The Nutmeg of Consolation

In this naval novel, Captain Jack Aubrey and the surgeon Stephen Maturin are wrecked on an uninhabited island in the South China Sea after the loss of their ship, with a depleted company and a Dutch settlement not far off. They build a schooner, take a new command named for a medicinal nutmeg, and sail toward Batavia and then New South Wales. On the Australian coast they meet escaped convicts and Aboriginal people, while Maturin pursues natural history and intelligence. The book is one voyage in a long series about two friends at sea, not a history of the spice trade.

Bound in blue buckram blocked in gold, black, white and green with a design by Neil Gower. Blue slipcase.