Blue at the Mizzen

From WikiPOBia

Revision as of 09:29, 6 June 2007

Cover

Blue at the Mizzen is the twentieth and last completed volume of the Aubrey-Maturin series, written during 1999 in the rooms at Trinity College, Dublin (Stephen Maturin’s alma mater), to which O’Brian retired after the death of his wife.

Page references are to the HarperCollins paperback edition.

Plot introduction

For more details about the plot, which will contain spoilers, see Summary for Blue at the Mizzen

Jack Aubrey is in high feather after the successful capture of a Turkish treasure-galley, but there are signs of trouble ahead; his crew disintegrates into riot and desertion at Gibraltar after the distribution of prize-money, a token of the much greater dissolution that must surely follow now that the war is over. First, however, there is the long-delayed mission to Chile, to support the local independence movement under the guise of a hydrographical survey. Surprise first returns to England for refitting and Jack receives a possibly two-edged compliment from a royal personage; then, on the voyage out, she calls at Freetown, where Stephen has a rendezvous of intense personal significance with a most unusual zoologist. Ahead lie a perilous voyage round the Horn and a bewildering course amongst the shifting policies and influences of the Chilean revolutionary factions, still further complicated by an unruly subordinate captain. There is no lack of action, and at the end Jack receives a piece of news for which he has been preparing throughout his seagoing life.

Time Summer 1816-early 1817.

Historical context

Blue at the Mizzen ranks only a little behind The Mauritius Command as a book that is grounded in actual history. Admiral Lord Cochrane, whose career had provided a foundation for Master and Commander and The Reverse of the Medal, returns to cast a double shadow; on the one hand there is an incipient portrait of him under the name of Sir David Lindsay, and on the other the principal incidents of Chapters 9 and 10 – the Valdivia action and the capture of the Esmeralda – are taken from real exploits achieved by Cochrane in 1817. The dissensions among the Chilean leaders are also founded on fact, although O’Brian seems to have brought them forward in time, partly no doubt to provide a plausible reason for Jack’s ultimatum in chapter 10, but also because of the author’s long-standing fascination with the idea of conflicting powers around and behind the throne; in fact Bernardo O’Higgins and San Martín (here represented as O’Higgins’s supplanter) worked together in the early years of Chilean independence, and it was not until 1823 that a reaction by clericalists and landowners undermined O’Higgins and drove him into exile.

==Major characters in Blue at the Mizzen== (h) : historical

• Capt. John Aubrey, RN Post-captain seconded to the Chilean revolutionary junta
• Sophia (Sophie) Aubrey Wife to Capt. Aubrey
• Admiral Lord Barmouth Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet
• Isobel, Lady Barmouth Wife to Admiral Lord Barmouth; a childhood friend of Jack Aubrey
• Miguel Carrera, President of the Chilean Junta (perhaps to be identified with the historical José Miguel Carrera Verdugo, Governor of Chile during the first period of independence (1810-1814)
• John Daniel Master's mate in Surprise
• Austin Dobson Naturalist and member of the Royal Society (named apparently after the poet Austin Dobson (1840-1921), possibly in honour of his patriotic ballad with the refrain ‘Where are the galleons of Spain?’)
• Horatio Hanson First-class volunteer; natural son of HRH the Duke of Clarence
• Lieutenant Harding First lieutenant of Surprise
• Amos Jacob Jewish jewel-merchant and intelligence agent
• Preserved Killick Steward to Capt. Aubrey
• Sir David Lindsay Former naval officer who has taken service with one of the Chilean revolutionary groups
• Captain Lodge Commander of the American frigate Delaware
• Dr Stephen Maturin Physician, naturalist and voluntary intelligence agent
• Bernardo O'Higgins (h) (1778-1842) Chilean revolutionary leader of Irish descent
• Colonel Roche Guest at Lord Barmouth’s table; an eye-witness of Waterloo
• Mr Shepherd and Mr Store Midshipmen in Surprise
• Algernon (or Henry) Wantage Master's mate in Surprise
• Christine Wood, (née Heatherleigh), Naturalist, widow of the Governor of Sierra Leone