Aubrey-Maturin in Brief 9: Treason's Harbor

The ninth book of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series takes its title from Shakespeare's Henry VI, Part 2:  "Smooth runnes the Water, where the Brooke is deepe/And in his simple shew he harbours Treason."  This is possibly the origin of the saying 'still waters run deep'--Someone who is calm probably has a lot more going on under the surface.  In the context of the book, this could be either Stephen Maturin or Jack Aubrey, who have intertwining troubles on and off the Mediterranean isle of Malta.  (SPOILER alert.)  The Surprise begins the novel unrepaired and abandoned in the port of Valletta and ends the novel threatened with being sold out of the Navy or even broken up.  In between are not one but two failed missions, the most central of which sees Aubrey, his friend, and his crew marching across parched desert sands in Egypt to the dangerous waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of a treasure-laden galley.  Both missions are diplomatic in origin, which is, of course, Maturin's milieu, but underlying both the diplomacy and the failure of each assignment is the fact that the French have compromised British intelligence in Malta.  Maturin must thus maneuver with his wits and keep his cool, which is not always easy for the pensive doctor.

Before proceeding, I want to take a little time to describe the methodology behind these summaries.  It must seem odd to some to watch me reading a novel but all the while jotting notes in the margins.  These notes try to capture major names, plot points, locations, and flavor.  When I'm done with the book, I use these to summarize one chapter per blog paragraph.  I have found that there are other study guides out there to O'Brian's works, but my goal is not Cliff Notes:  I'm not making a cheat sheet or a quick means to know the book without reading it.  My objective is to give existing readers a hyperlinked review, seeing as his novels are so packed with dialogue and detail that it can be easy to lose the larger plot.  I also hope to tease the uninitiated into the O'Brian universe.

I must also give credit where it is due.  One of the particular joys and challenges of the books is geography.  Not only are there a lot of places, but also it can be very hard to figure out exactly where O'Brian is talking about or even if the locations or real, fictitious, or somewhere in between.  Since I like to get it right and add links to the places in Aubrey and Maturin's travels, I am indebted to Dean King's atlas and guide, Harbors and High Seas, which offers maps and answers to (some) geographical mysteries.  Since illustrations can take the dryness out of any piece of writing, I take time to add pictures representative of the ships, places and events O'Brian and I are writing about.  As this is historical fiction, a modern photograph, in my opinion, just wouldn't fit.  So I try to use nothing but paintings and period paintings when I can, captioning the title and artist.  I must also give thanks to all of the online galleries I have Googled and borrowed from.

Enough shore work.  Let's get sailing.

"Grand Harbour and Fort Sant' Angelo, Valletta, Malta" by Johann Schranz

(1) The city of Valletta on the island of Malta is a pretty sight to all but those unfortunate officers of the Royal Navy who are stranded in port without ships to command.  This melancholy group includes Capt. Jack Aubrey, who has not one but two vessels in dock--the worn-out 74-gun Worcester, nearly sunk in a storm serving with the blockade of Toulon, and Aubrey's dear frigate Surprise, damaged in battle with two Turkish ships.  Yet, on this day, Aubrey is cheerful and boisterous, not only because his longtime shipmate Thomas Pullings has just received his captain's commission, but also because he can show off the chelengk on his hat, a prize from his recent successful mission in the Ionian Islands.  In a far more sanguine mood in Dr. Stephen Maturin, who sees chaotic Malta--which was not long ago under French control--as the perfect place for British information to be leaked to Napoleon's intelligence networks.  Indeed, Maturin's and Aubrey's very moves are being tracked by the French agent Lesueur.  Furthermore, Lesueur has forced a woman into his service named Laura Fielding, a Neopolitan whose husband, a Naval lieutenant, was captured and imprisoned at Bitche.  As an instructor of Italian to the local British officers, she is well-placed to gather intelligence, and Lesueur has planned specifically to have Fielding use Aubrey as a means to approach Maturin.  Further complicating matters are two of Aubrey's old foes:  Rear Admiral Harte, who has just ended a term as temporary Commander in Chief, and Andrew Wray, Second Secretary of the Admiralty, who has recently arrived in Malta to deal with corruption.  That night, Aubrey takes his violin to Fielding's little garden house.  He discovers that her big Illyrian mastiff, Ponto, has fallen in a water cistern.  He tries to rescue the dog but falls into the cistern himself.