Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on halfpay without a command until hisfriend and occasional intelligence agent Stephen Maturin arrives with secretorders for Aubr... » 

Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on halfpay without a command until hisfriend and occasional intelligence agent Stephen Maturin arrives with secretorders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under aCommodores pennant. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders arecompounded by two of his own captains Lord Clonfert a pleasureseekingdilettante and Captain Corbett whose severity can push his crews to the vergeof mutiny. Based on the actual campaign of 1810 in the Indian Ocean OBriansattention to detail of eighteenthcentury life ashore and at sea is meticulous.This tale is as beautifully written and as gripping as any in the series italso stands on its own as a superlative work of fiction. «