The Academy Award-winning film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is a Napoleonic action film that demonstrates the reasons why cruise travel insurance is so necessary for people travelling by sea. The crew, lead by Russell Crowe, suffers all manners of adversity during their mission: bad weather, injuries, diversions and battles – incurring damage that would make them wish they had a nineteenth century equivalent of cruise insurance.
Cruise travel was not always as safe as it is today. In the early 1800s, the British Navy vessels at sea were under a constant barrage from tempestuous seas and foreign adversaries. The brilliant 2003 film by Peter Weir, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, depicts the struggle and pitfalls suffered by HMS Surprise, a series of unfortunate events that would leave modern travellers without cruise insurance in dire straits.
Disruption to your Trip
The story begins with the HMS Surprise under attack from their nemesis, the Archeron, which is manned by a French crew, their enemies in the war at sea. Cannon balls tear through the rigging and smash into the hull of the Surprise, knocking the sailors to the deck. The hero of the tale and the captain of the ship, ‘Lucky Jack’ Aubrey (played by Russell Crowe), takes charge and leads them to safety. They evade their enemy in the fog, and then the crew set about repairing the damage to the ship. In real life, if your cruise ship has to make repairs, you won’t want to rely on salty sailors to fix the boat. If the cruise is delayed and your holiday is cancelled, your cruise insurance will compensate you for the loss of your holiday.
Bad Weather
It’s not just a nineteenth century French enemy that can scupper your holiday, the unpredictable nature of the weather at sea can always bring about disruption and cause you to claim on your cruise travel insurance. For the HMS Surprise, not long into their chase across the Atlantic for the Archeron, a storm hit with such force that it snapped their main mast, and sent sea water spilling into the hold. Lucky Jack, who didn’t seem to be lucky at all, would have wished his boat his boat was covered by cruise insurance so he could be compensated for the possessions and provisions that were damaged on the trip.
Injury at Sea
Later on in the film, just when things are starting to look up, Lucky Jack’s best friend, the ship’s doctor, gets injured in an accident. When an albatross hovers around the ship, a naval soldier decides to take a pot shot, but the bullet ends up in the doctor’s belly. The captain orders a drastic diversion from their course, delaying their journey (another thing that cruise travel insurance can compensate) to make a stop on dry land. The poor doctor is forced to operate on himself without anaesthetic, needing to remove some of his shirt that is lodged inside. Using a mirror to see, he cuts open his own abdomen and delves inside his own guts for the piece of material before passing out from the pain.
If you are unlucky enough to fall ill or get hurt while on a cruise, you won’t want to resolve your medical emergency without a little help. Although many cruise liners have doctors, stopping at the nearest port to use their medical facilities can be a very expensive (but necessary) measure for serious illness. Cruise insurance will cover the costs that you will incur for this medical attention.
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