Captain Jack is a British

Great Britain

Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 comedy film released on video by Kosch Vision in 1999.

Plot

Captain Jack stars Bob Hoskins

Bob Hoskins

Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...

 as a rebellious captain of a small Whitby

Whitby

Whitby is a seaside town, port and civil parish in the Scarborough borough of North Yorkshire, England. Situated on the east coast of Yorkshire at the mouth of the River Esk, Whitby has a combined maritime, mineral and tourist heritage, and is home to the ruins of Whitby Abbey where Caedmon, the...

 boat who is determined to flout petty maritime bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

. Officials declare his boat unsafe for a planned voyage to the Arctic

Arctic

The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...

, but Jack is determined to set sail and to place a plaque there in commemoration of his seafaring hero. With his motley crew, Captain Jack succeeds in making his voyage despite an international search for his boat by maritime authorities.

The film was produced by John Goldschmidt and written by Jack Rosenthal. Made by John Goldschmidt's company Viva Films Ltd.

Inspiration

The film is based on a true life incident involving a Whitby man, Jack Lammiman, who declared that his ship was totally seaworthy but was being hampered from sailing by maritime rules. As in the film, he slipped out of the harbour unseen in 1992. His crew included a vicar, a lady pensioner and 62-year-old Royal Navy veteran named Hugh Taff Roberts. Lammiman successfully sailed his ship, Helga Maria, to the Arctic and fulfilled his wish to place a memorial plaque on Jan Mayen Island to honour Whitby whaling Captain William Scoresby. During the voyage he succeeded in evading an international search by the naval authorities using a number of techniques which including painting his boat a different colour. Lammiman arrived back at his home port of Whitby to a hero’s welcome.

External links

• DVD Verdict Review
• Sleights Today review