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The novel opens in April 1800. Jack Aubrey, a shipless lieutenant wasting away in the Royal Navy port of Mahon in Minorca, meets Stephen Maturin, a destitute Irish-Catalan physician and natural philosopher, at a concert at the Governor's Mansion. During the performance, Maturin elbows Aubrey who is beating the measure "half a beat ahead". The men, both at personal low points, treat the matter as one of honour; they exchange names and anticipate a duel. Later that evening, Aubrey learns that he has been promoted to the rank of commander and has been given command of the 14-gun HM Sloop Sophie. Meeting Maturin in the street the next day, Aubrey's joy overcomes his animosity and he invites Maturin to dine. The men discover a shared love of music, Aubrey playing the violin and Maturin the cello. On learning Maturin's profession, Aubrey asks him to join his ship. Although as a physician Maturin's expertise goes far beyond that normally expected of a naval surgeon, he agrees. Sophie is sent to accompany a small convoy of merchant ships in the Mediterranean. Aubrey takes the opportunity to get to know his sailors and work them into a fighting unit with the aid of his new first lieutenant, James Dillon, a wealthy and aristocratic Irishman. Dillon and Maturin recognize each other, having previously met (a fact they keep to themselves) as members of the United Irishmen, a society dedicated to Irish home rule and Catholic emancipation. Dillon suffers a crisis of conscience when ordered to intercept an American ship thought to be harbouring Irish rebels, and he works to help them avoid capture. Maturin, who has never been aboard a man-of-war, struggles to understand nautical customs, and the crew explain to him (and to the reader) naval terminology and the official practice whereby prize money can be awarded for captured enemy vessels. Maturin is treated by the crew as a landsman, though without offence. As a natural philosopher he relishes the opportunity to study rare birds and fish. His convoy duties complete, Aubrey is permitted by Admiral Lord Keith to cruise the Mediterranean independently, looking to capture French and Spanish merchant vessels, at which he is very successful, taking many prizes. Sophie meets and defeats the much larger and better-armed Cacafuego, a Spanish 32-gun xebec-frigate, though a number of the crew, including Dillon, die in the bloody action. A victory against such odds would normally bring official recognition, promotion, and significant prize money, but unfortunately for Aubrey his superior at Mahon is Captain Harte, with whose wife Aubrey has been having an affair. Harte ensures that Aubrey receives none of those things, though he cannot prevent Aubrey gaining a reputation within the Royal Navy as one of its great, young fighting captains. On escort duty, Sophie is captured by a squadron of four large French warships, and the crew is taken prisoner. The French Captain Christy-Pallière is courteous; he feeds Aubrey well and tells him of his own cousins in Bath. During the crew's confinement, the French are attacked by a British squadron in what becomes the First Battle of Algeciras. Several days later the officers are paroled to Gibraltar from where they are able to witness from afar the second battle. Aubrey faces a court-martial for the loss of his ship and is acquitted. With the Peace of Amiens, Jack Aubrey returns to England and rents a house with Stephen Maturin, with shipmates running the household, and the friends spending their time fox hunting. They meet the Williams family, who live on a neighboring estate. Aubrey courts Sophia Williams, the eldest of three daughters, while Maturin pursues Diana Villiers, Sophia's cousin. Jack wants to marry Sophia, but they delay making a firm engagement. His fortune disappears when his prize-agent absconds with his funds and the prize court finds that two merchant ships he had captured were owned by neutral nations. The court demands he repay the value of the ships (rather than gain the prize money he expected), a sum beyond his means. Mrs Williams takes her daughters away to Bath on this news. Jack also dallies with Diana, straining his friendship with Stephen and showing himself indecisive on land, in contrast to his decisive ways at sea. Aubrey and Maturin flee England to avoid Aubrey being taken for debt. In Toulon to visit Christy Pallière, the French captain who had captured Aubrey's first command Sophie before the peace, they learn that a renewal of the war is imminent. French authorities round up all English subjects. Jack and Stephen escape over the Pyrenees to Stephen's property in Catalonia, with Stephen disguised as an itinerant bear trainer and Jack as the bear, Flora. They reach Gibraltar, where Jack and Stephen take passage aboard a merchant ship of the British East India Company, the Lord Nelson. The ship is captured by the French privateer Bellone, but a British squadron overtakes them and rescues Aubrey, Maturin, and the other passengers. In England, Jack is offered a letter of marque by Mr Canning, a wealthy Jewish merchant. At the same gathering at Queeney's, Mrs Williams and her daughter Cecilia are among the guests. Unaware Jack would be there, Sophia had stayed home with her sister Frances. Mrs Williams learns of Stephen's castle in Spain and his training as a physician, raising his status in her eyes. An inadequate thief approaches Jack as he walks outdoors; this Mr Scriven proves to be a useful friend, knowing the law of debt and where Jack can be safe from bailiffs. Aubrey and Maturin move to The Grapes, safe in the Liberty of the Savoy. Offered command of HMS Polychrest, Jack turns Canning down. Polychrest is an oddly designed ship that was purpose-built as an experimental weapon, though the project is now abandoned and the Admiralty has tried to refit her for ordinary service. She is structurally weak and sails poorly, and the first lieutenant, Parker, is liberal with his punishments of the crew. Jack asks that Tom Pullings be promoted to lieutenant. Jack is given a free hand by Admiral Harte, who stands to benefit personally from any prizes taken. To Harte's disappointment, Jack captures no prizes. When he drives the French privateer Bellone aground outside a Spanish port, the merchants reward him. Harte then assigns Jack to escort convoys in the English Channel. Jack gains a reputation for lingering in port as he carries on a furtive affair with Diana. Meanwhile, Stephen is sent on an intelligence-gathering mission in Spain. On his return, Stephen is advised by Jack's friend Heneage Dundas to warn Jack about his reputation with the Admiralty. When Stephen does so, Jack gets angry, their competition over Diana is acknowledged, and the two agree to fight a duel. Jack calls on Diana, but finds her with Canning, ending Jack's interest in her. Jack is ordered to raid the French port of Chaulieu to sink the French troopships and gunboats gathered there and to destroy the Fanciulla. The crew plans to mutiny because of their harsh treatment under Parker, but Stephen overhears their plans and warns Jack. Jack rues his angry words with Stephen, and then quashes the mutiny by putting the instigators and some loyal crew in a ship's boat and quickly beginning the attack. During the engagement, Polychrest runs aground between two enemy batteries. Jack leads three of the ship's boats to board and capture Fanciulla. The successful party then attempts to refloat Polychrest, which founders after leaving Chaulieu, and the crew transfer to Fanciulla. After the battle, Stephen and Jack, who has been seriously wounded in the battle, resume their friendship. Aubrey returns to England in Fanciulla and is promoted to post-captain. With debt still hanging over him, he asks for any available command. He is assigned as acting captain for HMS Lively, whose Captain Hamond has taken leave to sit in Parliament. Returning from Spain, Maturin tells the head of naval intelligence, Sir Joseph Blaine, that the Spanish will formally enter the war in alliance with France as soon as four ships full of bullion from Montevideo arrive safely in Cadiz. At Stephen's urging, Sophia asks Jack to transport her and her sister to the Downs. Though Jack is too poor to propose a marriage settlement satisfactory to Mrs Williams, Jack and Sophia come to an agreement not to marry anyone else. Stephen is close friends with Sophia but does not take her advice to propose to Diana. While attending the opera, he sees that Diana is being kept by Canning, and his pain is deep. Maturin takes no pay for his intelligence work but does ask a favour: that Lively be included in the squadron sent to intercept the Spanish treasure fleet. The Admiralty agrees and asks Stephen to negotiate the fleet's surrender. Stephen is given a temporary naval rank; because of this and his connection to the Admiralty, Jack realizes that Stephen has been involved in intelligence work for Britain. Jack understands that there is a side of his friend that he did not know. The Spanish convoy refuses to surrender, and battle breaks out. One Spanish frigate (the Mercedes) explodes, and the other three (Fama, Clara, and Medea) surrender. Clara strikes her colours to Lively, pleasing Jack, but Fama, carrying the bulk of the Spanish treasure, attempts to escape to Cadiz; Lively pursues and captures her. Jack invites two of the Spanish captains to dinner, along with Dr Maturin, and they all toast Sophia. Shortly after the events of Post Captain, the Admiralty debates the prize money to be awarded to Aubrey and the other captains of the convoy involved in the recent action off the coast of Portugal, in which several Spanish treasure ships were intercepted carrying the price of Spain's entry into the war on the side of France. On the quibble that Spain had not yet formally entered the war, the new First Lord of the Admiralty decides the vast sum is a "Droit of the Admiralty" and thus is not to be shared out with the captors. Jack is disheartened to hear that his reward will be much less than he and Sophia had expected. The First Lord also makes a blunder by mentioning the name of intelligence agent Stephen Maturin during the proceedings, putting Maturin at risk. Unconcerned, Stephen goes on a mission to Minorca and arranges for Jack, still acting commander of HMS Lively and now on blockade duty near Toulon, to pick him up at Port Mahon. Lively pursues and burns a French supply ship, from which Jack gains valuable loot: a gunboat and a French signal book. When Stephen fails to show up at the rendezvous point, Jack learns from a Catalan revolutionary that his friend has been captured by French intelligence and is being held in Port Mahon in the former home of Admiral Harte, which Jack knows well. Jack and a rescue party use the captured gunboat and the French signals to slip into port unmolested. They storm the house and rescue Stephen, who has been brutally tortured, and kill most of the French interrogators. Back in England, Stephen tries to recover his strength and the use of his flayed hands. Jack is taken by bailiffs and held in a sponging-house until he can pay off his debts. His marriage to Sophia Williams is deferred, as her mother insists that he be debt-free. Sir Joseph Blaine visits Stephen, who tells him of his capture and Aubrey's predicament, requesting that Jack be advanced his pending reward and released. Blaine promises to help, and also gives Aubrey command of a new ship, HMS Surprise. Before he embarks, Jack meets Sophia in a coach in the middle of the night, and they promise to marry no one else. Aubrey and Maturin depart in the Surprise with orders to ferry an ambassador, Mr Stanhope, to the Sultan of Kampong on the Malay Peninsula. Stanhope almost immediately takes to his cabin with seasickness. Surprise is caught in the doldrums north of the equator, and the crew begins to show signs of scurvy. Stephen insists that they touch on the coast of Brazil to obtain fresh fruits. On a very hot Sunday, the doctor requests a boat for a quick visit to St. Paul's Rock, and Second Lieutenant Nicolls agrees to row him out. The rocky islet and the nearby Surprise are suddenly struck by intense squalls; Nicolls drowns and Stephen survives for two days on bird-fouled water and the blood of the resident boobies. A badly damaged Surprise recovers Stephen, who remarks that the days under the hot sun have restored his health after the torture. The ship then stops in Brazil for repairs. This is Stephen's first time in the New World, so he explores the jungle and returns with a sloth, which Jack introduces to alcohol. They also put in at Rio for mail, where Jack learns that Admiral Linois, who once took him prisoner, is patrolling the Indian Ocean at the head of a French squadron. Refitted and repainted, Surprise maintains a cautious distance while rounding the Cape of Good Hope, held by the Dutch who are allied with Napoleon. Nearing the waters of the Antarctic Ocean, Surprise endures a severe storm, and Stanhope becomes very ill. They put into Bombay in British India to refit after the storms and rest the ambassador. Stephen meets a local street child, a girl named Dil, who eagerly shows him around the city. He is watching a parade with Dil when he sees Diana Villiers, who has returned to Bombay ahead of her companion, the wealthy merchant Richard Canning. Stephen and Diana agree to visit, and spend several days together, at the end of which Stephen asks her to marry him. Diana does not give an answer but promises she will when Surprise stops in Calcutta. Stephen later finds Dil dead and her body looted of the valuables he had given her; he supervises her cremation on the shore. Soon after the voyage resumes Stanhope becomes ill again. His condition grows more serious with each passing day, and before reaching the Sunda Strait they are compelled to find solid ground to help him recover. Pullings recommends a tiny beach surrounded by jungle, and they hastily bring the ambassador to it, where he dies a few hours later. Their mission now void, Surprise sets sail for home. They encounter the East India Company's China Fleet, returning to England unescorted. A day after departing the fleet, Surprise spots Linois's squadron in the Indian Ocean. Surprise engages its smallest ship, the corvette Berceau, shredding her rigging; Jack bluffs by signaling to imaginary reinforcements beyond the horizon. Surprise pretends to be badly damaged while speeding back to the China Fleet to warn them and organise a defence. Though some of the merchant captains want to flee before Linois arrives, Jack convinces them that the only way out of the situation is to fight. The largest ships of the China Fleet are disguised as men-of-war and Jack distributes some of his officers to help them during the battle. As the French squadron closes on the Indiamen, Surprise engages Linois's warship, the Marengo; she is outgunned and in peril when one of the Indiamen suddenly engages the French ship from the other side, forcing Marengo to disengage. Damage forces Linois to abandon the chase in order to refit. Ashore in Calcutta, Aubrey receives an enthusiastic welcome from the merchants, including Canning, who are happy to pay for Surprise's repairs. As a personal reward, Canning offers Jack the opportunity to transport a chest of jewels as freight, which will earn him a portion of the cargo's value upon his arrival in England. Knowing the money will be enough to clear the last of his debts so he can marry Sophia, he immediately writes to her, asking her to meet him in Madeira. During the refit, Stephen asks Diana for her answer to his marriage proposal, but Canning suddenly appears. In a fit of jealousy he slaps Stephen, who responds by challenging him to a duel. Canning's shot hits Stephen in the ribs, but Stephen's hits Canning in the heart, killing him. Stephen convinces Diana to return to England on a merchant ship that will leave immediately rather than tend to him as he recovers aboard the Surprise. With the help of Aubrey, M'Alister, and a mirror, Stephen stoically operates on himself, removing the bullet lodged beneath his rib. Jack tends to his friend during the worst of his fever. In his delirium the usually private Stephen voices many of his thoughts and secrets. Arriving at Madeira, Jack is dismayed to learn that Sophia is not there; Stephen finds a note from Diana returning the ring he gave her and explaining that she has travelled to America with a wealthy man named Johnstone, whom she has agreed to marry. Stephen is devastated. Within a day's sailing, Jack overtakes the frigate HMS Ethalion under his loyal friend Heneage Dundas and finds that Sophia is aboard. Jack wants to get married immediately, but Sophia insists they do it properly, when they return to England. Four years after the events of HMS Surprise, Jack Aubrey and Sophia Williams are married and the parents of twin girls. They live at Ashgrove Cottage on his half-pay, which is not enough to support fellow navy men in the household. Sophia's mother has lost her money, including Sophia's portion, and now lives with them, along with Sophia's niece Cecelia. When Stephen Maturin comes to call, Jack admits to him that as much as he loves his family he is eager to return to sea again. Stephen mentions that he has recommended Jack to lead a new secret commission being planned by the Admiralty. Moments later, a courier delivers Aubrey's orders from the port Admiral. Jack is given command of the 38-gun frigate HMS Boadicea and requested to depart immediately for Plymouth, where he picks up Mr R T Farquhar, a diplomat, and receives further orders to sail to the British station at Cape Town, where the ships of a convoy destined for the Indian Ocean will meet. Not long after embarking, they meet the French ship Hébé escorting a captured merchant ship. The Boadicea captures both ships and Jack sends the prizes to Gibraltar. The timely capture gives Boadicea the opportunity to send letters home, and the ship gains a French cook and the Hébé's English prisoners, all able seamen. The long journey south through the Atlantic gives Jack time to bring the crew of the Boadicea up to his standards of efficiency in gunnery and gives Maturin and Farquhar time to develop their political strategies. At Cape Town, Aubrey meets Admiral Bertie, who confirms Aubrey's elevation to Commodore and authorises him to hoist his broad pendant ('broad pennant' in some editions) as commander of a small fleet with formal orders to disrupt French interests in the Indian Ocean and ultimately to capture the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. British stations in the region are short of ships and men, leaving the expedition poorly matched against the local French forces. Jack's subordinate captains include Lord Clonfert of the Otter, an insecure Englishman with an Irish title; Captain Corbett of the Néréide, whose reputation for excessive flogging has left his ship severely undermanned; and Captain Pym of the Sirius. Jack learns that his loyal coxswain Bonden and steward Killick sailed from the West Indies under Corbett, so he trades men with Néréide to bring them aboard Boadicea. Bertie advises Aubrey that none of his captains are on good terms with each other. For the first 2,000 miles of the voyage to the islands, Jack switches his pendant to the elderly 64-gun ship of the line HMS Raisonnable. The Caroline is taken and renamed HMS Bourbonnaise, and Corbett sails her with despatches to Cape Town and England. The rest of the convoy returns to Cape Town. Jack shifts back to Boadicea and sails again upon hearing that more merchant ships have been taken by the French. The convoy is caught in a major tropical cyclone, whence it sails back to Cape Town for repairs, receiving the first mail in many months; Sophia's letters are water-damaged and Jack tries to make sense of them. Aubrey organizes an attack on La Réunion with help from the active and decisive Lieutenant Colonel Harry Keating and his army regulars stationed on Rodrigues. La Réunion capitulates almost without loss after simultaneous landings by army troops and sepoys from the British East India Company on both sides of the island. The occupation is made easier by Stephen's propaganda and political meetings, which help to convince many of the disaffected locals to accept British rule and Farquhar as interim Governor. Mauritius proves more challenging. Stephen is seriously injured in an accident boarding Néréide, now under Lord Clonfert, which is part of the force sent to capture the strategic Île de la Passe off the island's southeast coast. While recuperating, Stephen and the ship's doctor, McAdam, attempt to diagnose Clonfert, whose self-consciousness and perceived rivalry with Commodore Aubrey has greatly affected his behavior. The capture of the fortress on Île de la Passe is successful and Stephen is put down on Mauritius to continue his work. A small group of transports under the command of Captain Pym puts soldiers on Mauritius to garrison the fortress. The French fleet then appears with three frigates, Bellone, Minerve, and Victor, and two captured Indiamen, Ceylon and Windham. They boldly attack the fort and then sail into the channel leading to Port South East; the British ships are caught unprepared but decide to attack. The battle rages for days with heavy casualties, and in the end two British ships, Sirius and Magicienne, run aground in the shallow channel and cannot be heaved off, so are burnt to prevent their capture; Iphigenia and the fort at Île de la Passe are abandoned to be retaken by the French. Néréide is also captured and Clonfert is gravely wounded in the neck and head by a splinter. A messenger vessel, with Maturin aboard, reaches La Réunion to inform Aubrey of the losses and the failed attack on Port South East. Boadicea sails through the night to Île de la Passe only to find it under French control, then chases Manche and Vénus in a vain attempt to separate them. After contacting Tom Pullings, who has moved the guns of Windham aboard Emma, Jack believes his fortunes have changed. Captain Corbett re-joins at Saint Denis in command of HMS Africaine. Chasing the French during the night, Africaine clashes with the Astrée and the captured Iphigenia. The encounter goes badly and Corbett is mortally wounded during the fight, possibly by his own oppressed men. The French capture the Africaine, but leave it dismasted when the Boadicea bears down on them; Astrée refuses an engagement. Joined by the Otter and Staunch, the flotilla returns to La Réunion where the Commodore hastens to refit Africaine. Maturin and Bonden return from Mauritius with news that HMS Bombay is nearby, in a running fight with both the French Vénus and Victor. The Boadicea engages the French ships, with Jack making use of eager volunteers from the Africaine to board and capture Bombay and Vénus. During the encounter the French Commodore, Hamelin, is killed. While waiting for repairs, Aubrey and Keating devise a plan to finish the battle with the remaining French frigates. Suddenly the Emma signals the Boadicea that many other British sails are on the horizon, and Jack realizes Admiral Bertie has arrived to supersede his command. Tom Pullings comes aboard with a copy of the Naval Gazette announcing the birth of a son to Sophia; Jack is ecstatic at the news. He then opens Bertie's letter ordering him to join the fleet at Rodrigues, where he will command HMS Illustrious, and the Army led by General Abercrombie. Jack is disappointed that he will no longer have the honor of leading the fleet, but accepts the orders with magnanimity, to Bertie's surprise. The final invasion of Mauritius, based on Aubrey and Keating's original plan, is an overwhelming victory, and the French surrender after being given honourable terms. Stephen learns from McAdam that Clonfert, at the military hospital in Port Louis, has committed suicide by removing his bandages, unable to face Jack Aubrey. Stephen asks McAdam's advice on how to overcome his own recent disaffection and apathy, and McAdam insists that only romantic relationships seem to consistently remedy such maladies. A ceremonial dinner is given at Government House on Mauritius. Stephen implies in conversation with Mr Peter that Jack's father, General Aubrey, is soon to have significant influence with the Admiralty in London, which rumours are believed by Bertie. The Admiral gives Jack the great honour of returning to England carrying the news of the British victory. |
section 2; england, pacific, usa, europe
editDesolation Island ; england, then australia
editHaving recovered financially in The Mauritius Command, Captain Jack Aubrey is expanding his home and has paid off his mother-in-law's debts, and his wife is no longer pinching pennies. His household is staffed with seamen, and his twin daughters and infant son are thriving. Despite his comfortable pay while serving in the Fencibles office, he is still frittering away his fortune with foolish business endeavours, and Stephen Maturin suggests that Jack's tendency to assume honesty in others is getting him cheated at cards. Stephen learns that Diana Villiers has returned from America, unmarried, but when he calls upon her he only finds a letter explaining that her young American friend Louisa Wogan has been apprehended by British authorities and questioned as a spy. Though Diana herself is innocent of the espionage charges, she has been forced to flee England suddenly, so Stephen pays her bills. Arrangements are made to transport Mrs Wogan to a penal colony in New South Wales.
Meanwhile, the governor in New South Wales, Captain Bligh of Bounty infamy, has been deposed in a feud with the local settlers. Jack is offered command of the old HMS Leopard for a mission to Australia to restore Bligh, which he accepts to escape his woes on land. Sir Joseph Blaine explains to Stephen that Mrs Wogan will be carried aboard the Leopard as a prisoner, along with two dozen other convicts to disguise the nature of the charges against her. Jack is furious at having to carry prisoners. Partly to prevent Stephen's laudanum addiction from compromising his work, Blaine assigns Maturin to the voyage to watch Wogan, hoping that by doing so he may uncover American secrets.
Shortly after embarking, the prisoners kill their superintendent and surgeon during a storm, and Stephen discovers the squalor of their captivity in the orlop. Jack orders their conditions be improved to meet naval standards but an outbreak of gaol fever nonetheless spreads from the convicts to the seamen, killing most of the male prisoners and 116 of the ship's crew and leaving the Leopard severely undermanned. Stephen's assistant Mr Martin dies, and is replaced by Michael Herapath, who has stowed away in pursuit of his lover, Mrs Wogan. Jack rates Herapath a midshipman despite his American citizenship. The ship is forced to leave many recovering crew members at Recife, including Tom Pullings. He is replaced with James Grant as first lieutenant, who proves a challenge for Captain Aubrey. While they are in port, HMS Nymph arrives damaged from an encounter with the Waakzaamheid, a Dutch 74-gun ship-of-the-line, while crossing the Equator. Stephen fabricates a story that Mr Martin was a French agent in a letter that he deliberately leaves for Herapath and Wogan to read and copy, hoping the false information will confuse French and American intelligence.
The Leopard encounters the Dutch ship before reaching the Cape of Good Hope, but Jack cannot risk a confrontation with the much larger and fully manned Waakzaamheid. He repels a boarding party with grapeshot during the night and nearly escapes his pursuer, but the Dutch captain eerily predicts Jack's every move and blocks his route to the Cape. The Dutchman chases them south into the Roaring Forties for five days, where the waves and wind increase, and the ships finally engage in dangerously high seas. Casks of fresh water are jettisoned from the Leopard to lighten her. After a long exchange of fire Jack is struck in the head by a large splinter and knocked senseless. With the Waakzaamheid gaining on her, a lucky shot from the Leopard strikes her foremast, causing it to fall into the sea. Without its driving force the Waakzaamheid yaws onto her beam-ends in the trough of a deep wave and is overwhelmed by the next, sinking with all hands.
Now east of the Cape, the Leopard aims for New South Wales. Jack orders the crew to collect ice from icebergs to replace their fresh water stores, but the ship strikes an iceberg stern-on, damaging the rudder and causing a severe leak. Desperate to save the ship, all hands work the pumps continuously for days and rush to fother a sail to stop the leak. Though Jack has been seriously wounded in the battle, he tries to quell rumors that his mind is unsound. Believing the Leopard cannot be saved, Grant challenges Jack's fitness for command, requesting permission to take the Leopard's boats and the men who wish to leave and head for the Cape, which Jack accepts. Only the jolly boat is left behind. Jack and the crew members loyal to him continue to drift east on the Leopard, still rudderless and pumping furiously to keep her afloat. Making adroit use of anchors and a jury-rigged rudder, Jack navigates the ship to safe harbour in a bay of the remote, uninhabited, and poorly charted Desolation Island just as a storm approaches. Despite its name, it is full of fresh food in the rainy Antarctic summer.
The crew repairs the damage to the ship's hull but cannot fashion a mounting for a replacement rudder without the use of a forge, which had been cast overboard in the desperation to lighten the ship. Jack fears they will be stranded on the island through the winter. Meanwhile, Stephen is in paradise as he and Herapath collect samples of the local plant and animal life from a small island in the bay. After a few days a whaler arrives in the bay: it is the American brig La Fayette, returning to the island to resupply with the edible cabbages growing on shore, which they need to combat scurvy. The Americans have lost their surgeon and their captain is incapacitated by a painful toothache, but they have a working forge. A delicate situation arises when the captain proves hostile to the Royal Navy; sentiment aboard the American ship is strongly against the English, reflecting American–British tensions stemming from an 1807 incident involving the Leopard and the USS Chesapeake, the continued impressment of Americans into the Royal Navy, and the awareness that the two nations might already be at war. Sensitive to these issues, Jack asks Stephen's advice, who suggests using Herapath as an envoy to Captain Putnam. Stephen follows, and the pair provides medical care to all aboard. Putnam offers to pay but Stephen will not accept payment.
The next morning the forge is on the beach for the Leopard's use. Stephen advises Jack to resist any desire to press the British deserters serving aboard the whaler. Knowing that American citizens cannot be removed from an American ship without causing a diplomatic incident, Stephen sees a perfect way to speed his plan to use Mrs Wogan to undermine French intelligence, by deliberately letting her and Herapath escape aboard the whaler carrying a packet of falsified information. Wogan is now pregnant with Herapath's child. Stephen gives them the opportunity to escape by suggesting that Herapath should perform the last health check on the American ship before it departs. The forge is returned and the La Fayette sails on the evening tide. While Jack is distracted by the ceremony of setting the new rudder in place, Stephen and Barret Bonden watch from a distance as Herapath and Wogan slip away in the night to board the whaler.
The Fortune of War ; boston
editThe novel begins immediately following the events of Desolation Island. HMS Leopard, her rudder now remounted, sails from Desolation Island to Port Jackson, New South Wales, where she drops off her few prisoners. Captain Bligh has already been handled, so she proceeds to the Dutch East Indies station and Admiral Drury at Pulo Batang. Drury relates that Jack Aubrey and his Leopards have been feared dead since the arrival of Grant's party at Cape Town, who had previously abandoned Aubrey and the sinking Leopard in the Southern Ocean. The badly damaged Leopard is declared unfit for guns due to wood rot and is destined to serve as a troop transport. Jack and several of his followers, including Stephen Maturin, are given passage aboard the courier ship La Flèche in order to travel to England, where Jack's next command, Acasta, awaits him. The rest of the crew is left with Admiral Drury. Stephen learns from Wallis the overwhelming success of his scheme to damage French intelligence sources, and relays the name of a probable spy in the Royal Navy who had been mentioned by Louisa Wogan. Jack and Stephen join a game of cricket, but it ends abruptly with the arrival of Captain Yorke and La Flèche, which also brings mail to them. Yorke had visited Sophia Aubrey before leaving England, bringing Jack a personal letter and gifts from her. Jack is moved upon hearing of his wife's refusal to believe the rumors of his death.
Though Stephen is greatly concerned with salvaging the numerous specimens he has collected from Desolation Island and New Holland, he quickly warms to Captain Yorke, a philosophical man who travels with an extensive library and a piano in his cabin. At Simon's Town, La Flèche learns that war has at last been declared between Britain and America. The war has opened with two Royal Navy vessels captured in battles against the fledgling American Navy, which disheartens the sailors. In spite of the depressed atmosphere Jack spends this time of sweet sailing teaching the young midshipmen, while Stephen is engrossed in the dissection of his specimens alongside McLean, the ship's Scottish surgeon, though he is concerned by McLean's habitual smoking around the jars of preservative alcohol. One night in the Atlantic near Brazil a fire breaks out on board La Flèche and all abandon ship to the small boats. The survivors drift through tropical seas for a few hot weeks, some dying of thirst and sunburn, before the boat carrying Aubrey and Maturin is rescued on Christmas Eve by HMS Java, headed for Bombay and commanded by Captain Henry Lambert.
The watch sees a ship hull-up on the horizon, USS Constitution, which Java immediately pursues. Jack and others from Leopard man two guns but the fight goes badly when Java's foremast gives way. The American commander makes few mistakes and soon Java strikes its colours, yet another major defeat for the Royal Navy. Constitution takes prisoners and returns to Boston to refit, having taken part of Java for its own repair, then setting fire to her. Captain Lambert dies of his wounds ashore in Brazil. Jack has been shot in his right arm and is too ill to be put ashore. Stephen stays with his patient aboard Constitution and works with Dr. Evans, the amiable ship's surgeon. All of Maturin's collections, except what he noted in his diary by words or drawings, are lost. During the voyage Stephen talks with a French passenger, Pontet-Canet, who was picked up at San Salvador.
By the time they reach Boston, Jack is severely weakened by pneumonia and, with his prognosis grim, Stephen requests that Jack be allowed to convalesce ashore in Dr. Choate's hospital, the Asclepia, while waiting for the next prisoner exchange. Jahleel Brenton of the US Navy Department questions Jack in hospital, but Jack puts him off, realizing now why his exchange is taking so long: the Americans and their French allies suspect Jack is the agent responsible for Stephen's acts of espionage, among other war crimes. Stephen is reacquainted with both Louisa Wogan and Michael Herapath (who are still apparently ignorant of his espionage) and then meets their newborn daughter Caroline and Michael's father George. George Herapath is a wealthy merchant and Loyalist whose trade with China is interrupted by the present war, as a British fleet is blockading Boston harbour. He and Jack quickly take a liking to each other. Stephen also finally encounters his former love interest Diana Villiers, still the mistress of Harry Johnson, a wealthy American slave owner from Maryland who is active as a spy for his nation. Johnson visits Aubrey in hospital, who makes a comment about Stephen that reveals too much to the bluff spy. Stephen suddenly suspects that Johnson and the French agents, Pontet-Canet and Jean Dubreuil, have turned their attention away from Jack and towards him. He asks George Herapath to bring Jack a pair of pistols.
Jack continually watches the harbour from his room in the Asclepia. Pontet-Canet tries and fails twice to abduct Stephen in the streets of Boston. After the second attempt, during which he is nearly shot, Stephen meets Diana in the Franchon Hotel while Johnson is away with Wogan. While Stephen lays low in Johnson's hotel room, Pontet-Canet enters and Stephen clubs him from behind, killing him, then does the same to Dubreuil when he too comes looking for Johnson. Stephen discovers that Johnson had intercepted a letter to him from Diana, and realizes he is now aware of their relationship. Diana wants away from Johnson, and Stephen offers to marry her to solve her problems of citizenship. Diana agrees.
With the French agents' disappearance not likely to remain unnoticed for long, Stephen sends a note to Jack explaining his predicament and detailing a plan of escape that night. Jack beseeches the help of George Herapath, and together they quietly rescue Stephen and Diana from the hotel and hide them in one of Herapath's larger merchant ships. Eager to escape to the British blockade before dawn, Jack steals a small fishing boat and sails out on the ebb tide with Stephen and Diana aboard. They soon meet the thirty-eight gun frigate HMS Shannon as she enters the outer harbour on blockade duty, and are taken on board by Captain Philip Broke, Aubrey's cousin and childhood friend. Diana becomes nearly catatonic with seasickness. Broke writes a challenge to Captain James Lawrence, the new commander of the thirty-eight gun USS Chesapeake lying in harbour, to engage the Shannon in one-on-one combat, which alas never reaches him. Chesapeake nevertheless comes out in apparent pursuit of Aubrey, whose escape the Americans have now discovered, and engages Shannon. The battle lasts fifteen minutes, with Jack leading a gun crew, his wounded right arm bandaged to his body, while Diana recovers in the forepeak and Stephen waits below with the surgeon. Captain Broke is wounded, but Chesapeake ultimately strikes her colours to Shannon, the first significant British naval victory of the war.
The Surgeon's Mate ; europe, france
editSailing into Halifax, the victorious HMS Shannon contends with her losses in officers and crew, with particular concern for Captain Broke, who lies unconscious from head wounds. The American Captain Lawrence dies en route from the battle, and is buried at Halifax. Once in port, as prisoners of war are taken ashore and the British Navy deserters identified among them, the Shannons and her passengers, Captain Jack Aubrey, Dr Stephen Maturin, and Mrs Diana Villiers feel the full joy of the first naval victory in this war with America. Maturin communicates with Major Beck, an army counterpart in intelligence work. At the victory ball, Aubrey is pursued by Amanda Smith, known to Diana for her deceiving ways. Aubrey tires of her after a night, yet she persists. Aubrey receives his first letters from his wife Sophia since the Leopard was left in the Dutch East Indies, so long ago. Others write the report of Broke's victory, to speed the official news to England.
Captain Dalgleish on the mail packet Diligence carries the copy of the official report, and Aubrey, Maturin and Mrs Villiers as passengers. The American privateer Liberty chases Diligence on its northern route home. Diana is certain that the privateers are hired by the vengeful Johnson. The Liberty sails into ice and sinks, her crew taken aboard by her follower, and Diligence reaches the Channel in 17 days. News of the victory is well-received, while Aubrey is eager to get home. He sees his children, grown so much from when he last saw them, and his wife Sophia. Maturin visits Ireland for his uncle. He gives Johnson's private papers to Sir Joseph Blaine, asks him for Diana's release, and gets Skinner as a lawyer for Aubrey to deal with the projector. Maturin goes to Paris to present his scientific work at the Institut, taking Diana with him. He finds her a place to stay with Adhemar de la Mothe and an accoucheur as Diana is pregnant by Johnson. At the Institut presentation, Diana wears her diamonds; she dearly loves these, among them the Blue Peter, the largest of the set. After Maturin speaks, he learns of Ponsich's death near Pomerania. Maturin leaves immediately to take up this mission.
Letters from Miss Smith discomfit Aubrey. Maturin advises Aubrey that Miss Smith is lying. Maturin wants Aubrey as his captain to reach the heavily fortified Grimsholm Island in the Baltic. They are joined by Jagiello, a young and handsome Lithuanian officer with the Swedish army as a translator. Blaine tells Maturin that Ramon d’Ullastret is the leader in the fortress; in fact he is Maturin's god-father. Aubrey is offered the sloop HMS Ariel, leaving on the next tide, with no time to stop at home for his sea chest. Mr Pellworm, a Baltic pilot, is on board when Aubrey arrives at Ariel. Ariel passes Elsinore where the shore batteries fire but miss the ship. At Carlscrona, they meet with Admiral Saumarez to devise their plan. Aubrey takes the Minnie, the Dutch privateer carrying French officers to Grimsholm; Aubrey uses it to carry wine, tobacco and Maturin to Grimsholm Island. When Maturin begins speaking in Catalan, he is accepted and no lives are lost as the British take the fortified island. Admiral Saumarez welcomes Colonel d’Ullastret and is pleased with their success. The Colonel boards the Ariel, while the Catalan garrison travels in troop transports to Spain with Aeolus as escort, again navigating the narrow channels past Denmark. As they are leaving the Baltic Sea, at around Gothenburg, an Ariel crew member drops the only chronometer in heavy seas, so they sail into the North Sea and into the shallow waters of the English Channel unable to accurately chart their exact location and without the Aeolus which has taken refuge from the storm, leaving Ariel and her transport ships alone. They sail not knowing their exact location. In heavy rains, Ariel meets one French ship, the Méduse, and one British. Aubrey tells the troop transports to part, as Ariel will aid HMS Jason against the fast-sailing Méduse.
Having done some damage to Méduse, Ariel is embayed in Douarnenez Bay on the French mainland. While trying to beat their way out, a mishap causes the Ariel to strike a rock and she is washed ashore. The officers and crew are taken as prisoners of war by the French. Colonel d’Ullastret is given a Marine's uniform and a false name, and he promptly escapes. Aubrey, Maturin and Jagiello are taken to Paris with Monsieur Duhamel and lodged in the Temple. Aubrey works on a way to escape from the prison, with help from Jagiello. Maturin is questioned by competing French intelligence groups; from one he learns that Diana miscarried. Duhamel makes an offer from parties expecting the emperor's defeat. From English newspapers, Aubrey learns that HMS Ajax took Méduse, making his efforts worthwhile, and that Miss Smith is married. In another session, newly arrived Johnson identifies Maturin as the killer of two French agents, after an interrogator says someone has paid "half Golconda" for his release. Maturin agrees to go with Duhamel, who takes them out of the Temple, picks up Diana, and remarks how Aubrey's escape shaft will be the explanation for their disappearance. They board the packet ship HMS Oedipus, under William Babbington. Diana has given up the Blue Peter, a diamond from the Golconda mines, to a French minister to save Stephen, and is unaware of Stephen's escape having been procured through Duhamel. They marry on the ship, with Aubrey giving her away, and Babbington officiating.
section 3
editThe Ionian Mission ; england, turkey
editMaturin and Villiers are happily married. After a time together in their new house on Half Moon Street, Maturin settles in his rooms at The Grapes, where Diana comes often, and from which he walks to breakfast with her daily. He has missions to do, and Aubrey needs to get away from his financial problems. Aubrey gets a stint on HMS Worcester for Toulon blockade duty. Jagiello brings the Maturins to port in his own carriage, which upsets, making Stephen’s arrival rather last-minute.
While she is doing gunnery practice with gunpowder bought from a fireworks firm, Worcester encounters the French ship Jemmapes. Worcester engages immediately, not having changed to ordinary gunpowder. Jemmapes sees the bright colors as the sign of some new weapon, and sails away. Maturin is injured and returns to taking laudanum for the pain. Some of the crew practice an oratorio while the midshipmen practice Hamlet. Passengers are dropped off at Gibraltar and Port Mahon (Graham, professor of moral philosophy), though the parson Nathaniel Martin is aboard long enough for Maturin to discover their shared interest in birds, before Martin joins HMS Berwick. Worcester joins the squadron off Toulon. Babbington, master and commander, joins the squadron in the Mediterranean as captain of the Dryad. Babbington has fallen in love with Admiral Harte’s daughter Fanny, but her father wants her to marry the wealthy Andrew Wray. Babbington figures that Wray and Harte combined got him assigned to blockade duty. Before Dryad, the Worcesters see HMS Surprise arrive with mail for this fleet, joining it.
Admiral Thornton’s desire is to engage the French in a fleet action. The second-in-command, Harte, has lesser goals. Harte sends Aubrey and Babbington on a mission to the north coast of Africa, with the notion that Babbington will be taken by the French ships in the neutral port Medina. Babbington sees the ships before he enters port and rejoins Worcester. Having been told not to fire first at the French, Aubrey enters the neutral port in an unsuccessful attempt to draw French fire. Aubrey leaves port, feeling his image is tarnished. Worcester brings Maturin to the coast of France, and waits to pick him up. Maturin's mission fails due to other British spies afoot. Waiting for the launch, Maturin meets the other British agent, Professor Graham, who has shot himself in the foot. Maturin hands him over to the Captain of the Fleet to act as a Turkish advisor. Later, the French fleet slips the blockade. Thornton is pleased, but the winds change, preventing a successful engagement. The French do not want battle and return to port. A few shots are exchanged, killing the captain and first lieutenant of HMS Surprise, and the Worcester, a poorly built ship, is strained beyond usefulness. Thornton tells Aubrey to take her to Malta to refit, then shift part of his crew to the Surprise for a mission to the Seven Islands on the Ionian coast.
As they sail, a poetry contest is set up, with Mowett and Rowan splitting the prize. The Surprise takes the blockade runner Bonhomme Richard, filled with spices, dyes, and heaps of silver. The silver is shared out at once, and Rowan takes the prize to Malta. Aubrey visits the three beys, Ismail, Mustapha and Sciahan, choosing the last as the best ally for Britain to take Corfu, if not more of the Seven Islands, from the French. Sciahan Bey holds Kutali (a fictitious place), the preferred base for naval operations.
Surprise is long in port at Kutali being windbound. The Dryad and the gun-laden transports she fetched seem long in coming. Graham engages in a harsh argument with Aubrey. Rumour spreads that Ismail has permission to take charge of Kutali, causing the locals to beg Aubrey to protect them. Graham travels by land to Ali Pasha of Ioannina learning that Mustapha lured Dryad and the transports into his port, and is sailing on his ship Torgud to take Kutali. The rumour was started by Ali Pasha in his own double dealing, to fire up Mustapha against his enemy Ismail; in the end, Ali Pasha wants rid of Mustapha. Mustapha is on his own, with no approval from the Sultan of Turkey. Surprise is ready to sail on the instant, especially as the winds have changed. Aubrey will attack both ships, Kitabi sailing with Torgud. They meet at sea, with Surprise firing broadsides instantly and repeatedly.
Torgud is cruelly damaged, with many dead. Young Williamson loses half his arm. Kitabi goes between Surprise and Torgud, crashing into Torguds side. Aubrey boards Kitabi, and takes her. Boarding crew proceeds to Torgud, jumping across like Nelson. Pullings falls, so Aubrey stands above him and fights fiercely in the close hand-to-hand combat. Aubrey reaches Mustapha, wounded early in the action and sitting. His aide Ulusan surrenders. Bonden carries the swords and ensigns. Aubrey asks Mowett what happened to Pullings, to learn he survived. They return to the Surprise before the Torgud can sink.
Treason's Harbour europe, mideast
editThe Surprises wait at Malta while their ship is slowly repaired after their successful mission on the Ionian coast. Aubrey and Maturin meet Mrs Laura Fielding at music parties she holds. She is waiting for news of her husband, a naval lieutenant who is a prisoner-of-war in France. One of the three groups of French intelligence agents in Malta uses Fielding's plight to manipulate her into spying for them. Aubrey saves her huge dog Ponto from a fall in the cistern. This endears Aubrey to Ponto, leading the gossips of Malta to assume he is carrying on an affair with Mrs Fielding. She asks Maturin to help her satisfy the French agents. They let it appear to the French spies as if they are conducting an affair, and Maturin prepares false materials for her to pass on. The new Commander of the Mediterranean fleet, Admiral Sir Francis Ives and acting second secretary Andrew Wray, arrive in Malta with their own advisor on Turkish affairs. Once Aubrey learns that an earlier prize was accepted by the board, he has money to speed up repairs on Surprise. Before he leaves Malta, Graham describes Lesueur, a French agent known to him. Unbeknownst to Maturin, Wray meets with Lesueur, receives payments from him and learns what Maturin has done to French spies. Maturin is delighted to receive his diving bell, built on Edmond Halley's design. He and Heneage Dundas test it out from Dundas’s ship. It travels with Maturin on the next mission.
Aubrey is dispatched on a secret mission by Admiral Ives to capture a Turkish galley laden with French silver in the Red Sea. They sail on the Dromedary to Tina, and then walk across the Sinai Peninsula to meet the HEI ship Niobe at Suez. Aubrey takes command of Niobe in the Red Sea, with Turkish troops to aid on land. They spot the galley and give chase. Aubrey notices that the galley is using a drag sail to artificially slow its speed. Realizing the trickery, Aubrey sinks the galley to deny the French its silver. Maturin and Aubrey use the diving bell to retrieve the cargo, but find it is lead not silver, a complete trap. The galley had been in the sea for a month awaiting them, to lure them under French cannons on land. They reverse the challenging journey, offloading the disappointed Turkish troops at Suez, then cross the desert with no escort. Bedouin horsemen steal their camel train, so they reach Tina exhausted. Only Aubrey’s chest, with his chelengk award and the dead dragoman’s papers, is saved by Killick’s diligent effort. They return to Malta on Dromedary.
Admiral Ives tells Aubrey the sad news that Surprise is to return to England to be sold out of the service. Maturin is in a mood to gamble at cards. Wray loses a large sum of money to Maturin playing piquet, and is unable to pay his debt. Maturin asks for naval favors in return, like a ship for recently-promoted Pullings. Before dispatching Surprise to England, Ives asks Aubrey to take the Adriatic convoy up to Trieste, where he meets Captain Cotton of HMS Nymphe. Nymphe has just rescued the escaped prisoner-of-war, Lieutenant Charles Fielding. Maturin removes a bullet from the brave and jealous man. He hears the rumour of Aubrey's liaison with his wife and refuses to return to Malta on Surprise, challenging Aubrey to a duel when they next meet on land. On the return journey Captain Dundas, on HMS Edinburgh, tells Aubrey of a French privateer, which Aubrey then captures with Dryad in convoy. The chase delays Surprise into Malta, so the news of Lieutenant Fielding's rescue has begun to circulate. Maturin speeds to Mrs Fielding's house, but she is not home. Lesueur and Boulay, a double agent on the Governor's staff, arrive to kill her, as she is of no more use to them, and have already killed Ponto. Maturin quietly listens to their conversation until they leave. When she arrives, he takes her aboard the Surprise, saving her life.
Admiral Ives orders Aubrey to sail to Zambra on the Barbary Coast to persuade the Dey of Mascara not to molest British ships, in convoy with HMS Pollux, which is returning Admiral Harte to England. While Pollux waits at the entrance of the Bay of Zambra, the French Mars with two frigates fire on her, with a fierce ensuing battle. Pollux blows up, killing all 500 aboard, but not before she severely damages Mars. The two frigates chase Surprise deep into the bay until the heavier frigate runs aground on a reef. Her smaller consort deserts the fight. On the political advice of Maturin, Aubrey sets sail for Gibraltar. This ambush on a voyage known to so few makes it clear that someone highly placed in the British command betrayed them to the French. Maturin hopes Wray will find the traitor out and destroy the French spy networks.
The Far Side of the World; from gibraltar, to brazil, to South Pacific
editAubrey meets Admiral Ives, now in Gibraltar, who is pleased with the last mission of HMS Surprise, despite Aubrey's negative report. Mr Yarrow will rephrase it to make the success clearer to the Admiralty. The admiral is now a peer, his deepest wish, and he is a happy man. Aubrey dines with Laura Fielding and her husband, Lieutenant Fielding, who is now satisfied that his wife is true to him and thanks Aubrey for bringing her from Malta to Gibraltar (though it is Maturin who brought her to the ship, saving her from two assassins). Maturin receives news from his intelligence-chief in London, Sir Joseph Blaine, confirming high level infiltration of British intelligence by the French. Maturin's wife Diana has heard rumours of his pretended infidelity in Valletta, Malta, with Mrs Fielding for intelligence reasons. He sends her a letter via Andrew Wray, unsuspecting of Wray's role as a French agent. Maturin learns of his success in Malta, destroying the French intelligence network based there, all but André Lesueur taken.
Surprise is not yet to be broken up; Admiral Ives sends Aubrey on a mission to protect British whalers in the Pacific Ocean from the frigate USS Norfolk, sailing on HMS Surprise on his first voyage around Cape Horn. Aubrey makes all haste to prepare his ship with men and supplies. He recruits Mr Allen, a new master with an in-depth knowledge of whalers, takes on Mr Martin as schoolmaster to the midshipmen, and Mr Hollom, an ageing midshipman. Aubrey wonders if his kindness takes aboard a Jonah with Hollom.
The Surprise sails to the farthest east point of Brazil, where the bowsprit is burnt by lightning. During the repairs in Penedo, Pullings sees the USS Norfolk pass by. Mrs Horner, the gunner's wife, engages in an affair with Hollom, and becomes pregnant. Maturin will not interfere with the pregnancy, so she turns to his assistant, Higgins, who leaves her near death. Maturin saves her life. In the Atlantic, Surprise retakes the packet Danaë, with Lieutenant Lawrence in command. Tom Pullings sails the Danae back to England, after Maturin and Aubrey take possession of a hidden brass box, per instructions to Maturin. Surprise rounds Cape Horn with some losses, and then reaches the Juan Fernández Islands to refit and recover. There, the gunner kills his wife and Hollom, and re-boards the ship. Off Chile, Horner learns that Higgins performed an abortion on his wife; Higgins disappears from the ship and Horner hangs himself in his cabin. In the Pacific, with information from a Spanish merchantman, Surprise retakes the valuable whaler Acapulco with Caleb Gill in command, nephew to the Norfolks captain. Mr Allen negotiates with the agent for the whaler in Valparaiso, where the American prisoners are left ashore. Taking the whaler restores the spirit to the crew.
Arrived at the Galapagos archipelago, Maturin and Martin are amazed at the new species they see on land, in the air and in the sea. Surprise picks up men from the whaler Intrepid Fox, now burnt by USS Norfolk. Knowing where the Norfolk is headed, Aubrey sails along the equator west toward the Marquesas. Maturin is disappointed and furious that the promise made to let him explore ashore is broken. Aubrey saves Maturin when he falls overboard one evening, but no one misses them until dawn. The two men are rescued by Polynesian women on a pahi, who ultimately leave them on a small island with a fishing line. The launch from the Surprise finds them. Maturin is needed aboard Surprise, as the group sent to board the pahi was cruelly beaten by the women.
After surviving the tail of a typhoon, the Surprise finds the Norfolk wrecked on a reef by the same typhoon and her survivors encamped on an island. Aubrey, Mr Martin and some of the crew take Maturin ashore for surgery; he is in a coma since hitting his head during the typhoon. Just as the surgeon from the Norfolk, Dr Butcher, prepares to operate, Maturin wakes from his coma. A heavy storm blows the Surprise away. Relations between the two marooned groups are tense, because some of the crew on the Norfolk were British mutineers and deserters in 1797 aboard HMS Hermione; they will be hanged for desertion and mutiny if they are returned to the Royal Navy. One admits this to Bonden. Aubrey tells the American Captain Palmer that he and his crew are now prisoners of war. Both groups are eager to leave this island. Aubrey orders his carpenters to lengthen the launch so they can sail away, pushing the rest to collect food. He sees an American whaler on the horizon. The crew of the Norfolk spot the same whaler, cheer at the sight, and then kill their informer. The Norfolks fight with the Surprises. Their cheering stops when the whaler loses two masts and strikes her colours, because it is the Surprise that takes her in chase.
section 5; back in england
editThe Reverse of the Medal; in england
editJack Aubrey and his crew make their way in a much knocked-about Surprise from the small island near the equator in the Pacific Ocean to the West Indies Squadron at Bridgetown with their American prisoners in a recaptured whaler. Aubrey learns that Sally Mputa was pregnant when they parted over twenty years earlier, at the moment of meeting his grown son, Samuel Panda, who appears to meet him and seek his blessing. Samuel is on his way to the Brazils with Catholic missionaries. Aubrey and Maturin like the young man, and Maturin promises to aid him in his wish to become a priest, as his being illegitimate is a barrier to taking orders. After the court martial for the British mutineers among Aubrey's prisoners, Aubrey leaves quickly for home. The voyage home is enlivened by a chase of the privateer Spartan, which slips away in fog through the blockade to Brest.
Finally ashore in England, Aubrey hears a rumour from a stranger he meets in Dover that peace is coming soon, creating an opportunity to make money in the stock exchange. Mr Palmer claims familiarity with Maturin. Aubrey makes the transactions, and shares the advice with his father, General Aubrey. The General makes large stock transactions and spreads the rumour of peace farther. The transactions prove profitable in the short term, but values fall when the rumour is shown to be false. Aubrey does not sell quickly enough and loses money, though others prosper. Aubrey is arrested for manipulating the market. He is taken to the Marshalsea prison to await trial. General Aubrey flees, leaving his son to fend for himself.
Maturin finds that his wife Diana has gone to Sweden with Jagiello, and that The Grapes, an Inn in the liberties of the Savoy where he has kept rooms for years, has burnt down. Maturin shows Sir Joseph Blaine the brass box full of valuable paper from Danaë and he makes a list of the contents; Blaine will watch to see who tries to cash any of it. Maturin then gives the box to Wray at the Admiralty. Maturin learns that his godfather Ramon d'Ullastret has died, and left him sole heir to an enormous fortune. Pained by the absence of his wife, Maturin returns to the use of laudanum.
Maturin and Blaine find an attorney and an investigator to defend Aubrey from the charges against him at his trial. Maturin advertises a large reward (the gambling debts paid back to him by Wray) for word of Mr Palmer, which proves an error. Palmer is found murdered and mutilated, thus useless for Aubrey's defense. Aubrey, who is unfamiliar with politically motivated trials, expresses confidence in British justice. His career is at stake, but he remains calm, even stoic, accepting the help Maturin gives him, and his wife's support. The trial is completed in two days, one day going on without rest for eighteen hours. The judge, Lord Quinborough, and jury convict him. The punishment is a fine of £2,500 and one hour on the pillory. His name is stricken from the Navy List, not by law but by practice, the worst blow. The pillory is delayed a few days, so word spreads to all his mates. The public square is filled with seamen, who in a display of their support for a beloved and respected captain, push away anyone come to throw stones.
On the day before the trial begins, the Surprise is put up for auction. Maturin, with the aid of Tom Pullings, makes the successful bid. With Blaine's aid, Maturin obtains letters of marque so she can operate as a private man-of-war. Aubrey takes Surprise out immediately. Blaine tells Maturin that there is interest in a mission to Chile, and that Maturin is the preferred agent. Maturin receives a message to meet someone who mentions the Blue Peter, the diamond that Diana gave up to gain Maturin's release in France. He again meets M. Duhamel, who returns the diamond, as was long ago agreed, and supplies Maturin with information on the double agents in London. Duhamel knew the late Palmer only by that alias, and the pair in government is Ledward and Andrew Wray, who also mounted the stock exchange fraud. Maturin is chagrined when he realizes what he did not understand in Malta when dealing with Wray. In return, Duhamel wants to leave Europe for Canada, as he is tired of the war. Maturin arranges for him to sail on HMS Eurydice under Captain Dundas, leaving in a few days. As proof, Maturin watches as Duhamel gives money in exchange for an information packet from Ledward and Wray. Maturin seeks Blaine to share with him this vital information.
The Letter of Marque; in england
editJack Aubrey, now a civilian, prepares the Surprise to sail as a letter of marque. The loss of his place on the Navy list is the hardest blow. He is stoic, but appears harsh to his new crew. His reputation brings him a full crew, and he takes the men on liking. He runs the Surprise on Royal Navy lines, including regular pay to the men, in addition to any prizes they might take. He is supported by his crew of old Surprises, privateers and smugglers, the latter groups recruited in Shelmerston, on the western coast of England. It is let out that a group of his friends purchased the ship at the auction, as Stephen Maturin, who is the sole owner, wants to play his same role of surgeon and natural philosopher on the ship. Aubrey takes the new crew on a short cruise in the Atlantic, which proves unexpectedly profitable.
The downfall of the traitors Wray and Ledward restores order in British intelligence circles, returning Sir Joseph Blaine to his position in the Admiralty. The traitors fled England, so they still have a friend in the government. Duhamel, the French agent who gave them away, never did reach Canada, as he died in a fall boarding Eurydice. Blaine says it will be difficult to restore Aubrey to the Navy, even with solid evidence left behind by Wray showing how he profited in the stock market scheme and set Aubrey up. Maturin's servant Padeen becomes a secret laudanum addict after a painful burn, where he learned its benefit, followed by an infected painful tooth that Maturin could not treat. Padeen dilutes the ship's supply with brandy. Maturin is thus unknowingly weaned off his own addiction.
During the short cruise, the Surprise captures the Merlin, the consort of the Spartan. They learn that American/French privateer Spartan seeks its next quarry, the Spanish barque Azul with quicksilver aboard. Surprise sails to intercept them. Azul is struck on rocks, with Spartan adjacent following a fierce battle between the two; Surprise meets them and boards first Azul and then Spartan. Aubrey then tricks the Spartan's five prizes out of Horta harbour, making him and his crew wealthy, improving his reputation, and earning him a gift of silver plate from the merchants who had been so harried by Spartan. Blaine tells Maturin of the frigate Diane, a French navy ship ready to voyage to South America. Aubrey plans the attack at night in ship's boats, cooperating with the Navy, specifically William Babbington of HMS Tartarus, who has made post Captain, thus removing pressure on him to take credit for success. Surprise takes the Diane and all other vessels in the French port of Saint Martin the night before Diane plans to sail. Maturin imprisons the intelligence agent aboard, taking his papers, but the agent slips away dressed as a woman. In the short clash on the Diane, Maturin kills her captain while Aubrey is wounded by a bullet near his spine. The second success makes Aubrey a popular hero.
When offered the opportunity to request a free pardon, he angrily declines on the grounds that he is innocent. Aubrey's father, a fugitive since his part in the stock-jobbing affair, is found dead in a ditch. Aubrey organizes the funeral for him, which takes him to his boyhood home of Woolcombe, now his by inheritance. After the funeral, Edward Norton (a friend of Aubrey's grandfather) offers Aubrey a seat in Parliament, from the borough of Milport. This gain in position leads Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, to assure Aubrey of his restoration. Aubrey is a changed man.
Maturin travels to Sweden to speak to his wife Diana Villiers. Aubrey agrees to meet him there for the return voyage. In Stockholm, Maturin purchases a bottle of full-strength laudanum and some coca leaves from a well-stocked apothecary. He meets Diana near her home in Stockholm. He learns Wray lied about not finding Diana in London to deliver the letter; she saw Wray, and no letter was given her. Maturin explains why he was seen with Laura Fielding. Villiers assures him she has not been unfaithful with Jagiello, who is soon to be married. He gives her the Blue Peter, the diamond she gave up to save him, which pleases her greatly. He tells her of his sudden increase in wealth. Maturin takes two doses of laudanum and becomes disoriented. He is seriously injured in a fall, breaking his leg. Diana nurses him and they are reconciled. Surprise returns from a stop in Riga to buy poldavy. Martin tells Maturin that he caught Padeen diluting the laudanum supply with brandy, and that Padeen is addicted and in irons. They carry Maturin out to the ship in style, accompanied by Colonel Jagiello's escort, and Diana embarks with him for home.
The Thirteen-Gun Salute;Navy,england, south pacific
editin london
On land after ceasing his use of laudanum, Stephen Maturin finds he has changed; his naturally "ardent" temperament returns and alters his relationship with his wife Diana, who is now pregnant with their child. Maturin looks forward to the arrival of the child he is certain is a daughter. As the high level traitor in British intelligence is not yet identified, the time on land raises risks to his friend Jack Aubrey, who agrees to sail immediately. Aubrey, Maturin, and their shipmates prepare for a mission to sail the letter of marque Surprise on a mission to South America. Upon reaching Lisbon, Sir Joseph Blaine intercepts Maturin with news that he and Aubrey are required to carry a diplomat to the Sultan of Pulo Prabang, a piratical Malay state in the South China Sea. Edward Fox is the envoy leading the mission to persuade the Sultan to become an English rather than French ally. The French mission includes the same English traitors - Ledward and Wray - who were responsible for Aubrey's former disgrace. With the Surprise under the command of Captain Pullings, Aubrey and Maturin return with Blaine to England, where Lord Melville, First Lord of the Admiralty, reinstates Aubrey as a Post-Captain in the Royal Navy and gives him command of the recently captured French ship Diane. The voyage south forms the crew, with frequent training on the guns; by the luck of a timely breeze and much hard rowing in the ship's boats, Diane escapes the inshore currents of Inaccessible Island. Sailing through the high forties (south latitude), she first touches land at Java, meeting Lieutenant Governor Raffles near Batavia, where they hear the first word of bank failures in England.
Arriving in Pulo Prabang, Maturin meets fellow natural philosopher van Buren and helps the arrogant envoy Fox plot against the French mission. During the leisurely negotiations with the Sultan, Maturin climbs the "Thousand Steps" to Kumai, a protected valley in the crater of a volcano and home to the orangutans he has been longing to see. Returning to town, he learns that Abdul, the Sultan's cupbearer and catamite has been caught in a compromising position with both Ledward and Wray. Abdul is executed and Ledward and Wray are banished from the court for their indiscretions, effectively ending the French mission. Wray and Ledward are eventually assassinated and Maturin and van Buren dissect their bodies.
After a feast to celebrate the treaty, at which Fox and his retinue behave without discretion, the Diane makes for Batavia and to rendezvous with the Surprise. Fox behaves with increasing arrogance during the return voyage, the success of the treaty having gone to his head. After missing their rendezvous, the Diane sails toward Batavia, so Fox can sail to England on another ship. The frigate strikes a hidden reef and the ship cannot be floated again. They set up camp on a small island, but Fox insists on sailing in Dianes pinnace, rather than waiting until the ship is again afloat. He leaves Edwards aboard with an official duplicate of the treaty. A typhoon destroys the marooned Diane and Aubrey believes that the pinnace, if caught in the same storm, likely did not survive. With the situation growing desperate, Aubrey directs the men to build a vessel to get them to Batavia.
section 6 south pacific, then towards uk
editThe Nutmeg of Consolation; in south china sea
editAubrey and his crew are shipwrecked on a remote island in the South China Sea after surviving the destruction of HMS Diane in a typhoon. A cricket match is underway between the sailors and marines, which keeps up the crew's spirits as they build the schooner needed for reaching Batavia. Doctor Maturin is killing game for the pot, particularly wild boar and babirussas. Dyaks, Kesegaran and her male assistants, arrive on the island. Speaking in Malay with Maturin, the Dyaks promise to take a message to Batavia in exchange for a note on Shao Yen for twenty "joes" (Portuguese Johannes coins), but instead return in a proa with 300 pirates, twice as many as the 150 Dianes. After beheading the ship's carpenter and some other crew members while stealing tools, they attack the encampment and burn the schooner. They are routed after a bloody conflict and all pirates lost as their proa is sunk by the last remaining ball from the "long nine" gun, well-aimed.
On the last day of rum and tobacco supplies, Maturin meets four Chinese children collecting precious birds' nests from the surrounding cliffs. Maturin binds the boy's injured leg. Maturin persuades the children's father, Li Po, to carry the remaining crew of the Diane in the empty holds of his roomy junk back to Batavia. It is intercepted by Wan Da, whom Maturin knows well from Pulo Prabang, and who shares information about the French frigate nearly ready to sail. Upon arriving in Batavia, Aubrey is provided by Governor Raffles with a 20-gun ship which Aubrey renames Nutmeg of Consolation after one of the titles of the Sultan of Pulo Prabang. At sea, Aubrey hears from a Dutch merchantman that the French frigate Cornélie is watering at an island, Nil Desperandum. Aubrey disguises the Nutmeg as a Dutch merchantman and, when the disguise fails, engages in battle with the Cornélie. Aubrey attempts to outwit the Cornélie in the Salibabu Passage but is outmanoeuvred and nearly outgunned until, at the height of the chase, Nutmeg encounters the Surprise, under Thomas Pullings, accompanied by the Triton, a British privateer. The Surprise gives chase, and the Cornélie soon founders. The Surprise takes the survivors, including Lieutenant Dumesnil, on board. Pullings has taken many prizes in the time they were parted, with two American privateers in convoy. The Nutmeg and its convoy sail back to Batavia, via Canton, under Lieutenant Fielding.
Resuming command of Surprise, Aubrey continues their interrupted journey to New South Wales. Stopping to collect fresh foods at Sweetings Island, Maturin rescues two young Melanesian girls, the sole survivors of an outbreak of smallpox. Sailing into Sydney Cove, Aubrey, Maturin and Martin are shocked at life in the penal colony under Governor Macquarie, no better than it was after the "Rum Rebellion". Maturin and Tom Pullings attend a formal dinner, hosted by Mrs Macquarie and the Governor's deputy, Colonel McPherson, at Government House. Captain Lowe insults Sir Joseph Banks and Maturin, and again insults Maturin outside the house; Maturin fights and wins a duel against Captain Lowe on the spot. Maturin learns by letter that Sir Joseph Blaine could not transfer Maturin's funds to Smith's failed bank, so his fortune is not lost.
Dr Redfern takes Maturin to see Padeen Colman, recovering in the hospital from his severe flogging for absconding from the penal colony. Maturin and Martin journey inland of Sydney to examine the local flora and fauna and collect specimens. On a second trip, they stay with Paulton north of Sydney near Bird Island, and find Padeen in better shape, assigned to work there as Maturin had arranged. The Irishman was convicted for stealing laudanum from an Edinburgh apothecary, meriting the punishment of transportation to this penal colony. Maturin tells Padeen to meet him at Bird Island on the day Surprise is to sail. This plan is checked by Aubrey, who promised to take no escaped prisoners, leaving Maturin in a quandary. Maturin hears from Hastings of the recently arrived Waverley that his wife Diana had a daughter in April, and he is overjoyed, but tells no one else his good news. Maturin and Martin, keen to see the duck-billed platypus, locally named the 'water-mole', are taken on a final expedition in the cutter by Barret Bonden. Maturin and Martin spot two platypuses. Maturin secures one - a male - in his net but his arm is pierced by its two poison-spurs. When the Surprise arrives to pick them up, Padeen is also taken aboard. To everyone's relief Maturin slowly regains consciousness after he is aboard.
(The Truelove in the US)
Surprise sails eastbound from Port Jackson in New South Wales. Jack Aubrey is in an ill-humour as a result of the frigate's visit to the abysmal penal settlement – firstly, because Stephen Maturin's duel with an army officer antagonized the local administration until the governor returned, and secondly because Padeen Colman, Maturin's servant and an absconder, was rescued against Aubrey's wishes. Aubrey observes ribaldry amongst his crew and remains puzzled until he and Pullings find a young female convict, Clarissa Harvill, during the ship's inspection. She was smuggled aboard in Sydney Cove by Midshipman Oakes. Aubrey is at first determined to leave them both on Norfolk Island, but lets them stay aboard until they reach a safer port.
Surprise spots a cutter, Eclair. Aubrey suspects the cutter seeks the runaways. He agrees that Harvill and Oakes may marry on board. Aubrey gives some fine red silk he bought for Sophie to be used for a wedding dress for Clarissa, who wears midshipman's clothes. Martin conducts the ceremony, while Bonden hides Padeen. The cutter bears dispatches for Aubrey and mail for the ship, and a captain whose father was surgeon on Surprise, eager to see her. The mail brings many letters from Sophia and from Diana. Aubrey sees Maturin's happiness that his daughter was born, while Sophia writes him that the infant has development troubles, a secret to keep from Maturin. The governor orders Aubrey to settle a local dispute on Moahu, a nominally British island to the south of the Sandwich Islands. The gun room feasts the newlyweds. Despite the delicious swordfish speared by Davies (after it pierced the ship), good conversation is impaired by the level of animosity existing amongst the gun room members, most visibly West and Davidge. The cause is jealousy over Clarissa, who has had sexual liaisons with several of the ship's officers. This ill-will spreads to the crew, who divide in pro-and anti-Clarissa factions. In the blue water sailing, Maturin befriends Clarissa Oakes.
The ship spots a British whaler at the island of Annamooka in Tonga. Wainright, captain of Daisy, tells Aubrey about the situation on Moahu. There is a war between Kalahua in the north and Puolani in the south, with the northern chief being supported by the armed privateer Franklin, sailing under the American flag, owned by Jean Dutourd of Louisiana, and Britain is at war with America. The privateer has captured Truelove, a British whaler. While the crew provisions Surprise, Clarissa, who has received a black eye from Oakes, confesses to Maturin on their botanizing walk together about her being sexually abused as a young girl and later working as a bookkeeper and occasional prostitute at a brothel in Piccadilly. These experiences formed her sexual outlook, indifference to something that gives no pleasure. Maturin explains the jealousy of men to her. When she mentions that she saw an aristocratic acquaintance of the late turncoats Ledward and Wray at the brothel, Maturin realises that he is the highly placed traitor long sought by Sir Joseph Blaine and Maturin. He sends a coded letter to Blaine via Wainwright.
Aubrey drives his frigate's crew hard on the trip to Moahu due to their poor showing at Annamooka. On reaching Moahu, they meet Truelove, now their prize, and a column is sent to intercept the fleeing French. The skirmish is won but Davidge and others are killed, with no survivors among the French. Surprise then sails to the south of the island to defend Queen Puolani against the main body of French and Kalahua's tribesmen, as she agrees to accept the protection of King George III. Aubrey sets up carronades in a cleft and there is a terrific slaughter of the enemy the following day. That night, after a great feast, Aubrey welcomes the queen to his bed. Truelove departs, commanded by Oakes, with Clarissa on board bearing a copy of the letter to Blaine with her. Aubrey gives funds to Oakes, while Maturin gives funds to Clarissa, separately, for their passage to England. Franklin appears but sails away immediately, with Surprise giving chase.
The Wine-Dark Sea; south pacific, then south america
editThe Surprise, with bow guns blazing, is in close pursuit of the American privateer Franklin in the wine-dark waters of the South Pacific. The chase is interrupted by a submarine volcanic eruption that completely disables the Franklin, with lesser damages to the Surprise. At sunrise, Aubrey sends Reade to take the Franklin; Maturin and Martin separate the dead from wounded aboard the prize. Jean Dutourd, the idealistic French owner, is taken aboard Surprise. A wealthy philanthropist, his plan to colonize a South Pacific island, Moahu, as a new utopian society with Franklins passengers as equal citizens was stopped by the appearance of the Surprise, and the Admiralty's support for the Queen of Moahu in a battle for supremacy on the island. The Franklin took prizes of British ships en route to Moahu, proved by ransomers aboard, seamen taken as security, along with cargoes taken. Franklins American sailing master was killed by shots from the Surprise. Aubrey finds that Dutourd does not have a letter of marque which would permit him to operate as a privateer. Although the sailing master did, but Dutourd is not listed on his muster. Absent the letter, Aubrey views Dutourd as a pirate, while Maturin considers his talkative nature a risk ashore to his mission. Aboard ship, Dutourd is allowed semi-free access and his utopian talk appeals to some of the seamen.
Surprise and Franklin, with Capt. Pullings, in command, take an American whaler as prize. An ex-British naval sailor on the whaler tells Aubrey of the Alastor, a privateer turned true pirate, flying the black flag and demanding immediate surrender or death of its victims. In their ultimately successful encounter with the Alastor, Aubrey receives severe wounds to his eye and his leg.
The ships reach Callao, the port for Lima. Maturin's mission begins now, done under cover of Surprise not being a Royal Navy ship, but perceived as a privateer, and she is again in this port with Pullings as her captain, with many prizes in tow. Maturin's goal is to assist the movement for independence of Peru from Spain, with aid from English gold as needed. Father Sam Panda is assigned here, and he proves a useful contact in Maturin's work. Another of Maturin's tasks ashore is to find suitable care for his longtime assistant, Nathaniel Martin, who is too ill for his work at sea. Maturin sees his old friend Dr Geary, surgeon of The Three Graces merchantman, who offers to take Martin home. Martin mistook salt sores (from a period of low fresh water aboard) to be the pox, treating himself with harsh medicines, which in turn made him truly ill. As the hospital in Callao is inadequate, Maturin yields up his patient to Geary.
Maturin meets with Gayongos, revolutionary sympathiser, and departs on a mule into the mountains, to meet with Father Don Jaime O'Higgins. The plan is agreed and will be set in motion in a couple of days. Gayongos reports at the Benedictine monastery that Dutourd is in Lima; Maturin says, let the Inquisition have him. Maturin sends a message to Pullings that he is gone botanizing in the mountains. He meets Eduardo, knowledgeable Inca guide, and the two trek in the higher altitudes. Eduardo receives a message from Gayongos that the revolution has failed before it began. Maturin must flee by land to Chile. Dutourd is arrested as a heretic, but the damage is done. When Aubrey discovers that Dutourd escaped, he sails in a cutter with a few crewmen to Callao to retake Dutourd or to warn Maturin. After many days of hard sailing against the wind, they reach the harbour and are taken aboard the Surprise by Captain Pullings barely alive. Aubrey welcomes Sam Panda who updates him on the political situation and the plan to meet with Maturin. Trekking over the Andes Mountains with llamas, Maturin and Eduardo are caught in a viento blanco (blizzard), their lives saved by the shelter Eduardo found, though Maturin loses some toes to frostbite.
Maturin makes his way to Arica with help from Eduardo, and then takes ship to Valparaíso, where Aubrey picks up Maturin and his collections. Maturin informs him of three American China ships sailing from Boston. The Surprise sails to intercept them off Cape Horn but, as she prepares to engage them, is herself fired upon by a thirty-eight gun US frigate and her brig. After a very close encounter with an ice island, the Surprise is again chased until her pursuer sails into a dead end in the ice field. The Surprise sails out, losing her main mast and rudder to a lightning strike. The crew of the jury-rigged Surprise spot a ship hull-down on the horizon. The ship, recognized by Maturin as having two rows of cannon, is HMS Berenice under Captain Heneage Dundas, accompanied by her tender, and carries Aubrey's much younger half-brother Philip. Dundas has provisions to repair the ship and pepper for Maturin to preserve his specimens from moths. Dundas has precious news from home, as he visited Ashgrove Cottage before he sailed, seeing Sophia and their children, but not Diana, only her horses. He met Clarissa Oakes there, who is now a widow. Aubrey and Maturin are happily homeward bound.
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section 7; england
editThe Commodore ; in england
editJack Aubrey wins the Ringle, a Baltimore Clipper, from his friend Captain Dundas, as the Surprise accompanies HMS Berenice back to England, after a stop on Ascension Island for repairs to the Surprise. Maturin meets with Sir Joseph Blaine, while Aubrey heads home to his family. When Maturin does reach home with Sarah and Emily, he finds his young daughter Brigid in the care of Clarissa Oakes, now widowed. He searches for his wife, but finds only some of her horses. Their daughter is developing slowly as to language and social skills.
When Maturin meets Sir Joseph at their club, he learns that the Duke of Habachtsthal, the third conspirator in the Ledward-Wray conspiracy, is aiming at both of them. The Duke's influence has delayed the pardons of both Clarissa and Padeen, and all are at risk. To secure his fortune and his family, Maturin asks Aubrey for the Ringle to move his cash to Corunna and to carry Clarissa, Padeen and Brigid to live at the Benedictine house in Ávila, Spain, for safety. Brigid takes to Padeen, and is speaking in Irish and English aboard the Ringle. Blaine and Maturin separately hire Mr Pratt, to gather information on the Duke and to find Diana.
Aubrey gets orders to command a squadron of ships, a position which earns him promotion to commodore. The mission to disrupt the African slave trade, which is illegal under British law since 1807, is bruited in the English newspapers to be sure the French know of it. The second, secret mission of the squadron is to intercept a French squadron aimed at Ireland, hoping for better success than in 1796-97. Two of the ships in the squadron have captains not up to Aubrey's standards: Duff in HMS Stately disrupts discipline, while Thomas of HMS Thames is not ready for battle. Tom Pullings is the full captain of the flagship HMS Bellona, where Aubrey stays and Maturin is surgeon. The Ringle meets the squadron at the Berlings off Peniche peninsula. The squadron sails to Freetown to begin the first mission, practising gunnery and other naval skills en route. Aubrey is in a bad mood, felt throughout the ships, until Maturin tells him that Pastor Hinksey is to be married and set up in India; jealousy had gnawed at him.
Aubrey devises a scheme using the smaller vessels in the squadron to surprise each slave port up to the Bight of Benin. This successfully disrupts the slave trade, and saves over 6,000 slaves. Aubrey ends short of Whydah, as news of the squadron's success empties that harbour. They take eighteen slave ships as prizes, first taking the Nancy, and using the empty ship for target practice to good effect in Freetown. The success is not without loss of men to disease and attack. Maturin survives a bout of yellow fever contracted while botanizing on Philip's Island with Mr Square. As he recuperates, they stop at St Thomas island for medical supplies; two officers (one from Stately, one from Thames) step ashore for a duel by guns, each fatally wounded, resolving nothing. They reach Freetown again, now in the Harmattan, which is the dry season. The British colonial governor's wife invites Maturin to dinner; he is friends with her brother and both are esteemed naturalists. Maturin leaves the potto he had aboard in her care.
Aubrey hastens to meet the French squadron, commanded by the wily Commodore Esprit-Tranquille Maistral, waiting south and east of the point the French are expected to meet the Caesar arriving from America. Caesar fails to arrive, so they proceed northeast to Ireland. The Bellona attacks the French pennant-ship, while the Thames and Stately attack the other French two-decker ship. The first strikes on a rocky shelf and surrenders; the second badly mauls the Stately and flees eastwards. Thames is stuck in a reef. HMS Royal Oak and Warwick handle the four French troop carriers and one frigate, which are penned in a cove. They join the scene of battle, having heard the gunfire. Bellona is taking water and Aubrey is glad for the help. The other French frigate slips away. Ashore, Maturin speaks to the Irishmen who want the guns aboard the foundered ship. He and Father Boyle persuade them this is not the moment, as anyone found with the French guns by the British will be hanged. After tending the wounded, Maturin learns from his friend Roche that the flags are at half-staff on account of the death of a minor royal, the Duke of Habachtsthal, who has committed suicide. Maturin, pleased at the news, proceeds to the home of Colonel Villiers, a relative of Diana's late husband with whom she is now staying, where he and Diana are happily reunited.
Aubrey, captain of HMS Bellona in the Brest blockade after his squadron was dispersed, is home at Woolcombe, the Aubrey family estate, on parliamentary leave. Three lawsuits from owners of slave ships captured on his mission along the West African coast tie up his funds. His wife Sophia rents out Ashgrove Cottage, their marital home. Maturin returns from Spain with his wife Diana and their household, moving into an empty wing of Woolcombe. Maturin's vast wealth is tied up in Spain, where authorities, informed by Jean Dutourd, are displeased at his activities in Peru, a Spanish colony. On land, Aubrey opposes the enclosing of the common, Simmons Lea, which has been proposed in the House by his neighbour, Captain Griffiths. Aubrey has power as lord of the manor, which he uses when the bill is called. Admiral Stranraer on the Brest blockade encouraged this enclosure, and he is uncle to Griffiths. The Admiral calls Aubrey back aboard, hoping to prevent his appearance in Parliament. Quick action on the part of Diana and Clarissa Oakes foils this scheme. Aubrey is watching a boxing match between Barret Bonden and Evans, Griffith's gamekeeper, when the orders arrive at Woolcombe. Mrs Oakes appears at the match to tell Aubrey to proceed directly to Parliament. Stranraer is displeased when Aubrey reveals the committee's decision; he sends HMS Bellona to the inshore blockading-squadron. Aboard the flagship, Maturin receives letters for his covert mission in France. The Admiral tries unsuccessfully to use Maturin to change Aubrey's mind.
At the dark of the moon in heavy fog, Aubrey puts Maturin ashore in France with the Catalan agent, Inigo Bernard. Apparently at the same time, two French ships slip through the blockading squadron in the sector that HMS Bellona patrols. The Admiral rebukes Aubrey, who accepts no blame, and returns Bellona to the offshore squadron. Aubrey receives a letter from Sophie, in which she accuses him of adultery and announces her intention of leaving him, having read letters sent him from Canada by Miss Amanda Smith. Aubrey is spoiling for a fight. During manoeuvres in foggy weather the Bellona spots a French privateer chasing a merchantman. She signals to the fleet, and proceeds to take Les Deux Frères, which proves a rich prize, having captured two Guinea coast merchant ships. A storm batters the Bellona, so Aubrey takes the ship for repair in Cawsand Bay. At Woolcombe, Aubrey asks Sophie for forgiveness, but she rebuffs him. Aubrey sends his tender Ringle to report Bellona's condition to the Admiral. The Admiral then sends Ringle to retrieve Maturin from France. Once Bellona is repaired, Aubrey rejoins the blockading squadron, learning that Ringle has taken Maturin to England. In London, Maturin tells Sir Joseph Blaine about a plot by a Spanish intelligence officer to burgle Blaine's house. With the assistance of Mr Pratt, they capture the Spanish agent red-handed. Maturin updates Sir Joseph on the readiness of Chile for independence. They devise a scheme for an expedition led by Aubrey on the Surprise. The negative reports from Lord Stranrear with the war winding down put Aubrey in the position of being promoted to rear admiral without a squadron, known informally as being admiral of the yellow; as there is no yellow squadron, it is the worst career fate. Maturin learns his fortune is again available to him. In a gesture to his shipmates, Maturin buys new clothes.
Maturin goes to Woolcombe, where Diana tells him of the issue between Sophie and Jack. She and Clarissa have enlightened Sophie as to the possibility of enjoying sex, even suggesting that she have her own affair. Sophie writes a letter of reconciliation to her husband, which Maturin carries aboard. The letter leaves Aubrey joyous. Admiral Stranraer requests Maturin's medical advice; Maturin suggests use of medicines unfamiliar to the flagship's surgeon, to good effect. Bellona finds the inner squadron fighting two French ships of the line. Upon seeing the Bellona and Grampus, the French ships retreat. For months, the Bellona sweeps the bay, blockading Brest. Maturin tells Aubrey of his plan for Chile, to which Aubrey agrees. Queen Charlotte comes to visit the inner squadron, with a stores ship to replenish food. The Admiral thanks Maturin for his treatment. The Admiral informs his captains of the progress in the war on land, where Napoleon is making errors and peace talks are underway but not yet successful.
The peace is announced; Napoleon is exiled to Elba. The crew of the Bellona are paid off and the ship goes into ordinary storage. Aubrey and Maturin read newspapers to learn world events while they were blockading Brest, and adjust to peace. They agree to a plan with three men from the Chilean independence movement. Aubrey requests suspension from the Navy List, and is put on loan to the hydrographic office. Maturin finances the fitting-out of the Surprise, which takes until February 1815. They sail to Madeira with their families aboard. After a brief time on the island, their families will take the packet home. Unexpectecly, Lord Keith, commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, sends orders to Aubrey reinstating him because Napoleon has escaped from Elba. Aubrey takes command of the Royal Navy ships in the harbour of Madeira to blockade the Straits of Gibraltar.
later books
edit{collapse top|later books}
Maturin rejoins the squadron at Funchal after burying his wife, killed when her carriage overturned. Fitted out, Commodore Aubrey's squadron meets at Gibraltar with Admiral Lord Keith, who updates him on Napoleon's success at Paris and the armies gathered on land. He orders Aubrey first to defend a convoy of merchant ships from Moorish xebecs and galleys, and then to proceed to the Adriatic Sea to destroy any new ships being built to support Napoleon. The grieving Maturin, in a separate meeting, learns of a plot to send sufficient gold through Algiers to fund Muslim mercenaries who would block the Russian forces from joining those of the other allies, so Napoleon's army can attack one army at a time. Aubrey's squadron is successful in defending the convoy. The captain of the Pomone is haunted by the faces of the galley slaves who died when his ship attacked theirs; Aubrey reports he died cleaning his guns, and a new captain is assigned to Pomone. The convoy proceeds toward the Adriatic, stopping in Mahón. Asea, they encounter Captain Christy-Palliere, of the Royalist Caroline and an old acquaintance, who informs Aubrey about the French situation in the Adriatic before parting. Amos Jacob is sent out on Ringle to Kutali and Spalato to gain more information. Surprise sinks a French frigate under the command of an Imperialist at Ragusa Vecchia. Jacob rejoins near Porte di Spalato where they meet another French frigate, whose captain, like so many, does not want to declare for Napoleon but fears he will win. Maturin and Jacob negotiate an agreement for the French frigate to fight a mock battle against both Surprise and Pomone; the Frenchman then accompanies Pomone to Malta. Following up the pressure put on banks not to loan to the small shipyards, they lay out gold to push disgruntled dockworkers to burn new French ships along the coast, which is effective.
Reaching Algiers, Maturin and Jacob meet the Consul, Sir Peter Clifford, and his wife. They meet with the Dey's Vizier at Kasbah, the Dey's palace. They travel to meet the Dey, Omar Pasha, at his hunting-lodge at Shatt el Khadna in the Atlas Mountains. The Dey invites Maturin to hunt lions with him. The Dey kills a large lion while Maturin kills its lioness as it leaps to them, saving the Dey's life. For this deed, Omar Pasha swears that no gold will sail from Algiers, and gives Maturin one of his rifles as a parting gift. Jacob befriends Ahmed Ben Habdal, who reveals that Pasha sent a contrary message to the Sheikh of Azgar, to have the gold carried by a fast-sailing xebec from Arzila, near Tangiers, captained by an Algerian corsair via the Strait of Gibraltar straight to Durazzo. Maturin and Jacob return to Algiers, and wait for Ringle to appear. Maturin buys two Irish children in the slave market. Once he sees the Ringle windbound off shore, they engage a local vessel to put them aboard Ringle. Before leaving, they learn Pasha is killed, and replaced by Ali Bey.
Reade relates the damage sustained by Surprise during the fierce storm. They join Aubrey in Port Mahon, and speak with Admiral Fanshawe. Aubrey agrees to pursue the xebec. They encounter Hamadryad under old friend Heneage Dundas, who tells them that Lord Barmouth is in place of Lord Keith. In Gibraltar, Maturin tells Aubrey not to worry about Barmouth, because Peter Arden, Barmouth's political man, respects Lord Keith. Barmouth tells Aubrey to take his broad pennant down, as his squadron is dispersed. Later, Barmouth is joined by his new wife, who he learns is a cousin to Aubrey. On his return, Aubrey finds Barmouth friendly to him, as Barmouth wanted his wife with him. Before leaving for this battle, Maturin leaves the twin children with Lady Keith.
Dr Jacob learns the corsair has two galleys to act as decoys whilst he lies under Tarifa before running through the Strait. The Surprise, Ringle and the blue cutter lie in wait in the Strait. The galley sees three armed ships, and Murad Reis, her captain, fires on the frigate, destroying one gun, and killing Bonden, the coxswain, as well as Hallam, a midshipman. After a long pursuit, the galley hides at Cranc (Crab) island, where Surprise and Ringle, unable to follow the galley into the shallow lagoon, block the exit. A gun from the Surprise is hoisted up a cliff, where it can fire unopposed on the galley. The galley's crew, seeing the situation is hopeless, behead Murad and surrender. Returning victorious to Gibraltar, the Surprise sees the town exploding fireworks, and learns that Napoleon has lost in the Low Countries, fully beaten. Ali Bey sends word he wants the gold; he is killed and the new Dey, Hassan, admits the xebec fired first, and asks for a loan to consolidate his position in Algiers. The xebec is cleaned up and sent to Algiers, while the gold is shared out in Gibraltar. Barmouth worries that his new wife is too friendly with Aubrey, so he sends him off to the venture in Chile.
The Surprise sails out of Gibraltar but collides in the dark with a Nordic timber ship and returns for repairs. Back ashore, Aubrey hears a reliable description of the battle at Waterloo; he thanks Lord Keith for moving the prize court along briskly to share out their huge prize from capturing the gold meant to aid Napoleon before his fall, more than 382 pounds a share. Aubrey has clandestine visits with his cousin Isobel, Lord Barmouth's wife. Admiral Lord Barmouth hastens the repair work, realizing he helps himself that way. Many Surprises desert. The frigate sails to Madeira for more serious repairs but arrives just in time to see Coelho's famous shipyard at Funchal in flames. Maturin receives a coded report from Dr Amos Jacob regarding the Chilean situation and takes the Ringle to England, where Sir Joseph Blaine updates him. The Chileans have split into two factions: northern still interested in British help, and southern retaining the services of Sir David Lindsay to command the Chilean navy. Whilst Maturin stays with Sophie Aubrey at Woolcombe, Aubrey returns the Surprise to Seppings' yard in England for a thorough re-fit and recruits a strong, competent crew out of Shelmerston for the long voyage ahead. In London, the Duke of Clarence asks Aubrey to accept Horatio Hanson as a midshipman. Initially reluctant, Aubrey finds that the boy has the mathematical skills essential for a navigator and he becomes a competent sailor. Fully fitted, the Surprise stops at Funchal, picking up Jacob, and then heads for Freetown, where Maturin proposes marriage to a young attractive widow named Christine Wood. She shares his tastes for natural philosophy, but her view of marriage suffered from her first marriage, as her husband was impotent and she turns him down. She agrees on her upcoming trip to England to visit the Aubreys at their home in Dorset and to meet Maturin's daughter Brigid there. Surprise then sails to the coast of Brazil, where Dr Amos Jacob parts to cross the mountains overland.
After a difficult rounding of Cape Horn, the expedition reaches San Patricio in Chile. Ringle goes for repairs following a grounding in the Pillón passage. After a meeting between Aubrey, Maturin and Sir David Lindsay, in which the two sides agree to mutually support each other, Maturin writes to Blaine describing the different juntas and the training of three republican sloops by the crew of the Surprise, who assist in capturing a moderate privateer. After meeting Dr Jacob with the intelligence he gathered, Aubrey heads to Valparaiso, while Maturin and Jacob ride there by mule. Here they meet General Bernardo O'Higgins, the Supreme Director, and Colonel Eduardo Valdes. Learning that the viceroy of Peru, under the Spanish king, plans to invade Chile, the group determine to confront the Royalist forces at Valdivia, where the viceroy will need to seek stores. The Surprise and Ringle make sail and Aubrey elaborates a plan to drop Chilean troops at Concepción while the ships destroy the gun-emplacements at Cala Alta and then bombard the fort at Valdivia.
The plan succeeds and the revolutionaries capture four chests of silver and one of gold, conveyed by the Surprise to Valparaiso and then overland to Santiago. Sir David fights a duel with one of his officers and dies. Popular local sentiment gradually turns against the British, and Aubrey receives news that the junta plans to impound his frigate. He decides to pre-empt action against Surprise by cutting out the Peruvian fifty-gun frigate Esmeralda at Callao in Peru to strengthen the Chilean navy. Surprise conducts a hard-fought broadside action and eventually the British-Chilean force takes the ship. Aubrey suffers wounds in the thigh and shoulder. Maturin and Jacob send a coded message of the successful cutting-out to Sir Joseph Blaine which the schooner takes to the Isaac Newton, as Dobson's friends agree to carry the message across Panama to meet a returning merchantman. Ringle carries the news to Valparaiso.
The President of the Valparaiso junta, Don Miguel Carrera, gives Aubrey and his officers a lavish dinner, after which Aubrey insists on his sailors receiving their share of the prize-money and Esmeraldas value by the end of the month. The next day Don Miguel authorizes five thousand pieces of eight and use of any naval stores the Surprise requires. With a fully repaired ship, Aubrey sets about training the young Chilean naval officers as the Surprise continues her survey of the Chilean coast for several weeks. Jacob arrives from Valparaiso on a private brig, with coded messages from Sir Joseph Blaine. First, the Duke of Clarence requests Horatio Hanson's return to sit his lieutenant's examination. Second, the Admiralty promotes Aubrey to Rear Admiral of the Blue, requiring him to take command of the South African squadron aboard HMS Implacable at the River Plate, hoisting his flag, blue at the mizzen. Carrera arrives with a message saying it will take a further three months to complete the payments, releasing Aubrey from his responsibility to the Chileans. Aubrey sets course for the Strait of Magellan.
The story begins with Surprise in the Strait of Magellan, caught up in foul weather. Hanson first spots Cape Pilar at the very opening of the Strait, and soon Surprise moors and conducts some trade with the inhospitable locals for meat and vegetables. Having re-provisioned, she and Ringle sail northwards in fine weather until they enter the River Plate and moor close to the island functioning as the main administrative centre. A quarantine officer comes aboard and gives the frigate a clean bill of health.
Wantage (a character killed and buried at sea in chapter six of the preceding book: Blue at the Mizzen) informs Maturin of a rumpus in the town: a fight between Protestant mariners from a Boston barque clash with the Catholic locals over the right of polygamy. Further signs of local resentment emerge when a large scow dumps the town's filth next to the frigate and the Portuguese sailors shout abuse at the Surprises. Aubrey sees the Papal legate on the shore, preparing to bless the town's ships, and recognises him as his own natural son Sam. As the Papal Nuncio to the Republic of Argentina, the Most Reverend Doctor Samuel Mputa had recently saved the government from an open rebellion.
The South African squadron, under its Commander-in-Chief Admiral Lord Leyton, makes its appearance. Taking command of the blue squadron, Aubrey boards his new flagship, HMS Suffolk, seeing his blue rear admiral's flag hoisted on the mizzen mast. He has an interview with the cantankerous Admiral, who wants to send two of his officers and a midshipman home to England on Surprise. Aubrey explains that he does not own the Surprise, a private vessel once more, but ultimately pledges Maturin's consent in exchange for enough prime hands to man the shorthanded Suffolk, its crew having been reduced by disease. Aboard Surprise, Aubrey tells the assembled hands that he can take 63 volunteers over to join him on Suffolk, and receives cheers.
While the fleet re-provisions, Ringle sails to England under the steady and capable Lieutenant Harding, and returns with Sophie Aubrey, Christine Wood, her brother Edward Heatherleigh, Maturin's daughter Brigid, and Aubrey's twins Fanny and Charlotte, all of whom will sail with Aubrey and Maturin to South Africa. The three girls had not been getting along well, with the Aubrey twins jealous of any attention their mother gives to young Brigid, a concern to both fathers. Brigid is a natural sailor, having been on the Ringle at a very young age for her voyage to Spain and on the packet to return to England. The twins are seasick most of the way to the River Plate, whereas Brigid is at home, friends with the sailors and ready with answers to everything aboard ship. When they meet their father, the twins have shed the jealousy and begin to have a kinder connection with their cousin Brigid.
On Leyton's flagship, Stephen and Jack encounter Captain Randolph Miller, Leyton's nephew and Aubrey's neighbour at Woolcombe, who has a reputation as a ladies' man and as an excellent pistol shot, earning him the nickname "Hair-Trigger Miller". In England, Miller had been paying court to Christine Wood. After hosting Aubrey and Maturin at a dinner, Admiral Leyton orders Aubrey to take Suffolk to Saint Helena, to wait there for Leyton's squadron, and then to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope, carrying Miller to Cape Town aboard Suffolk.
In the last few handwritten pages that follow the end of the typescript, the full squadron arrives at the southwest coast of Africa. While the ships remain docked in the town of Loando (modern-day Luanda, Angola) to refit after storm damage, the squadron's officers and families take up residence in a Portuguese military headquarters building. Stephen returns from ship's business to find Miller again visiting Christine, which Miller had done almost every day, bringing her flowers. After Stephen shows Miller the door, Christine asks him to intervene and convey her wish to Miller that the uninvited visits should stop.
Leyton orders the squadron to prepare for an exercise at sea. Stephen is in the town, accompanied by Harding and Jacob, when he meets Miller and delivers Christine's message. In response, Miller calls Stephen a liar and strikes him, and Stephen calmly calls him out. Miller demands pistols but Maturin stands upon his right, as the aggrieved party, to name the weapons; they will duel with swords. In response to Miller's complaints that he knows nothing of swords, Admiral Leyton and Miller's own seconds agree that the terms are fair, and that Miller must accept the challenge or be forever disgraced. The duel takes place, and with three or four thrusts Stephen disarms Miller and demands Miller's apology at swordpoint, which is given.
At the end of the manuscript, we observe Miller at sea on Leyton's flagship. Disrespected even by his own servant, Miller takes to his cabin, avoiding company and his duties on deck. He is seen to be sweating profusely and changing his uniform with uncommon frequency, apparently deeply disturbed by his loss of face in the duel.
(21 in the US)
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see also
editSea captains, Napoleonic era
editcharacters
editAlan Lewrie
editsummary
editAlan Lewrie provides a departure from other heroes of the genre. C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower, Alexander Kent's Richard Bolitho, and Dudley Pope's Lord Ramage are much more in the traditional hero mode in attitudes and upbringing. Hornblower is the son of a country doctor packed off to sea after the death of his parents, Bolitho and Ramage are the sons of naval officers (captain and admiral, respectively) and scions of seafaring families. Lewrie, on the other hand, is little more than an educated, fun-loving Londoner who spends his time gambling, drinking, and pursuing women. His character shares elements of Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey, Bernard Cornwell's Richard Sharpe, George MacDonald Fraser's Harry Flashman, and Henry Fielding's Tom Jones.
With the help of friends, mentors, enemies, villains, and the mention of a god or two, Alan quickly rises through the ranks of the Royal Navy. He becomes the captain of his own ship and sails off to many subsequent adventures. As with all historical fiction, Lewrie's adventures are set against the events of his setting. He participates in several of the major naval and land battles of the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Era.
While a multi-volume series of novels following the career of a British naval officer in the late 18th Century and through the Napoleonic Wars is hardly new ground for novelists, Lambdin's series is much more bawdy than the C.S. Forester Hornblower series. Unlike other series, Alan Lewrie doesn't quite express himself in the manner of the times, though Lambdin throws in a lot of period slang, sometimes reaching before or after the times that Lewrie is active.
Alan Lewrie books
editAlan Lewrie Series Order We get the question all the time "What order should I read the Alan Lewrie series?". We would recommend you read the Alan Lewrie series in order by series number which is: 1. The King's Coat Book 2. The French Admiral Book 3. The King's Commission Book 4. The King's Privateer Book 5. The Gun Ketch Book 6. H.m.s. Cockerel Book 7. A Kings Commander Book 8. Jester's Fortune Book 9. King's Captain Book 10. Sea Of Grey Book 11. Havoc's Sword: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) Book 12. The Captain's Vengeance Book 13. A King's Trade Book 14. Troubled Waters Book 15. The Baltic Gambit Book 16. King, Ship, And Sword: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure Book 17. The Invasion Year Book 18. Reefs And Shoals Book 19. Hostile Shores Book 20. The King's Marauder Book 21. Kings And Emperors Book 22. A Hard, Cruel Shore Book 23. A Fine Retribution Book 24. An Onshore Storm Book 25. Much Ado About Lewrie: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure Book Show Less