Summary for The Thirteen-Gun Salute

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Current revision as of 19:35, 5 May 2008

A chapter by chapter look at The Thirteen-Gun Salute

CHAPTER 1

Surprise sails from Shelmerston for Chile and Peru as letter of marque - Jack out of favour at Court, someone telling tales - Wray and Ledward in Paris - Diana expecting, cross - good news of Sam Panda - Stephen, off the laudanum, discontented with his bank - Mrs Williams subdued - Pullings, Davidge, West - Orkneymen - Padeen transported for theft of laudanum - Standish saved on boarding - Orkneymen sing for Stephen.

CHAPTER 2

At sea, preddying - disobliging letters from Stephen's bank - strong magnet, gift of Ashley Pratt - snow sighted in Irish Sea - Stephen recognises Robert Gough on board, of United Irishmen - tries to think of way to break off chase - chase lost anyway.

CHAPTER 3

Malin Head - purser Standish, a prating fool, but mostly seasick - Lisbon - Blaine's emissary makes inept approach - Standish wants out - letters, Diana buying property, Sam Panda to be ordained - Blaine in Lisbon, Spaniards upset about Surprise mission - Ledward and Wray sent to Pulo Prabang in South China Sea - Jack to take Fox to Pulo Prabang in Diane - Pullings to go round by Cape Horn in Surprise, rendezvous, both to return by Chile and Peru.

CHAPTER 4

Jack agrees, heartrending parting with Surprise - overland return from Lisbon to take up Diane with Stephen, Blaine, Killick, Bonden - Standish left with army in Santiago - Corunna, Nimble cutter - Portsmouth, Diana and Sophia - London, Lord Melville, Jack reinstated - Stephen decides to change bank - Jack arranges his officers - they meet Fox at Black's club - Raffles, Malay servant for Stephen, Buddhism - Fox's hatred of Ledward - Stephen reads old diaries, his recruitment into intelligence - Ahmed taken as servant - Ashgrove, Philip Aubrey run from school - Portsmouth, Jack read in on Diane.

CHAPTER 5

Inaccessible Island - no wind - launch unusable - sperm whale - chess with Fox - towing with other boats - wind rises in nick of time - Jack regrets Surprise - midshipmen's journals - dinner with Fox - whist, interrupted for amputation - Fox not cordial - the Forties, high winds expected - Stephen learns Malay - Humboldt's readings - Jack gets to know Diane in heavy weather - Fox analysed, not popular with crew - icebergs - Diane bears north, loses favourable winds - looking for Amsterdam Island, sighted but inaccessible - long slow passage - Jack's integrity, Fox's lack of it - compared with Clonfert - Stephen tactless - Java sighted.

CHAPTER 6

Fox introduces Raffles - dinner at Buitenzorg - news of financial crash, Stephen's new bank broken - French already in Pulo Prabang - Raffles's collections - Shao Yen, Chinese banker - Fox introduces Old Buggers - hopes for knighthood or baronetcy - Raffles visits Diane - Old Buggers troublesome in passage to Pulo Prabang - partly silenced by appearance of pirates - landfall, Wan Da comes aboard - Stephen visits Liu Liang - visits van Buren - dissects tapir - van Buren explains peppering - orangutangs, durians - Stephen consults him about his mission - stays ashore in house of entertainment - gambles with Spanish working for French - Fox calls conference - audience with Sultan - Wray recognises Jack and Stephen - Abdul the cupbearer in love with Ledward.

CHAPTER 7

Stephen shopping for fireworks - suborns Duplessis's clerk - Sultan visits Diane - Abdul misbehaves - gunnery display - firework gunnery for salute - Abdul is disturbing the negotiations for love of Ledward - clerk has been misleading Stephen - Sultan goes on pilgrimage - Stephen goes to Kumai, briefed by Fox - orangutang - the Thousand Steps, orangutang companion - Kumai temple, conversation with monks - wandering among animals - two rhinoceros.

CHAPTER 8

Return with midshipman Seymour - armed rising in Prabang - van Buren gives the news - Abdul caught, French out of favour, clerk murdered - two Malays run amok - Fox hears about Kumai - commotion in palace - Abdul peppered, Ledward and Wray still at large - Jack surveys coast in cutter, goes ashore to view Cornélie - meets Christy-Pallière's nephew - Cornélie in serious trouble - French mission has failed - Ledward trying to murder Fox - Stephen and van Buren dissect Ledward and Wray - Fox gets his treaty - awful celebration dinner with Old Buggers - Diane sails at once.

CHAPTER 9

Heading for rendez-vous with Surprise off False Natunas - Fox very unpopular with crew, treating Stephen shabbily - refuses dinner invitation - gunroom come instead - Stephen suspects folie de grandeur - indirect messages - pirate proas sighted - Stephen breaks Humboldt's instruments - Diane runs on rock at high spring - Fox etc sent ashore.

CHAPTER 10

Lightening ship etc - guns overboard - cable parts - Diane immovable - Fox leaves for Batavia in pinnace - Marines set up camp on island - typhoon, pinnace certainly lost - Stephen reads Fox's covering letter with copy treaty, unhinged - launch lost, powder lost, ship a wreck.