The Yellow Admiral

By Patrick O'Brian
 320 pages

Nearly the end of the series at volume 18. This book sets up the beginning of the end of Jack's career. The hoisting of his flag. But with peace near and an influential Admiral angry at Jack for stopping the enclosure of common land where Jack has a house, he is threatened to be "Yellowed". He will be made Admiral yet not given a squadron, never allowed to hoist his flag and end his illustrious career shamed.

This was another fairly slow story. Moderately interesting. On the naval side Stephen and Joseph Blaine work out a way for Jack to be removed from the list, miss the culling after the peace, and be reinstated later. Stephen has a deal with the Chileans for Jack to go over as a surveyor and start their navy. Giving him a chance at further distinguishing himself. Currently they are on the Brest blockade under Admiral (? I don't remember) who dislikes Jack and speaks poorly of him in official reports.

At home Sophie finds the love letters from Amanda Smith, giving proof of Jack's infidelity after their marriage. She kicks him out.

All is mostly worked out in the end on both fronts. Especially as during a stop off in  Portugal (with the wives and kids on the Surprise) on way to Chile, they learn Napoleon has escaped from Elba and Jack has been summoned to catch him.

My thoughts: there isn't much to comment. It's painful to see how the relationships between the higher ups in the Navy help Jack on some accounts and his actions cause others to be strained or become adversarial. His past actions in life come back to haunt him. Stephen is forever helping him on the sly. Fortunately Jack knows when to go along with Stephen's advice/requests without question. The trust they place in each other is quite touching.