![]() Cover by Geoff Hunt for HMS Surprise | |
Author | Patrick O'Brian |
---|---|
Cover artist | Geoff Hunt |
Language | English |
Series | Aubrey-Maturin series |
Genre | Historical novel |
Publisher | Harper Collins (UK) |
Publication date | 1973 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print ( Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book ( Cassette, CD) |
Pages | 416 pages (first edition, hardback) |
ISBN | 0-00-221316-8 |
Preceded by | Post Captain |
Followed by | The Mauritius Command |
HMS Surprise is the 1973 historical naval novel by Patrick O'Brian. It is third in the series of stories of Captain Jack Aubrey and the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin.
{{spoiler}}
Aubrey takes command of the frigate
HMS Surprise, charged with carrying a
British ambassador to the
East Indies. Much of the novel deals with the ups and downs of Maturin's relationship with Diana Villiers. Jack's romance with Sophie Williams also progresses.
This book also describes Aubrey's first stint in command of, and provides the readers' first encounter with the Surprise herself. Although apparently based on the real Royal Navy frigate HMS Surprise, she appears as a ship on which Aubrey had served as a youth. (His initials remain carved in the mast.) The real HMS Surprise, however, entered the Royal Navy as a prize captured from the French in 1796, so that O'Brian would seem to have added some fifteen years to her age, taking her capture (which he mentions) back to the previous phase of Anglo-French hostilities which formed part of the war of American independence (1776-1783).
The Surprise becomes Aubrey's favourite ship, and appears in many other novels in the series.
On the return voyage the Surprise encounters a fleet of the East India Company, returning from China laden with goods. The fleet comes under attack from a French squadron, but Aubrey organizes a spirited defence from the merchant ships and bluffs the French into retreating. This episode reflects elements of the Battle of Pulo Aura on 15 February 1804, in which 16 merchant ships of the East India Company under the command of Commodore Nathaniel Dance, drove off a French squadron consisting of the Marengo ( 74 guns), Belle-Poule (40), Sémillante (36), Berceau (22) and Aventurier (16), commanded by Rear-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois. (Another fictional account of this incident appears in Newton Forster; or, the Merchant Service by Captain Frederick Marryat.)
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (May 2010) |
{{endspoiler}}
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (May 2010) |
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![]() Cover by Geoff Hunt for HMS Surprise | |
Author | Patrick O'Brian |
---|---|
Cover artist | Geoff Hunt |
Language | English |
Series | Aubrey-Maturin series |
Genre | Historical novel |
Publisher | Harper Collins (UK) |
Publication date | 1973 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print ( Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book ( Cassette, CD) |
Pages | 416 pages (first edition, hardback) |
ISBN | 0-00-221316-8 |
Preceded by | Post Captain |
Followed by | The Mauritius Command |
HMS Surprise is the 1973 historical naval novel by Patrick O'Brian. It is third in the series of stories of Captain Jack Aubrey and the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin.
{{spoiler}}
Aubrey takes command of the frigate
HMS Surprise, charged with carrying a
British ambassador to the
East Indies. Much of the novel deals with the ups and downs of Maturin's relationship with Diana Villiers. Jack's romance with Sophie Williams also progresses.
This book also describes Aubrey's first stint in command of, and provides the readers' first encounter with the Surprise herself. Although apparently based on the real Royal Navy frigate HMS Surprise, she appears as a ship on which Aubrey had served as a youth. (His initials remain carved in the mast.) The real HMS Surprise, however, entered the Royal Navy as a prize captured from the French in 1796, so that O'Brian would seem to have added some fifteen years to her age, taking her capture (which he mentions) back to the previous phase of Anglo-French hostilities which formed part of the war of American independence (1776-1783).
The Surprise becomes Aubrey's favourite ship, and appears in many other novels in the series.
On the return voyage the Surprise encounters a fleet of the East India Company, returning from China laden with goods. The fleet comes under attack from a French squadron, but Aubrey organizes a spirited defence from the merchant ships and bluffs the French into retreating. This episode reflects elements of the Battle of Pulo Aura on 15 February 1804, in which 16 merchant ships of the East India Company under the command of Commodore Nathaniel Dance, drove off a French squadron consisting of the Marengo ( 74 guns), Belle-Poule (40), Sémillante (36), Berceau (22) and Aventurier (16), commanded by Rear-Admiral Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois. (Another fictional account of this incident appears in Newton Forster; or, the Merchant Service by Captain Frederick Marryat.)
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (May 2010) |
{{endspoiler}}
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by
adding to it. (May 2010) |
{{
cite book}}
: |author=
has generic name (
help){{
cite journal}}
: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors=
(
help)