Aubrey-Maturin in Brief 4: The Mauritius Command

Part four of my summaries.  The Mauritius Command brings O'Brian's series to a grander naval scale and our co-protagonist Aubrey to new levels of rank and responsibility.  In the three preceding books, Aubrey took his first command, fought hard to gain the status of post captain, and gained his most famous ship and sailed it to India.  Now he is saved from his disappointing domestic life by his friend Maturin and given not just a ship but a squadron.  The large action--whole fleets in motion, islands invaded--is matched by large characters.  Aubrey's chief nemesis is, in fact, not the French Admiral he has been sent to defeat but a captain under his own command:  Lord Clonfert strives for, above all else, status and recognition, and he is driven to beat his old shipmate Aubrey.  Clonfert is also at odds with Captain Corbett, who has a reputation for disciplinary cruelty and is not exactly well loved by his crew.  In short, while Aubrey must manage a campaign to control the south Indian Ocean he must also manage the officers who make up that campaign.  He finds this to be much more of a burden than he expected.

The heart of the series remains Dr. Maturin.  His observations, especially of Aubrey and Clonfert, give emotional depth to a book that might otherwise be little more than Navy reports.  He does not, unfortunately, have much time for natural history, because the mission to control Mauritius and its neighboring islands requires as much political maneuvering as military maneuvering.  Maturin's abilities as spy and, now, of negotiator and propagandist, make him critical to the campaign.  As a character, Maturin brings to the novel both humanity and complexity.  It kinda needs it; without Maturin, the book would be all militial tension.

O'Brian brings this all together with a huge amount of historical accuracy, or at least historical inspiration.  Aubrey's earlier exploits were based on the real Thomas Cochrane.  In The Mauritius Command, Aubrey is taking the role of the real of Josias Rowley.  Names of officers, names of ships, and the unfolding of events are all drawn directly from records, climaxing with a telling of the disastrous Battle of Grand Port.  This level of detail also made this book the hardest to summarize so far.  In other words, SPOILER ALERT of the strongest order.

"Portsmouth" by Joseph Mallord William Turner

(1) Captain Jack Aubrey is living with no assignment and on half pay in a small, drafty home called Ashgrove Cottage with his wife Sophie, his daughter Cecilia, twin baby girls, and the always aggressively dominant—and now bereft—Mrs. Williams, his mother-in-law.  It is not the domestic bliss he had always hoped for.  Even as he tries to learn of gardens, livestock, and servants, he spends his time looking out to the fleet of Portsmouth through a telescope in a small observatory, both made by his own hand.  He is ecstatic to be visited by his old friend, Dr. Stephen Maturin.  Over dinner at the nearby Crown, Aubrey admits to Maturin that, however much he may love Sophie, he had the wrong idea of marriage.  The next day, Sophie begs Maturin to get her husband a command.  Maturin secretly reveals to Aubrey that four French ships under Admiral Hamelin, the new heavy frigates Vénus, Manche, Bellone, and Caroline, are making mischief around Mauritius.  Aubrey’s friend has also pulled strings for Aubrey to replace the ailing Captain Loveless aboard the frigate Boadicea, lead a squadron against the French, and install a British governor.  Aubrey can barely contain his excitement at having not only a command but also a Commodore’s broad pennant.  He listens to Maturin’s initial briefing until a Marine arrives with official orders.  Lady Clonfert, the wife of Lord Clonfert—soon to be one of Aubrey’s captains—arrives, having already heard of the mission by rumor, and asks to be transported to the Cape of Good Hope and her husband.  Aubrey, however, is in a happy rush to get to his ship.