No, it was based on a brig that was a boys school, they would learn Gen Ed and how to sail. The captain and officers of the ship were also teachers, one was the captains wife. Well they sailed through the caribbean and down passed the equator and on the way back home, they hit a huge storm and a White Squall, which is I guess a giant wall of water, and the ship sank along with a few students and the captains wife, there was a trial and stuff. Great Movie, kind of a tear jerker.