Dazed,
I agree with you completely. There is another nautical series written by Dewey Lambdin whose hero, Alain Lewry, is one of those extremely lucky British naval officers like Hornblower and Aubry. But Lewry is an unrepentant ladies’ man which attribute gets him in trouble over and over. Lewry, like Aubry, is also a musician. He plays the tin whistle! And he associates with his Irish seamen for impromptu sessions. On one occasion he even parries a mutineer’s saber thrust with his tin whistle. I think you’d enjoy the series.
Mike
Unfortuneately, Chris, I did see part of Battlefield Earth, but then I had to, er, um, go to the bathroom…Try Lynch’s first, Eraserhead, a film with truly no redeeming value whatsoever…I guess we got to a point of understanding…really bad stuff…or did you like Eraserhead? 
PhilO
Hey, I liked Eraserhead…or at least, I was interested in it. It certainly is weird.
Back to M&C, I had no previous knowledge of the books or really the Age of Sail, but I liked the movie immensely. And as far as it dragging, or nothing happening, this was a topic of discussion last weekend. When I was on the HMS Surprise, and the docent & I were talking–he explained that Jack Aubrey, the character, was based on Liet. Cochrane, a real person who, in a relatively smallish ship, took some 50 prizes in one year, including the Gama (the Acheron inspiration) that was dispatched specifically to hunt him down.
Anyway, the docent’s idea was that the movie should have stuck to the action more, and not gotten dragged down by the characterization & sub-plots. I disgareed. I think what makes this movie so good is precisely the fact that Peter Weir, instead of making YET ANOTHER action/epic/battle picture, infused this with some actual drama, and did his best to capture the flavor of the books, which, by most accounts, is centrally based on the Aubrey/Maturin relationship. I’m only on Book Three but so far that seems to be true.
I don’t know how to bring this thread back to whistling except to say I was bummed I didn’t know any sea shanties to play on board and had to content myself with some Bach and early Renaissance tunes. It was still fun.
Just wanted to mention I happened to love M&C and was on the edge of my seat the whole time. However, when it comes to Hornblower, the books are 200% better than the A&E movies. The first four TV movies were enjoyable, relatively good and true to the book, but the last two movies were far off the mark. Nothing like the book. I would like to say that I have never seen Royal Navy officers spend so much time on land before.
If A&E can’t afford the money to give us good convincing sea battles, they shouldn’t do the series. Sea battles are what Hornblower is all about. If I want to see land battles, I’ll watch Sharpe. Sadly, seeing the movie version of M&C spoiled the Hornblower TV movies for me.
Linda S.
madfifer9
Sharpe! I saw only a few episodes of that series…they were excellent, though I got the impression that Sharpe an his unit somehow managed to play a pivotal role in every important engagement in every campaign the Kings army ever waged. Sokay with me.
Was this playing on A&E? Is it coming back anytime soon? I’d love to see all the episodes from the beginning.
The books are fantastic if you’re into military history. I only saw one episode of the TV series and thought it was well done. That same author wrote about the battle at Trafalgar and it complements the M&C movie very well, explaining in typical detail how life was back then.
The Sharpe series is on DVD, available through Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com). I know because I became addicted to the series and had to eventually purchase all the episodes! In a few of the Sharpe episodes, Sharpe’s sergeant, an Irish man, plays the tin whistle.
Besides the tin whistle in Master & Commander, they also show a glimpse of a flute in the French captain’s cabin. You have to be looking closely to see it, though, because the camera shows only a glimpse of it.
I thoroughly enjoyed Master & Commander, the Hornblower series, and Sharpe. But then, I’m addicted to British history!
J
LOL! It’s great to see how many other people have enjoyed the Sharpe series! It was shown on A&E in the early 90’s, I think. Most of the time it is only shown in England and makes periodic reappearances. I wish A&E or at least BBC America would bring it back, it’s a great series. The first four are my favorites, though. I have all the DVDs, there were 14 in all. The music for this series is also very good. John Tams wrote new lyrics for period songs, and he sings a lot of them in character in the movies.
And to bring it back on topic, in the movies Harper (Sharpe’s sgt) does “play” the whistle a little bit. Appropriately, “Salamanca” is one of the tunes, it’s a tough one. Also, as Cornwell mentions in more than one of the novels, Sharpe hopes that someday when the wars are over, he can settle down in one place and maybe learn how to play the flute. Does Sharpe ever learn it? Well, we never find out directly, but… his son does happen to carry one around in his saddlebag. 
Linda S.
madfifer9
Rifleman 'Arris (what is your name, 'Arris?) was based on a real chap, who survived the wars (unlike his fictional counterpart in Sharpe) and finally settled down to life as a cobbler. His memoirs (although somewhat short) make for truly fascinating reading.
I believe the book about his life as a Rifleman is called “The life and times of Rifleman Harris” but it’s so long since I read it I can’t be 100% sure. I’ll check (the local library ordered it for me especially, so it should still be there) and post the correct title later on if I’ve got it wrong.
It really is worth the read for those interested in Sharpe, or in British military history generally, and I’ve no doubt that it was a prime source of research for the Sharpe series.
NOOOOOOOOOOOO…so the Sharpe series was based on a series of NOVELS???.. AAAARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH. Only yesterday did I finish the Surgeons Mate, book 7 of the Aubrey-Maturin series, I havent even touched the Hornblower series, AND NOW I find out that there is a SHARPE series as well? I thought the Sharp movies were just a BBC written and produced thing, but NooOOOOoooOOoo, now there has to be another ten or twenty cool books that I have to read.
OK, I think I’ll be the first to officially diagnose Historical Warfare Novel Obsessive Acquisition Distorder.
Since the series is about the Napoleonice wars, some forty years before Clarke began production, I guess we can assume it was a handmade, one of a kind whistle, eh?
I was wrong. The correct title and publishing details are as follows:
ISBN: 0-7126-0346-8 / 0712603468
Title: The Recollections of Rifleman Harris
Author: Christopher Hibbert
Publisher: Trafalgar Square
Edition: Softcover
There is, apparently, a reprint and re-edited edition of the original work above entitled " A Dorset Rifleman: the recollections of Benjamin Harris" with a foreword by Bernard Cromwell (author of the Sharpe series). I haven’t read this edition so I can’t say whether it’s just a sexed-up version of the original work and produced to cash in on the Sharpe series, or not.
LOLOLOL!!! And there’s a whole LOT of them! Cornwell is still writing them. Personally, I want him to get back to his American Civil War series about Nate Starbuck.
Gary, there are two other Napoleonic war era autobiographies which I purchased in a 3 book set along with “Rifleman Harris”. The other two are “The Letters of Private Wheeler 1809-1828” (Peninsular Campaign) and “The Diary of a Napoleonic Foot Soldier”, written by a German conscript named Jakob Walter during the retreat from Moscow. I really enjoyed all three of them. I bought them online from a company called “Past Times”. The 3 book set is called “A Soldier’s Tale”.
Linda S.
galatia9
Um, OK, now I know you are positively EVIL…a Civil War series too? Go ahead, heap it on, maybe there’s also one about, oh, maybe a World War I fighter pilot, or a Roman centurion tromping through all of Ceasar’s campaigns?
For some reason, many of Cornwell’s books are not available on Amazon…out of print or something, and while many are listed on Ebay they are invariably from UK sellers, which means a high exchange rate and USD$10-20 for shipping, so thats out. Oh, well, I’ll content myself with the escapades of Aubrey and Maturin, and there’s always Hornblower.