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God I love these books. I started reading them in 04 and have gone through the series who knows how many times. I was a lubber when I first picked up the books and most of the technical stuff sailed right over my head, as it did for most of us. Then I learned to sail when I volunteered on a historic tallship - the Enterprize, a topsail gaff schooner, replica of the ship that brought the first settlers to Melbourne, Australia. She was a fat little merchant vessel, but full of charm. We did everything like in the old days, except with modern OHS. Hand stitched sails, hemp lines laid in stockholm tar, the whole nine yards. I tell you what, the first time I reefed the topsail at night in rough weather, standing on the ratlines out on the yard, and (due to the roll of the ship in heavy seas) I looked straight down into black water, I gained a new appreciation of the lives of the topmen! Reading the series for a second time afterwards, I understood more of the sailing terms and really gained an appreciation for the depth of OBrien's knowledge and research. I was in the military at the time and found solace in Jack's travails between appointments and ships, where I shared his frustrations as opportunities went to others. I ended up buying my own yacht, a fine old trimaran which I sailed throughout Asia and the Pacific. Many long night watches were spent with Jack and Stephen and my other old friends. I spent some five years on that boat, going from an enthusiastic amateur to becoming a professional skipper, hired to get boats out of difficult situations. Once I had to take over a yacht delivery, where the previous skipper had had a nervious breakdown and abandoned the boat in Palau Micronesia. I ended up taking it all the way to its final destination in New Zealand, and I got to hook one of the volunteer crew on the Aubreyad. It was a delight watching someone discover these books for the first time as we undertook our own sea adventure. When I first read them, I loved the battles and schemes and the wombat shenanigans as we all do. But now, when I read them again, it is the depth of the humanity in the writing that really resonates. How the intricate web of these people’s lives grow and change over the course of some twenty years reflects my own growth and change over that time. Reading through the Aubrey-Maturin Chronology that was posted above prompted this post, when you see how OBrien jammed too much into the first four books before he settled down and started the narrative arcs which would thread the series. It is perhaps the passage in the Commodore, which I'll link, where Stephen secretly listens to Jack playing his violin and realises that, even after all this time, there is still so much he does not know about his particular friend, that I most love. As it is with me and these novels, where after nearly twenty years, I can dip into them again and discover something new each time. It is for this reason that I can never get into Sharpe or Hornblower or anything comparable. They may have the adventures and the battles but they lack the humanity of the quiet moments, which is where I find the true magic of the O’Brien’s writing.
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Jan 21, 2023 04:10
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Still on prize money, the distribution was fixed as such: The value of a prize’s cargo was divided into eighths, with the captain taking 3/8 (but losing one to the admiral, if any, under whose orders he was sailing), officers, chaplains, and surgeon sharing 2/8 between them, midshipmen, lower ranking warrant officers, and Marine Sergeants sharing 1/8, and the rest of the ship’s company, sometimes hundreds of men, sharing the final 2/8. So you can see why Royal Navy officers were so zealous about closing with the enemy and why there's always an admiral looking over your shoulder, demanding you do better. I love how throughout all books there is a tension between fighting for duty and glory, and fighting for shares of the spoils.  If this above image is still busted, here's the original link https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Sail_plan_xebec.svg Also the painting of the Speed vs El Gamo above doesn't show just how weird a xebec's sailplan is compared a standard square rigger three master. Twin lanteen sails? Nothing but foreign sorcery. jazzyjay fucked around with this message at 03:34 on Jan 25, 2023 |
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Jan 25, 2023 02:47
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Bah, I'm phone posting with the Imgur app and it's acting up. It was just a sailplan from wiki so added in the link Do check out the Enterprize if you can, it's been years since I've been on her - they're based out of Williamstown but turn up all over the bay for fairs etc. Weirdest thing about her: Because the original boatbuilders in Tasmania couldn't do the forgings for wheel steering, she has a tiller that's three metres long. Sometimes we'd have to have four or more people holding the tiller so you weren't thrown off it by the rudder knocking about jazzyjay fucked around with this message at 03:40 on Jan 25, 2023 |
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Jan 25, 2023 03:38
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Here's a better picture of a Spanish Xebec frigate, as Jack encountered in the Cacafuego. This is from Naval Costumes, by Sir William Symonds RN, published 1840.  As for her rig, as Jack says "A xebec-frigate. A wonderfully curious rig, ain’t it? There’s nothing faster, I suppose broad in the beam to carry a vast great press of sail, but with a very narrow floor - but they need a prodigious crew; for, do you see, when she is sailing on a wind, she is a lateen, but when the wind comes fair, right aft or thereabouts, she strikes ‘em down on deck and sways up square yards instead, a great deal of labour. She must have three hundred men, at the least. She is changing to her square rig now, which means she is going up the coast." Meaning you wouldn't see them with all the sails up as per the above illustration - they'd either have their square rig up on the foremast, when sailing before the wind, or with the triagular lanteens on her main and mizzen masts when sailing against the wind.
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Jan 25, 2023 06:41
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Phy, that's all absolutely correct
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Jan 26, 2023 00:46
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Blue at the Mizzen, like the movie, got the ending just right: they sailed off over the horizon where they had adventures forever more.
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Mar 8, 2023 13:46
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Oh dear https://twitter.com/thom_weights/status/1637979315945066496?t=06p1sPBn_CjsoTIRJqLGXQ&s=19
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Mar 21, 2023 13:39
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 Dutch bark Europa shows the full shooting match that Jack and crew are always trying to impress Steven with. Studding sails (the extra ones to each side) set aloft and alow, with all courses set - from bottom of the mast, you have course, topsail, topgallant, royal, skysail and moonraker - not to mention various jibs on the bowspit (although the jibs I suspect are just for show - with all these courses out, they would be blanketted from any wind). Gives you an idea of just how much canvas they can spread when conditions are right.
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Mar 30, 2023 13:31
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Good point, I found her sailplan. The topsails are split but the topgallants are not. So we're seeing royals and skysails but no Moonraker (cries in James Bond) https://www.barkeuropa.com/what-we-do/the-ship
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Mar 30, 2023 23:19
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The Waazkamheid chase is one of the all-time greats
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Apr 4, 2023 14:58
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Genghis Cohen posted:It would be insidious to choose ... no, something not right there ... invidious ... but for me that's the most powerful dramatic moment in the series. "My god, oh my god" said Jack. "Six hundred men". gives me chills every time. Invidious is a capital word, it must be said. But you're not wrong about the drama. The stakes, the sustained tension, the bloodymindedness of it, the sheer mystery of the pursuit "Whether we we killed some relative of his? His boy, perhaps, dead God forbid.” Its masterful storytelling.
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Apr 5, 2023 09:36
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Rereading Desolation Island cause of the Waak-zaam-ThankYouMaam chat and I'm delighting in one of my favourite of Maturin's character traits: his drug use. It's a constant cycle of discover a new drug, get addicted, marvel at its myriad of beneficial properties, deny that he's addicted through elaborate philosophical arguments with himself, OD or suffer a drug induced injury or have rats rat his entire stash, lament lack of drug, discover new drug etc etc
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Apr 15, 2023 08:45
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Nay tis the carpenter's mistake!
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May 5, 2023 00:02
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First time reading through these books you're like "heh heh gettem jack!" So it makes sense when you hit Post Captain etc that you're confused by all the gentry business. Second time through you're like "oh no jack don't invest in silver mines, how will you be able to afford Sophie's new bonnet??" These books make you grow.
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May 15, 2023 14:33
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Deffo
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Aug 6, 2023 23:32
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Blake Howard is finally launching his long promised Master And Commander podcast - Podcaster and Commander. Its 99% about the production of the film - not suprising as Blake is a huge cinefile who made his bones with a 100+ episode series on HEAT. https://www.oneheatminute.com/podcaster-and-commander Anyway, its a huge deep dive into the production of the film. The first ep has some dodgy sound issues but its a great look at the behind the scenes and the dedication that Peter Weir had in bringing the spirit of the books to screen.
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Sep 14, 2023 13:57
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Yeah I always thought that she was an agent for Johnson and Stephen was in deep denial about it.
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Sep 17, 2023 23:42
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Sure Diana is a handful but counterpoint she is hot AF. So hot she is literally hired to ride in a balloon in a later book.
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Sep 18, 2023 02:23
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I've always supposed that Stephen is who O'Brian saw himself as and Jack was who he wanted to be. This bio gives a good overview of his background and upbringing, while acknowledging that a lot of what was said of O'Brian (Born Patrick Russ) after his books became popular was false. http://www.hmssurprise.org/patrick-and-mary-obrian One point I didn't know about was that some biographers have suggested that Jack is based on Patrick's brother, Mike, a pilot who was shot down and killed over Germany in '43. Bizarrely, Mike Russ joined the Royal Australian Air Force under the psuedonym Mike O'Brien - years before Patrick changed his surname to O'Brian. https://www.ozatwar.com/russ.htm So my guess is that O'Brians' name change was for a personal reason, people assumed a lot about him when he got famous, his secretive nature meant he never bothered to contradict people's assumptions and then got annoyed when the truth comes out.
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Sep 19, 2023 10:41
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It really is the most complete piece of writing.
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Sep 30, 2023 14:54
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:Ok fair Hobbit bonden
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Oct 2, 2023 19:07
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Whenever the conversation lags, I just toss off a few jibes about the Pope or perhaps a humorous anecdote about a miserly Scotsman and the conversation is soon humming along with absolute celery. Ha ha. Did you smoke it? I said celery, haha.
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Dec 6, 2023 23:32
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I've just finished reading Fortune of War (American war of 1812) and there's a great bit where the Java's captain is all "imma gonna go at em like Nelson" and Jack's suffering cognitive dissonance going "well Nelson is of course correct but on the other hand maybe only where Frenchmen are involved???" Then by the next book he's hating on Nelson but that's for other reasons 
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Dec 29, 2023 13:46
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Last night I dreamed I was watching an Aubrey-Maturin tv series (if only, sigh) and my partner walked in asking "wait, are they on the Moon?" And I'm like "yeah the third season got weird."
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Apr 21, 2024 01:41
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Beautiful, as if you plucked the visions wholesale from my sleeping mind.
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Apr 26, 2024 23:04
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