The Ariel sioop of The Surgeon’s Mate was evidently a real vessel, armed with sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two 9-pounders. (Patrick O'Brian, The Surgeon's Mate) She was built in 1806 and survived ten years before being broken up at Deptford. This type of ship was essentially a scaled down frigate without, in this case, a quarterdeck and forecastle.
The Worcester of The lonion Mission is a 74-gun ship of two decks—a true ship-of-the-line. The actual name was not used for a 74-gun ship of that period but the class to which she was said to belong, known to sea officers as ‘the forty thieves’, really did exist. There is, however, some deviation from the real facts. The first ship of the class was completed in 1809 but the fortieth was not launched until 1822; the nickname does not seem to have been used before then. They were despised by the sea officers, perhaps unfairly. Their design and building, though, uninspired was generally competent. (Brian Levery, The Ship of the Line)
After his transfer out of the Worcester, Aubrey returned to the Surprise, and that ship is dominant in the remaining books of the series. In his depiction of the ships of the Napoleonic era, Patrick O’Brian shows he has a firm grasp of the complexities of naval architecture as he does of a host of other skills and specialisms, a grasp which enables him to write of that period in a uniquely authoritative and entertaining way.
This essay is taken from
Patrick O'Brian, Critical Appreciations and a Bibliography,
edited by A. E. Cunningham, and is reprinted here
by kind permission of The British Library.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Jack Aubrey’s Ships
Patrick O'Brian, The Letter of Marque
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