HMS Surprise (ship)

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Type:	Full rigged ship
Built:	1970, Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
Homeport:	San Diego, California
Official Number:	928811
Sparred Length:	179 ft (54.6 m)
Length on deck:	135 ft (41.1 m)
Length waterline:	114 ft (37.7 m)
Beam:	32 ft (9.7 m)
Draft:	13 ft (4.0 m)
Rig Height:	130 ft (39.6 m)
Displacement:	500 tons
Sail Area:	13,000 sq. ft (1208 m²)

HMS Surprise is a modern tall ship, built at Lunenberg, Nova Scotia as Rose in 1970 to a Phil Bolger design based on the original 18th century Admiralty drawings. She was a replica of HMS Rose, a sixth-rate frigate built in 1757.

The ship was inspected and certified by the United States Coast Guard and operated as a sail training vessel in the 1980s and 1990s, run by the HMS Rose Foundation based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Although she is known by the national prefix HMS, meaning Her (or His) Majesty's Ship, she is not technically entitled to it as she does not hold a royal warrant.

She was sold to the 20th Century Fox film studio in 2001 to be used in the making of the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, in which she portrayed the fictional Royal Navy frigate named for Surprise with a story based on several of the books by Patrick O'Brian. After the film was complete, the ship was leased and then purchased by the San Diego Maritime Museum who have restored her to sailing condition as of September 2007. The ship has officially been reregistered as HMS Surprise in honour of her role in the film[1]. It is planned that she will sail again on October 28 and November 4, 2007, and also on November 10 and 11 along with the Museum's other tall ships, the schooner Californian and the 1863 barque Star of India.

An overall view of the renamed HMS Surprise at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.	The stern of the ship (barque Star of India in background.)	The ship's bell still bears the original name HMS Rose.	Side View of Starboard Rail..Shown at Maritime Museum of San Diego.
Bow-on View of Starboard Side..Shown at Maritime Museum of San Diego.