5: Desolation Island (Vol. Book 5) (Aubrey/Maturin Novels) (original 1978; edition 1994)

In which Aubrey is given the Leopard with orders to assist Captain Bligh and his second experience with mutiny, this time in New South Wales. Unknown to Aubrey, Maturin undertakes a mission which puts him aboard, and conveniently provides him a reprieve from distasteful politics in the Admiralty. Their common concern is a passel of convicts punished with "transportation" to Botany Bay, among them an American spy. The Leopard endures the Doldrums in unexpectedly northern latitudes, resulting in an outbreak of gaol fever which decimates the crew, and leaves Tom Pullings to convalesce in Recife. Their resumed voyage through the South Atlantic becomes a game of cat and mouse with a Dutch man-of-war.

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Wm Bligh's mutiny as backstory links interestingly with Jack's experience leading the Leopard: perhaps a majority of the crew abandon ship after efforts at fothering the hull fail, and the ship is in danger of foundering at sea.

Stephen's fondness for the stowaway, Michael Herapath, soon acting as surgeon's mate (cannot be so appointed, being an American citizen, and is promoted to "supernumerary landsman" and then Midshipman by Jack). Stephen's addiction to laudanum and Michael's to opium.

Jack's splinter wound in the action with Waakzaamheid, severe injury to his head and leg, which Stephen mends, and a concussion.

The Leopard's history under another captain, firing on the USS Chesapeake under perhaps legal but certainly untoward circumstances, and how it plays into Aubrey's reception by sailors in the American whaler out of Nantucket. The history of a ship sails with it, nautical baggage to be sure.

Stephen's efforts at counterintelligence: "Stephen ... is attempting to poison French intelligence with false information. He pretended to find papers on the dead Mr. Martin implicating Martin as an intelligence agent, then enlisted Herapath in making copies. He knew full well that Herapath would tell Wogan, who would in turn give the information to her contacts." (Schuyler's Butcher's Bill)

Seltzer's Chronology puts events at late 1811, perhaps early 1812: "O'Brian has apparently shifted the dates of Bligh's term in Australia," as he was deposed by colonists in 1808, and events connected with Stephen's intelligence work place the action nearer the opening of the War of 1812. ( )

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1912158.html

I read the first two Aubrey/Maturin books many many years ago, and while I enjoyed them I never quite got into the habit of pursuing the series. A couple of years back I picked up Desolation Island from Bookmooch (which seems incidentally to have lurched back into activity in the last month or so, which is good news) and have now submitted to various people's urgings in my last couple of what-shall-I-read-next-year posts and digested it.

It is a cracking good read. There's an awful lot packed in here; apart from the basic plot of Aubrey commanding a mission both transporting convicts and recsuing Bligh (of Bounty fame) and Maturin finding his personal and political allegiances increasingly tangled as the War of 1812 looms. Loads of the ship's crew are killed by violence or disease. The high point of the book is an engagement with a Dutch ship, brilliantly described from Aubrey's point of view as a testing to destruction of both vessels; the victorious but severely damaged British limp to what we now call Kerguelen Island, the island of the title of the book, and have a diplomatically tricky encounter with an American crew while they are there. O'Brian's sensitivity to language and nuance is rather lovely, and I shall try and develop this habit a little more. ( )

My new favorite in the series. It also has in the duel between the Leopard and the Waakzaamheid one of the greatest action scenes ever written. ( )

Bleaker than some of the earlier books, partly because of the setting, Desolation Island pits crew against nature and Mataurin against his heart. ( )

The force of Jack's personality is at the forefront of this episode. The ending scenes where he copes with ship wreck, great storms, and personal injury are particularly moving. There is quite a bit of spycraft in this novel, which brings Stephen to the forefront. Also, the contrast between Jack on shore and Jack in a ship is profound. Great reading here. ( )