One thing that may be missed by viewers of this beautiful movie is that the French Navy frigate Jauréguiberry is not crossing the North Atlantic waters for an endurance mission (although much endurance is needed).
She is actually fulfilling a mission of "Surveillance des pêches" (i.e. Support to the French fishing vessels) in the "Terre Neuve" (Newfoundland) and "Saint-Pierre et Miquelon" waters, a mission that the French Navy has carried on for centuries and still does today.
Fishing rights for French vessels in these waters date from before the reign of king Louis XIV, and are among the last remaining rights from the French colonial venture in Canada. It has always been accepted as a truth that the "Terre Neuvas" (fishermen trained to work in these waters) were the best, the toughest recruits for the Navy.
The film is about decolonization, of course, but its main theme is duty - carrying on whatever may and however unpleasant it may be. Unglamorous assistance to the "Terre Neuvas" fits in well with this theme.
Another trivia : Jean Rochefort is as natural as can be playing the part of captain of the frigate Jaureguiberry : he may have acquired such an ease from watching his brother Pierre, a Naval officer who ended his career as an Admiral.
"Adieu vieille Europe, Que le diable t'emporte" ("Goodbye old Europe, to the devil you can go!") These words, said by the Doctor or the "Crabe Tambour" in several of their encounters ", make a kind of 'coded phrase' expressing reference to their shared past; but they are also a quotation: the beginning words of a French Foreign Legion marching song.
Jean-François Chauvel co-wrote this script with his brother-in-law Pierre Schoendoerffer.
The movie only covers about 50 % of the original novel. A sequel was planned but the movie didn't do very well at the box-office so it was shelved. In the latter part of the novel the doctor accepts the invitation of the Chef to visit his native village in Bretagne. There they will meet the 'Crabe-tambour' in person.
Jean-François Chauvel can be seen really briefly in a scene in Indochina.