Master and Commander

First published in 1969, this novel opens at Port Mahon in 1800, where naval lieutenant Jack Aubrey, newly given command of the brig Sophie, meets the physician and naturalist Stephen Maturin at a concert. Aubrey takes Maturin to sea as surgeon. The pair work the western Mediterranean against France and Spain: convoy duty, prize-taking, and the tactics of a small ship against heavier opponents. Shipboard hierarchy, gunnery, and the crew's tensions occupy as much space as action. Ashore, money, prize courts, and Catalan politics press on both men. The book is a naval novel of friendship and command, the first of a long sequence.

Bound in dark blue buckram, cover blocked in gilt and colour with a design by Neil Gower. Map endpapers printed dark grey on light blue. Blue slipcase.