Jack Aubrey, commander of the best-armed frigate in the Royal Navy, leaves the Dutch East Indies to return to England in a dispatch vessel, but the outbreak of the War of 1812 delays his journey and draws him into bloody battle.

While fashioning a schooner out of the remains of their wrecked ship, Captain Aubrey and his crew suffer an attack by Malay pirates and must rely on the ingenuity of ship's surgeon--and intelligence agent--Stephen Maturin. Reprint.

1st American ed.

Dispatched with his ship, the Surprise, to restore order after an attack on a British whaler in Tonga, Captain Aubrey discovers Clarissa Harvill, an escaped female convict, stowed away in the cable-tier. Reprint.

Blue at the Mizzen (novel #20) ended with Jack Aubrey getting the news, in Chile, of his elevation to flag rank: Rear Admiral of the Blue Squadron, with orders to sail to the South Africa station. The next novel, unfinished and untitled at the time of the author's death, would have been the chronicle of that mission, and much else besides. The three chapters left on O'Brian's desk at the time of his death are presented here both in printed version-including...