HMS Surprise (novel)

HMS Surprise (novel)
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HMS Surprise

Author	Patrick O'Brian
Cover artist	Geoff Hunt
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Aubrey-Maturin series
Genre(s)	Historical novel
Publisher	Harper Collins (UK)
Publication date	1973
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Cassette, CD)
Pages	416 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-00-221316-8, (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	Post Captain
Followed by	The Mauritius Command

This book is part of the Aubrey-Maturin series

HMS Surprise is the 1973 historical naval novel by Patrick O'Brian. It is third in the series of stories of Captain Jack Aubrey and the naval surgeon Stephen Maturin.

1 Plot introduction
2 Plot summary
3 Characters in "HMS Surprise"
4 Ships in "HMS Surprise"
5 Major themes
6 Allusions/references to other works
7 Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science
8 Literary significance & criticism
9 Adaptations
10 Release details
- 10.1 Editions
11 Sources, references, external links, quotations
12 Footnotes

Plot introduction

Captain Jack Aubrey is charged with carrying a British ambassador to the East Indies.

Accompanying him (as always) is his friend Stephen Maturin, and much of the novel deals with the ups and downs of Stephen's relationship with Diana Villiers, introduced in the previous novel, Post Captain.

Plot summary

As the book opens the Admiralty is debating on how to reward the captains who captured the Spanish gold ships. Since Spain was not at war the prizes are not considered prizes and the captains end up with much smaller bounties than they thought they would receive. In the same meeting the new First Lord of the Admiralty mentions Stephen's name even though it is in a classified folder, blowing his cover as a spy.

Stephen willingly goes on a mission to Spain anyway, and is to be picked up by Jack while he is guiding HMS Lively on a return journey to English waters. Stephen has been captured and is being tortured by French intelligence when Jack gets to Port Mahon. A Catalan revolutionary gives Jack Stephen's location, to which Jack leads a party rescuing Stephen and killing the French interrogators.

Upon returning to England Jack finds that the fortunes he had expected from the Spanish gold fleet were not as large as he had hoped and he is still in debt. Jack is soon taken by bailiffs and is held in a sponging house. Stephen returns to Sir Joseph and tells of his capture and Jack’s predicament. By pulling a few strings, an advance is given to Jack on his prize money which gets him clear of the debt he is currently being held on, but not all of his debt.

Ever since Jack had fled the country for debt, Mrs. Williams had forbidden Sophie to talk to him. He believes that she is interested in marrying an Anglican priest, but after meeting with Sophie, Stephen convinces her to go see Jack secretly before he takes command of his new ship HMS Surprise. Jack and Sophie meet in a coach in the middle of the night, and promise to marry no one else.

Stephen and Jack leave in the Surprise to ferry an ambassador to the East Indies. Upon getting underway, half of the crew become sick with scurvy and the ship is forced to put into Brazil to receive fresh fruit.

As the journey continues the Surprise makes a wide turn around the horn of Africa, at the time held by the Dutch who are at war with England. To avoid encounters, Surprise navigates into the waters of the Antarctic Ocean and has to weather a severe storm. The ambassador at this time becomes very ill. The Surprise puts into India to refit from the storm and to rest the ambassador. While ashore Stephen meets a local girl named Dil who shows him around India. While watching a parade with Dil Stephen runs into Diana, who had moved with Canning to India. They spend several days together and Stephen asks her to marry him. She doesn’t answer him before he has to leave.

The ambassador dies east of India and the Surprise turns around and sets sail for home. They run into the East Indian Company's China Fleet on return for England, but unescorted. A day after leaving the China Fleet the Surprise spots a French Squadron cruising the Indian Ocean. Surprise engages the smallest sloop of the squadron, knocking about her sails, then turns and makes speed back to the fleet of merchantmen to warn them and organize a defence.

Choosing the largest ships of the China Fleet, Jack dresses them as Men-of-War and sends some of his officers to help them fight. The French squadron closes on the Surprise and the large Indiamen. The Surprise turns and engages the largest French warship, the 74-gun ship of the line Marengo, and is exchanging broadsides with the heavier ship when one of the Indiamen is able to engage the French ship from the other side, forcing her to disengage and the entire French squadron is forced to flee to refit.

Jack is the toast of the merchants. He is allowed to transport jewels as freight which gives him a significant cut of the profit as a reward. While in India, Canning confronts Stephen and they challenge each other to a duel. During the duel Canning shoots Stephen in the ribs, but Stephen hits Canning in the heart. Stephen convinces Diana to return with him, though on a merchant ship instead of Surprise; Jack will hear nothing of it. Meanwhile, Stephen is running a high fever because the bullet is still lodged in his ribs. With the help of Jack and the ambassador’s surgeon, Stephen operates on himself, removing the bullet.

As the Surprise sails home they stop at an Atlantic outpost and there Stephen finds that Diana has left him for a Mr. Johnstone from America (called "Mr. Johnson" in later books). Jack, on the other hand, had sent ahead for Sophie so that he may marry her now that he is out of debt, but she is not on the island. Within a day’s sailing, Jack overtakes an English frigate in the night and finds that Sophie is aboard. She refuses to marry him then but promises that once they return to England, she will.

Characters in "HMS Surprise"

Jack Aubrey - Captain in the Royal Navy and appointed Captain of HMS Surprise.
Stephen Maturin - ship's surgeon, friend to Jack and intelligence officer.
Sophie Williams - Jack's love interest
Mrs. Williams - Sophie's mother
Diana Villiers - Stephen's love interest
Dil - Female child, Stephen's Indian guide
Richard Canning - Rich merchant, Diana's "protector" in India
Tom Pullings - Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, third of the Surprise
Barrett Bonden - Jack's coxswain
Preserved Killick - Jack's steward
Charles-Alexandre Léon Durand Linois - French Admiral

Ships in "HMS Surprise"

The British:

HMS Surprise - frigate
Addington - Indiaman
Ocean - Indiaman
Camden - Indiaman
Bombay Castle - Indiaman
Alfred - Indiaman
Wexwood - Indiaman
Lushington - Indiaman
Royal George - Indiaman

The French:

Marengo, 74 gun ship of the line
Semillante, frigate
Belle Poule, frigate
Atalante, corvette

Major themes

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2008)

Allusions/references to other works

The capture of the Spanish treasure fleet features in Hornblower and the Hotspur, the last-published full length novel in C. S. Forester's Hornblower series. Forester adds Hornblower in the Hotspur as an extra to the five British ships in the squadron sent to intercept the fleet. The episode provides Hornblower with an opportunity to meet Aubrey, but in the only recorded encounter in Forester's novel (Chapter 19) it is Hammond of the Lively that he meets, not his stand in.

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

The "cutting out" (capturing while in port, either at anchor or berthed) of HMS Hermione refers to an actual event involving HMS Surprise in 1799.

The capture of the Spanish treasure fleet, with Jack in command of HMS Lively, is based on the 1804 Battle of Cape Santa Maria.

Aubrey's attack on the French squadron is a fictionalization of the 1803 Battle of Pulo Aura.

Literary significance & criticism

"His books can absorb and enthral landlubbers like myself who do not even know the difference between a jib-boom and a taffrail." ¹

Adaptations

The novel was adapted in three parts in the Afternoon Play strand on BBC Radio 4, directed and produced by Bruce Young, and with Aubrey played by David Robb and Maturin by Richard Dillane. The rest of the cast was:

Preserved Killick - Jon Glover
Barret Bonden - David Timson
Sir Joseph Blaine - Struan Rodger
Sophie Williams - Liz Sutherland
Lieutenant Pullings - David Holt
Lieutenant Simmons - Dan Starkey
Mrs Williams / Lady Forbes - Lesley Nichols
Cecilia Williams / Miss Agatha - Sarah Danes
Diana Villiers - Adjoa Andoh
Arthur Stanhope - David Timson
Midshipman Callow - Carl Prekopp
Tobias Atkins - Stephen Critchlow
Lieutenant Nichols - Dan Starkey
Midshipman Babbington - Chris Pavlo
Canning - Chris Pavlo

Release details

1973, UK, Collins (ISBN 0002213168), Pub Date ? ? 1973, hardback (First edition)
1973, USA, Lippincott (ISBN ???), Pub date ? ? 1973, hardback (1st American edition)

Editions

W. W. Norton & Company; Hardcover Reprint edition (1994) (ISBN 0393037037)
Thorndike Press; Largeprint hardcover edition (2000) (ISBN 0786219343)
Harper Collins; reprint paperback edition (2002) (ISBN 0006499171)
Blackstone Audiobooks; Unabridged Audio CD edition (2004) (ISBN 078618597X)
Fontana; Paperback edition (1976) (ISBN 0006141811)
Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull