A Sea of Words: A Lexicon and Companion to the Complete Seafaring Tales of Patrick O'Brian

Dean King's A Sea of Words is a must-read for any landlubber fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series. The introductory essays by John B. Hattendorf and J. Worth Estes provide excellent context about the Royal Navy and shipboard medicine during the War of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. These essays are followed by maps and diagrams of naval battles, types of ships, and the rigging used in various ships.
King's extensive lexicon naturally fills the vast majority of the book and serves as both a dictionary and an encyclopedia for O'Brian's novels. Though a reader could keep this book at hand while reading the Aubrey-Maturin series, constantly turning to it would interrupt a reader's enjoyment of O'Brian's work. It is show more better to follow King's own advice from his introduction and page through this at one's leisure, moving around between associated terms and so teaching oneself about sailing in the early nineteenth century.
Though it is possible to read the Aubrey-Maturin series and guess at definitions from context, A Sea of Words will answer any and all questions that should occur to the curious reader. A must-have for any fan of Patrick O'Brian. show less

Very useful reference for landlubbers reading the Aubrey-Maturin series. This is another of the reference books on the first shelf in my Shelf-Clearing Project. When I first read [a:Patrick O'Brian|5600|Patrick O'Brian|http://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1212630063p2/5600.jpg]'s [b:Master and Commander|77430|Master and Commander (Aubrey/Maturin, #1)|Patrick O'Brian|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348627212s/77430.jpg|722040], it seemed as if there were whole pages on which the only words I understood were a, an, and the. Yet I loved it, and pressed on through many more of the Aubrey-Maturin series. This book was a tremendous help, as it would be for anyone who isn't a lifelong sailor and an expert on the Napoleonic era in sea warfare. It would show more be useful, too, in reading other works set in the same milieu. I'm keeping it, since I've saved the last two O'Brians for my old age, and very likely may reread the earlier ones as well. show less

I've read the first four of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series, and have enjoyed them for the characters and for their sense of humor. But I do have one major problem with them: my complete ignorance of anything to do with ships or sailing means that there are times when I can read entire chapters and have absolutely no idea what just happened. Oddly enough, this was never much of an issue for me with the Horatio Hornblower books. C. S. Forester was, I suppose, good at at least giving me the illusion of following his naval action, but O'Brian is not nearly as kind to us landlubbers. So, I thought this book might help.

It starts off with a couple of articles. One is on medicine during the time of the Napoleonic Wars. I found that show more quite interesting, and mildly horrifying. Once again, I am deeply grateful to live in the 21st century, where medicine is mostly not based on made-up craziness. The other article is about the British Navy of the time: its structure and functioning and the role it played in the war. This was pretty dry, but did contain some useful information.

Most of the book, though, is taken up by a dictionary. Entries include various nautical terms, of course, but also medical terms, contemporary vocabulary and slang, medical terms, historical terms, and names of various birds and other animals. There are also entries, some of them rather long, on specific ships, historical figures, and events. It seems fairly comprehensive, and was reasonably interesting to browse through -- enough so that I kept it around for months to occasionally pick it up and read or skim through it a few pages at a time. Whether I've actually retained anything useful from it in my memory, though, remains an open question. I suspect it hasn't actually done all that much for my understanding, but I'm hoping that keeping it handy when I finally get back to the series and using it to look up specific terms as I encounter them may be helpful. show less

Dean King's Sea of Words is one of the best “companion” books I have ever found. The book is aimed at readers of Patrick O'Brian, but it is an indispensable reference book for anyone reading Napoleonic Era nautical fiction and even non-fiction.

The book is arranged like a dictionary, offering definitions of unfamiliar terms covering everything from sailing jargon to food and life aboard ship. Of particular note are the careful explanations of battles and battle terminology. King's descriptions will make these confusing entries in O'Brian clear to even a novice reader, and will definitely increase the over all enjoyment for anyone, even long time fans.

Working with a Kindle dictionary or online dictionaries will not produce results as useful as this book. I know, I tried several terms both ways.
Many of the words here are not to be found in online dictionaries (or at least, not with the naval definition) or else you spend ages looking though Google and often as not drawing a blank.

This book doesn't have everything, but it does surprisingly well. Latin phrases, terms for all kinds of shipboard items including sails, pulleys, food, etc.

I keep this book beside me while reading and it adds a lot to my enjoyment of the novels and is also good to browse at random.

I've only had time to browse through this briefly, but so far it looks to be exactly what I was after. It's quite a thick paper back - nearly 500 words or so - with chapters that cover the structure of the Royal Navy, naval ranks, the Napoleonic Wars, and contemporary naval medicine. There are also maps, diagrams of various types of ships, and a large lexicon covering all the various types of naval jargon and period slang which appear in the Aubrey-Maturin books. I can now happily say that I know what figgy-dowdy is.

For those of you may be looking for a guide to help understand the series, I can recommend this highly.

An excellent companion to the Patrick O'Brian Aubery/Maturin 20-volume continuous novel. Read the essays and study the diagrams as soon as you get your copy, then use the lexicon next time you're reading an episode and feel like a lubber.