From the moment that Master and Commander, the first of Patrick O"Brian"s sequence of novels about the 19th century naval office Jack Aubrey and his surgeon colleague Stephen Maturin, was published in 1970, critics hailed the book as a masterpiece of historical recreation. Patrick O"Brian died in 2000 not long after the publication of the twentieth novel in the series (Blue At The Mizzen) and by that time his reputation was secure. Reviewers were generous in their praise "Pure gold...O"Brian by the very scale and consistency of his achievement has gone further than just classic storytelling intertwined with high scholarship. I think that he has shown that late on in our literary silver age, authentic gold can still be mined" (The Daily Telegraph). What is so compelling about the Jack Aubrey novels is that they take the reader inside the navy of Napoleonic times and give us an incredibly vivid impression of what it must have been like to serve on board a warship in the age of fighting...