| The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey | |
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First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Patrick O'Brian |
| Cover artist | Geoff Hunt |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Aubrey-Maturin series |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | Harper Collins (UK) |
| Publication date | 2004 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) & Audio Book (Cassette, CD) |
| Pages | 144 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-393-06025-X, (first edition, hardback) |
| OCLC Number | 55801030 |
| Dewey Decimal | 823/.914 22 |
| LC Classification | PR6029.B55 A135 2004 |
| Preceded by | Blue at the Mizzen |
The Final Unfinished Voyage of Jack Aubrey (published in the northern-hemisphere autumn of 2004) is an unfinished historical novel by English author Patrick O'Brian, the twenty-first one in the Aubrey-Maturin series. It appeared in the United States of America under the simpler title of 21.
Contents |
The published work appears with an "Editor's Note" by Starling Lawrence and an afterword by Richard Snow, who had written an influential review of the series in the New York Times Book Review many years before.[1] Commentators have credited Snow's review with helping to popularize the series in the United States.[2]
The story begins with the Surprise in the Strait of Magellan, caught up in foul weather. Hanson first spots Cape Pilar at the very opening of the Strait, and soon the Surprise moors and conducts some trade with the inhospitable locals for meat and vegetables. Having re-provisioned, she and Ringle sail northwards in fine weather until they enter the River Plate and moor close to the island functioning as the main administrative centre. A quarantine officer comes aboard, a Dr Quental, and gives the frigate a clean bill of health.
Wantage informs Maturin of a rumpus in the town: a fight between Protestant mariners from a Boston barque clash with the Catholic locals over the right of polygamy. Further signs of local resentment emerge when a large scow dumps the town's filth next to the frigate and the Portuguese sailors shout abuse at the Surprises. Aubrey spots a black Legate and recognises him as his own natural son, Sam. The Most Reverend Doctor Samuel Mputa, the Papal Nuncio to the Republic of Argentina, has recently saved the government from an open rebellion.
The South African squadron, under its Commander-in-Chief Admiral Lord Leyton, finally makes its appearance and the crew of the Surprise bring their ship up to a high state of perfection. Jack makes his appearance on board HMS Suffolk and sees his rear-admiral's blue flag hoisted on the flagship. He then has an interview with the somewhat cantankerous Admiral, who instructs him to ask Stephen if two of his officers can sail on the Surprise (now a private vessel once more) back to England. While the fleet re-provisions, the Ringle sails off under the steady and capable Lieutenant Harding, and later returns with Sophie Aubrey, Christine Wood, her brother Edward and the three children (Brigid Maturin and Fanny and Charlotte Aubrey) who will sail on with Jack and Stephen to South Africa. The final chapters end with an Admiral's dinner before which Stephen and Jack meet Captain Miller, Leyton's nephew and Jack's neighbour at Caxley. Miller, who has a reputation as a ladies' man and as an excellent shot — nicknamed Hair-Trigger Miller — has been paying court to Christine Wood. The Admiral asks Aubrey if he can take Miller on board with him to take up a new position in Cape Town.
In the last few handwritten pages that follow the end of the typescript, as the South Africa squadron makes its way to St Helena, Mrs Wood asks Stephen to prevent Randolph Miller's unwanted attentions. In doing so, Stephen also calls Miller out for naming him a liar. Miller insists on pistols but Maturin insists on his right, as the aggrieved party, to name the weapons; thus they fight with swords, which puts Miller at a disadvantage. The duel takes place: after three or four thrusts Stephen disarms Miller and demands an apology, which Miller gives him.
The book is the posthumous publication of an uncompleted typescript, published as a result of Patrick O'Brian's position as an accomplished author of historical sea-fiction. It comprises the partially corrected typescript of the approximately three chapters completed by O'Brian before his death in January, 2000, as well as a facsimile of the handwritten manuscript which continues beyond the end of the typescript.
One critic has described it as:
... a preparatory exercise, a kind of setting-out; the literary equivalent of the twinkle in the eye. One wonders what a stylist as accomplished as the late Mr O'Brian would have made of the decision to publish such an unready fragment, but reading it sometimes feels like an act of intrusion. You can't help but sense that he might have regarded its appearance as tantamount to arriving at the captain's table clad only in knickers.[3]
The facsimile of O'Brian's handwritten script illustrates a sharpening of the author's imagery and his own doodling of placements for a fictitious on-board dinner party.