ship, small yellow patches of light
visible from the gun-ports.

192.        BELOW DECKS - NIGHT

The men are lying in their hammocks when, from somewhere
outside, there comes an ungodly howling. It stops, then comes
again, exactly human in its pitch.

The crew look at one another. This is like no sound they've
ever heard.
The howling stops then comes again, from another direction.

193.          THE GREAT CABIN, EXTERIOR - NIGHT

KILLICK and BLACK BILLY listening.

                    KILLICK
          What did I tell you? The ship's accursed.

194.          QUARTERDECK - NIGHT

JACK comes up from below.

                    JACK
          What is that abominable noise, for God's
          sake?

                    PULLINGS
          I have no idea, Sir.

                    MOWETT
          You don't think it's the Acheron, Sir?

                    JACK
              (untypically cutting)
          The enemy cannot come on us without a
          wind, Mr. Mowett.

He looks about at the terrified faces of the crew. The
wailing sound now rises to a shriek, as STEPHEN joins the
group.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          What do you make of it, Doctor?

                    STEPHEN
          I'm sure I've never heard the like.

The crew overhear this and pass it among themselves as
another anguished howl fills the night.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          Perhaps it's the mother of the creature
          Mr. Howard shot.

                     JACK
          [    ] Creature?

                    STEPHEN
          [ ] A manatee. A sea-elephant possibly.
          Though I have never known one with a cry
          like this.

A glance along at HOWARD on the gangway, as terrified as
anyone.

                    JACK
          Bosun. Fire off some flares.

195.        WIDE ON THE SHIP - NIGHT

Three flares soar and burst with a ghostly glow, making a
pool of blue light around the ship, the sound continuing to
echo and re-echo from somewhere beyond.

196.        QUARTERDECK - NIGHT

The light illuminates the half-hour glass, its top-half empty
of sand. Like everyone else, the duty sergeant stands frozen
to the spot. Jack rounds on him.

                    JACK
          Sergeant, what the devil are you thinking
          of? Turn the glass and strike the bell.

Roused, the duty sergeant turns the glass and time resumes
its flow.

Two bells are hesitantly rung and the crew regain the power
of motion, their limbs still spastic with fear. And when the
sound comes once more they all freeze.

JACK joins MOWETT at the taffrail. The thing is somewhere out
there, whatever it is.

                    MOWETT
          Perhaps some poor shipwreck?

He shouts, a slight nervous catch to his voice.

                    MOWETT (CONT'D)
          Ahoy! Is anyone there?

Part of him knows it's crazy and of course there's no reply.
The sound constantly shifting position, now in the water, now
in the sky.

JACK turns to see a white face, frighteningly close to his
own. It's PADEEN, mouth agape, face unnaturally white,
staring into the gloom as though drawn to whatever horror
lies out there.
                    JACK
          Padeen. What are you doing on the
          quarterdeck?

He looks down at the press of men who have gathered at the
bottom of the ladder, some with weapons.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Below! All of you men below!
              (to MOWETT)
          Tell the bosun those off-duty may sleep
          with their lamps on.

197.        LOWER DECK - NIGHT

Several crewmen huddle close together their faces lit by a
battle-lantern. Joe Plaice grim. Doudle wide-eyed. Higgins
with his alcoholic tremor more pronounced than ever.

                    BLACK BILL
          Duppies make that noise.

                    KILLICK (indicating BILL)
          See. They know all about this in Africa.

                    DOUDLE
          What's a duppie?

                    BLACK BILL
          That Warley. Swallow by a fish. Spirit
          can't get out. Him duppie now.

                    SLADE
          Captain don't even know what that noise
          be.

General nods of agreement.

                    DOUDLE
          Doctor neither, and he knows everything.

                    KILLICK
          Joe here's got the most experience in
          these matters, and new brains to boot,
          let's hear it from Joe.

All eyes on JOE PLAICE. He speaks from the shadows.

                    PLAICE
          It's the Jonah causing it. That howling
          thing is a signal to the Phantom-Ship.
          He's calling it up, don't you see? Every
          time he's on watch the ship appears. You
          wait and see, the ghost-ship will appear
          any time tonight, and take us all
          straight to the hot-place.

Another shriek, closer now, seems to confirm JOE's bizarre
theory.

198.        MIDSHIPMEN'S BERTH - NIGHT

The boys sit together. None of them look at HOLLOM, who sits
pale and wretched in a corner of the room, clutching his
stomach.

199.        STEPHEN'S CABIN - NIGHT

As the howling continues, STEPHEN looks through a number of
books on sea-creatures searching for a reference to what
they're experiencing.

As JACK looks over his shoulder, his eye is caught by a
picture in one of STEPHEN's books.

He picks it up.

Close on the picture - it's an engraving of a giant squid,
its tentacles wrapped around a ship.

Back on JACK holding the picture up to STEPHEN.

                    JACK
          You don't think...?

There is a knock on the cabin door and BLAKENEY enters,
agitated.

                    BLAKENEY (to STEPHEN)
          It's Mr. Hollom, sir, you better come
          quick.

200.   MIDSHIPMEN'S BERTH

HOLLOM writhing in agony on the floor, STEPHEN trying to calm
him, shouting for assistance from the midshipmen and then
from PADEEN.

                    STEPHEN
          Mr Hollom. Sir. Try to contain yourself.
          Hold his head. Mr Hollom. Padeen
201.        STEPHEN'S CABIN - NIGHT.

Stephen is writing some case notes in his journal, when Jack
puts his head around the door.

Stephens POV: The lamp, lighting his face from below and to
one side, gives a strange lopsided twist to Jacks smile

                    JACK
          Well?

                    STEPHEN
          There's nothing physically wrong with
          him. He thinks he's been cursed by the
          0men.

                    JACK
          Then he probably has been. Sailors will
          abide a great deal, but never a Jonah.
          It's like a white crow - the others peck
          it to death.

                    STEPHEN
          A 'Jonah'? My God, you believe it too.

                    JACK
          I desired to save you the trouble of
          looking for a cure. No doubt it will all
          be sorted by the morning.


202      FORECASTLE, LATER - NIGHT

BLAKENEY stands near the bows peering out into the night. A
figure approaches from behind and lays a hand in his
shoulder.

BLAKENEY nearly jumps out of his skin.

                    BLAKENEY
          Mr. Hollom! You gave me such a start. Are
          you better now?

HOLLOM's breathing does indeed seem easier.

                    HOLLOM
          Much better, thank you.

                    BLAKENEY
          I think the creature is going away.
                    HOLLOM
          I am sure of it.

He reaches down, picks up a 12 pound cannonball.

                    HOLLOM (CONT'D)
          You've always been very kind to me.
          Goodbye, Blakeney.

With a sudden movement he's on the gunwale, then he jumps
over the side the cannonball in his arms.

BLAKENEY looks down with shock to see HOLLOM's pale face
receding from him into the depths. It's a moment before he
gathers his wits to shout -

                    BLAKENEY
          Man overboard!

203.        QUARTERDECK - DAWN

The ship's company are mustered on deck. JACK stands at the
sword rack lectern. KILLICK hands him a Bible open at the
story of Jonah.

JACK looks, then hands it back to KILLICK.

                    JACK
          The fact is, [   ] not all of us become
          the men we once hoped we might be. But we
          are all God's creatures. If some of us
          thought ill of Mr. Hollom, or spoke ill
          of him, or failed him in respect of
          fellowship, then we ask your forgiveness,
          Lord, and we ask for his.

Close on the faces of the crew - KILLICK, HIGGINS, NAGEL,
CALAMY, BLAKENEY and finally Stephen who is staring oddly at
Jack, as though holding him partly responsible for this
latest tragedy.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Amen.

                    CREW (mumble ashamedly)
          Amen.

The men on deck remain standing, heads bowed, observing a
minute's silence, as the sky begins to pale, and the white
disc of the sun appears above them.
FASTER DOUDLE is the first to look up, followed by others -
the terrible sound has gone and a small puff of wind is
stirring the mainsail.

204. HOUR GLASS

The sand runs out of the half-hour glass.

                    BONDEN
          Strike eight bells.

                    QUARTERMASTER (to the marine sentry)
          Turn the glass and strike the bell.

The glass is inverted. The bell tolls.

205.        SURPRISE AT SEA - DAY

The ship moves through a tropical squall. Men rig a sail to
catch the water, others appear with barrels and tubs,
anything to catch the precious rain.

                                                  DISSOLVE TO -

206.        THE SURPRISE - DAY

Sea birds swarming over a shoal of fish in the foreground as
the cry of the distant lookout carries faintly across the
sea.

                     LOOKOUT (O.S.)
          Land-ho!

207.        GANGWAY - DAY

BLAKENEY runs along the gangway, past STEPHEN, en route to
the quarterdeck.

                     BLAKENEY
          Give you joy, sir! We have raised the
          Galapagos!

208.     MONTAGE oF TELESCOPE VIEWS, GALAPAGOS - DAY

There's a primeval quality to the landscape, a feeling of a
world just born. The wild creatures that inhabit the lava
flows and coral beaches confirm this - the giant tortoises,
iguanas, sea-lions and penguins, a teeming profusion of
exotic animals and plants.
209.        QUARTERDECK/FORECASTLE/TOPS - DAY

The ship fairly bristles with telescopes.

210.   FORECASTLE

A small group of familiar faces share a pocket telescope.

                    HIGGINS (looking)
          Can't see any wimmun. Just lots of ducks
          and lizards.

DOUDLE takes the telescope.

                    DOUDLE
          Wot? There must be wimmun. T'ain't
          natural.

211.   QUARTERDECK

STEPHEN and BLAKENEY side by side. From both their faces we
sense their wonder at seeing these remarkable creatures for
the first time.

                    STEPHEN
          How extraordinary.

                       BLAKENEY
          What, sir?

                    STEPHEN
          Those birds!

He's looking at a group of unremarkable black seabirds
waddling about on a rock, flapping short, stumpy wings.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          A species of cormorant. But apparently
          flightless, by all that's Holy. I believe
          that is unknown to science.

BLAKENEY dwells briefly on the strange rock-climbing birds
then drifts back to the iguanas.

                    BLAKENEY
          The dragons don't seem to bother 'em.

                    STEPHEN
          They are a type of iguana I should think,
          and therefore vegetarian.
His telescope remains focussed on the cormorants. BLAKENEY is
wholly absorbed in the iguanas.

                    BLAKENEY
          Will you catch one?

                    STEPHEN
          Yes. Most certainly. And if we can, some
          eggs.

                    BLAKENEY
          I mean the great lizards.

                    STEPHEN
          Oh!

Recognizing how superficially dull the birds are to
BLAKENEY's untutored eye, by contrast with giant lizards.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          I should think a pair of them. Then you
          can present one of their offspring to the
          king.

                    BONDEN
          Ha! There's one going for a swim.

                    STEPHEN
          No. Iguanas are land animals.

                    BONDEN
          Not these ones.

The prehistoric-looking creatures, as if suddenly awakened,
begin diving into the water.

                    STEPHEN (O.S.)
          By Jove Bonden you are right! Two new
          species in as many minutes.

He breaks off, suddenly aware of a shouted exchange between
the lookout and the quarterdeck.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          What is all that confounded bellowing?

                    JACK
          All hands about ship!

BLAKENEY dashes off and STEPHEN is elbowed out of the way by
hands rushing to get at the sails.

                    NEHEMIAH SLADE
          By your leave sir, by your leave.

                    HOLLAR (distant)
          Helms a'lee - off tacks and sheets -
          mainsail haul!

As the ship turns a distant whaleboat appears with six men
aboard, pulling out from one of the neighboring islands.

212.        IN THE LEE OF THE SHIP'S HULL (TIME-LAPSE) - DAY

The whaleboat has come alongside.

Men swarm down the boarding nets and the whalers are helped
aboard, hoarse and exhausted from rowing and shouting.

                    HOGG
          God bless you. Thank you, shipmates.

213.        QUARTERDECK - LATER, DAY

HOGG, the senior whaler, sits with his mates, relating his
story to JACK and the officers.

                    HOGG
          We was coming back for fresh lines, hid
          in that inlet, yonder. Black-three
          master. Bit beamy and raised in the
          stern.

Meaningful looks among Jack and his men. Its definitely the
Acheron he's describing [   ]

Hogg meanwhile takes a pint mug of water, gulps it down, and
passes it back to BLAKENEY for a refill.

                    HOGG (CONT'D)
          Hundred thousand pound of good whale oil
          they stole. Then the bastards...

                    ALLEN
              (cuffs him)
          No swearing on the quarterdeck.

                    JACK
              (waves ALLEN away)
          Go on.
                     HOGG
           ...Then they burnt our bloody ship and
           headed off, bunch of fugging pirates.

Looking pointedly at Allen

                     [      ]

                     JACK
           And her course?

                     HOGG
           Maybe a point south of west. Following
           the rest of the whaling fleet.

                     JACK (rising)
           Mr. Mowett, these men to be entered on
           the ship's books. Mr. Allen, lay a course
           west sou'west.

As ALLEN hurries away shouting orders -

                     PULLINGS
           Should we not take on fresh supplies,
           Sir? Those tortoises...

                     JACK (overlapping, impatient)
           There's not a moment to lose, Mr.
           Pullings.

He leaves the quarterdeck and goes below, STEPHEN following.

214.   IN THE GREAT CABIN

JACK has taken his jacket off and is already unfurling his
charts. STEPHEN hurries in.

                     STEPHEN
           Have you forgotten your promise?

                     JACK
               (not looking up)
           Subject to the requirements of the
           service, Stephen. I could not in all
           conscience delay for the sake of an
           iguano or a... giant peccary -
           interesting no doubt, but of no immediate
           application.

                     STEPHEN (overlap)
          How can you dismiss, out of hand, the
          bounty of nature? Knowledge that... that
          will help to progress...

                    JACK (overlap)
          I can see nothing on shore that will
          progress our mission.

                    STEPHEN (overlap)
          But how can we possibly know what lies
          [ ] on these islands, perhaps some
          knowledge that may save life, that...

                    JACK (overlap)
          I will tell you how to save lives
          Stephen. Inform me how to guide this
          ship, undetected, under the nose of a 40
          gun frigate. That is the job in hand sir.

STEPHEN swallows his indignation and tries for a compromise.

                    STEPHEN
          Well perhaps there's an opportunity to
          serve both our objectives. As I
          understand it you mean to go round the
          end of this long island, then start your
          voyage. I could walk across it, be on the
          other side long before...

JACK shakes his head.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          I would walk briskly, pausing only for
          important measurements and almost
          certainly making valuable discoveries...

                    JACK (interrupts)
          If wind and tide had been against us I
          should have said yes. They are not and I
          am obliged to say no.
              (with finality)
          No.

STEPHEN is livid. Betrayed.

                    STEPHEN
          I see. So after all this time in your
          service I must simply be content to form
          part of this belligerent expedition,
          hurry past inestimable wonders, bent
          solely on destruction...
                    JACK
          ...you forget yourself, sir.

                    STEPHEN
          No Jack, You have forgotten your self.
          You once believed in the rights of each
          individual man no matter how useless or
          lowly. But it seems to me now that the
          long exercise of power has brought you to
          the point where even a solemn promise...

                    JACK
          The promise was conditional.

                    STEPHEN
          ...a promise to a friend of ten years
          standing who has stood by you and
          supported you....

                    JACK (overlapping)
          I command a King's ship, not a private
          yacht...

                    STEPHEN
          ...across half the worlds oceans often at
          risk to his own life

                    JACK
          ...and we have no time for your damned
          hobbies, sir!

"Hobbies". So that is JACK's honest view of STEPHEN's
lifetime of work in science. He bows slightly, then leaves.

215         QUARTERDECK - DUSK

STEPHEN stands alone at the taffrail watching as the islands
recede in the distance.

News of the violent argument has spread and there is many a
sympathetic glance, which further humiliates STEPHEN.

BLAKENEY approaches him carrying something carefully in the
palm of his hand.

                    BLAKENEY
          Sir, I found a curious beetle walking on
          the deck.

He opens his hand - close, on a very plain little brown
beetle.

                      BLAKENEY (CONT'D)
            I think it's a Galapagos Beetle, sir.

                      STEPHEN
            I'm sure of it.

                      BLAKENEY
            Were you to have walked all day on the
            island, you might never have come across
            it.

                      STEPHEN
            That is more than likely, sure.

BLAKENEY passes it to STEPHEN.

                      BLAKENEY
            You can have it.

                      STEPHEN
            Thank you, Mr. Blakeney.

BLAKENEY hovers for a moment, unsure of further conversation,
then retreats.

216       IN THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

JACK sits alone at the table. KILLICK enters with toasted
cheese for two.

                      KILLICK
            No music? That's a shame

He sets down the toasted cheese.

                      KILLICK (CONT'D)
            I'll just leave the one plate then, if
            himself won't be joining.

                      JACK
            Yes, Killick. Just the one.

JACK cuts himself a portion, scowling at STEPHEN's cello
which seems to watch him reproachfully as he eats.

217.      STEPHEN'S CABIN - NIGHT

STEPHEN takes a dropper, carefully measures twenty drops of
laudanum to a glass of water, and drinks.
218.        LOOKOUT - DAY

The lookout leaning out from the cross-trees.

                    DOUDLE (shouting)
          On deck there. Object fine on the
          starboard bow.

219.        THE SHIP LYING STATIONARY - DAY

A barrel is being lifted aboard from the skiff and passed up
the side of the ship.

220.   IN THE WAIST OF THE SHIP

JACK comes down, accompanied by ALLEN, the acknowledged
expert in these matters.

Others gather round, including HOGG the whaler, inspecting
the stencilled markings.

                    ALLEN
          Martha's vineyard.

                    HOGG
          No, this here's from Boston. I was
          married there once.

                    ALLEN
          Any road, it's a Yankee barrel.

                    HOGG
          What they call a Bedford Hog in New
          England.

                    MOWETT (to JACK)
          The Acheron touched at Boston.

                    HOGG
          And it's not been in the water more than
          a week.

                    ALLEN
          One can't say with any accuracy but...

                    HOGG
          Yes you can. There's no sea chummer on
          it, and the dowels is sound.

221.        ON THE QUARTERDECK - DAY
JACK returns to his post.

                    JACK
          Continue due west, Mr. Bonden.

TOM PULLINGS watches him. There has been a change amongst the
officers and crew toward JACK. His relentless driving after
the Acheron has reached the point of obsession, an obsession
not shared by his exhausted men.

He is a lonely, haunted figure as he now steps up on the
gunwale, one hand on the ratlines, scanning the empty sea,
sensing his enemy is out there, just beyond the curve of the
earth.

                                                  DISSOLVE TO -

222.        LADDER (TIME LAPSE) - DAY

A wild wind humming through the rigging as STEPHEN goes
topside.

223.        FORECASTLE - DAY

He finds various hands making the boats secure.

                    PLAICE
          Have you seen the bird, doctor?

                    STEPHEN
          I have not - no bird these many days.
          What kind of a bird?

                    PLAICE
          A sort of albatross I believe, or perhaps
          a prodigious great mew. He has been
          following the ship since... there he is,
          crossing our wake!

224.        ON THE GANGWAY - DAY

STEPHEN runs along the gangway to get a clearer view,
checking himself when he sees JACK on the quarterdeck.

Their eyes meet. The quarterdeck is JACK's domain now, and
STEPHEN avoids it.

Then, behind JACK, the great bird suddenly appears.

It's huge, with at least a fourteen foot wing-span, and
flying very close to the ship, drifting and soaring on the
gusting wind, appearing and disappearing between the sails.

STEPHEN is mesmerized by it. He lets go of the rail, leaning
forward to get a better view.

At the same time across from STEPHEN on the opposite gangway,
HOWARD and two or three marines open fire on the bird. The
bird drops low, flying right by STEPHEN.

Again a crackle of gunfire, but the bird is apparently
uninjured, and it banks away, skimming the surface of the
water.

STEPHEN sags to the deck. A shout. People running. Blood
spreading across the white of his shirt. HOWARD there by his
side.

                    HOWARD
          My God, man! I'm so sorry. The bird
          dropped low. I didn't see you there!

JACK is there, shouting -

                    JACK
          Calamy! Get Higgins!
              (then turning to BONDEN)
          Padeen, Davies, carry the Doctor below.

STEPHEN gets slowly up, hands reaching to help him, HOWARD in
the background distraught, explaining to anyone who'll listen
what happened.

                    STEPHEN
          It's all right, I am quite capable of
          walking.

He tries to stand, crumples.

225.        STEPHEN's CABIN - DAY

HIGGINS presses clumsily around the wound as STEPHEN lies on
the bed, his abdomen rigid, his breathing laboured. JACK
watches from the door.

                    STEPHEN
          You will just make it worse... by
          prodding, Mr. Higgins, it cannot be got
          at... except by opening me up.

A violent pitching of the ship makes it obvious how
impossible this will be under sail.

As STEPHEN lapses into unconsciousness, HIGGINS looking
alarmed, approaches JACK.

                     HIGGINS (a whisper)
           The bullet took a piece of shirt in with
           it. Unless it is removed it will
           suppurate and fester.

                     JACK
           Are you equal to the task?

                     HIGGINS
           I'll need to read up on the Doctor's
           books, like. Study some pictures he has,
           get my bearings. Be better on land, but
           I'll manage somehow.

JACK looks away from the alcoholic HIGGINS back to STEPHEN.

226.   OUTSIDE THE CABIN

JACK passes an anxious crowd of the ship's company: BLAKENEY,
JOE PLAICE, KILLICK and HOWARD.

                     JACK
           You men get about your business.

There are dark looks in JACK's direction as he retreats to
his cabin.

227.   THE GREAT CABIN - DAY

JACK throws a chart on the table.

With his protractor he marches out great strides west into
the Pacific from the Galapagos Islands and marks the ship's
position - they are maybe a hundred miles from the Galapagos,
ahead, open sea until the Marquesas.

228.       INT. STEPHEN'S CABIN - DUSK

Lying on his bed, in some pain, STEPHEN hears thudding feet,
shouted orders.

In his weakened state, the sounds tend to merge. His
pitching cabin keeps swimming out of focus.

There's a knock on the door and JEMMY DUCKS appears with a
mug of soup and some biscuit.
                    JEMMY DUCKS
          ...sail on the horizon, sir. Hull down,
          running west. It may be a couple of days
          before we can catch her.

STEPHEN nods, all he wants is quiet.

JEMMY DUCKS retreats, as STEPHEN swigs from a little bottle
of laudanum, which for a moment brings peace, effectively
blocking out the noise from above.

A smile to PADEEN, like a farewell, and he closes his eyes.

229.        FORECASTLE - DUSK

JACK, telescope to his eye, studies the distant ship as
PULLINGS jumps down from the ratlines to the deck.

                     PULLINGS
          It might be the Acheron. If we put on
          more sail we'd come up with her before
          nightfall.

JACK lowers the telescope, turns his back on PULLINGS,
strangely abstracted.

                     PULLINGS (CONT'D)
               (to his back)
          Do you wish me to set the topgallants?
               (no reply)
          Sir?

A long silence. Then JACK walks away.

PULLINGS stares perplexed from JACK's retreating figure to
the distant chase.

                                                   DISSOLVE TO -

230.        INTERIOR STEPHEN'S CABIN - DAWN

Early morning light on the interior of the cabin. PADEEN is
asleep, holding a Bible, in the doctor's chair.

STEPHEN himself lies motionless with his eyes closed and his
mouth open, no colour in his face.

The sea is relatively calm. From outside the sound of the
bosun's orders, over rattling blocks and pulleys.
                    HOLLAR (O.S.)
          ...Clap on now! Every rope an end...
          Jolly-boat away... Slowly, Jenks! You
          grass-combing lubber!

MOWETT comes in, sees STEPHEN, and takes him for dead.

                    MOWETT
              (shouts outside)
          Davies! Slade!

Two big men come in behind him. PADEEN wakes, confused and
pushes them away, moving protectively to the doctor's side.

The commotion disturbs STEPHEN. His eyes open. Like a dead
man just come back to life.

                    MOWETT (CONT'D)
          Doctor. You're still with us. Can we move
          you onto a stretcher?

STEPHEN swallows uncomfortably and tries to make sense of
things.

231.        A GALAPAGOS ISLAND - DAY

A giant iguana watches as a small procession trudges up the
stony beach.

At its head, STEPHEN is carried in a litter up to where a
tent has been set up above the high-water mark.

His P.O.V. as JACK appears in the blue sky above him.

                    STEPHEN
          Tell me this wasn't on my account?

                     JACK
              (dead pan)
          No. It was because of Higgins.
              (beat)
          Can't have him poking around in your
          belly without a solid platform to work
          on.

He ducks as they enter -

232.        THE HOSPITAL TENT - DAY

In the creamy light, they lay STEPHEN down on a recently-
constructed wooden operating table.

HIGGINS squats on the ground, rummaging through various large
sharp surgical instruments which he has emptied onto a piece
of Hessian.

                    JACK
          All set, Higgins?

STEPHEN grabs JACK's sleeve.

                    STEPHEN
          Not Higgins. I do this with my own hand.

Jack frowns, unsure what he means by this.

EXT. THE TENT - NIGHT

PADEEN stands, arms crossed at the closed tent-flap, keeping
at bay a crowd of well-wishers, and the merely curious.

INT. THE TENT - NIGHT

STEPHEN sits pale and sweaty, propped up on a series of
chests, his back against a coil of rope. In front of him,
suspended by pulleys, LAMB and NAGEL have set up a large
gilt-framed mirror.

Beside him, on a white tablecloth, some small scissors and
scalpels.

                    STEPHEN
              (To Jack)
          [ ] You are sure you have a head and a
          stomach for this kind of thing?

                    JACK (smiles)
          My dear Doctor, I have seen blood and
          wounds since I was a little boy.

                    STEPHEN
          Then hold my belly, pressing firmly when
          I give the word.


STEPHEN begins first with the knife, then the probe - the
grind of metal on living bone.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          You will have to raise the rib, Higgins.
          Take a good grip with the square
          retractor. Up. Harder, harder.
              (to himself)
          Snip the cartilage.

The metallic clash of instruments, perpetual swabbing.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          Now, Jack, a steady downward pressure.
          Good. Keep it so. Give me the davier.
          Swab, Higgins. Press, Jack, press.

JACK closes his eyes. STEPHEN draws in his breath, arches his
back, and it's done.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          There she is.

He pulls out the bullet, and with it, a fragment of his
shirt.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          Is that all of it?

The bloody piece of shirt is handed to HIGGINS who matches it
to the hole in STEPHEN's old shirt.

                    HIGGINS
          Aye, she'll patch up nicely, sir.

                    STEPHEN
          Easy away, Jack. Handsomely with the
          retractor. Higgins, look to the Captain,
          while I swab.

HIGGINS helps JACK into a chair, pressing his head down
between his knees. After a moment, and a few deep breaths,
JACK looks up. STEPHEN smiles at him. A hint of surly
triumph.

                                                   FADE TO BLACK

                                                   FADE UP ON -

235.        STEPHEN'S TENT - DAY

Through a gap in the door of his tent STEPHEN can see the
distant ship at anchor. Repairs are underway, guns being
unloaded, stores and fresh water being ferried aboard.

BLAKENEY comes in, followed by PADEEN with a some numbered
boxes hung round his neck.
                    STEPHEN
          My goodness, what is this?

BLAKENEY starts rolling up the sides of the tent as PADEEN
unloads his boxes, each with a beetle and a piece of
vegetation in it.

                    BLAKENEY
          Well sir, Padeen and I have been doing
          some collecting for you. The beetles each
          come with a specimen of plant they were
          found on. Ooops. Catch him, Padeen! There
          he goes.

He finishes rolling up the tent sides to reveal a collection
of cages, with native wildfowl in them, being fed by the
poulterer, JEMMY DUCKS.

                    BLAKENEY (CONT'D)
          The birds were snared by Jemmy Ducks.
          Captain says we can keep them in the
          chicken coop.

Then, producing a notebook -

                    BLAKENEY (CONT'D)
          And I made a few notes if you want to see
          them.

STEPHEN flips the pages:

No 22. Large square black beetle with pincers. Found under
rock. Eats earthworms.

                    STEPHEN
          'Pon my word you have the makings of a
          true naturalist.

BLAKENEY is flattered but unsure.

                    BLAKENEY
          Well sir, perhaps I could combine them,
          and be a kind of Fighting-Naturalist,
          like yourself?

                                    [   ]

Stephen smiles at this description as he levers himself into
a sitting position.
                    STEPHEN
          Shall we take a tour of your aviary?

BLAKENEY looks doubtfully at the doctor's bandaged abdomen.

                    BLAKENEY
          Should you really be up?

                    STEPHEN
          Yes. Padeen!

PADEEN puts the escaped beetle in his mouth for safe keeping
and offers STEPHEN a hand. STEPHEN pulls himself painfully to
his feet and starts buttoning his shirt.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
              (To Blakeney)
          How long does the Captain intend that we
          stay here, do you know?

ON THE BEACH - DAY

JACK is watching those of the crew not on duty play cricket
on the shore, with a canvas ball and stumps made of
driftwood.

                    JACK
          Oh, a week perhaps. There is no great
          hurry.

                     STEPHEN
          But surely, we must make haste for the
          Marquesas?

                    JACK
          It may not have been the Acheron that we
          sighted. Nor can we be sure of her
          destination.
              (looks away)
          No, I think we shall go home now, before
          peace breaks out with France, God forbid.

He's making light of what has been a huge and far-reaching
decision.

                    STEPHEN
          But how will it sit with the Admiralty?
          To have spent six months in a fruitless
          pursuit and then come home empty-handed?
                    JACK
          "Empty-handed"? Not a bit of it. What
          about these plants and animals which
          Blakeney has been collecting? The British
          museum will need an entire new wing for
          'em.

STEPHEN regards him gravely, shaking his head.

                    STEPHEN
          I fear, Jack, you have burdened me with a
          debt I can never repay.

He is absolutely sincere about this, to JACK's great
embarrassment.

                    JACK
          Tosh. Name a shrub after me. Something
          prickly and hard to eradicate.

                    STEPHEN
          A shrub? I shall name a giant tortoise:
          Testudo Aubreii!

237.        SURPRISE CAMP - DAWN

STEPHEN, BLAKENEY and PADEEN leave the camp on STEPHEN's
first day of exploration. They are armed with nets, baskets
and a day's supply of food and water.

STEPHEN walks slightly stooped, leaning on a walking stick.

238.        COUNTRYSIDE - DAY

A strange and wonderful landscape lies before them, with its
organically-shaped lava flows and alien-looking flora and
fauna.

Everywhere STEPHEN looks there are creatures unique to the
islands. He is in his element, collecting specimens which
PADEEN carefully stores in the baskets.

BLAKENEY has his telescope trained on some distant humps.

                    BLAKENEY
          Doctor, would you think it very
          unscientific of me to ride on the back of
          one of those tortoises.

                    STEPHEN
          No, Mr. Blakeney. I would think it an
          experiment of absolutely vital
          importance. But afterwards, I do desire
          to find that flightless cormorant,
          assuming that is what it is, and that I
          still have strength enough to catch it.

239.        A VALLEY - DAY

BLAKENEY gets astride a giant tortoise and burns his bottom
on its scorching hot shell.

240.        LAVA BEDS - DAY

STEPHEN with his telescope taking notes on bird-life.

241.        LOW SCRUB - DAY

The huge, strangely balletic figure of PADEEN chasing after a
butterfly in evening light.

242.        A HEADLAND - DAY

Wide to see another aspect of the countryside - a hint of
distant sea, a rocky headland rising from the plain.

The group is widely scattered. STEPHEN at the base of the
headland, BLAKENEY half a mile further inland. PADEEN coming
up slowly behind, laden with the fruits of their expedition.

243.        BASE OF THE HEADLAND - DAY

STEPHEN rests a moment. Some stones rattle down from the
hillside. He looks up to see a flash of black feathers near
the crest - the cormorant.

On his shirt a red smudge has appeared. His wound has begun
to bleed again.

Ignoring this, Stephen pushes on after his quarry.

244.   THE ROCKY SLOPE

Near the top, STEPHEN pauses to catch his breath and glances
above him.

Again the bird, moving higher, as if leading him on.

STEPHEN gets down on all fours, crawling cautiously to the
crest just above him.
245.   TOP OF THE HEADLAND

A clearing. There is movement in the bushes.

STEPHEN slowly rises, climbs the few paces to the hilltop and
enters a clearing.

He searches amongst the bushes. Nothing.

He turns and looks back down the hillside to see BLAKENEY and
PADEEN far below, then sits to get his breath back again.

STEPHEN'S P.O.V: on the ground between his feet, a beetle. He
picks it up.

Close, on his hand. It is the same type of beetle BLAKENEY
gave him aboard the Surprise.

Smiling at the coincidence STEPHEN raises the tiny creature
to eye level.

His P.O.V.: the beetle, the creature in sharp focus, behind
it the sea, and on the sea, a black shape.

The focus shifts to the background - a ship at anchor in a
bay.

The beetle flies away as STEPHEN stares out at the ship. It's
the Acheron, and they are weighing anchor.

246.         COUNTRYSIDE - DUSK

BLAKENEY urging STEPHEN to hurry as they make their way
through the darkening landscape. All kinds of creatures are
appearing around them, and every few yards STEPHEN pauses to
examine something.

                     BLAKENEY
           Sir, you must hurry!

                     STEPHEN
           A moment! You're a worse tyrant than any
           ship's captain.

He's breathing hard, exhausted.

                     BLAKENEY
           You must carry him, Padeen!

PADEEN looks at the collection of baskets he carries.
                    BLAKENEY (CONT'D)
          Leave them! We must get back to the ship.

STEPHEN raises his hand in protest, but BLAKENEY is already
divesting PADEEN of his load.

247.        COUNTRYSIDE - LAST LIGHT

PADEEN carrying STEPHEN 'piggy-back', BLAKENEY out ahead
urging them on.

247a   THE DISCARDED COLLECTING BOXES

A variety of small bugs and animals crawling free

248      STEPHEN'S CABIN - NIGHT

STEPHEN gingerly lowers himself into his 'elbow-chair',
gripping the table and BLAKENEY's good arm for support.
Sighing, he begins emptying his pockets of various small
items collected during the day - some leaves, rocks and
insects - and places them in ordered piles around his
microscope.

All about them can be heard the urgent sounds of departure -
the anchor rattling up, shouted orders and the drumming of
bare feet on the deck above.

He holds up a stick in a specimen-jar, and is examining it
with his magnifying glass when JACK enters.

                    JACK
          I forgot to ask you - did you see your
          bird?

STEPHEN's eye grossly enlarged through the lens.

                    STEPHEN
          I did not. My greatest discovery was your
          phantom.

                    JACK
          Indeed it was, I'm sorry...

                    STEPHEN
              (waving the magnifying glass)
          Not a bit of it. William and I made a
          unique discovery.

Handing JACK the jar and magnifying glass.
                     STEPHEN (CONT'D)
           Tell him, Mr. Blakeney.

                     BLAKENEY (beaming)
           It's a rare phasmid, Sir.

JACK inspects the stick. It winks at him.

                        JACK
           A phasmid?

                     BLAKENEY
           It's an insect disguised as a stick.

JACK stares at the creature.

                     BLAKENEY (CONT'D)
           In order to confuse a predator.

JACK looks up at STEPHEN.

249.   BAY, GALAPAGOS - NIGHT

The Surprise alive with crewmen on the deck and in the
rigging. Shouts and commands drift across the water as she
turns and heads out from the bay.

249a         GANGWAY - SAME TIME

JACK strides along the quarterdeck towards the forecastle
issuing a stream of orders -

                     JACK
           Mr. Hollar, rouse up all the yellow paint
           we have. I want six men with brushes
           slung over the side.
               (moving on)
           Doudle!

                        DOUDLE
           Yessir.

JACK hands him a piece of paper with a sketch on it.

                     JACK
           Get your sail makers working on this.
           Sixty yards by five yards with an eyelet
           every seven feet.

                        DOUDLE
            Aye, Sir.

He shouts to HOGG who, with a few men, is manhandling a large
metal cauldron from the ballast to the gun-deck.

                      JACK
                (to HOGG)
            Have Nagel patch it up and light a fire
            in it.
                (shouts)
            Mr. Calamy!

                         CALAMY
            Aye, Sir.

                      JACK
            Once we're underway, replace some of the
            sails with the oldest, most patched set
            we have.

                      CALAMY
            They'll be in the afterhold, Sir. I'll
            need some men to move all the clutter.

                      JACK
            Good. Spread it around the foredeck. The
            more mess the better.

249B.    SIDE OF THE SHIP,. NIGHT

The ship powers ahead as men swing in harnesses above the
racing water, painting out the Nelson chequer.

249C.    ON DECK.   NIGHT

NAGEL positions the great cauldron amidships as men come up
from below with old barrels and bits of rope.

                         CALAMY
            Haul away!

On the gangway, Men under CALAMY's instructions haul on
ropes, pulling up the old patched sails.

The sails lead us up to

250.    CROSSTREES - NIGHT

JACK, PULLINGS and the whaler HOGG scan the dark horizon.

                         HOGG
          There, Sir. A mainmast toplight.

JACK has to use a telescope.

                    JACK
          You've got good eyes, Hogg.

Shouts down to the helm -

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Mr. Bonden, set a course west-south-west.
              (to PULLINGS)
          We'll drop below the horizon and come up
          on the other side of him, let him think
          he's seen us first.

251.        SURPRISE - DAWN

First light reveals the results of an overnight
transformation - from a naval warship to a shambolic-looking
Portuguese whaler.

The gunwales are painted an untidy ochre and the gun-ports
hidden behind broad strips of canvas.

The sails are patched and ragged, the forecastle cluttered
with barrels. Smoke billows from a cauldron amidships.

On deck and in the rigging, there's a quarter of the normal
complement of men, all of them dressed in purser's slops.

252.        QUARTERDECK - DAWN

A bemused STEPHEN looks about him as he approaches JACK.

                    STEPHEN
          I see. A wolf in sheep in sheep's
          clothing

                    JACK
          A phasmid, doctor. It was you what gave
          me the idea.

                    STEPHEN
          I'm not sure a phasmid can be a predator.

                    JACK
          No? Well this one is.

253.        BERTH DECK - DAWN
HOWARD and his marines change out of their smart uniforms,
into the oldest most ragged clothes on board the ship, much
to the amusement of the passing sailors.

                    CREW MEN AD LIB
          Very fancy. Blue to match your eyes. Is
          there a skirt comes with it?

254.        GUN-DECK - DAWN

Men are checking the breechings of the great guns and
chipping cannonballs to make them more perfectly spherical,
more deadly.

The armourer is at his grindstone sending out showers of
sparks, a group of seamen round him relaying one another at
the crank, stacking newly honed cutlasses and boarding axes
at their feet.

Another team check and load pistols by the score.

254.        MIDSHIPMEN'S QUARTERS - DAWN

Alone, BLAKENEY awkwardly draws his dirk, left-handed from
its scabbard. It glints momentarily in the lamp-light.

CALAMY enters, face aglow, abruptly trying to cover his joy
when he sees BLAKENEY.

                    BLAKENEY [ ]
          It's all right. Permission to boast.
          You're to lead the boarders from the
          forecastle. Congratulations.

                          CALAMY
          Thank you.

                    BLAKENEY
          You'll make lieutenant out of this.

The others come in.

                    BOYLE
          He already has. 'Acting' 3rd Lieutenant
          Peter Calamy.

Oohs and aahs from all.

                          BLAKENEY
              [       ]
          Then I'll see you at the forecastle,
          'Lieutenant'.

                    CALAMY
          That's not your station.

BLAKENEY looks from CALAMY to the others, who avoid his eye.

                    BLAKENEY
          But naturally I'll board with you?

                    CALAMY
          I'm sorry, Will. Captain's orders.

BLAKENEY is devastated.

Rye bursts in, in a state of high excitement.

                    RYE
          She's seen us!

256.        QUARTERDECK - DAWN

JACK raises his glass, focuses on the Acheron, plainly
visible in the distance, with a line of signal flags running
up her backstay.

                     MOWETT
          She's asking us to heave to. Shall I give
          the order?

                    JACK
          No, make a show of fleeing upwind, but
          panicky and disorganized, like a whaler
          might do.

Allen smiles at this unintended slight

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          No offence, Mr. Hogg.

257.        WIDE ON THE SHIPS - DAY

A show of chaos on deck as the Surprise veers upwind, away
from the Acheron. As she presents her stern we see her new
name: Malacca.

258.        QUARTERDECK OF THE SURPRISE - DAY

Through his telescope, JACK looks back at the Acheron in
pursuit, a dark figure on her foredeck.
                    JACK
              (to Mowett)
          Run up Portuguese colours.
              (then down to the gun-deck)
          Load, Mr. Pullings. Triple shot 'em.

BLAKENEY comes onto the quarterdeck and salutes, looking
flushed and angry.

                    BLAKENEY
          May I speak with you, Sir.

                    JACK
          No saluting, Mr. Blakeney, we're whalers
          here.

                    BLAKENEY
          Mr. Calamy says I am not in the boarding
          party, I wanted to say -

                    JACK
              (interrupts)
          I know what you want to say and my answer
          is no. I promised your mother I would
          return you in one piece and I have
          already failed her on that score. You
          will command a gun and then retire to
          defend the quarterdeck here with Dr.
          Maturin.

                      BLAKENEY
          But sir -

                    JACK (cutting in)
          Go to your station, Mr. Blakeney.

BLAKENEY begins to salute, doesn't, and retires, tears
burning his eyes.

A moment later there's a flash of orange astern as the
Acheron opens up with her bow-chasers. An 18 pound shot
screams past the side of the Surprise to land with a column
of spray just off their bows.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          Good shooting. Remind me to press her bow
          gunner, Mr. Pullings.

The second ball takes down some rigging.
                     JACK (CONT'D)
          Start the water and throw some barrels
          overboard.

He goes below.

259.   WAIST - DAY

Barrels go overboard and pumps spout streams of water over
the side as JACK runs down to

260.   THE GUN-DECK

The great majority of men are gathered here, more than a
hundred of them crammed together with their muskets and
sabres, listening to the odd thump from topsides as another
ball from the Acheron hits home.

CALAMY and his gang of young tykes are squashed in there
somewhere, BOYLE, WILLIAMS, ADDISON and the rest, eyes
shining with nervousness and wild anticipation, as JACK
addresses his men, who shout encouragement, ad lib, in every
pause.

                    JACK
              (plus the men ad lib)
          We're a long way from home. (Right you
          are, Captain!) A long way from anywhere,
          (Too true!) But if Britain rules the
          waves she rules these waves too. (Right
          she does!) And the blow we shall deal for
          his Majesty here will be felt just as
          keenly (I'll say it will) aye - and
          cheered just as loudly ('specially by the
          wimmin!) - as any dealt at Trafalgar or
          Cape St. Vincent.


The camera moves over the upturned faces, PLAICE, NAGEL,
DOUDLE, KILLICK, the midshipmen, the powder-monkeys, the
whole fellowship of the ship. And finally STEPHEN watching
JACK doing what he does best: transmitting his own
fearlessness into other men - the total warrior, the
consummate leader.

                    JACK (CONT'D)
          I don't say it will be easy. She's twice
          the men we have and they'll sell their
          lives dearly. But every man here is worth
          three of Boney's privateers, and I know
          there's not a faint heart among you.
CALAMY pipes up -

                    CALAMY
          Three cheers for the Captain.

                    MEN (deafening)
          Huzzah huzzah huzzah!

On CALAMY, cheering like a kid at a football match as...

261.          QUARTERDECK - DAY

Another well-placed shot from the Acheron smashes through the
rigging, sending down a shower of rope and cordage.

JACK is back at his station by the wheel, the Acheron little
more than a half a mile astern, the figure of the captain in
his black coat clearly visible.

JACK studies the looming black vessel, then turns and crosses
to BONDEN at the helm. BONDEN nods, lifting his hands from
the wheel as JACK grips the curved timber decisively, taking
the strain.

He feels the pulse of the ship through his fingers, looks up
to the sails then back to the Acheron. STEPHEN appears beside
him, casually smoking a cigar. He offers one to Jack, who
declines

                     [   ]

Another shot pierces the mizzen foresail above them, but
neither man flinches. KILLICK appears with two cups of
coffee, and in his belt a brace of pistols.

                    KILLICK
          I took the liberty, Doctor.

                     STEPHEN
          [    ] Thank you, Killick.

JACK steers one-handed as he sips his coffee.

                    JACK
          Mr. Mowett? [  ] A poem might be in
          order.

Another shot through the sails.

                     MOWETT
           A poem, Sir?
                             [   ]
               (after a moment's reflection)
           'Oh were it mine with sacred Maro's art,
           To wake to sympathy the feeling heart,

A ball goes howling past the ship, MOWETT winces.

                     MOWETT (CONT'D)
           Then might I, with unrivalled strains,
           deplore,
           Th'impervious horrors of a leeward
           shore.'

JACK smiles, nods.

                     MOWETT (CONT'D)
           'Transfixed with terror at th'approaching
           doom...'

                        JACK
           What!

                     MOWETT
               (apologetic)
           ...they were only people of the merchant
           service, of-course, Sir.

262.   P.O.V. ACHERON

She's now less than five hundred yards from their stern, and
gaining.

263.    QUARTERDECK

JACK turns back to MOWETT.

                     JACK
           We have her Mr. Mowett. Strike the
           Portuguese colours and run up the Jack...
           Mr. Pullings. Canvas off the gun-ports,
           and run 'em out. Mr. Howard? Marines away
           aloft.

The British Jack rises to the masthead replacing the
Portuguese colours, as PULLINGS descends to the gun-deck.

264. SHIP'S SIDE -

The black muzzles appear with a low rumbling sound, as
265.   QUARTERDECK

JACK, with a wink to MOWETT, yells at the top of his voice

                       JACK
             Helm's a lee!

....and spins the wheel hard to starboard.

266.   THE SURPRISE

Wide, to see her swinging broadside on, across the path of
the oncoming Acheron.

267.   POV ACHERON DAY

Confused shouts from the enemy's deck, chaos on her
forecastle, somewhere a drum beating.

268 + 269.    DELETED

270.   THE SURPRISE QUARTERDECK - DAY

JACK hands the wheel to BONDEN.

                       JACK
             Run us down her larboard side then cut
             across her wake!
                 (shouts down to the gun deck)
             Hold fire Mr Pullings! Hold till we're
             broadside on!

271. - THE SURPRISE AND THE ACHERON

Wide, to see the Surprise turning downwind, back towards the
Acheron, so they will pass broadside to broadside [   ] no
more than thirty yards apart.

272. QUARTERDECK/ GUN-DECK, SURPRISE

Through a furious exchange of musket fire JACK runs down the
ladder to the gun-deck-

                       JACK
             Fire as she bears! Every gun to
             concentrate on her mainmast!

Through the gunports the Acheron's great hull becomes
visible. Some of the Acheron's guns have run out, but the
crews are unprepared and disorganized.
                      PULLINGS
            On the uproll! Fire for the mainmast as
            you sight her!

As the Surprise rolls and the upper deck of the Acheron
becomes visible.

273. THE SURPRISE GUNS

Barking, leaping back one by one, great tongues of flame
spitting from their barrels, dense clouds of smoke rising.

274.    VIEW OF THE ACHERON

With an almighty splitting sound their mainmast falls,
dragging yards and rigging with it, the whole mass falling
over their side, obscuring many of their gun-ports.

275. GUNDECK/QUARTERDECK, SURPRISE -

Cheers from the crew. Jack yelling up the companionway

                      JACK
            Now Mr Bonden! Hard a'starboard!

276.    THE SURPRISE AND THE ACHERON

The Acheron wallows, bought to a standstill by the enormous
dragging weight of their mainmast.

BONDEN wheels the ship across the enemy's wake, past the
exposed, vulnerable stern.

277.    DELETED

277A.   GUNDECK, SURPRISE

                      JACK
            Fire at will!

278.    GUN-DECK, SURPRISE

In random sequence the Surprise's gunners pound it into the
Acheron's stern. Casement windows vanish in a cloud of wood
and glass, exposing the Acheron's terrified gun-crews, now
open to devastating fire as the Surprise glides past.

279.    QUARTERDECK

JACK climbs up on the gunwales, shouting to BONDEN -
                      JACK
            Lay me alongside!

280.    THE SURPRISE AND THE ACHERON

The bow of the Surprise lurches into the Acheron mid-ships,
spars interlocking, the Surprise guns firing into her at
point-blank range.

The crew throw grappling hooks.

281..   QUARTERDECK

                      JACK
            Boarders away!

And he leaps to the enemy deck, a great tide of men following
after him.

282.    FORECASTLE

CALAMY leads his own children's crusade from the bows and
forecastle: youthful but terrifying, screaming and swinging
their blades.

283.    QUARTERDECK

An agonized BLAKENEY watches from where he stands beside
STEPHEN. JOE PLAICE is close by with some of the older men,
ready to ferry the wounded below.

284.    ON THE ACHERON

As the Surprises pour onto the quarterdeck they face
withering fire from the enemy. A dozen men go down, some of
them fatally wounded. Among them are DOUDLE, BOYLE, ALLEN and
HORNER in quick succession.

The attack momentarily falters, and the Acherons surge back
at them.

JACK rallies his men and they charge again - the marine,
TROLLOPE, and NAGEL are blown backwards by grapeshot.

LAMB, enraged, surges past NAGEL's body, swinging his axe to
devastating effect, with HOLLAR by his side and JEMMY DUCKS
protecting their rear, a pistol in each hand, firing from the
hip.

JACK keeps pushing onwards, the centre of the milling,
swirling, hacking crowd, stabbing and pistolling each other
with barely room to fall.

The Acherons are gradually forced back across their
quarterdeck and down into the waist of the ship.

285.   WAIST OF THE ACHERON

JACK crosses swords with a man in front of him, as an enemy
pikeman drives his blade into his left arm, tearing through
the sleeve. BONDEN fires a pistol by his ear, deafening JACK
and killing the pikeman.

To either side, privateers are trying to reach them,
shouting, swearing in English, French and Spanish.

Bullets and missiles rain down from above, killing friend and
foe alike.

KILLICK is in the thick of it, a pistol in either hand, and
from his lips a high-pitched blood-curdling scream.

AWKWARD DAVIES is foaming at the mouth as he swings a meat-
cleaver right and left.

286.   QUARTERDECK, ACHERON

A commander of the privateers notes the poorly defended
Surprise, and leads a counter-attack over onto her
quarterdeck.

                     CALAMY
           Look to our quarter-deck!

287. QUARTERDECK, SURPRISE

BLAKENEY, dirk in hand, turns to face them, as does HOWARD
and his men, but they are gravely outnumbered.

288.   FORECASTLE, ACHERON

CALAMY sees the danger and leads his gang back onto the
Surprise, calling for others to follow.

                     Calamy
           This way! Follow me!

289. QUARTERDECK, SURPRISE

STEPHEN, PADEEN and JOE PLAICE appear from below. STEPHEN
picks up a pistol and with deadly accuracy shoots a privateer
lunging at CAPTAIN HOWARD. The man drops, a neat hole in his
forehead. A moment's astonishment from HOWARD at the Doctor's
surprising skill.

CALAMY fights his way to BLAKENEY who is down on his knees
stabbing at the legs of the attackers.

290.   WAIST, ACHERON

JACK, BONDEN and DAVIES are driving a wedge toward the stern,
the defenders falling back in disarray.

291.   QUARTERDECK OF THE ACHERON

PULLINGS and MOWETT fight side-by-side.

A swivel-gun mounted on the taff-rail is swung to face them.

The gunner is about to fire when a perfectly-aimed musket
ball hits him, again fired by STEPHEN.

292.   QUARTERDECK, SURPRISE/ACHERON

CALAMY, BLAKENEY and their group force the counter-attack
back onto the deck of the Acheron. The two boys fight as a
team as they move toward the stern.

292.   SIDE OF THE ACHERON

Some Acherons jump overboard to escape the furious attack.
Others are thrown, grasping at woodwork as they fall.

293.   QUARTERDECK OF THE ACHERON

JEMMY DUCKS turns the swivel on a group of Acherons, the
grapeshot blasting them up against the gunwale.

294.   IN THE WATER

Oil burns. Men drown, others struggle to stay afloat,
clinging to the mass of wreckage floating by the hull.

295.   WAIST OF THE SHIP

Cheering from the Surprises, demands to surrender in many
languages, some beg for mercy, others fight on.

296.   BELOW DECKS

JACK moves alone, down to the berth deck. He smashes the
chain off a locked-door, releasing a dozen or more prisoners.

Everywhere signs of the lethal blast through the ship's
stern, bodies, guns upended, shattered timbers.

He makes his way through to the Great Cabin.

297.   GREAT CABIN, ACHERON

Four privateers look up as JACK bursts in.

They have been looting their own ship's valuables, two of
them are too drunk to be scared.

                      JACK
           Where is your captain? Ou est votre
           capitaine?

One man leaps out through the shattered windows. A couple of
others raise their hands and start jabbering in French and
Spanish.

298.   QUARTERDECK, ACHERON

It's all over for the Acherons as a French officer hauls down
their colours.

A cheer from the Surprises - a few last shots fired. CALAMY
and BLAKENEY cheering, BLAKENEY holding aloft the captured
flag.

A dying Frenchman suddenly lunges at CALAMY with a sabre.
BLAKENEY steps in front of him and takes the blow.

299.   IN THE SICK-BERTH, ACHERON

A doctor is working here, a callow-faced man in a bloody
apron, red-eyed from fatigue.

JACK enters, a fearsome sight, with his singed yellow hair
and blood-stained cutlass.

                     JACK
           Le Capitaine? Where is he?

The doctor points at a body on the operating table.

JACK approaches, looks down at the dead man. He's [ ]
somewhere about JACK's age, fine-featured, with his black
coat draped over his body.
                     DOCTOR
           Il mávait prie de vous donner ceci.

Passing JACK the captain's sword.

300.   QUARTERDECK, ACHERON

JACK picks his way through the dead and wounded to where
CALAMY sits nursing BLAKENEY.

                     CALAMY
           He's dead, sir.

Gently, JACK picks up the lifeless body and walks slowly back
down the quarterdeck, the boy draped across his arms.

Friend and foe part silently in front of him as he crosses
the gangway to...

301.   QUARTERDECK, SURPRISE

...then with CALAMY following, he goes below.

302.   THE GREAT CABIN - DAY

JACK in wide shot, sitting alone on the bench running under
the stern windows. His hunched posture and red tear-stained
eyes give a glimpse of his familiar post-battle mood - a mix
of grief and depression, the old question, "Was it worth the
price?".

                                                 FADE TO BLACK

                                                 FADE UP ON -

303.         ACHERON AND SURPRISE - DAWN

The two ships anchored close together on the ocean.

304.         QUARTERDECK, SURPRISE - DAWN

As eight bells are rung for the change of watch we see a row
of canvas hammocks each containing the body of a fallen
crewman.

DAVIES and PLAICE stitch the bodies into their hammocks,
BLAKENEY the last body in the line. As the men approach -

                     CALAMY
           I'll do it.
JOE passes him the needle and twine, then they leave him
alone.

As CALAMY sews up the hammock, HOLLAR's voice is heard
distinctly from below.

                    HOLLAR (O.S.)
          Rise and shine, show a leg there. Tumble
          up! Tumble up!

In close-up: the peaceful face of BLAKENEY

                    HOLLAR (O.S.) (CONT'D)
          Sleepers awake!

...as CALAMY's hands stitch the canvas closed.

305.        WIDE ON THE SURPRISE - DAWN

The small figures of the crew assembled on the quarterdeck.
JACK's voice drifting across the water.

                    JACK
          John Henry ALLEN...
          Joseph NAGEL...
          William Horner...
          Stephen Winston Boyle...
          and Lieutenant William Blakeney

          We therefore commit their bodies to the
          deep, looking for the resurrection of the
          body, when the sea shall give up her
          dead...
          Amen.

                    ALL
          Amen.

The bodies in their weighted hammocks slide into the sea.

306.        BOW OF THE SURPRISE - DAY

Wide on STEPHEN and BLAKENEY as they sit watching two
dolphins surfing the bow-wave, STEPHEN pointing out various
features of these magnificent creatures, doing his best to
take the boy's mind off the loss of his friend.

307.   THE SURPRISE AND THE ACHERON - DAY

The two ships sail abreast - the Acheron, her shattered masts
jury-rigged.

308.   QUARTERDECK, SURPRISE - DAY

JACK stands with LIEUTENANT MOWETT and the signals
midshipman, WILLIAMSON. They look across at the Acheron.

                    JACK
          Signal... 'Parole prisoners
          Valparaiso'...

                    WILLIAMSON
          You mean Lieutenant Pullings, Sir?

                    JACK
          No. Captain Pullings.

WILLIAMSON hurries to the signals locker, the signal book and
JACK's message in his hand.

309.   TELESCOPE POV   DAY

The line of colored signal-flags run up to the mast-head of
the Surprise.

309A   QUARTERDECK ACHERON

Midshipman Rye is reading the signal for Pullings

                    RYE
          ....then 'Rendezvous Portsmouth. God-
          speed, Captain Pullings.'

A contented smile on Pullings face as his promotion is
confirmed. He waves across to JACK as the Acheron makes a
sharp turn away from the Surprise.

310.   DELETED

311.   ABOUT THE SHIP - DUSK

Slowly the crew come back to life as old familiar habits and
routines reassert themselves.

· Acting First Lieutenant MOWETT walks the quarterdeck
composing a poem in memory of the battle.

· JOE PLAICE tells a story of witchcraft and haunted ships to
a small attentive audience.

· While AWKWARD DAVIES works further on the tattoo about
BECKETT's waist. The chain begun off BRAZIL now winds its way
around most of his torso.

· BLAKENEY and JEMMY DUCKS are feeding the assorted creatures
collected at the Galapagos, as...

· BONDEN reads his first book, 'Diseases of Seamen' by
Stephen Maturin, his brow furrowed, his lips moving silently.

· While the powder-monkeys skylark in the rigging

313.   INTERIOR, GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

STEPHEN plays a note on his cello [      ]

                    STEPHEN
          Shall we begin?

JACK pauses, gazing into space.

                    STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          Jack, brother, you're gathering wool.

                    JACK (smiles)
          Thinking about their captain. A great
          seaman, whatever you may say of him. The
          doctor said he was killed by our first
          broadside. I'd have liked to talk to him,
          face to face.

                    STEPHEN
          Maybe you did.

                      JACK
          What?

                    STEPHEN
          While I was tending the prisoners they
          told me their doctor died of fever, two
          weeks ago. There was no doctor on that
          ship when we boarded it. And I doubt you
          will find one there now.

JACK goes very still. A silence broken only by the sound of
water flowing gently past the hull.

He looks down at the captain's sword on the table, the
thought of a possible final deception flooding through him.

                      STEPHEN (CONT'D)
          Shall we?
He starts to play, the deep booming sound of the cello
carrying through to ....

312.   OUTSIDE THE GREAT CABIN - NIGHT

KILLICK, wearing an ostentatious bandage about his head, is
preparing toasted cheese with BLACK BILL.

                     KILLICK
           That's the last of the cheese and like as
           not they'll leave it seizing to their
           plates with their tweedly tweedly
           tweedly.

                     JACK (O.S.)
           Killick? KILLICK THERE!

                     KILLICK (projecting)
           Which it will be ready when it's ready!

In the cabin, the violin joins with the cello. Rolling,
undeniable music, the music of the waves, resonating through
the great ship and filling the night. Stephens mind is far
away. Jack breaks off abruptly:

                      JACK

          You're still missing your cormorant...
          flightless eh...well then. It will still
          be there when we come back

And he breaks into a merry jig

313.   SURPRISE, EXTERIOR - NIGHT

Wide, to see the stern of the ship and a patch of surrounding
water lit by the great stern lantern. Through the casement
windows the two men can be seen playing.

Wider, to the vast dark sky and the heaving ocean all around,
with the stern cabin, a tiny orange light, still faintly
visible in the darkness.

314.   FURTHER BACK

And further still. Until we see the curve of the earth, and
the planet spinning on its journey through space.
***

Master and Commander



Writers :   John Collee  Peter Weir
Genres :   Action  Adventure  Drama


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