History Main / ArtisticLicenseShips

* ''Manga/KuroganePukapukaTai'', an odd mixture of GirlsLove romp and UsefulNotes/WorldWarII military action, largely avoids this trope.

** There is an English Astute class submarine that gets shown as launching 26 Tomahawk missiles vertically out of the water, first issue is that class doesn't have VLS tubes and even if it did it wouldn't have 26 of them. They would have to launch via the regular torpedo tubes.

* Bret Devereaux explains in ''Blog/ACollectionOfUnmitigatedPedantry'' why the Numenorian ships' size doesn't makes a lot of sense in ''Series/TheLordOfTheRingsTheRingsOfPower'':

[[folder:Comic Book]]

* ''VideoGame/PixelPiracy'' given that there is a ship editor in which anything can be placed anywhere. this is inevitable.

* ''LetsPlay/PiratesSMP'': The pirates' starter boats are stated to be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloop sloops]]. However, ''actual'' sloops have only one mast, while the pirates' in-game boats have two masts, with the second mast located behind the ship's wheel. Thus, it is more accurate to refer to the boats as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawl yawls]].

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' plays with this in "The Silent Partners". A few members of Team S.P.H.I.N.X. need to track villain Monstroso on his ocean-bound command ship, so they try to borrow a high-tech hydrofoil from Jonas Venture, Jr. [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep The Captain]] tells them that the hydrofoil is decommissioned, but he can help them out by bringing his own ship out of mothballs. When we first met the Captain, he was leading a crew of "fake [[GhostPirate ghost pirates]]" stranded in the Sargasso Sea aboard an obsolete sailing ship, so that's what they get: a tiny "[[TheAllegedCar almost brigantine]]" named "[[{{Series/Degrassi}} Manny's Song]]" that was originally a sloop and re-rigged partly with pieces of a theme park ride. When the time comes to depart:

* ''LetsPlay/PiratesSMP'': The pirates' boats are stated to be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sloop sloops]]. However, ''actual'' sloops have only one mast, while the pirates' in-game boats have two masts, with the second mast located behind the ship's wheel. Thus, it is more accurate to refer to the boats as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yawl yawls]].

** One of the Japanese intelligence photographs shows a ''North Carolina''-class battleship. No such ship was in Pearl Harbor at the time, and indeed, the type was so new that both ''North Carolina'' and her sister ship ''Washington'' were still on the East Coast [[ObviousBeta getting various issues with their engines corrected.]] ''North Carolina'' would not arrive in the Pacific until June 1942.

** ''SOSTitanic'' has the deck scenes filmed on the Queen Mary, with no attempt to disguise the Cunard Line's distinct differences to the designs of White Star Line ships.

** The 1953 ''Titanic'' film didn't even try to be accurate with the ship's interiors, relying on a stock "luxury ocean liner" setting.

* In the 1982 Australian/Taiwanese movie ''film/AttackForceZ'', the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII commando unit is deployed from an Oberon-class submarine. You don't have to be a naval buff to notice this either, given the straight sail and lack of a deck gun on the UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era sub.

* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Captain Hook starts out in flashbacks with a sizable crew for his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig brig]], the ''Jolly Roger''. In the "present day" portions, he continues to sail around [[JustForPun single-handedly]] on the same ship, somehow managing to control multiple sails on two masts just by standing at the helm.

** The production crew seem to think that a 50,000 ton ''Iowa''-class battleship can perform handbrake turns. This ''is'' an actual maneuver called "clubhauling," and it really does work as shown. The catch is that it's a maneuver used during the ''age of sail.'' Given the stoutness of anchor chain compared to the mass of sailing vessels, it was a workable if somewhat tricky and risky maneuver for sailing ships. The aforementioned mass of the Mighty Mo would render any attempt futile; either the chain would shatter or the chain locker shackle would snap like a damp pretzel.

* Although much of it was filmed aboard the actual USS ''Nimitz'', with the participation of many of that carrier's crew, the scene in ''Film/TheFinalCountdown'' that showed the carrier sailing into Pearl Harbor, in the present, showed USS ''Kitty Hawk'', as at the time the movie was filmed, the ''Nimitz'' was part of the Atlantic fleet. On the plus side, funnel aside the ''Kitty Hawk'' and ''Nimitz'' classes are fairly close in silhouette and flight deck layout.

** During one scene a torpedo is dropped by a helicopter on a submarine, but then remotely detonated by the helicopter's mothership prior to impact in order to fake the destruction of the sub. This is in reality impossible. The torpedo depicted in the movie is a US Mk 46, and once you have put one in the water--assuming it's working correctly--it will search for and then chase after its target until it either detonates or runs out of fuel. This would have been TruthInTelevision if a submarine had launched the torpedo, as most submarines could launch torpedoes connected to control wires which would led operators basically control it by remote control to a certain degree, which would give it the advantage of being able to ignore decoys or other countermeasures, though the torpedo guidance system itself is still what is used to steer it towards it's target[[labelnote:*]]In other movies featuring torpedo combat, whenever you see a ship immediately fire back after a torpedo has been launched at it, it is in part to force the other ship to cut it's wires prematurely, making the torpedo do the work itself where it can be more easily dodged or countered.[[/labelnote]]. But no platform, even today, has the ability to remote detonate a torpedo wirelessly.

* ''Film/TheyWereExpendable'', the fictionalized story of MTB Squadron 3 in the Philippines at the start of the war. MTB Squadron 3's boats were PT-20 class 77 foot Elcos, but were portrayed in the movie by PT-103 class 80 foot Elcos and 78-Foot Huckins boats. The 80-footers were same class boats as JFK's PT-109 mentioned above.

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': There is no wind blowing on the sails when Steve and Diana leave Themyscira for London. Also, both characters then proceed to go to sleep overnight on the boat, despite at least one of them needing to stay up and keep the boat on course. (Unless, of course, it's a [[AWizardDidIt magic boat]], which isn't improbable).

* In the intro of Music/RunningWild's "Under Jolly Roger", it only takes seconds for the pirate crew to man and fire their cannons after spotting a ship.
* Music/JohnnyHorton's ''Sink the Bismarck'', set during the Battle of Denmark Strait and the following pursuit of the Bismarck, gets several facts about the German warship wrong. Contrary to what the song states, the ''Bismarck'' did not "have the biggest guns", as her 15-inch guns were smaller than the 16-inch guns carried by the "Big Seven" (which she found herself on the wrong end of when HMS ''Rodney'' intercepted her) and, at the time of the events of the song, the American battleships ''North Carolina'' and '' Washington'' had just been commissioned with the newest, most powerful 16-inch cannons yet mounted by any battleship, the 16-inch Mk 6 45-caliber cannon, which was capable of firing the new 2700 lb "super heavy" armor-piercing shell, unlike the previous 16-inch Mk 1 45-caliber cannon used by the preceding ''Colorado''-class. '' Bismarck'' was also not "the fastest ship to sail the seas", with many cruisers, battlecruisers (including the '' Hood'' that ''Bismarck'' famously sunk), and destroyers being able to top her 30 knot top speed. Even among battleships, ''Bismarck'' at best tied for that top speed, being matched with the French battleship ''Richelieu'', Italian battleships ''Littorio'' and ''Vittorio Veneto'', and Japanesee battleships ''Kongo'', ''Hiei'', ''Haruna'', and ''Kirishima''. Furthermore, her own sister ship, ''Tirpitz'', was slightly faster due to having significantly more powerful engines (while ''Bismarck'' could barely make 30 knots, ''Tirpitz'' could nearly hit 31 knots). Lastly, while ''Bismarck'' was not the largest ship in the world (several passenger liners, including the famous ''Titanic'' and her sister ships had been larger, and at the time, RMS ''Queen Mary'' held the crown of largest operational passenger ship with a displacement of nearly 82 kilotons, dwarfing ''Bismarck'''s roughly 42 kilotons displacement), she was the largest battleship in the world by displacement at the time of her commissioning. However, by the time the song takes place, she no longer held that title, having been surpassed by her sister ship, ''Tirpitz'', which displaced about 1200 tons more, though that is technically still consistent with the song's statement that "the Germans had the biggest ship", provided that the lyric is taken to only refer to warships. Additionally, the song gets the flow of the Battle of Denmark Straits wrong, saying "The Bismarck started firin', fifteen miles away". ''Hood'' opened fire fifteen miles away while rapidly closing with ''Bismarck''. ''Bismarck'' would not return fire for three minutes, likely closer to thirteen miles away.

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'' takes some care to play sailing realistically: Link can quarter by turning the sail at an angle to the boat so that it catches the wind fully, and goes faster when the wind is directly behind. However, Link doesn't need to turn the rudder while doing this, can quarter at a right angle to the wind, and, by picking up speed and making a sharp turn, can sail ''against'' the wind. Since lacking these abilities would make the game immensely tedious and frustrating, this can be filed under AcceptableBreaksFromReality.
* ''VideoGame/GoldenEye1997'' was supposed to feature a ''La Fayette''-class frigate like the movie did; the ship actually looks nothing like the ''La Fayette'' and rather more like an American ''Kidd''-class destroyer. The devs were apparently at least somewhat aware of this, as a DummiedOut multiplayer version of the Frigate level is named "destroyer".

* ''VideoGame/PixelPiracy'' given that there is a ship editor in which anything can be placed anywhere. this is inevitable.

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersPirates'' abstracts the complicated nature of commanding an 18th-century sailing vessel down to an extremely simplified operation schema, but this is in the name of approachability and RuleOfFun--requiring players to suffer every line of rigging in combat or even day to day sailing would bog things down. Less explicable is how they developed the concept of 'ship classes,' where there are large, medium, and small varieties of a given ship type. For instance, the ''Pirates!'' version of [[http://sidmeierspirates.wikia.com/wiki/Barque the Barque]] bears little resemblance to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barque the historical vessel type]], while the ''Pirates!'' [[http://sidmeierspirates.wikia.com/wiki/Sloop Sloop]] is more like a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_%28boat%29 cutter]].
* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', during the mission "Fleet Destruction", when you sink the Erusean aircraft carrier ''Njörðr'', her crew mentions the catapults becoming inoperable, despite ''Njörðr'' being a ''Kuznetsov''-class carrier, which is a STOBAR design with no catapults in the first place.
* In ''VideoGame/PacificFleet'' and ''Atlantic Fleet'', all ships have the exact same rate of fire, regardless of class or size, as the games are turn-based. Every ship can fire once per turn, no matter if it's a destroyer with 5" guns or a battleship with 18" guns. In reality, a destroyer would be able to fire much faster. Subs can also dive and surface pretty quickly.

* ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'': The last act of the first game takes place aboard the fictitious USS ''Constitution'', CVN-80. Aside from various errors of Navy uniforms and terminology, the US Navy would never name a carrier the ''Constitution'' because the original 1800s heavy frigate [[AffectionateNickname affectionately called "Old Ironsides"]] is still in commission. Since the game came out, CVN-80 has been announced to be the ''Gerald R. Ford''-class USS ''Enterprise'', replacing CVN-65 which was decommissioned in 2017.

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'' features the ''Ulysses'', a {{Steampunk}} submarine the size of two aircraft carriers that can dive as deep as the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. In real life, submarines of that size cannot dive that deep because the high pressure underwater would cause their hulls to implode-the bigger the ship, the more pressure it has to deal with. The ''Ulysses'' would have trouble getting even that far because its steampunk engine would consume all interior oxygen if it dove underwater, and as a result the crew would all die of asphyxiation. Real-life diesel submarines exist, but ordinarily they can only use their diesel engines at or near the surface where they use a snorkel to draw in air. For completely submerged operation, most use electric engines powered by batteries, but this greatly limits their submerged range. Attempts to carry oxygen on board for a combustion engine were never really successful, until Kockums developed [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air-independent_propulsion AIP]] stirling engines.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague Unlimited'' episode ''To Another Shore'', Special Agent Faraday threatens to to shut a supervillain's sub with Trident missiles. The Trident is an intercontinental ballistic missile that carries a nuclear warhead. It's not a missile that would be used against a submarine that's submerged, nor against anything that's close enough to be seen.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' episode "Avatar Roku" the Gaang has to get to a temple inside the Fire Nation, the border of which is [[NavalBlockade blockaded]] by the Fire Navy. However, the blockade as depicted is unrealistic even for a close blockade; two lines of ships steaming in opposite directions passing close abroad is overkill, risks collisions, and a waste of fuel and time. Realistically all that's required for an effective close blockade is for the various ships involved to have overlapping weapons ranges, so that nothing can penetrate without coming under fire. Based on their attempts to shoot down the Gaang riding on Appa, their maximum effective range is a few miles and they could easily maintain the blockade with about a third of the ships we see.

* Discussed in ''[[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', when the narration points out the logic of having the ship's galley in the bow. In a motor-powered ship such as readers might be familiar with, engine smoke trails behind a fast-moving vessel regardless of wind direction, but sailed watercraft normally move with, and more slowly than, the wind. If the galley were in back, smoke from the ovens would flow forward onto the deck.
* There was an illustration in a Robert Lawson book which pictured a 3-masted ship, all the sails full of wind, with flapping flags facing the wrong direction (i.e, flags were pointing to the stern). The flags and the sails are affected by the same wind, and so the flags should be pointing more or less toward the bow.
* ''Literature/TheHuntingOfTheSnark'' had fun with this - see "[[http://www.literature.org/authors/carroll-lewis/the-hunting-of-the-snark/chapter-02.html Fit the Second]]".

* Invoked InUniverse in the second novel of the ''Literature/XWingSeries''. The Rogues find a freighter named ''Contruum's Pride''. Lt Cracken, a native of Contruum, takes one look at its IFF and declares that it's hostile: Due to the naming conventions for spaceships on Contruum, if it had really been part of their merchant marine, ''Pride'' would have been named for an animal or a river, not a virtue, something that was restricted for warships.
* {{Discussed}} in Creator/JaneAusten's ''Literature/{{Persuasion}}''. The protagonist, Anne, finds Admiral Croft bemusedly looking at a painting in the window of a print shop. When she approaches him he asks "What queer fellows your fine painters must be, to think that anybody would venture their lives in such a shapeless old cockleshell as that?" and declares "I would not venture over a horsepond in it." He goes on quite a bit about it, [[SarcasmMode not at all]] like a modern day geek ranting about their particular area of interest.

** In the episode "World War Three", a ''Trafalgar'' class attack submarine was depicted with Trident nuclear missiles, found only on ballistic missile submarines in RealLife.
** In "Cold War", the Soviet nuclear submarine Firebird, despite looking like a [[UsefulNotes/MnogoNukesMissileSubmarines Murena-M class]] ([[ReportingNames Delta-II class]]) missile sub, seems to be far more massive. For comparison, the more modern ''Akula'' (''[[ReportingNames Typhoon]]'') class is larger than a Delta-II, and yet the protagonists are dwarfed by the conning tower when standing on the bridge in the epilogue of the episode. This is not something anyone was at risk of with a ''Typhoon''.
* ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' features a "Delta III" submarine with vertical launched [=SAMs=]. Which just happen to look like US Polaris ballistic missiles. Between shots it turns into a US ''Los Angeles''-class fast attack submarine. The submarines look completely different, with different functions. The "Delta III" doesn't even carry surface-to-air missiles.
* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Captain Hook starts out in flashbacks with a sizable crew for his [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brig brig]], the ''Jolly Roger''. In the "present day" portions, he continues to sail around [[JustForPun single-handedly]] on the same ship, somehow managing to control multiple sails on two masts just by standing at the helm.
* ''Series/HRPufnstuf'''s intro includes an especially severe example. A sailboat is scudding along on a broad reach, sails properly filled and trimmed, then when Witchiepoo dispels her illusion, the boat turns sinister, the weather turns dark, and the boat is now "sailing" directly into the wind.

* Creator/TheHistoryChannel loves World War 2 documentaries. One such is ''The World Wars''. The final episode of this mini-series features on the outbreak of war in the Pacific in 1941. Careful examination of the war footage reveals some use of StockFootage from recent [[WorksSetInWorldWarII war films]]. It also features footage of aircraft carriers and a carrier battle group. Modern, early 21st century aircraft carriers and support ships. Also seen is footage of a [[UsefulNotes/KaijuDefenseForce modern Japanese Aegis class ship]]. Guess they figured they didn't have enough of the kinds of footage they wanted, so the went and found or filmed footage of similar-looking ships.
* Season 3 of ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' features a [[http://i.imgur.com/qpzet2Y.jpg brief shot of a Cunard Line ship docked in Liverpool]]. Likely meant to be the [[http://www.ssmaritime.com/Mauretania-1-1906.jpg RMS Mauritania]], the CGI model appears to be the hull and superstructure of the [[http://www.maritimequest.com/liners/titanic/photos/titanic_marschall_3.jpg RMS Titanic]] with the vents, forecastle, and colors of the Mauritania added.

[[folder:{{Anime}} & {{Manga}}]]

* The prologue of the ''Literature/HeavyObject'' anime depicts a ballistic missile submarine (possibly meant to be an American ''Ohio''-class) launching a nuclear missile at the first Object in a vain attempt to destroy it. Problem being that the submarine is doing this ''while surfaced'': no sane boomer captain is going to launch from the surface if he can help it, and the first successful test of a submerged launch was done in ''1960''.
* The eponymous boat crewed by the protagonists in ''Manga/BlackLagoon'' is a restored and modified UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT_boat#Elco 80-foot Elco PT boat]]. While this ''was'' the most common version, only three of that model are known to still exist, none of them operational (the majority of the PT boats to survive the war were scrapped).

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean'':
** The trilogy is a major offender, with extensive yelling about naval maneuvers, which never accomplish anything, as all the ships continually sail in any direction in every weather with main and topsails square to the masts at all times. Bonus points for Captain Jack Sparrow yelling for adjustments to pieces of rigging his ship does not even possess: "Scandalize the lateens!" The torn and tattered sails of the ''Pearl'' and the ''Dutchman'' do not qualify, as they are both supernatural vessels.
** Along with many films featuring WoodenShipsAndIronMen, RealLife fully rigged sailing ships couldn't be turned simply by spinning the wheel like it's a Formula 1 car. There is a whole array of multi-man, complex procedures for doing so. Also bizarre is how Jack Sparrow managed to "disable the rudder chain" in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' - the cables (not chains) on a ship like the ''Dauntless'' would take a single man ''days'' to cut through even if he had a proper implement (which he doesn't).
** Jack Sparrow's sinking ship at the start of the first film is impossible ([[PlayedForLaughs but awesome]]).
** Later on, hilariously, the Royal Navy officer says that the ''Dauntless'' "cannot be crewed by two men." Neither can the ''Interceptor'', in reality.
** The whole Maelstrom battle in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]''. Also, a first-rate ship of the line like the ''Endeavour'' could eat a pair of heavy frigates like the ''Black Pearl'' and ''Flying Dutchman'' for breakfast, though this is excusable given that Lord Beckett was unable to break out of his VillainousBreakdown and order his ship to attack. Also, the ''Dutchman'' is probably too supernatural to sink even with superior firepower.
** No lower-deck gun (or even a maindeck carronade) could possibly achieve the angle of elevation shown by the ''Black Pearl'' attacking Port Royal (or for that matter, any of the ships in the whirlpool battle). If you want to fire that high, you're looking at small pintle mount weapons like swivel guns, or dedicated mortars (which tended to be either little 1-3 pounder boat mortar jobbies or fitted to specially built/modified bomb ketches). Anything else would rip a hole in the deck it's mounted on with the recoil (and bomb ketches had to sit the mortar on a hold full of coiled rope to compensate).
** The ''Flying Dutchman'''s triple-guns cannot be reloaded, as cannon are muzzle-loading. Unless Davy Jones has invented breech-loading cannons. Which presents the additional problem of how the cascabel screw threads don't seize using 17th-century ironwork. Unless the guns are magical. Which presents the additional problem of why Davy Jones bothers to crew his gundecks.
** The stunt with the upturned boat in the first film would not work. While you could overturn a boat and float it across the water, you could not drag it underwater like a poor-man's submarine unless you were inhumanly strong (and heavy).
* ''Film/MasterAndCommander'' manages to avoid blatant errors. This was done by using a real period naval ship, and through meticulous detail to ensuring accuracy. The biggest mistake is that the ship is actually motoring in a few shots, as indicated by the sails being pushed backwards against the mast by the wind, while the ship continues forward. Due to the nature of filming out at sea using a real ship, and the nature of well, nature, the crew simply didn't have enough time to ensure fully accurate manoeuvring while filming the ship.
* ''Film/{{Waterworld}}'' manages to multiply the sins, by having a fore-and-aft rigged Trimaran that is powered by wind so reliable the main character felt it wise to build a giant wind turbine on his mast. Lord only knows what would happen if the wind ever went slack and the sail slumped back into the turbine.
* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': There is no wind blowing on the sails when Steve and Diana leave Themyscira for London. Also, both characters then proceed to go to sleep overnight on the boat, despite at least one of them needing to stay up and keep the boat on course. (Unless, of course, it's a [[AWizardDidIt magic boat]], which isn't improbable).
* ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe'' has the Soviet submarine (a Murena/"Delta I") missing its fairwater planes.
* ''Film/PearlHarbor'':
** The movie featured an impressive effects model of Battleship Row which managed to use the wrong superstructure for the U.S. battleships, despite the production crew having several hundred pictures to work from, and also ''hideously'' messed up the sinking of the ''Oklahoma''. There are also several seriously anachronistic ships present, most obviously ''Spruance''-Class guided missile destroyers. Then again, this is the same movie that didn't notice an M26 Pershing tank in stock footage, the Arizona Memorial visible in a movie set before it even sank, or a large building with 'Est 1952' printed on the front.
** The aircraft carriers on both sides were visibly modern designs with angled flight decks when viewed in long shots, due to the lack of "straight" deck carriers in RealLife since shortly after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
** One of the Japanese intelligence photographs shows a ''North Carolina''-class battleship. No such ship was in Pearl Harbor at the time, and indeed, the type was so new that both ''North Carolina'' and her sister ship ''Washington'' were still on the East Coast [[ObviousBeta getting various issues with their engines corrected.]] ''North Carolina'' would not arrive in the Pacific until June 1942.
** The ''Queen Mary'' appears in the movie in her civilian paint scheme: in reality, she was painted battleship grey during the war.
** Moving the battleships 100 feet apart just so they could film cool sequences of airplanes flying between the rows while Cuba Gooding Jr. shoots at them with .50 caliber machine gun even though he also would have been ''shooting up the ship moored alongside.''[[note]]In fairness, a .50 caliber bullets would be about as dangerous as spitballs to a battleship's hull. The same, however, can't be said of any crewmen who might have been unlucky enough to be standing on its deck.[[/note]] The real Doris 'Dorie' Miller was awarded the Navy Cross and certainly deserved a better portrayal of his heroism.
* In ''Film/TheSumOfAllFears'', an American aircraft carrier is shown sailing without active escorts and no air patrols flying, within striking range of Russian airfields during a serious international crisis. If this had happened in real life, they would deserve to get sunk.

* Averted, partly, in ''Film/BattleOfTheRiverPlate'', where the cruisers HMS ''Achilles'' and HMS ''Cumberland'' were played by the actual ''Achilles'' (by this point in Indian service as INS ''Delhi'') and ''Cumberland''. Then again, ''Graf Spee'' was played by USS ''Salem'', which looked nothing like the real ''Graf Spee'', and ''Cumberland'' was minus a turret thanks to a refit. The RealLife ''Graf Spee'', having been sunk in the titular battle, was obviously unavailable for filming. Lampshaded when the German Captain says sometimes they even disguise themselves as an American cruiser and the captured British merchantman Captain accepts that as being why they have a number painted on the bow. This treads the line between TruthInTelevision and VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory because there are plenty of pictures of the real ''Admiral Graf Spee'' disguised as a US Navy cruiser, and at the Battle of the River Plate she really was sporting a fake extra turret (''Admiral Graf Spee'' had only 2 real turrets while ''Salem'' has 3).
** Made worse since US Navy refused any Nazi insignia, flags, or uniforms onboard its ships. So everyone onboard ''Graf Spee'' was wearing US uniforms.
** Oddly, HMS ''Ajax'' (sister ship of ''Achilles'') was played by the completely dissimilar HMS ''Sheffield'' instead of simply having INS ''Delhi'' portray both ships (though this would've required splicing together any scenes in which both cruisers were on screen simultaneously). And HMS ''Exeter'' was in an even bigger mismatch played by HMS ''Jamaica'', meaning that in the film "''Ajax''" was '''larger''' than "''Exeter''", when the opposite was true of the real ships. ''Cumberland'' actually would've been ideal for portraying her near-sister ''Exeter'' since removing one of her turrets (as mentioned above) actually made her look extremely similar to ''Exeter''.
* ''Film/{{U571}}'' wasn't much more accurate in its ship displays than its accuracy to historical events. One of the more glaring errors is how roomy the captured U-Boat is. Compare this to ''Film/DasBoot'' in which even the officers having dinner are required to stand up and stuff themselves into a corner whenever someone needs to get through.
* Mostly averted in ''Film/DasBoot'' which in fact is praised for its realism of portraying how would be to live in a WWII Uboat. However, there're a few errors, most notably the film taking place in December 1941, when things were going much better for the ''Kriegsmarine'' than later in the war (1943 onwards).
* Avoided entirely in ''Film/TheCaineMutiny'', which replaced the novel's four-piper destroyer-minesweeper conversion with a ''Gleaves''-class conversion. The only problem is that this leaves a few comments about the ''Caine'' being a rusty old tub sounding slightly odd, since she would've been less than five years old during the Pacific campaign.
* And sometimes, you just can't win: the production crew of the John Wayne/Kirk Douglas film ''In Harm's Way'' went to a lot of trouble to avoid this by using models for the battle scenes, but sadly they [[SpecialEffectsFailure only sailed straight into another trope]].

* ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober'':
** Although the frigate ''Reuben James'' was being played by the RealLife ''Reuben James'' (FFG-57), the latter wasn't commissioned until two years after the film's setting. Possibly, however, a ShoutOut to ''Literature/RedStormRising'', which had ''Perry''-class "figs" in service in 1984.
** During one scene a torpedo is dropped by a helicopter on a submarine, but then remotely detonated by the helicopter's mothership prior to impact in order to fake the destruction of the sub. This is in reality impossible. The torpedo depicted in the movie is a US Mk 46, and once you have put one in the water--assuming it's working correctly--it will search for and then chase after its target until it either detonates or runs out of fuel. This would have been TruthInTelevision if a submarine had launched the torpedo, as most submarines could launch torpedoes connected to control wires which would led operators basically control it by remote control to a certain degree, which would give it the advantage of being able to ignore decoys or other countermeasures, though the torpedo guidance system itself is still what is used to steer it towards it's target[[labelnote:*]]In other movies featuring torpedo combat, whenever you see a ship immediately fire back after a torpedo has been launched at it, it is in part to force the other ship to cut it's wires prematurely, making the torpedo do the work itself where it can be more easily dodged or countered.[[/labelnote]]. But no platform, even today, has the ability to remote detonate a torpedo wirelessly.
** The film portrays the caterpillar drive as making the submarine ultra-quiet because the propeller isn't moving. In reality a nuclear submarine's biggest noise source are the cooling pumps on the reactor. In real life a diesel-electric sub is far quieter, with the tradeoff being a reduced underwater operating duration.
** The climax of the film involves members of the USS ''Dallas'' transferring over to the ''Red October'', then successfully crewing it during an attack from a Soviet submarine. All this in spite of the fact that the crew is operating a sub on which they've never seen before, have no training on, the language is completely foreign and even the measurements (metric vs. imperial) are different. Even Jonesy replaces the ''Red October''[='s=] sonar operator, who is ''standing right next to him'', even though the latter should be more familiar with the equipment--though it's given a bit of a {{handwave}} when Captain Mancuso is overheard asking one of Ramius's officers if he speaks English and then to come over and help him.
* Although much of it was filmed aboard the actual USS ''Nimitz'', with the participation of many of that carrier's crew, the scene in ''Film/TheFinalCountdown'' that showed the carrier sailing into Pearl Harbor, in the present, showed USS ''Kitty Hawk'', as at the time the movie was filmed, the ''Nimitz'' was part of the Atlantic fleet. On the plus side, funnel aside the ''Kitty Hawk'' and ''Nimitz'' classes are fairly close in silhouette and flight deck layout.

* ''Film/MegaSharkVsGiantOctopus''. StockFootage of an ''Iowa''-class battleship is identified as a destroyer. The rest of the movie is equally ridiculous. The title does, after all, give a good indication of [[BMovie what type of movie it is]].
* Most of the ships in the Kamikaze movie ''For Those we Love'' only exist in the FX computers. However there are a number of action and beauty shots of what is recognizably an American Destroyer Escort. Much of the filming was in the Philippines and apparently the crew were able to use the Philippine flagship BRP ''Rajah Humabon'' (Ex ''Cannon''-class, USS ''Atherton'', later Naval SDF ''Hatsuhi''). Even better, it still carries its WWII-era 3 inch, 40mm, and 20mm mounts. The only jarring part is the lack of deck clutter near the stern (the depth charges are long gone).

* ''Film/UnderSiege'':
** The main guns of USS ''Missouri'' are loaded and fired by a crew of maybe 10 sailors who were not specialist artillerymen. It took 47 highly trained men for ''each'' gun's machinery (charge hoists, shell hoists, gun laying, firing) during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.
** The 16 inch gun fires at a distant target as small as a surfaced submarine ''in the night'', supposedly under turret-rangefinder control. The sub would be nearly-invisible in RealLife, to score a hit in wartime conditions it needed complex calculations using data from radar plotting, main rangefinder plotting, a specific charge for the gun and so on. This assuming the gun can depress enough to fire at such a close target. Effects of the gun firing are downplayed as well, in RealLife the muzzle flame of a capital ship gun was at least 20 yards long and the water splash nearly the size of a 10 story building. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_(BB-61)#/media/File:Uss_iowa_bb-61_pr.jpg Here]] is an overhead view of the USS Iowa firing a broadside for comparison.
** RealLife space inside turret was far [[http://photos.travellerspoint.com/559338/P1120435.jpg more]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Iowa_turret_explosion#/media/File:USS_Iowa_(BB-61)_projectile_hoisted_to_spanning_tray.jpg cramped]].
* ''PT-109''. Since there were no surviving examples when the film was made in 1963 the PT boats in the movie were actually 88 foot Air/Sea rescue boats heavily modified to resemble wartime 80 foot Elcos.
* ''Film/TheyWereExpendable'', the fictionalized story of MTB Squadron 3 in the Philippines at the start of the war. MTB Squadron 3's boats were PT-20 class 77 foot Elcos, but were portrayed in the movie by PT-103 class 80 foot Elcos and 78-Foot Huckins boats. The 80-footers were same class boats as JFK's PT-109 mentioned above.

* In the 1982 Australian/Taiwanese movie ''Attack Force Z'', the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII commando unit is deployed from an Oberon-class submarine. You don't have to be a naval buff to notice this either, given the straight sail and lack of a deck gun on the UsefulNotes/ColdWar-era sub.
** The Taiwanese navy actually had (and has) a number of WWII-era submarines in service at the time. Unfortunately, they were heavily-modified GUPPY boats, and it's likely the filmmakers simply couldn't get permission from the Taiwanese government.
* Any submarine that flipped upside down, as depicted in ''Film/TheNavigator'', would not right itself but would go straight to the bottom, guaranteed.
* The climax of ''Film/DownPeriscope'' involves the USS ''Stingray'', a recommissioned UsefulNotes/WorldWarII-era diesel sub, attempting to make a suicide run at Naval Station Norfolk as part of a war game, while being chased by the USS ''Orlando'' (a ''Los Angeles''-class nuclear sub). With their stealth gone, Lieutenant Commander Dodge orders the ''Stingray'' to surface and gun the engines. Rear Admiral Graham, in temporary command of the ''Orlando'', orders his sub to surface as well in order to get close (using StockFootage from ''Film/TheHuntForRedOctober''). The problem with this is that, while it makes perfect sense for a WWII diesel sub to surface to move faster, it makes ''no'' sense for a modern nuclear sub to do the same[[note]] WWII submarines were basically surface ships with the ability to dive underwater for short periods of time, this is why the bow of the ship comes to a point, it maximizes surface speed while actually slowing the ship underwater. Modern submarines are designed to remain underwater for prolonged periods, so they have 'teardrop hulls' which accomplish to exact opposite, faster underwater speed but reduced surface speed [[/note]], since this actually ''reduces'' the ''Orlando'''s speed. The ''Orlando'' should've stayed at periscope depth in order to maximize her speed.

* ''Film/ToraToraTora'' partly averted this trope, by constructing an accurate full-scale mockup of the main deck and superstructure of the battleship ''Nagato'', and another of the rear main deck and after turrets of the USS ''Arizona'' (doubling in some scenes as the ''Nevada''). However, the carrier ''Enterprise'' was played by the USS ''Yorktown'', a later, larger carrier which had been rebuilt in the 1950s with an angled flight deck and other modifications for operating jet aircraft. Moreover, the actual destroyer ''Ward'' was an old four-piper from 1918, nothing at all like the 1943 Edsall-class DE that portrayed her.

** Apparently a museum ship can be brought up to fighting condition in under a few hours, complete with fuel and ammunition. The USS ''Iowa'' took ''two years'' to recommission in the 1980's. And any ammunition left on a museum ship would have been rendered inert before being put on board.

* The inaccuracies in the narrator's story are PlayedForLaughs in the Irish folk song ''The Irish Rover''. According to the narrator's account, the titular ship had ''27 masts'' (the sailing ship with the most masts in recorded history had only ''seven'') and an absurdly large cargo capacity for a ship which set sail "in the year of our lord eighteen-hundred and six". Conveniently, of course, by the end of the song the ship has sunk and the singer is [[SoleSurvivor the only member of the crew left alive]] (even the captain's dog died) so no one can contradict his account.

* The prologue of the ''LightNovel/HeavyObject'' anime depicts a ballistic missile submarine (possibly meant to be an American ''Ohio''-class) launching a nuclear missile at the first Object in a vain attempt to destroy it. Problem being that the submarine is doing this ''while surfaced'': no sane boomer captain is going to launch from the surface if he can help it, and the first successful test of a submerged launch was done in ''1960''.