Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command—until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains—Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity pushes his crew to the verge of mutiny.
- ISBN10 0393037045
- ISBN13 9780393037043
- Publish Date 29 March 1995 (first published May 1978)
- Publish Status Inactive
- Out of Print 22 September 2016
- Publish Country US
- Imprint WW Norton & Co
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 352
- Language English