Goofs

When the Spanish prisoners break into the captains cabin, Captain Sawyer and Midshipman Wellard are standing behind the table, with Wellard to the Captains left. After they are shot, the scene showing them laying on the deck, now has Wellard to the Captains right.

After Wellard dies he is clearly still breathing.

A New Drop-style trapdoor gallows is seen being set up and tested. Trapdoor gallows were first used in 1813, roughly ten years after the story's setting.

In 1802, when Hornblower's trial is set, Commodore Edward Pellew was nowhere near Jamacia, having just completed a lengthy assignment with the British Channel Fleet and preparing to embark on a career in Parliament. Thus, he would not have been at Hornblower's trial in the West Indies, and in fact had hardly ever visited that part of the world at any time during his lengthy naval career.