The Surgeon's Mate

Jack Aubrey, Post Captain in the British Royal Navy, is suffused with happiness. The Shannon's engagement with the U.S. Chesapeake off the New England coast has resulted in victory, just another in a long string of them for Aubrey, nicknamed Lucky Jack for his tendency to win big. But Jack is less sure-footed by land than by sea. Trying desperately to conceal from his wife Sophie the details of an untoward liaison with a lady claiming a baby, and wrestling with speculators who are trying to rob him of every farthing he ever pirated, Jack is making a poor show at civilized life. Meanwhile, his best friend, surgeon and scientist Stephen Maturin, is enjoying unprecedented success. In possession of papers that would make Napoleon blanch, Stephen supplements his espionage activities by delivering lectures at the French Institute on such rarities as the extinct avifauna of Rodriguez, and by spending time in the company of the fiery Diana Villiers.