“Master and
Commander: The Far Side of the World”
A brief introduction, for fans of Peter Weir’s 2003
movie, to the characters and plots in Patrick O’Brian’s original books
by
Anthony Gary Brown
(©; 8th January, 2004; 4th August
2005;
This brief introduction to the joys of Patrick O’Brian’s 20 original Jack Aubrey – Stephen Maturin novels is not intended as either a review or critique of Peter Weir’s 2003 movie. Suffice it to say that I, a fan of O’Brian for some 30 years, feel that the movie was broadly authentic and true to O’Brian in most things that mattered, though vastly different in detail to the books themselves. I only hope I can encourage many potential new O’Brian readers to plunge into the master’s own works: the movie is an agreeable bottle, but drawn from a vast, deep cellar.
Much of the movie’s basic plot and cast of characters are borrowed, very loosely, from The Far Side of the World. The final battle scene borrows heavily from Master and Commander. Many minor incidents, character quirks and snatches of dialogue are taken from the other 18 novels in the series. The detailed biographies of Jack and Stephen below should give a good flavor of the often elaborate contents of the novels themselves. Yet many of the minor characters in the books provide color and texture rather than plot. As O’Brian fans know, the author was adept at building the inner and outer lives of his central characters over thousands of pages. But they also know that for his minor characters he had an astonishing ability to give us “the man in a moment” (as the reviewer Alan Judd put it): real flesh-and-blood people in the flash of a pen. I commend the nearly 4000 characters who appear in the 20 books to your further attention!
Most of the material below is derived in full or part from my own The Patrick O'Brian Muster Book: Persons, Animals, Ships and Cannon in the Aubrey-Maturin Sea Novels. The abbreviations (such as M&C 6, FSW 9) found in my text refer to the chapters of the original books, listed in full in the left hand frame. In that same frame you will also find an index to the characters discussed here below.
Many thanks are also due to the insights, inspirations and cheerful companionship of the members of The Gunroom, a list-server that has been discussing and debating Patrick O’Brian’s works (and much else besides) since 1995.
Enjoy!
The
Movie’s Characters
(Russell Crowe)
Here’s the biographical note on Jack Aubrey’s exploits in both Master and Commander and The Far Side of the World novels from my Patrick O'Brian Muster Book (which has similar full plot summaries of every book in the series):
“The book Master
and Commander opens in the Governor’s House at
Port Mahon, Minorca, late in the evening of 18th April 1800. Jack Aubrey, a Royal Navy Lieutenant in his
20s, is sitting next to Dr Stephen Maturin during a Locatelli
concert; the
pair quarrel and appear to be intent on fighting a duel the following day (M&C 1). However,
Jack soon receives the joyous and long awaited news that he is to be promoted
Master and Commander into the brig-sloop HMS Sophie, a reward for his
service in HMS Leander both at the Battle of the Nile and in her
subsequent action with Généreux; he reconciles
himself to Stephen and invites him to a celebratory dinner (M&C
1,2). Jack’s superior, Captain Harte (with whose wife, Molly, he is having a
scarcely-concealed affair: M&C 1+) has delayed news of the promotion, leaving
Jack no time to replace Sophie’s departing officers before he assumes
command (M&C 1);
he therefore invites the impoverished Stephen to sail as the ship’s
surgeon (M&C 2).
Their first task is to escort and protect a small merchant convoy, giving Jack a
chance to work on Sophie’s indifferent sailing and gunnery techniques (M&C 2-4). So
absorbed is he that he fails to notice an attack on the convoy by an Algerine galley until Stephen draws attention to the ship (M&C 4). The
galley is beaten off but is not taken or
sunk, leading the newly-appointed First Lieutenant - the wealthy Irishman James
Dillon - to doubt Jack’s fighting spirit (M&C
4). Jack is nevertheless rewarded for
this action with a series of independent cruises, soon becoming famous as ‘Lucky
Jack Aubrey’ for the number of merchant prizes that he seizes; yet these successes only serve to
frustrate Dillon’s desire for glorious action directly against enemy warships (M&C 4-10). Jack,
by his loud and lewd behaviour ashore, manages to lose even more friends,
leaving himself open to Harte’s enmity (M&C 6). The
effectiveness of Sophie as a commerce-raider leads to the Spanish Cacafuego being engaged by Spanish merchants hunt
her down (M&C 7-10); to Dillon’s fury Jack initially manages by a ruse
to avoid conflict with the much larger enemy ship (M&C
8). However, they soon meet again and in
a short, bloody fight Jack boards and takes the frigate: Dillon is killed at the very height of the
action (M&C 10).
Although this victory leads to fame and admiration for both Jack and Sophie,
Captain Harte contrives to deny him proper reward by
querying Cacafuego’s status as a national
warship and by delaying the sending of the victory dispatch to England; Jack’s
troubles are compounded by a venereal disease, probably contracted from Molly Harte (M&C 11). Now again reduced to escort duty, Sophie
runs into a powerful French squadron led by Admiral Linois; despite a spirited attempt to run clear, Jack
is forced to surrender to Desaix, a 74-gun
commanded by Captain Christy-Pallière (M&C 11). A
captive in Desaix, Jack sees the defeat of Sir
James Saumarez’ squadron in Algeçiras
Bay but, exchanged a few days later on parole to Gibraltar, he then sees the
subsequent British victory on the distant horizon (M&C
12: these actions took place in July
1801). As a matter of form, Jack is
now court-martialled on board HMS Pompée for
the loss of his Sophie and, of course, most honourably acquitted (M&C 12).
[The book itself is closely based on the
1800-1801 adventures of Commander Lord Cochrane in the sloop HMS Speedy, and his astonishing capture of the heavy Spanish privateer El Gamo.]
The book The
Far Side of the World opens 1813 with Jack at Gibraltar to explain the Zambra
incident (in Treason’s Harbour) to
Admiral Ives who, fortunately, is not at all critical of Jack’s conduct in the
bizarre circumstances (FSW 1). In view of the mixture of intelligence
triumphs and fiascos in the Mediterranean, Sir Joseph Blaine has arranged for
Stephen Maturin to go on a relatively minor mission to South America: in the temporarily reprieved HMS Surprise,
Jack is to both support his friend and to hunt down the marauding USS Norfolk
(FSW 1+). The
intelligence component of the voyage is soon accomplished but Surprise,
damaged in a storm, and has then to undergo substantial repairs in Brazil (FSW 4,5). As these are almost complete, Norfolk is
spotted heading south and Jack sets off in immediate pursuit. Unfortunately, a drunken pilot promptly
grounds Surprise on a sandbank and it takes over two weeks to haul her
off (FSW 5) before Jack can eventually pursue the
American round Cape Horn and into the Pacific (FSW
5+). During the ensuing long chase,
Stephen falls into the sea whilst leaning far out of the stern windows to catch
sea organisms by night: Jack immediately
follows and saves his friend from drowning but Surprise stands on,
unaware that the two are overboard (FSW 7). After some considerable time and close to
death, Jack and Stephen are picked up by a South Seas pahi,
crewed entirely by women. On board, they
narrowly escape emasculation and death (FSW 7) before
being abandoned on a desert island, from which they are then rescued by Surprise’s
searching launch (FSW 7,8). During
another storm, the unlucky Stephen falls and receives a severe concussion,
leading Jack to sail Surprise to the remote Old Sodbury’s
Island in order to aid his friend’s recovery; here they discover the crew of Norfolk, their ship wrecked on a reef
(FSW 9). Jack
goes ashore with just a few men, whereupon Surprise, under Lieutenant Mowett, is driven far away from the island by the tail of
the storm. A very uneasy relationship is
established with the numerically far superior Americans, who are also found to
have number of Royal Navy mutineers from HMS Hermione hidden amongst
them (FSW 9,10).
Just as open warfare breaks out, Surprise
re-appears off the island in hot pursuit of an American whaler, which she then
easily takes before dropping anchor in the bay (FSW
10).”
[This book is somewhat based on the pursuit by Captain James Hillyar’s HMS Phoebe of the USS Essex, under Captain David Porter, in 1813-14. Weir, in the movie, has taken further liberties by moving the events to the pivotal Royal Navy year of 1805, and by giving Jack Aubrey a French rather than American opponent.]
(Paul Bettany)
Here’s the biographical note on Stephen Maturin’s exploits in both Master and Commander and The Far Side of the World novels from my Patrick O'Brian Muster Book (which has similar full plot summaries of every book in the series):
“The book Master and Commander opens late in the evening of 18th
April 1800. Stephen Maturin is sitting
next to Lieutenant Jack Aubrey Maturin during a Locatelli
concert at the Governor’s House in Port Mahon, Minorca: the pair quarrel and appear to be intent on a
duel the following day (M&C 1). Before the encounter can be arranged, Jack
receives promotion to Commander of HMS Sophie, reconciles himself to Stephen
and invites him to celebrate the joyous news over dinner (M&C
1,2). Stephen,
an Irish physician (who had trained at Trinity College, Dublin - RM 7; LM 6 - and later in Paris - RM 5; WDS 3; COM 1), accepts the
post of surgeon in his new friend’s command, revealing that he was returning
from Ireland to his boyhood home of Catalonia in the hope - thwarted by sudden
impoverishment - of pursuing his passion for natural history (M&C 2). He soon
learns that one of his new shipmates is to be a fellow-countryman, Lieutenant
James Dillon (M&C 2), with whom he had once been
active in the United Irishmen, a political society dedicated to Catholic
emancipation and Irish self-rule, that had staged an unsuccessful armed
rebellion in 1798 against English dominance (M&C
3,5). Stephen, never in favour of
revolutionary violence, had distanced himself from the subsequent, awful events
but both he and James - who had been absent at the crucial time - are deeply
affected by the resulting turmoil in their country (M&C
5; Stephen
had also somehow lost Mona, his first love, in the rebellion: TGS 4). James’
confusion and unhappiness spill over into his relationships with the
assertively English Jack Aubrey, and Stephen - a Catholic by upbringing (strongly
suggested in, e.g., M&C 5; confirmed in PC
3,10) - spends much time trying to mediate between the two (M&C
5-10). In Sophie the Doctor
receives - from William Mowett - the first of many
long and detailed lessons in what will always remain to him the impenetrable
mysteries of the seaman’s craft (M&C 3). Yet he is also the first to alert the
distracted Jack to the attack on a merchant convoy by an Algerine
galley and, in the ensuing action, treats his first-ever wounded, naval
patients (M&C 4).
After the battle, he trepans the ship’s gunner, Mr Day, for a depressed
fracture of the skull, an operation that firmly establishes his reputation in
the fleet as a medical miracle-worker:
Admiral Lord Keith even personally writes the order formally appointing
him as Sophie’s physician (M&C 4). Stephen,
whilst ashore for a spell in mainland Catalonia, learns from friends that
frustrated merchants have engaged the frigate Cacafuego
to hunt down Sophie (M&C 7,8) and, when Jack later attacks and captures the much
larger Spanish ship, Stephen is at the British sloop’s helm (M&C 10; as
was Lord Cochrane’s surgeon, Mr Guthrie, in the action upon which O’Brian bases
his tale). Sophie is soon
captured by the French Desaix, with whose
surgeon, Dr Ramis, Stephen strikes up a professional
friendship (M&C 11,12; N.B. much later Stephen claims to have participated
in the Battle of Algeçiras, which in truth he could
only witness from his captivity: IM 3).
When the British crew are exchanged on parole, Stephen gives evidence at
the court-martial of Jack - by now his firm friend - for the loss of his ship (M&C 12).
[Note: after this opening book, Stephen Maturin
embarks on a career as a leading agent of British Naval Intelligence, sailing
‘undercover’ as Jack Aubrey’s ship’s doctor but reporting to the spymaster Sir
Joseph Blaine at the Admiralty in London.]
In The
Far Side of the World novel, Sir Joseph Blaine, in view of the mixed intelligence triumphs and fiascos
in the Mediterranean (recounted in Treason’s
Harbour), arranges for Stephen to accompany Jack Aubrey and HMS Surprise
on a relatively minor mission to the South Atlantic. They are also under orders to pursue and take
the marauding American frigate, USS Norfolk (FSW
1+). Before leaving Gibraltar, Stephen
again receives a leering, anonymous letter about his wife Diana and the dashing
hussar Jagiello, and himself sends a letter to her
via Andrew Wray – a senior civil servant in London, still unsuspected as a
traitorous agent of the French - refuting the rumours of his own supposed
recent affair in Malta with Mrs Laura Fielding (FSW
1,2). The political element of the new
journey is soon accomplished when Jack re-takes the mail-packet Danaë from the Americans: hidden on board was an enormous fortune,
intended for the subversion of governments in South America, of which Stephen
takes reluctant custody (FSW 5). With his new friend and colleague the
Reverend Nathaniel Martin, he has an extended opportunity during the long
voyage to indulge their passion for natural history during a stop in Brazil (FSW 5) and off the Galapagos Islands (FSW
7). Stephen also now swops
his long-time laudanum drug-habit for the chewing of coca leaves (FSW 4,5). Once in the northern Pacific, Stephen manages
to fall into the warm sea whilst leaning far out of the stern windows in order
to net sea organisms by night. Jack
follows, in order to rescue his non-swimmer friend, but Surprise stands
on, blithely unaware of these dire events in the great cabin (FSW 7). The pair are eventually picked up by a South Seas pahi
crewed entirely by women warriors, and narrowly escape quick emasculation and
slow death (FSW 7).
Eventually abandoned on a desert island, they are rescued by HMS Surprise’s
searching launch (FSW 7,8). Soon,
during a storm, Stephen receives a severe concussion in a fall and, in order to
stabilise his friend’s condition, Jack sails Surprise to the remote Old Sodbury Island, here being astonished to discover the crew
of the long-sought American Norfolk, their ship wrecked on the reef (FSW 9). On dry land,
Stephen awakes from his coma - just before an intended brain operation by Mr
Martin and the American surgeon, Mr Butcher - and then makes a rapid recovery (FSW 9). However, Surprise
herself is forced away from the island by sudden bad weather, leaving her shore
party in near-open warfare with the Americans.
Just as matters come to an ugly head, the British ship re-appears in hot
pursuit of an American whaler, which she then easily takes (FSW
10).”
First Lt Tom Pullings
(James D’Arcy)
Tom Pullings appears as Jack’s favorite subordinate in almost every book of the series, starting as a Master’s Mate (i.e., a senior Midshipman) in Master and Commander and eventually rising to full Post Captain in The Commodore (thereafter, Tom doesn’t appear in the final two books of the series). Tom is portrayed as loyal, enterprising and skillful; but also as coming from a fairly humble background of small farmers and naval warrant officers, and consequently lacking the influence and social graces usually necessary for promotion. He struggles to get from Master’s Mate to Lieutenant; he is several times forced to spend time in the merchant service; when he is promoted Commander, he cannot then get a ship of his own. Indeed in O’Brian’s The Far Side of the World, Tom joins HMS Surprise as a volunteer, acting as joint First Lieutenant with his old friend William Mowett in order to get back on active service. Halfway through the book, Jack captures a mail-packet, the Danaë, and Tom is given her to return to England (in truth, Tom has a rather minor role in the book as a whole). In the movie, Tom’s small facial scar is a distant nod to the hideous facial wound he cheerfully and rather proudly bears from the battle with Turkish frigates in The Ionian Mission. At a dinner in the film, Jack mentions that Tom was with him at the Battle of the Nile (in 1798) as a youngster – this is not referred to in O’Brian’s books, but is by no means impossible as Tom would have been an experienced Midshipman of about 16 at that time. O’Brian may have taken Tom Pullings’ name from that of Captain George Christopher Pulling (sic.), a colleague of Lord Cochrane in the early Mediterranean days.
Lt William Mowett
(Edward Woodall)
William Mowett is another recurring favorite subordinate of Jack’s in the O’Brian series, from Master’s Mate of HMS Sophie in Master and Commander to the newly-promoted First Lieutenant of the 74-gun HMS Illustrious (in The Letter of Marque, after which he fades from view). Another prime seaman, he’s especially popular for his attachment to vivid naval poetry, written and recited in the ‘modern’, fulsome style, with which he often entertains his mess-mates (much of his verse is borrowed by O’Brian from that of William Falconer, 1732-1769). In The Far Side of the World, Mowett is the official First Lieutenant of HMS Surprise, but happily agrees to share the duties with his slightly senior friend Commander Tom Pullings, who is without a ship. O’Brian is occasionally confused as to whether Mowett’s name is William or James.
(Chris Larkin)
Mr Howard appears in O’Brian’s The Far Side of the World as Surprise’s Marine Officer (a ship of this size would only have had a Marine Lieutenant as the senior officer, and in O’Brian’s original his rank is in fact unspecified), and briefly in The Reverse of the Medal. Much to Stephen Maturin’s dismay, Mr Howard is an enthusiastic slayer of all wildlife whenever and wherever the occasion arises. However, in the book he does not shoot the Doctor, accidentally or otherwise. The marines had three jobs in a navy ship: landing parties in amphibious assaults; sharp-shooters and boarders in naval engagements (though they also manned the great guns and performed other similar duties too); and ship-board guard duties, with a special responsibility for preventing or suppressing mutiny. Marines guarded the entrance to the ship’s magazine and the door to the Captain’s cabin, and they messed and slept separately from the regular seamen.
(Robert Pugh)
In O’Brian’s original, Michael (sic.) Allen is a one-time whaler, painfully shy in company, who joins HMS Surprise when her existing Master is promoted. In the book, his chief role is to give long and detailed accounts of the history and habits of the Pacific whaling fleets to Jack. He is not killed in action, as happens in the movie. The Master, or ‘Sailing Master’, of a British naval ship was the senior non-commissioned officer, appointed by Admiralty warrant, and responsible directly to the Captain for all aspects of navigation and for keeping the ship in prime sailing condition. Although no Master would presume to advise his Captain on fighting matters, he was by the terms of his appointment obliged to advise the Captain of any sea-hazards of which he was aware. Many Masters came, like Mr Allen, from one part or another of the merchant service; others were former Midshipmen and Master’s Mates who had failed, usually for lack of influence, to gain promotion to the military command ranks and had settled on specializing in navigation and ship-handling. The position of Master was somewhat anomalous: though he was junior to all the Lieutenants in terms of strict hierarchy, his navigational expertise – only gained by long experience – and direct responsibility to the Captain gave him a special status, good working conditions and high pay, as well as the right to mess as an equal of the commissioned officers.
Midshipman Peter Calamy
(Max Benitz)
In the original O’Brian, Peter Calamy first appears as a young Midshipman in The Ionian Mission, the son of the late Captain Edward Calamy, a one-time shipmate of Jack. He follows Jack into HMS Surprise in Treason’s Harbour and The Far Side of the World (which book he survives unharmed) and then appears briefly in The Reverse of the Medal. In Far Side, Mr Calamy is said to be just twelve years old, but already fairly experienced in shipboard life. His closest run-in with death is a bout of scurvy that turns him hideously bald. Midshipmen in a Royal Navy ship were ‘officers in training’, often entering the service at the age of 11 - 13 (usually as ‘Captain’s Servants’ until they learned something of their business) and not eligible for promotion to commissioned Lieutenant until age 19, and after a minimum of 6 years sea-service. The more senior and competent a Midshipman became in terms of navigation and ship handling, the more likely he was to be designated a Master’s Mate and to be able to stand a watch with the Captain’s approval (though it would be rare for a Lieutenant not to be on duty too). Although a Midshipman did not hold commissioned status, as a potential member of the officer corps he had to be obeyed without question or hesitation by all seamen – even by men old enough to be his grandfather.
Midshipman Lord Blakeney
(Max Pirkis)
Midshipman William Blakeney appears in The Far Side of the World, and briefly in The Reverse of the Medal, as the son of Jack and Stephen’s old shipmate Lord Garron (who soon inherits his own father’s title of Lord Narborough). He’s a fairly minor character in the book, with neither a special relationship with Stephen nor many stirring deeds to perform. The closest he comes to death is when he manages to swallow a musket-ball and has to be stomach-pumped, much to Stephen and Jack’s bemusement. Though O’Brian doesn’t have him lose his arm, the circumstances do reflect scenes he wrote in other books about others of Jack’s Mids (Messrs Babbington and Reade, regular series characters, particularly). In terms of character, the film’s writers may also have drawn on O’Brian’s portrayal of the well-connected Midshipman Horatio Hanson of Blue at the Mizzen (an observation made in the Gunroom by my friend Bruce Trinque). Having William as a Lord is both quite authentic (in that many a real Mid was a member of the aristocracy) and a decent nod to O’Brian’s having written his father as a Lord: but in the original book he’s plain ‘William Blakeney’, never making use of any real or courtesy title to which he might have been entitled by virtue of his father’s peerage.
Midshipman Hollom
(Lee Ingleby)
Mr Hollom’s movie character is simultaneously the most accurately depicted supporting character from The Far Side of the World novel and the most different. What we see of him in the movie as too old for his lowly rank, unlucky, inept and uncertain – a natural ‘Jonah’ for the crew – is beautifully realized. Mr Hollom, an unemployed, impoverished and unpromoted Master’s Mate, or senior Midshipman, of well over 30 (unusual, but by no means unknown in the navy of the time) is given a berth by Jack out of misplaced pity and guilt (Jack had briefly known him some years previously). But, in the original, he’s then the center of a bizarre sub-plot, in which he has a torrid affair with the wife – for there are women aboard! - of Mr Horner, HMS Surprise’s violent brute of a Gunner, leading to pregnancy, secret abortion, his own and Mrs Horner’s murder, and the Gunner’s eventual suicide.
(Jack Randall)
Mr Boyle is a somewhat minor character in both film and book. In the latter, he’s rather badly injured in a fall when Surprise rounds Cape Horn, though he makes a good recovery under Stephen’s care.
(Richard Pates)
Mr Williamson appears as a lively Midshipman in The Ionian Mission, Treason’s Harbour, The Far Side of the World and The Reverse of the Medal; like several of the Mids, he’s the son of an old shipmate of Jack. In Ionian Mission, he loses an arm in the same action in which Tom Pullings receives his facial injury; however, in the later books the arm has miraculously re-grown! However, in the Far Side novel, he does lose a few toes and the tips of his ears to frostbite.
In most of O’Brian’s books, the Mids are a colorful crew, but play relatively minor roles in the plots. Indeed, Jack and his more senior colleagues frequently refer to them as idle wastrels, a guarantee of the future ruination of the service! However, those readers who were especially attracted by these youngsters might look for Mr Babbington in the first 12 books of the series (when he rises from Mid to full Captain); Mr Reade, from The Thirteen Gun Salute onwards; Mr Geoghegan in The Yellow Admiral; and, especially, Horatio Hanson in Blue at the Mizzen. Also, many years before embarking on the Aubrey-Maturin series, O’Brian wrote two books set in Admiral Lord Anson’s voyages of the 1740s, The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore. These were explicitly books for “young adults”, and each have early teenage Midshipmen at the very center of their plots.
(Ian Mercer)
Mr Hollar frequently serves under Jack, and appears in The Ionian Mission, Treason’s Harbour and The Far Side of the World as just the tough character who appears in the movie. The bosun (or boatswain) was one of the senior warrant officers of a navy ship, responsible for all the rigging and sail-handling, as well as for everyday discipline amongst the working crew: many bosuns were former skilled dockyard workers and many hoped to return to dockyard work when they were too old to sail. It is the bosun or one of his mates (his assistants) who administer all on-board floggings, and they also habitually ‘started’ the hands with thick, knotted rope-ends to get them to spring into action. The bosun, the carpenter, the gunner and other similar characters were known as a ship’s ‘standing officers’ as they frequently spent much of their career in a single ship, coming to know her quirks and capabilities intimately.
(Tony Dolan)
Mr Lamb appears as an expert at his trade in Treason’s Harbour and The Far Side of the World (there is also a Mr Lamb as carpenter of Jack’s HMS Sophie in Master and Commander, but he is clearly a different character). As was fairly common in the service, Mr Lamb’s wife sails with him in Surprise. The tradition of allowing the wives of the ‘standing officers’ – gunners, bosuns, carpenters – to sail with their husbands was rather more common in larger vessels than Surprise, and these ladies would often have charge of the many young boys aboard as Captain’s servants, or might assist in the sick-bay.
Barrett Bonden,
Jack’s Cox’n
(Billy Boyd)
Barrett Bonden is Jack’s long-time cox’n (the coxswain / cox’n is at the tiller of the Captain’s launch, and acts as bodyguard to his officer in action or when ashore), appearing in every book from Master and Commander (where he declines the opportunity to be advanced to Midshipman on the grounds that he lacks the education to think of ever becoming an officer) through to The Hundred Days. Although he’s said to be young for his job when first introduced, Bonden is a formidably tough character, a champion boxer (as referred to in Far Side and The Yellow Admiral), born at sea, and one of the few characters in the books to have served under the great Lord Nelson (whose own cox’n Bonden is said to resemble). He has a large number of relatives also at sea, and indeed Joe Plaice is one of his cousins. In the movie, however, it’s curious that Jack refers to him as ‘Barrett’, something he never does in the books where he is always just ‘Bonden’, and that Mr Allen also refers to him as ‘Mr Bonden’, a courtesy reserved only for officers (both commissioned and non-commissioned / warrant) and midshipmen.
Preserved Killick,
Jack’s steward
(David Threfall)
The cantankerous, eccentric, insolent, only-part-competent, yet immensely loyal Killick is Jack’s steward in every one of O’Brian’s 20 books (though he is also occasionally found under other Captains when Jack lacks a ship). Jack is a man who prefers what he’s used to, even if it sometimes drives him to distraction! To some degree, O’Brian seems to have modeled aspects of the Jack / Killick relationship on that of Lord Nelson and his steward Tom Allen, a shrew of a man who often shocked the Admiral’s guests with his over-familiarity and nagging ways.
Black Bill, Killick’s
Mate
(Ousmanne Thiam)
Although a handful of black seamen appear in the O’Brian books – and must have been plentiful on the lower decks of navy ships of the time – there isn’t one of this particular name or role; though Killick does sometimes have a mate called William / Bill Grimshaw. A sub-plot in some of the books is that Jack Aubrey has, from a very youthful fling, an illegitimate black son, Sam Panda, who grows up to be a formidable Catholic priest in South America
Mr
Higgins, Stephen’s assistant
(Richard McCabe)
In several of the O’Brian books, Stephen has assistants of middling competence, just like the Mr Higgins of the movie. However, in the novel Far Side, Higgins is portrayed as a rather grasping, ignorant man whose main appeal to Stephen is that he is an expert at extracting rotten teeth almost painlessly, a skill that Stephen very much lacks. Trading on this mechanical expertise, Higgins sets up a quiet, private ‘medical’ practice amongst the more credulous of Surprise’s crew, causing far more troubles than ever he cures. In a gruesome sub-plot, he performs a crude abortion on Mrs Horner, the Gunner’s wife who is pregnant by Midshipman Hollom; found out, he is tossed overboard at night by the angry and violent husband and vanishes.
Padeen,
Stephen’s ‘loblolly boy’
(John de Santis)
Padeen (i.e., ‘Little Patrick’) Colman is a giant Irishman who suffers from a cleft palate and speaks no language other than his native Irish. At the start of the Far Side novel, he’s rescued from unjust confinement in a lunatic asylum at Gibraltar and taken on board Surprise as Stephen’s servant. From then through to The Yellow Admiral he acts as Stephen’s devoted retainer and surprisingly gentle sick-bay assistant. Padeen is at the centre of a number of subsequent sub-plots, several of which stem from the laudanum addiction he shares with Stephen, and one of which gets him transported to, and rescued from, confinement in the Australian penal colonies (The Thirteen Gun Salute and The Nutmeg of Consolation). In The Commodore he also plays a semi-mystic role in the release of Stephen’s young daughter Brigid from a strange mental illness.
(George Innes)
Old Joe Plaice is one of Jack’s loyal followers from ship to ship (from Post Captain to Blue at the Mizzen; the William Plaice who appears in a couple of the books is almost certainly the same man), a vastly experienced seaman even if no great shakes at anything in particular; he is a cousin of Barrett Bonden. In the Far Side novel, he cracks his head on a ring-bolt in a fall, and is publicly operated on by Stephen with his trepanning skull-saw; this is one of several such operations that Stephen conducts during the series, and some of the movie details are taken from his similar operation on Mr Day, the gunner of HMS Sophie in Master and Commander.
(Bryan Dick)
In the Far Side novel Nagel is a troublesome seaman transferred into Jack’s Surprise from the mutinous HMS Defender along with a number of others; a sub-plot of the book is the difficulty Jack has in integrating these new hands with his established crew. It is Nagle who boldly strides past Mr Hollom without ‘making his obedience’ (though he does not commit the deadly offence of barging the officer), and is flogged for his insolence.(N.b., in the novel his name is given as ‘Nagel’).
Seaman William Warley
(Joseph Morgan)
Seaman Warley only gets a very brief mention in the Far Side novel as the ‘captain of the maintop’ who falls from the yard during a ferocious storm and is instantly lost in the boiling sea. Despite the brevity of the scene, or perhaps precisely because of that brevity, the horror of the sudden loss comes through very vividly. The ‘captain of the maintop’ in a navy ship would have been one of the most competent and agile sailors aboard, taking charge of those upper-rigging seamen who performed the most demanding work aloft: it’s a job Barrett Bonden once had aboard HMS Sophie in Master and Commander.
Seaman Faster Doudle
(William Mannering)
Faster Doudle (sometimes Doodle) appears as a prime seaman in a half dozen of the series, Far Side included. He’s especially noted as an agile and canny wicket-keeper in the cricket team of Jack’s HMS Leopard (in The Fortune of War).
(Patrick Gallagher)
Awkward Davies is a huge, violent, brutal, ungainly seaman who follows Jack from command to command, Jack often hoping he will desert (the Captain regards him as certainly a cannibal, amongst other things)! Although he appears mostly in the latter half of the series (from The Ionian Mission to Blue at the Mizzen), he’s first introduced as an old shipmate of Jack and it’s just possible that he is intended to be the black seaman Davies who appears early in the series in both Master and Commander and The Mauritius Command.
(Alex Palmer)
Nehemiah Slade is a central character in a running sub-plot in the O’Brian series from The Letter of Marque onwards, though he doesn’t actually appear in the Far Side novel. Slade is one of many prime west-country smugglers who enlist with Jack when he has been temporarily dismissed the service. Their independent ways (even when they end up in the taut Royal Navy) and their attachment to the Sethian religion – a rather touchy non-conformist sect, prone to take offence – cause Jack and Stephen many a problem on their voyages.
(Mark Lewis Jones)
Hogg, part of the crew of the destroyed whaler Albatross in the movie, is in the Far Side novel a prime seaman and harpooner rescued in similar circumstances from the remains of the Intrepid Fox. Whalers shipped aboard for shares of the profit rather than wages, and were therefore used to a say in the decision making whilst at sea. Hogg takes some considerable time, once read into the Royal Navy, to learn the instant obedience expected of him. At one point he seizes and spanks one of the youngest Midshipman (a Mr Nesbitt) for swearing at one of the hands; it’s a hanging offence to strike an officer, though Hogg escapes punishment by virtue of his recent background and arrival aboard.
(Thierry Segall)
A character invented by the film makers. However, as an (almost) unseen man, relentlessly pursuing Jack’s ship, he is part-inspired by the also unnamed captain of the Dutch 74-gun Waakzaamheid who tracks Jack’s HMS Leopard across the South Atlantic in Desolation Island (a point made by Don Seltzer of the Gunroom).
Jack’s wife Sophie (first met in Post Captain) makes a fleeting ‘appearance’ in the film when Jack looks at a miniature picture of her on his writing desk whilst penning a letter home. An oddity that many book fans have remarked on is that the pictured Sophie has decidedly dark hair, whilst the literary Sophie is remarkably tall and blond. Some wags have suggested that the picture may be of Sophie’s cousin, the raven-haired Diana Villiers, with whom Jack had an affair before his marriage to Sophie (and Diana of course goes on to marry Stephen Maturin). Another slight technical oddity is that, although Jack and Sophie were long-married in The Far Side of the World, which was set by O’Brian in 1813, they were not yet married in 1805, the earlier year to which Peter Weir shifted the movie.
The great Lord Nelson is mentioned several times in the film, once as a source of one of Jack’s favorite jokes (“Pass the salt”) but more often as a figure of great inspiration. There’s a curiosity in the scene of the biography of Nelson that Jack gives to the injured Lord Blakeney. The film is set in mid-1805, and of course it was not until October 21st of that year that Nelson both won his great victory at Trafalgar and lost his life in that battle. No biography of the great hero had appeared before his death (even though Nelson had been a national hero for some years already), and the book in the shot is in fact a copy of Archibald Duncan’s 1806 The Victories of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson Gallant British Hero.
Here’s the full biographical note on Lord Nelson from my Patrick O'Brian Muster Book:
“Lord Nelson is mentioned several times over in every book
of the series. Very often the
occurrences are simply remarks of warm praise, such as Jack Aubrey proudly
relating that he has twice dined in his company, being spoken to on each
occasion (M&C 3; SM 2; COM 10). As it would prove neither practical nor useful
to list every reference to the great man,
in this short biography I have simply added cross references to remarks
by O’Brian’s characters on specific events in his career.
Vice Admiral Viscount Horatio Nelson [1758-1805], Duke of Brontë, is undoubtedly Britain’s greatest naval hero. The son of a Norfolk parson, Nelson first
went to sea in 1770 in his uncle Maurice Suckling’s
HMS Raisonnable. After an adventurous career as Captain’s
servant and Midshipman - later including an Arctic voyage in HMS Carcass under Captain Skeffington Lutwidge - he was commissioned
Lieutenant in 1777. During the American
War of Independence he served in the West Indies fleet under Admiral Sir Peter
Parker, who gave him several independent cruises, promoting him Commander in
1778 and Post Captain in 1779 (PC 12).
In 1787 Nelson married Francis Nisbit, the
widowed niece of the President of Nevis, becoming step-father to her small son,
Josiah.
The end of the American war left Nelson
ashore in England on half-pay from 1788 until 1793, when the start of the
French Revolutionary War saw him given HMS Agamemnon,
64-gun.
In 1794, during a shore attack on the port of Calvi,
Corsica, he was blinded in the right eye by sand and debris thrown up by a
cannon-ball (FW 9). By 1796 he had risen
to be a Commodore in the Mediterranean fleet and, in 1797, played a decisive
role in Sir John Jervis’ great victory at the Battle of Cape St Vincent where,
in the 74-gun HMS Captain, he engaged
and boarded the Spanish San Nicolas,
80-gun, and San Josef, 112-gun,
crossing from the one to the other with San
Nicolas being his ‘Patent Bridge for Boarding First-Rates’ (FW 9; IM
3,11). In the same year he was promoted
Rear Admiral (purely by seniority), became ‘Sir Horatio’, a Knight of the Bath,
and also lost his right arm in an attempt to take a Spanish treasure ship at
Tenerife (FW 9).
As a flag-officer Nelson now led a detached squadron in the
Mediterranean whose captains soon became known as his ‘Band of Brothers’. In 1798, with his flag in HMS Vanguard, he won a decisive victory over
the French Admiral Brueys at the Battle of the Nile (M&C 3; DI 5; COM 10;
also known as the Battle of Aboukir Bay),
receiving during the action a scalp wound that for a short while made him fear
that he had been totally blinded (DI 8; TH 4). Following this triumph, Nelson was made a
Baron (thus now being addressed as ‘Lord Nelson’) and became popularly known as
‘the Hero of the Nile’ (HMS 11).
Continuing as a squadron commander (FW 9; TMC
2; COM 7), he based himself in Naples and there again met Emma, the wife of the
British consul Sir William Hamilton, whom he had first come to know in late
1793: the two commenced a long and often
scandalous affair, leading in 1800 to Nelson’s effective separation from his
wife (PC 14; TH 9; RM
5). In 1799 his successes in and off
southern Italy gained him the Dukedom of Brontë (in
Sicily) from Ferdinand, King of the Two Sicilies (NC
7). However, as part of these campaigns,
he had accepted the surrender in Naples of Commodore Caraciolo,
a republican rebel. Under pressure from
the Neapolitan royalists, Nelson was then instrumental in having him hanged,
without proper trial, from the yardarm of a Sicilian frigate (PC 14).
Promoted Vice Admiral in January 1801, his next command was
in the Baltic, as a subordinate to the somewhat ineffectual Sir Hyde
Parker. Later that year Nelson’s
squadron defeated the Danish fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen (DI 1; SM 4; TH 10), a victory for which he was made a Viscount and also
given permission by King George III to use his Sicilian Duke’s title in
England. It was at Copenhagen that
Nelson chose to ignore Parker’s recall signal, remarking that he had a right
occasionally to use his blind eye.
Made Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean fleet in 1803,
he hoisted his flag in HMS Victory. On October 21st 1805 - in his final rank, as
of April 1804, of Vice Admiral of the White (YA 1) - Nelson brought the
combined French and Spanish fleets to battle just off Cape Trafalgar (FW 2). Although he defeated them comprehensively,
during the battle was brought down by a sharpshooter operating from the tops of
Captain Lucas’ Redoubtable (LM
6). He died a few hours later, shortly
after hearing from his Flag Captain, Thomas Hardy, that a great victory had
been secured. Lord Nelson, revered as
much for his humanity (e.g. HMS 5) and inspirational qualities (e.g. DI 5; LM 1,2, WDS 1) as for his tactical
brilliance, was given a state funeral and buried in St Paul’s Cathedral,
London.
Although regard for Nelson was wide-spread and deeply felt,
many contemporaries also noted in him a streak of affectation and
self-absorption that could irritate even those disposed to admiration. Lord St Vincent always treated his protégé as
an awkward, touchy, yet brilliant, son;
General Sir John Moore - the brother of a Royal Navy Captain - wrote
that Nelson’s be-medalled and be-ribboned
dress at the Sicilian Court made a
‘pitiful impression ... more like a Prince of an Opera than the Conqueror of
the Nile’; and the future Duke of
Wellington, when still a relatively junior general, briefly met Nelson in
London in early 1805, at first finding him almost disgustingly silly and vain,
but then, after Nelson was told to whom he was talking and abruptly modified
his conversation, seeing him as ‘really a very superior man’ with a impressive
depth of insight into affairs of state, both military and political.
On board ship, although usually loved by his officers and crews, Nelson also had a reputation for falling into periods of morose tetchiness, especially when afflicted, as he often was during rough weather, with sea-sickness and intestinal upsets.”
Napoleon Bonaparte, the French Emperor
The ruler
of France is Jack Aubrey’s professional enemy, but he is especially loathed in
the novels by Stephen Maturin, to whom he is a brutal tyrant who has corrupted
the very notion of liberty.
[N.B.,
O’Brian almost always uses the Italian/Corsican spelling ‘Buonaparte’,
although the French ‘Bonaparte’, which Napoleon himself adopted in 1796, is
occasionally encountered.]
Here’s the full biographical note on Napoleon from my Patrick O'Brian Muster Book:
“Napoleon Buonaparte [1769‑1821], the
brilliant Corsican-French soldier and statesman, was the effective autocrat of
France from 1799 to 1814 and again for three months in 1815; he reigned as Emperor from 1804‑14
and in 1815. Buonaparte
was born into a family of strong supporters of General Paoli’s movement for
Corsican autonomy and
it was to his formidable mother that he later always attributed
his astonishing energy and powers of decision.
At the age of 10 Napoleon was sent to military schools in Brienne and Paris and in 1785 became a Lieutenant of
Artillery. By 1789 he had become an
enthusiast for revolutionary ideas, and in 1792 moved his entire family from
Corsica to France rather than follow Paoli’s acceptance of English protection
for the island. In 1793 Napoleon made
his military reputation, and earned promotion to General, by capturing the port
of Toulon from Spanish and English occupation, and in 1794 led the Convention’s
defeat of the rebellion by the National Guard, as a result of which he was made
effective Commander-in-Chief of the army of the interior.
In 1796, shortly after his marriage to Josephine Beauharnais
(the fashionable widow of a General, and the daughter of a naval captain),
Napoleon took command of the French army in Italy and began a series of
campaigns whose brilliant success has seldom been rivalled in history. In 1798 he was then entrusted with planning
the invasion of England but the Parisian political powers of the time soon
decided to concentrate their attack on Britain’s overseas Empire by sending the
young General to Egypt and thence, by intention, to India. He enjoyed considerable military success in
Egypt itself but Nelson’s great victory at the Battle of the Nile in August
1798 and Admiral
Sir Sidney Smith’s defence of Acre in 1799 so limited the French army’s supply
routes that the campaign had to be abandoned.
Whilst in Cairo Buonaparte had, for political
purposes, courted Islam, encouraging by both proclamation and action a belief
that he had even embraced the faith (see COM 10;
HD 1+). Although the General had a genuine and intelligent
interest in matters of belief and religious observation, and some considerable
sympathy for the combined holy and organisational tenets of Islam in
particular, he later stressed that he had merely given Arabic Moslems the
respect due to all great faiths, especially by invaders in search of local
allies.
In 1799 Napoleon returned to France - narrowly escaping capture by
British cruisers en
route - where he found the whole
country grossly dissatisfied with the government’s war effort. He immediately used his own great popularity
to secure the post of First Consul, taking near-absolute power for
himself. Resuming command in the field,
he won decisive
victories against the Austrian armies in Italy and compelled them
to sue for peace. Britain’s consequent
isolation led to the Treaty of Amiens of March 1802. Amongst other things, this period of peace
enabled Napoleon greatly to increase his system of domestic control,
particularly by the use of Fouché’s talents as Chief
of Police.
The peace with England broke down in early 1803 and plans to invade
were again raised. In May 1804 Buonaparte crowned himself Emperor Napoleon of the French
in a ceremony conducted by Pope Pius VII and then immediately began campaigns
against the Austrians and Russians, inflicting on them a series of heavy
defeats. However, even the great victory
at Austerlitz in December of 1805 was partially
offset by Admiral Lord Nelson’s triumph over the combined French and Spanish
fleets a few months earlier at Trafalgar, after which French strategic
sea-power never seriously rivalled that of Britain. Although by 1810 Napoleon was the undoubted
master of continental Europe, he had failed to reduce Britain by either
invasion or trade blockade and he was still embroiled in a long, costly campaign
in Spain and Portugal (the ‘Peninsular War’, lasting from 1808-14). Furthermore in 1808 he had fallen out with
his former ally the Pope and in 1809 had invaded Rome, annexing the Papal
States: in June 1810 Pius excommunicated all involved in this affair (and was
then imprisoned from 1811-14 for his pains), an act which tended to unite
staunch Catholic opposition to Napoleon’s rule, especially in northern Europe
and in France’s out-lying colonial possessions.
In December 1809 Napoleon had divorced the Empress Josephine, she
having failed to bear him an heir, and in 1810 married Princess Marie-Louise of
Austria, who in 1811 bore him a son. In
1812 Napoleon then invaded Russia with an army of 500,000 men, initially
winning brilliant victories but soon over-stretching his supply lines and being
forced to withdraw: by December the
exceptionally hard Russian winter had reduced the French force to less than
100,000. Following this first real sign
of Bonaparte’s strategic misjudgement, in 1813 much of Europe rose up against
the Emperor’s rule. Although the
Emperor’s personal military talent remained formidable, his enemies were
rapidly growing stronger and France herself was tiring of the costs of 20 years
of near-continual war. Following a heavy
defeat at Leipzig in 1813 itself, the Emperor was
unable to raise sufficient new forces to defend Paris effectively and in March
1814 he was forced by his discontented generals to abdicate. Napoleon was banished by the Allies to the
small Mediterranean island of Elba (of which he was made formal Head of State)
and the Bourbon monarchy was restored to France (see YA 9,10).
However the new King Louis XVIII failed to obtain popular support,
whilst Napoleon himself kept in close contact with his own former supporters. In February 1815 he left Elba (see YA 10) and marched in triumph to Paris, being joined by his former armies
along the way amidst legendary scenes of the old imperial charisma (HD
1+).
Once in his capital, he resumed the position of Emperor for the famous
‘Hundred Days’, and immediately struck northwards against his enemies. However, he was soon finally defeated at
Waterloo, in Belgium, by the British General Lord Wellington and the Prussian
General Blücher (see HD 10).
Napoleon now hoped to flee to the USA but, at the Atlantic port of La
Rochelle, soon realised that he had no means of getting through the British
naval blockade. On July 15th 1815 he
surrendered to Captain Frederick Maitland of HMS Bellerophon and was taken to England. On August 7th he was conveyed to his final exile
on the Atlantic Island of St Helena aboard HMS Northumberland, the
flag-ship of Admiral Sir George Cockburn, under the command of Captain Charles
Ross.
On May 5th 1821, Napoleon died of stomach cancer. The Empress Marie Louise had left him on his
first abdication in 1814 and the ex-Empress Josephine - with whom he remained
passionately in love - had died of diphtheria during his earlier exile on
Elba.”
A wonderful
technical description of Jack’s HMS Surprise and indeed all his other
commands can be found in Bruce Trinque’s web-site, The
Ships of Jack Aubrey. In the
movie, she was impersonated by the slightly smaller Rose, a modern (1970) Nova Scotia-built replica of the
original British HMS Rose of 1757 that was scuttled in the Savannah
River in 1779 as part of a Royal Navy plan to deny access to the port during
the Revolutionary War. For the movie Rose was somewhat adapted in her
external features to come closer to how Surprise would have appeared to
Jack Aubrey.
Here’s the full
biographical note on Surprise from my
Patrick O'Brian Muster Book:
“Surprise,
whether as a King’s Ship (HMS to RM; HD 1-9),
a private letter-of-marque (RM
to TGS) or His Majesty’s Hired Vessel (TGS to YA; HD 9,10), is Jack Aubrey’s favourite
command, first appearing in the eponymous HMS Surprise and then taking
part, or being mentioned, in every book thereafter. Consequently most of the key incidents in her
career are given under the main Patrick O'Brian Muster Book
entry for Jack himself, with this entry being largely confined to a general
summary and to certain details not to be found in that location.
1: The career
of Surprise under Jack Aubrey.
Surprise
is Jack’s first permanent command as a Post Captain, obtained for him by the
good offices of Sir Joseph Blaine. Long
ago, Jack had served in her as a Midshipman, during which time he had carved
his initials on the cap of the mast-head (HMS 4; a period referred to many
times thereafter). Her first service
under Jack, in the Indian Ocean (HMS 4+), is later several times referred to in
those books in which she does not actually make an appearance (TMC 1,3,7; DI 1,3; FW 1; SM
1,7). Surprise next appears as an
unhappy ship in the Mediterranean fleet under the command of Francis Latham (IM
5-8). During the abortive attempt to
bring the French to battle, Latham and his First Lieutenant are both killed by
a shot from Robuste (IM 8,9)
and she is now given to Jack for a mission to the Ionian region (IM 9). Under her service nickname of Joyful
Surprise (TH 5) she continues as Jack’s ship in
the Mediterranean (TH 1+), Atlantic and Pacific (FSW 1+; RM 1) but is soon due to
be ‘retired’ on account of her age (TH 8; FSW 1; RM 1-3). Jack would like to buy her for himself but
lacks the means to do so (RM 4-6) and is in any case
soon ruined by his conviction for fraud and dismissal from the Royal Navy (RM 7). The newly
rich Stephen Maturin is able to afford her and, with the expert help of
Tom Pullings, acquires her (though concealing his
own role in the transaction: LM 1) as a letter-of-marque. Charged with an (often to be postponed)
intelligence mission to Peru, she is given to Jack as a private command (RM 7-10; LM 1+; TGS 1-3). When Jack is restored to the Royal Navy, Surprise
is then temporarily given to Tom Pullings, and thus
holds the curious status of a privately-owned ship commanded by a King’s
officer (TGS 3,4; NC 3,6,7). On Jack’s
re-assumption of command for the delayed Peruvian mission, she is then
officially hired-in by the Navy (NC 8) and, at some
unspecified point, somewhat unwillingly sold to Jack by Stephen (NC 9; C/T 1).
Sometimes now commanded by Jack and sometimes by Tom Pullings,
Surprise now conducts a variety of missions in the Pacific (C/T 1+; WDS 1+) before finally arriving back in England (COM 1,3,4,7; YA 5,8).
Following France’s capitulation, Surprise is next to be Jack’s
command on a mission to Chile, hired to the Admiralty Hydrographic
Survey for the purpose (YA 10; but the deal is done by
Stephen, who appears to own her once again). However, whilst at Madeira, the friends learn
that Buonaparte has escaped from exile on Elba and,
in consequence, Jack has been ordered to shift to HMS Pomone
as a Commodore (YA 10). Surprise
accompanies the new squadron to the Mediterranean, restored to the Royal Navy
as a King’s frigate (HD 1) and soon becoming Jack’s pennant-ship for his
various missions (HD 2-9). However, once
Jack’s squadron is dispersed, Admiral Lord Barmouth
orders Surprise to be returned to her status of a private warship (HD 9). It is
in this capacity (although she may perhaps have been even further reduced to
‘hired survey vessel’ again) that she enjoys the final triumph of taking the
Moslem treasure-galley before resuming her South American voyage (HD 10).
2: The history
of Surprise before Jack Aubrey
assumed command.
According to Jack, Surprise is older
even than HMS Irresistible (RM 1), having been
launched at Le Havre (YA 9) in the 1780s as the French Unité
(HMS 5; RM 3) and captured by the Royal Navy in 1796
(WDS 3;
N.B., thus making it impossible for Jack to have served on her as a
Midshipman: HMS 4). She is famous
for having retaken the mutinous HMS Hermione
(e.g. HMS 5; FSW 10; C/T 2), an action for which she
was given the nick-name of Nemesis (HMS
6,7) and then officially re-named successively HMS Retaliation and Retribution
(LM 5,8).
[Note: Jack
Aubrey’s HMS Surprise is an amalgam of - and perhaps even something of a
most understandable confusion between - at least two real ships, both at
various times named Unité: a) the 24-gun corvette Unité,
launched at Le Havre in 1794, captured by HMS Inconstant in 1796, and taken into the Royal Navy as Surprise
(and largely the model for Jack’s favourite ship); and b) a rather older 36-gun frigate, launched at Rochefort as Gracieuse in
1787 (the same year as Irresistible), renamed Unité
in 1793 and then Variente in 1796, the year in
which she was taken by HMS Revolutionaire and
bought into the Royal Navy as HMS Unity / Unite (both spellings
are seen). By a curious coincidence,
both of these ships were then sold by the Admiralty during 1802, in February
and May respectively, further adding to the ease of confusing the pair in the
various service listings. In 1799, under
Sir Edward Hamilton, Surprise famously retook the mutinous HMS Hermione
and consequently acquired the nickname of
Nemesis, a term meaning something very like ‘retribution’ in Greek legend. However, it was Hermione herself, not
Surprise, that was successively re‑named HMS Retaliation and Retribution.]”
Acheron
The American-built, heavy French privateer-frigate Acheron of the movie is an entirely fictional ship, that makes no
appearance in O’Brian’s books. In ‘character’
terms, she’s something of an amalgam of the Spanish privateer Cacafuego that
Jack captures at the end of Master and
Commander (based on the very real El Gamo taken against all odds by Lord Cochrane) and the
USS Norfolk that he chases in The Far Side of the World (loosely based
on the real USS Essex, captured in
1814 by HMS Phoebe). The sheer relentlessness of her pursuit of
the Surprise seems drawn from the
behavior of Waakzaamheid,
the Dutch 74-gun that tracks Jack’s HMS Leopard
across the South Atlantic in Desolation Island (a point made by Don
Seltzer of the Gunroom).
Curiously, the only Acheron (the name
of an underworld river in Greek mythology) in naval service in 1805 - when
Peter Weir sets his movie - was actually a Royal Navy ship, an 8-gun
bomb-vessel of 388 tons, launched in 1799 and bought into the Navy in 1803. The
French 40-gun frigate Hortense
took and burned her off Malta in early 1805.
Remarkably, her taking could have made a splendid O’Brian story, for she
and her little consort-sloop HMS Arrow
took on two large French frigates (Hortense and the 38-gun Incorruptible)
in an evening and morning running fight: the overwhelming odds eventually forced
both British ships to surrender. Acheron’s Commander Arthur Farquar was soon promoted full Captain for his bravery, as
was Arrow’s Commander Richard
Vincent.