HMS Surprise, The Mauritius Command

By Patrick O'Brian

Two more books down, 727 pages. Wow I'm really enjoying these books. Both books were enjoyably and completely different!

H.M.S. Surprise starts off with Jack Aubrey suffering at the hands of the Admiralty. They determined that the 5 million pieces of eight that were caught at the end of the last book belong to the crown and not as a prize to the sailors. This book was pretty slow. It was almost 1/2 way through by the time they made their way to India on their way to deliver Mr. Stanhope to the Sultan (in eastern Asia?) The highlight of this book for me (the ship battles weren't that engrossing) was the duel between Stephen Maturin and Mr. Canning over the slap Canning gave to Dr. Maturin for hugging Diana Villers! How dare he! Stephen kills Canning but suffers from a shot to the chest where the ball lodges into his pericardium. He operates himself! and then takes most of the rest of the book to recover. Diana runs off to America with an American. Jack gets a freight prize which covers the last of his expenses and then some, so he is able to get married.

The Mauritius Command was quite an exciting story. It starts out with Jack married, with twin daughters, living in a cottage with his Mother-in-Law, and going crazy being on dry land. He is rescued by an assignment to South Africa to take the British Governor to Mauritius and battle the French to allow said Governor to be able to rule. There is a lot of action and the tides of battle go both ways for the English. Jack is made temporary Commodore and spends most of the book setting everything up for a successful outcome. Right before the final battle the Admiral and Army Generals show up to take credit for the success. Is Jack upset? No, for he learns he has a son at home. Stephen gets slighted in recognition by the Admiral for his espionage work. The Governor gets mad at this and Stephen uses this event (implied) to get Jack the plum assignment of sailing back to the UK to give the news of the success which should ensure his promotion and all sorts of goodies. We'll have to wait and see in the next book.

While I don't' think these books would be nearly as rewarding if you read them alone, they continue to add to the great overall story that is the Jack Aubrey/Stephen Maturin series.