books tagged “Royal Navy”

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Amphibious Assault Falklands: The Battle of San Carlos Water
by Ewen Southby-Tailyour, Michael Clapp

ISBN 1557500282 (1-55750-028-2)
Hardcover, Naval Inst Pr

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- Amphibious Assault Falklands: The Battle of San Carlos Water: ISBN 1557500282 (1-55750-028-2)
  Hardcover, Naval Inst Pr
Barrow's Boys
by Fergus Fleming

ISBN 186207173X (1-86207-173-X)
Hardcover, Granta Books

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Book summary:
There's something about the overwhelming emptiness and terrifying beauty of the polar regions that never fails to attract. They are the most powerful symbols we have left of a world where human-made laws and values count for nothing; no one conquers the frozen wastelands--they merely learn to live by the rules nature dictates. It is easy to see how for a long time the lives of the polar explorers were shrouded in quasi-mystical and heroic terms. This all changed in the 1970s with the publication of Roland Huntford's magnificent biography of Scott and Amundsen, now called The Last Place on Earth, in which he systematically and methodically revealed the levels of incompetence and arrogance with which Scott's expedition was riddled.
In Barrow's Boys Fergus Fleming takes us on an incisive and witty journey through the landmark years of British exploration from 1816 to 1850, marveling at both the bravery and the stupidity involved. Fleming is a historian first and foremost, so he begins by placing exploration in its context. It wasn't some high-minded idealism or wacky sense of adventure, as is often suggested, that placed Britain at the forefront of discovery, but economics and self-interest. At the end of the Napoleonic wars, the British Navy was too large for its peacetime needs. Officers were laid off and advancement was slow, so the Navy needed to find itself a role. Charting the unmapped areas of the world seemed as good an idea as any.
Step forward John Barrow. Barrow was only the Second Secretary at the Admiralty--not normally a position of great influence--yet he was a skilled politician, and he managed to carve out a niche for himself by organizing expedition after expedition. He started inauspiciously by sending Captain James Tuckey off on an ill-fated jaunt up the Congo in search of "Timbuctoo," which was at that time imagined as some African El Dorado, and he ended in failure with the loss of Franklin's expedition to find the Northwest Passage. In between he courted triumph and tragedy; Ross discovered Antarctica, Parry opened up the Arctic with his attempt on the Pole, and Captain Bremer failed to establish northern Australia as the new Singapore.
Fleming has a great feel for the telling detail. He doesn't get lost in endless minutiae that distract from the narrative, but he never fails to remind us of the surrealism of British 19th-century exploration--cocked hats and reindeer-drawn sledges in the Arctic, frock coats in the Sahara. When put like this, it makes it all too easy to see how Scott could have been allowed to botch his journey to the South Pole quite so catastrophically. --John Crace, Amazon.co.uk [via]
More editions of Barrow's Boys:
- Barrow's Boys: ISBN 0871138042 (0-87113-804-2)
  Hardcover, Atlantic Monthly Pr
- Barrow's Boys: ISBN 186207173X (1-86207-173-X)
  Hardcover, Granta Books
Blue at the Mizzen
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039332107X (0-393-32107-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
Almost three decades after commencing his maritime epic with Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian is still at it. The 20th episode, Blue at the Mizzen, is another swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, complete with romantic escapades from smoggy London to Sierra Leone, diplomacy, espionage, the intricacies of warfare, and imperial brinksmanship. As always, these events are bound up in the ongoing friendship between two officers of the Royal Navy. Jack Aubrey is the naval captain, bold yet compassionate, innovative yet cautious, as fearless in war as he is bumbling in affairs of the heart and household. His boon companion Stephen Maturin is the ship's surgeon--and additionally a spy for the British government, a wealthy Catalonian aristocrat, a doting Irish father, and an avid naturalist.
That may sound like a lot to keep track of. However, it's not necessary to carry around a scorecard or ship's roster while reading Blue at the Mizzen. The ostensible issue is whether Jack will finally be promoted to Admiral of the Blue. But long before he hears any word from the Napoleonic era's equivalent of Personnel, he loses half his crew to desertion, his ship undergoes a disastrous collision, and the entire company comes close to perishing in the ice-choked seas off Cape Horn. Meanwhile, the widowed Maturin issues a surprising proposal of marriage to a beautiful, mud-bespattered fellow naturalist while trekking through an African mangrove swamp. (The two lovebirds happen to be searching for a rare variant of Caprimulgus longipennis, the long-tailed nightjar, which they hope to surprise in full mating plumage.)
Still, this is hardly a plot-driven novel. O'Brian takes time to get anywhere, and invariably enjoys the journey more than the arrival. So even as we get constant hints of the climax to come--Jack's spectacular naval action on behalf of the infant Republic of Chile--we don't mind hearing about the nuances of shipboard existence or the secret life of the white-faced tree duck. We're treated, for example, to this snippet about managed care, circa 1816:
Poll, Maggie and a horse-leech from the starboard watch have been administering enemas to the many, many cases of gross surfeit that have now replaced the frostbites, torsions, and debility of the recent past, the very recent past. Strong, fresh, seal-meat has not its equal for upsetting the seaman's metabolism: he is much better kept on biscuits, Essex cheese, and a very little well-seethed salt pork--kept on short commons.
And we're grateful! We can only hope that the elderly author will favor us with at least one more novel, so that his avid followers can avoid their own form of short commons. Life without Aubrey and Maturin would be a deprivation indeed. --Andrew Himes [via]
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Churchill And The Admirals
by Stephen Wentworth Roskill

ISBN 1844151042 (1-84415-104-2)
Softcover, Casemate Pub & Book Dist Llc

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Book summary:
Winston Churchill enjoyed two stints as First Lord of the Admiralty, at the start of the First World War and at the start of the Second. He retained close interest in naval matters, especially as the defeat of the U-boat menace was so vital in both wars to maintain the vital supplies so necessary for Britain's war efforts. Indeed, Churchill later said that this was the only thing that had threatened the ultimate Allied victory. [via]
More editions of Churchill And The Admirals:
- Churchill And The Admirals: ISBN 1844151042 (1-84415-104-2)
  Softcover, Casemate Pub & Book Dist Llc
The Commodore
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 1568952716 (1-56895-271-6)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc

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Book summary:
The seventeenth novel in the best-selling Aubrey/Maturin series of naval tales, which the New York Times Book Review has described as "the best historical novels ever written."
Having survived a long and desperate adventure in the Great South Sea, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin return to England to very different circumstances. For Jack it is a happy homecoming, at least initially, but for Stephen it is disastrous: his little daughter appears to be autistic, incapable of speech or contact, while his wife, Diana, unable to bear this situation, has disappeared, her house being looked after by the widowed Clarissa Oakes.

Much of The Commodore takes place on land, in sitting rooms and in drafty castles, but the roar of the great guns is never far from our hearing. Aubrey and Maturin are sent on a bizarre decoy mission to the fever-ridden lagoons of the Gulf of Guinea to suppress the slave trade. But their ultimate destination is Ireland, where the French are mounting an invasion that will test Aubrey's seamanship and Maturin's resourcefulness as a secret intelligence agent.

The subtle interweaving of these disparate themes is an achievement of pure storytelling by one of our greatest living novelists.
[via]
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Desolation Island
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039330812X (0-393-30812-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
Captain Bligh (yes, the guy from the Bounty) needs to be rescued, and the Royal Navy has the perfect man for the job: Captain Jack Aubrey. With his friend and cloak-and-dagger expert Stephen Maturin in tow, Aubrey sets off for Australia. Several factors, including an attractive spy and a small-scale epidemic, conspire to change his plans, and before long his frigate is being pursued into Antarctic waters by a Dutch man-of-war. Five installments into the series, the Aubrey-Maturin story remains (to quote The Observer) "the best thing afloat since Horatio Hornblower." [via]
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The Far Side of the World
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308626 (0-393-30862-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
The inspiration for the major new motion picture starring Russell Crowe.
The war of 1812 continues, and Jack Aubrey sets course for Cape Horn on a mission after his own heart: intercepting a powerful American frigate outward bound to play havoc with the British whaling trade. Stephen Maturin has fish of his own to fry in the world of secret intelligence. Disaster in various guises awaits them in the Great South Sea and in the far reaches of the Pacific: typhoons, castaways, shipwrecks, murder, and criminal insanity. [via]
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The Fortune of War
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308138 (0-393-30813-8)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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"A marvellously full-flavoured, engrossing book, which towers over its current rivals in the genre like a three-decker over a ship's longboat."Times Literary Supplement
Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Navy. He and his friend Stephen Maturin take passage for England in a dispatch vessel. But the War of 1812 breaks out while they are en route. Bloody actions precipitate them both into new and unexpected scenes where Stephen's past activities as a secret agent return on him with a vengeance.
[via]
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H.M.S Surprise: Library Edition
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393307611 (0-393-30761-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"Few, very few books have made my heart thud with excitement. H.M.S. Surprise managed it."Helen Lucy Burke, Irish Press
Third in the series of Aubrey/Maturin adventures, this book is set among the strange sights and smells of the Indian subcontinent, and in the distant waters ploughed by the ships of the East India Company. Aubrey is on the defensive, pitting wits and seamanship against an enemy enjoying overwhelming local superiority. But somewhere in the Indian Ocean lies the prize that could make him rich beyond his wildest dream: the ships sent by Napoleon to attack the China Fleet... [via]
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Harbors and High Seas
by Dean King, John B. Hattendorf

ISBN 0805066144 (0-8050-6614-4)
Softcover, Owl Books

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Book summary:
Where did Sophie battle the Cacafuego? Where is Aubrey's beloved Ashgrove cottage? What route did Maturin take with his bear? What's so desolate about Kerguelen Island? What's the best route from Botany Bay to Moahu? Find the answers to these and hundreds of other questions in this indispensable guide to the terrain and cartography of O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels. [via]
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Harbors and High Seas : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian
by Dean King, John B. Hattendorf

ISBN 0805059482 (0-8050-5948-2)
Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry

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Book summary:
The highly successful, one-of-a-kind atlas to the beloved novels of Patrick O'Brian is back in a revised and expanded edition. Since the release of the first edition, two new Aubrey-Maturin novels have appeared -- The Yellow Admiral and The Hundred Days -- and new chapters are devoted to each of them. Author Dean King and a team of cartographers have created exclusive maps for each of the novels in this renowned series, depicting the routes of voyages taken and locating the sites of major battles, storms, landings, crossings, and other events. Locations of major importance are extensively described in the charming, yet authoritative text.
Called "a treasure" by The Louisville Courier-Journal and "good news for all you Patrick O'Brian fans" by the Chicago Tribune, here is an indispensable guide to navigating one of the decade's most popular fiction series. [via]
More editions of Harbors and High Seas : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian:
- Harbors and High Seas : An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian: ISBN 0805059482 (0-8050-5948-2)
  Softcover, Holt & Company, Henry
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Hornblower's Navy: Life at Sea in the Age of Nelosn
by Stephen Pope

ISBN 1566490308 (1-56649-030-8)
Softcover, Welcome Rain

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- Hornblower's Navy: Life at Sea in the Age of Nelosn: ISBN 1566490308 (1-56649-030-8)
  Softcover, Welcome Rain
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The Hundred Days
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393319792 (0-393-31979-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
The year is 1815, and Europe's most unpopular (not to mention tiniest) empire-builder has escaped from Elba. In The Hundred Days, it's up to Jack Aubrey--and surgeon-cum-spymaster Stephen Maturin--to stop Napoleon in his tracks. How? For starters, Aubrey and his squadron have been dispatched to the Adriatic coast, to keep Bonapartist shipbuilders from beefing up the French navy. Meanwhile, one Sheik Ibn Hazm is fomenting an Islamic uprising against the Allies. The only way to halt this maneuver is to intercept the sheik's shipment of gold--because in the Napoleonic era, as in our own, even the most ardent of mercenaries requires a salary.
The Hundred Days is the 19th (and, we are told, the penultimate) installment of O'Brian's epic. Like many of its predecessors, it features a fairly swashbuckling plot, complete with cannon fire, exotic disguises, and Aubrey's suspenseful, slow-motion pursuit of an Algerian xebek. Yet it never turns into a mere exercise in Hornblowerism. Partly this is due to O'Brian's delicate touch with character--the relationship between extroverted Aubrey and introverted Maturin has deepened with each book, and even Aubrey's reunion with his childhood companion Queenie Keith is full of novelistic nuance: "They sat smiling at one another. An odd pair: handsome creatures both, but they might have been of the same sex or neither." Nor does the author focus too exclusively on his dynamic duo. Indeed, The Hundred Days is very much a chronicle of a floating community, which Maturin describes as "his own village, his own ship's company, that complex entity so much more easily sensed than described: part of his natural habitat."
Finally, O'Brian shows his usual expertise in balancing the great events with the most minuscule ones. Other authors have written about battles at sea, and still others have recorded the rapid rise and fall of Napoleon's fortunes after his escape from confinement. But who else would give equal time--and an equal charge of delight--to Maturin's discovery of an anomalous nuthatch? --James Marcus [via]
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The Ionian Mission
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308219 (0-393-30821-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
Aubrey and Maturin return to the choppy Mediterranean waters where they first served together, enforcing the Royal Navy's blockade of Toulon. Then the two companions are sent to the Greek Islands, where another series of maritime cliff-hangers awaits them. O'Brian performs his peculiar narrative magic as adeptly as ever, putting (as The Observer would have it) the "spark of character into the sawdust of time." [via]
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The Letter of Marque
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393309053 (0-393-30905-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"Fine stuff...[The Letter of Marque] leaves the devotee of naval fiction eager for sequels."Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post Book World
Captain Jack Aubrey, a brilliant and experienced officer, has been struck off the list of post-captains for a crime he did not commit. His old friend Stephen Maturin, usually cast as a ship's surgeon to mask his discreet activities on behalf of British Intelligence, has bought for Aubrey his former ship the Surprise to command as a privateer, more politely termed a letter of marque. Together they sail on a desperate mission against the French, which, if successful, may redeem Aubrey from the private hell of his disgrace. [via]
More editions of The Letter of Marque:
- The Letter of Marque: ISBN 0393028747 (0-393-02874-7)
  Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The Letter of Marque: ISBN 0393309053 (0-393-30905-3)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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Master and Commander
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393307050 (0-393-30705-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
An attractive movie-tie-in jacket for the release of the motion picture Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World starring Russell Crowe: "The best sea story I have ever read."--Sir Francis Chichester This, the first in the splendid series of Jack Aubrey novels, establishes the friendship between Captain Aubrey, R.N., and Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and intelligence agent, against a thrilling backdrop of the Napoleonic wars. Details of a life aboard a man-of-war are faultless rendered: the conversational idiom of the officers in the ward room and the men on the lower deck, the food, the floggings, the mysteries of the wind and the rigging, and the roar of broadsides as the great ships close in battle. It is the dawn of the nineteenth century; Britain is at war with Napoleon's France. When Jack Aubrey, a young lieutenant in Nelson's navy, is promoted to captain, he inherits command of HMS Sophie , an old, slow brig unlikely to make his fortune. But Captain Aubrey is a brave and gifted seaman, his thirst for adventure and victory immense. With the aid of his friend Stephen Maturin, ship's surgeon and secret intelligence agent, Aubrey and his crew engage in one thrilling battle after another, their journey culminating in a stunning clash with a mighty Spanish frigate against whose guns and manpower the tiny Sophie is hopelessly outmatched. [via]
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The Mauritius Command
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039330762X (0-393-30762-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"Jack's assignment: to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius from the French. That campaign forms the narrative thread of this rollicking sea saga. But its substance is more beguiling still..."Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek
Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a commanduntil Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captainsLord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny.
[via]
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Mr Midshipman Easy
by Rafael Sabatini, Frederick Marryat

ISBN 0935526404 (0-935526-40-4)
Softcover, McBooks Pr

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Book summary:
A rollicking sea adventure, set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars, this book follows the escapades of a young midshipman who enters the King's service with some ideas that run badly afoul of the standards of naval discipline!
[via]
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- Mr Midshipman Easy: ISBN 0935526404 (0-935526-40-4)
  Softcover, McBooks Pr
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Mr. Midshipman Easy
by Captain Marryat

ISBN 1404353879 (1-4043-5387-9)
Softcover, Indypublish.Com

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Book summary:
1836. English novelist who began writing after a distinguished career in the British Navy. Mr. Midshipman Easy is a rollicking sea adventure set in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. The story follows the escapades of a young midshipman who enters the King's service with some ideas that run badly afoul of the standards of naval discipline. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing. [via]
More editions of Mr. Midshipman Easy:
- Mr. Midshipman Easy: ISBN 141790822X (1-4179-0822-X)
  Softcover, Kessinger Pub Co
- Mr. Midshipman Easy: ISBN 1404353879 (1-4043-5387-9)
  Softcover, Indypublish.Com
Nelson's Navy
by Philip Haythornthwaite, William Younghusband

ISBN 1855323346 (1-85532-334-6)
Softcover, Osprey Pub Co

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More editions of Nelson's Navy:
- Nelson's Navy: ISBN 1841762520 (1-84176-252-0)
  Softcover, Osprey Pub Co
- Nelson's Navy: ISBN 1855323346 (1-85532-334-6)
  Softcover, Osprey Pub Co
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Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization, 1793-1815
by Brian Lavery, Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 1591146119 (1-59114-611-9)
Softcover, Naval Inst Pr

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Book summary:
Foreword by Patrick O'Brian. Encyclopedic in scope and filled with more than 400 illustrations, this large-format book provides an in-depth description of the Royal Navy in Lord Nelson's time. Among the subjects covered are ship design and construction, ship handling and navigation, fighting tactics and gunnery techniques, the Navy's administration, foreign navies of the day, and life at sea. Written by one of the world's leading naval authorities in the age of sail, this book has an established reputation as the most authentic and complete picture of Nelson's Navy ever published. 412 illustrations. Appendixes. Index. Paperback. 10 x 12 inches. [via]
More editions of Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization, 1793-1815:
- Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organization, 1793-1815: ISBN 1591146119 (1-59114-611-9)
  Softcover, Naval Inst Pr
Nutmeg of Consolation
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393309061 (0-393-30906-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"[The series shows] a joy in language that jumps from every page....You're in for a wonderful voyage."Cutler Durkee, People
Shipwrecked on a remote island in the Dutch East Indies, Captain Aubrey, surgeon and secret intelligence agent Stephen Maturin, and the crew of the Diane fashion a schooner from the wreck. A vicious attack by Malay pirates is repulsed, but the makeshift vessel burns, and they are truly marooned. Their escape from this predicament is one that only the whimsy and ingenuity of Patrick O'Brianor Stephen Maturincould devise.

In command now of a new ship, the Nutmeg, Aubrey pursues his interrupted mission. The dreadful penal colony in New South Wales, harrowingly described, is the backdrop to a diplomatic crisis provoked by Maturin's Irish temper, and to a near-fatal encounter with the wildlife of the Australian outback. [via]
More editions of Nutmeg of Consolation:
- Nutmeg of Consolation: ISBN 0393030326 (0-393-03032-6)
  Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- Nutmeg of Consolation: ISBN 0393309061 (0-393-30906-1)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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One of Our Submarines
by Edward Young

ISBN 1844151069 (1-84415-106-9)
Softcover, Casemate Pub & Book Dist Llc

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Book summary:
The Wordsworth Military Library covers the breadth of military history, including studies of individual leaders and accounts of major campaigns and great conflicts. [via]
More editions of One of Our Submarines:
- One of Our Submarines: ISBN 1853266817 (1-85326-681-7)
  Softcover, Lb May & Assoc Inc
- One of Our Submarines: ISBN 1844151069 (1-84415-106-9)
  Softcover, Casemate Pub & Book Dist Llc
Post Captain
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393307069 (0-393-30706-9)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
As the first sentences of Post Captain roll off actor Robert Hardy's tongue, you know you're somewhere you've never been before: the high seas in the early 19th century. Hardy's rich rendition of Patrick O'Brian's 1972 novel, a follow-up to Master and Commander, starts with series heroes Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin enjoying a brief period of peace. Soon enough, though, the Napoleonic Wars resume, and the seafaring adventures continue. (Running time: 4.5 hours, three cassettes) --Lou Schuler [via]
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The Reverse of the Medal
by Patrick O'Brien

ISBN 0393309606 (0-393-30960-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"An overwhelming, outstanding novel...!"Irish Times
Captain Jack Aubrey, R. N., ashore after a successful cruise, is persuaded by a casual acquaintance to make certain investments in the City. This innocent decision ensnares him in the London criminal underground and in government espionagethe province of his friend Stephen Maturin. Is Aubrey's humiliation and the threatened ruin of his career a deliberate plot? This dark tale is a fitting backdrop to the brilliant characterization and sparkling dialogue which O'Brian's readers have come to expect.
[via]
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The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery
by Paul M. Kennedy

ISBN 1591023742 (1-59102-374-2)
Softcover, Prometheus Books

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Book summary:
A detailed examination of the rise and fall of Britain's naval might, by the author of the 'Rise and Fall of the Great Powers'. [via]
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The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Navel Command
by Andrew Gordon

ISBN 1557509719 (1-55750-971-9)
Softcover, Naval Inst Pr

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Book summary:
Foreword by Admiral Sir John Woodward. When published in hardcover in 1997, this book was praised for providing an engrossing education not only in naval strategy and tactics but in Victorian social attitudes and the influence of character on history. In juxtaposing an operational with a cultural theme, the author comes closer than any historian yet to explaining what was behind the often described operations of this famous 1916 battle at Jutland. Although the British fleet was victorious over the Germans, the cost in ships and men was high, and debates have raged within British naval circles ever since about why the Royal Navy was unable to take advantage of the situation. In this book Andrew Gordon focuses on what he calls a fault-line between two incompatible styles of tactical leadership within the Royal Navy and different understandings of the rules of the games. [via]
More editions of The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Navel Command:
- The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command: ISBN 155750718X (1-55750-718-X)
  Hardcover, Naval Inst Pr
- The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Navel Command: ISBN 1557509719 (1-55750-971-9)
  Softcover, Naval Inst Pr
The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649
by N.A.M. Rodger

ISBN 0393319601 (0-393-31960-1)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"Rule Britannia, Britannia rules the waves...." The dominance of the British Royal Navy in maritime history is legendary, but this has not always been the case. Various attempts to build and sustain a national standing Navy were attempted by a number of rulers, from Edward the Confessor in the 11th century to Henry V in the 15th century. It wasn't until the Tudor reign (1485 to 1603), however, that a permanent, effective Navy emerged. Until this time the shores of Britain had been susceptible to attack and invasion.
N.A.M. Rodger's compendium on the history of the Royal Navy (the first of a four volume set) reminds us that "the successful navies have been those which rested on long years of steady investment in the infrastructure ... of a seagoing fleet." Emphasizing the important role the Tudors played in building the financial foundation for the Navy, Rodger focuses on the role of Elizabeth I's administration and the amount of money shipbuilding absorbed during her reign. He also traces the evolution of professionalism in the Navy, demonstrating how the rank of naval officer became socially respectable, even though it was not exclusively open to just nobles--indeed, Francis Drake came from an impoverished background--setting a standard that would see the British Navy dominate the oceans for many years.
A fellow in the British National Maritime Museum, Rodger's unique understanding of this history comes across well as he explores a number of themes, ranging from policy and strategy to ship and weapon design. He gathers this information from Anglo-Saxon, Danish, French, Irish, and Spanish sources, carefully weaving these materials into an immense tapestry of incredible depth and scope. In years to come The Safeguard of the Sea promises to be the definitive account of British Naval History long after Britannia has stopped ruling the waves. [via]
More editions of The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649:
- The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649: ISBN 039304579X (0-393-04579-X)
  Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660-1649: ISBN 0393319601 (0-393-31960-1)
  Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
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The Surgeon's Mate
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308200 (0-393-30820-0)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin are ordered home by despatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government. But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World, and the attentions of two privateers soon become menacing. [via]
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The Thirteen Gun Salute
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 039330907X (0-393-30907-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"In length the series is unique; in qualityand there is not a weak link in the chainit cannot but be ranked with the best of twentieth century historical novels."T. J. Binyon, Independent
Captain Jack Aubrey sets sail for the South China Sea with a new lease on life. Following his dismissal from the Royal Navy (a false accusation), he has earned reinstatement through his daring exploits as a privateer, brilliantly chronicled in The Letter of Marque. Now he is to shepherd Stephen Maturinhis friend, ship's surgeon, and sometimes intelligence agenton a diplomatic mission to prevent links between Bonaparte and the Malay princes which would put English merchant shipping at risk.

The journey of the Diane encompasses a great and satisfying diversity of adventures. Maturin climbs the Thousand Steps of the sacred crater of the orangutans; a killer typhoon catches Aubrey and his crew trying to work the Diane off a reef; and in the barbaric court of Pulo Prabang a classic duel of intelligence agents unfolds: the French envoys, well entrenched in the Sultan's good graces, against the savage cunning of Stephen Maturin. [via]
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To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World
by Arthur Herman

ISBN 0060534257 (0-06-053425-7)
Softcover, Perennial

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Book summary:
To Rule the Waves tells the extraordinary story of how the British Royal Navy allowed one nation to rise to a level of power unprecedented in history. From the navy's beginnings under Henry VIII to the age of computer warfare and special ops, historian Arthur Herman tells the spellbinding tale of great battles at sea, heroic sailors, violent conflict, and personal tragedy -- of the way one mighty institution forged a nation, an empire, and a new world.
This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more. [via]
More editions of To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World:
- To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World: ISBN 0060534249 (0-06-053424-9)
  Hardcover, Harpercollins
- To Rule The Waves: How The British Navy Shaped The Modern World: ISBN 0060534257 (0-06-053425-7)
  Softcover, Perennial
Trafalgar: Countdown to Battle, 1803-1805
by Alan Schom

ISBN 0195075188 (0-19-507518-8)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr

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More editions of Trafalgar: Countdown to Battle, 1803-1805:
- Trafalgar: Countdown to Battle, 1803-1805: ISBN 0689120559 (0-689-12055-9)
  Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
- Trafalgar: Countdown to Battle, 1803-1805: ISBN 0195075188 (0-19-507518-8)
  Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
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Treason's Harbour
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393308634 (0-393-30863-4)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
"The finest writer of sea-stories in the English language."J. de Courcy Ireland
All Patrick O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in Malta, partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea. While Captain Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assumes the center stage for the dockyards and salons of Malta are alive with Napoleon's agents, and the admiralty's intelligence network is compromised. Maturin's cunning is the sole bulwark against sabotage of Aubrey's daring mission. [via]
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The Truelove
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 1560545224 (1-56054-522-4)
Softcover, Thorndike Pr

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Book summary:
The fifteenth installment in Patrick O'Brian's widely claimed series of Aubrey/Maturin novels is in equal parts mystery, adventure, and psychological drama.
A British whaler has been captured by an ambitious chief in the sandwich islands at French instigation, and Captain Aubrey, R. N., Is dispatched with the Surprise to restore order. But stowed away in the cable-tier is an escaped female convict. To the officers, Clarissa Harvill is an object of awkward courtliness and dangerous jealousies. Aubrey himself is won over and indeed strongly attracted to this woman who will not speak of her past. But only Aubrey's friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin, can fathom Clarissa's secrets: her crime, her personality, and a clue identifying a highly placed English spy in the pay of Napoleon's intelligence service.

In a thrilling finale, Patrick O'Brian delivers all the excitement his many readers expect: Aubrey and the crew of the Surprise impose a brutal pax Britannica upon the islanders in a pitched battle against a band of headhunting cannibals. [via]
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The Wine Dark Sea
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 0393312445 (0-393-31244-5)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc

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Book summary:
The sixteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series, and Patrick O'Brian's first bestseller in the United States.
At the outset of this adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue an American privateer through the Great South Sea. The strange color of the ocean reminds Stephen of Homer's famous description, and portends an underwater volcanic eruption that will create a new island overnight and leave an indelible impression on the reader's imagination.

Their ship, the Surprise, is now also a privateer, the better to escape diplomatic complications from Stephen's mission, which is to ignite the revolutionary tinder of South America. Jack will survive a desperate open boat journey and come face to face with his illegitimate black son; Stephen, caught up in the aftermath of his failed coup, will flee for his life into the high, frozen wastes of the Andes; and Patrick O'Brian's brilliantly detailed narrative will reunite them at last in a breathtaking chase through stormy seas and icebergs south of Cape Horn, where the hunters suddenly become the hunted.
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The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy
by N.A.M. Rodger

ISBN 0870219871 (0-87021-987-1)
Hardcover, Naval Inst Pr

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More editions of The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy:
- The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy: ISBN 0870219871 (0-87021-987-1)
  Hardcover, Naval Inst Pr
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The Yellow Admiral: Library Edition
by Patrick O'Brian

ISBN 1568954301 (1-56895-430-1)
Hardcover, Wheeler Pub Inc

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Book summary:
"There are those already planning this afternoon's trip to the bookstore. Their only reaction is: Thank god, Patrick O'Brian is still writing. To you, I say, not a moment to lose."John Balzar, Los Angeles Times
Life ashore may once again be the undoing of Jack Aubrey in The Yellow Admiral, Patrick O'Brian's best-selling novel and eighteenth volume in the Aubrey/Maturin series. Aubrey, now a considerable though impoverished landowner, has dimmed his prospects at the Admiralty by his erratic voting as a Member of Parliament; he is feuding with his neighbor, a man with strong Navy connections who wants to enclose the common land between their estates; he is on even worse terms with his wife, Sophie, whose mother has ferreted out a most damaging trove of old personal letters. Even Jack's exploits at sea turn sour: in the storm waters off Brest he captures a French privateer laden with gold and ivory, but this at the expense of missing a signal and deserting his post. Worst of all, in the spring of 1814, peace breaks out, and this feeds into Jack's private fears for his career.

Fortunately, Jack is not left to his own devices. Stephen Maturin returns from a mission in France with the news that the Chileans, to secure their independence, require a navy, and the service of English officers. Jack is savoring this apparent reprieve for his career, as well as Sophie's forgiveness, when he receives an urgent dispatch ordering him to Gibraltar: Napoleon has escaped from Elba. [via]
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