Publisher's Synopsis
Acting in his usual headstrong fashion, Jack dives in to the rescue, unfortunately failing to plan what will happen once they are both in the water watching the sails of the SURPRISE disappear in the mist... The war of 1812 is still being fought when Jack Aubrey sets course for Cape Horn on a mission after his own heart: intercepting a powerful American frigate outward bound to play havoc with the British whaling trade. The South Seas are a paradise for battle-weary Captain Jack Aubrey and ship's surgeon Stephen Maturin. But Stephen Maturin has fish of his own to fry in the world of secret intelligence. Disaster in various guises awaits them in the Great South Sea and in the far reaches of the Pacific: typhoons, castaways, shipwrecks, murder, and criminal insanity.
