Blue at the Mizzen is the twentieth and last completed historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1999. It is set after the Napoleonic wars, in the fight for Chilean independence from Spain.

Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, having heard the details of Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo and having collected their share of the prize from their last capture, set sail for the dual mission of charting the Chilean coast and aiding those who seek independence from Spain. Maturin and his colleague Dr Amos Jacob speed the plot as covert intelligence agents and Aubrey's political advisors, while Aubrey makes bold moves in dealing with the factions in Chile.

Reviewers were positive about this novel, finding it "a shining jewel", "an intricate, multifaceted work -- one of those rare novels that actually bear up under close scrutiny." A historical figure from Chile's independence movement, Don Bernardo O'Higgins, also features in the book. O'Higgins captured the Spanish frigate Esmeralda in 1820, a bit later than in this novel.

Natural history

Whilst in Sierra Leone, Christine Wood shows Stephen Maturin a prodigious amount of wildlife, including:

  • an elephantine heron (Ardea goliath)
  • a nightjar with elongated flight feathers (Shaw's Caprimulgus longipennis)
  • a feather from the Congo peacock (Afropavo congensis)

Sailing in the Atlantic out of Shelmerston, a pod of seven right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, swam past the Surprise, one surfacing to clear the blow hole, evoking a former whaler's cry, not a proper Royal Navy communication (thar she blows).

Coca leaves

In Peru, Maturin and Jacob also have a discussion about coca-leaves. Maturin keeps his leaves in his inner pocket in a pouch, along with the lime and necessary outer wrapping. Maturin expresses curiosity about their use in considerable quantities, and the resultant reaction according to altitude. He cites the porters in the Peruvian Andes, who increase their dose if they have to carry a heavy burden over a very high pass.

Jacob mentions that many sorts of coca exist. For example, the Tia Juana; and that asthmatic patients and those afflicted by migraines often experience hallucinations, their strength and frequency varying with the height.

Allusions to real places

Shelmerston, the home port of HMHV Surprise since she was bought out of the service by Maturin is fictional, but based on a real place on the western coast of England, Appledore near the River Torridge in Devon. Funchal is the long time capital of the island of Madeira, part of Portugal. Gibraltar is real, a British base in the Mediterranean Sea. Freetown was the government center for British West Africa, and is now the capital of Sierra Leone. The southern tip of South America, Cape Horn, is at best a hard voyage for a sailing ship. Valdivia, Concepción, Valparaíso, and Santiago are real places in Chile. Callao is a port city in Peru, and was part of the Viceroyalty of Peru before it became independent from Spain. The Strait of Magellan is the passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean north of Tierra del Fuego discovered by Magellan. For sailing vessels going east to west, the Strait is more challenging, due to its narrowness and prevailing westerly winds, than rounding Cape Horn, which is further south. Going west to east, the Strait was faster if the season was right.

Reviews

Kirkus Reviews likes the new character Horatio Hanson, marks the growing number of readers following this series, and hopes, as do most of the reviewers, (in vain) for another novel to follow this, as this novel is "escape at its most intelligent and demanding." This novel sees Maturin fall in love again, and introduces a young midshipman for Aubrey to nurture, and described Aubrey aboard Surprise attacks the Spanish fleet as the climax of this novel. They noted also the introduction of "Horatio Hanson, bastard son of a nobleman, who comes on board as a midshipman, a dashing young foil for the ship's elders."

John Casey, writing in The Washington Post wrote that O'Brian covered the "year after Waterloo, so it necessarily deals with a period of deflation, both economic and emotional, for the Royal Navy and its ancillary population of shipwrights, chandlers and seamen on the beach." and that he addressed "this state of affairs succinctly and sharply in the first part of the story." Then the two main characters have their mission to aid Chile, and "Of course Jack and Stephen must sail there, and readers are treated to O'Brian's talent for life on board, incidents and accidents".

Writing in The Guardian, Jan Morris says the "chronicle has aged too. It has lost something of its sprightly edge, its allusions are mistier and its pace is slower. This is in no way a criticism. As the Frenchman said: 'Le style est l'homme même', and just as Aubrey is no longer the exuberant young commander of the early novels, so O'Brian's narrative has matured with him. So have we."

Publication history

English language editions listed for UK and USA markets

  • 1999, November HarperCollins hardback (UK edition)
  • 1999, November W. W. Norton hardback (USA edition)
  • 1999, November Soundings Lrd audio cassette (UK edition)
  • 1999, November HarperCollins audio cassette (UK edition)
  • 1999, November Random House Audio audio cassette (USA edition)
  • 1999, December HarperCollins paperback (UK edition)
  • 1999, December Recorded Books audio cassette (USA edition)
  • 1999 Books on Tape MP3/CD audio book (USA edition)
  • 1999 Recorded Books audio CD (USA edition)
  • 1999 Books on Tape audio cassette (USA edition)
  • 2000, January Thorndike Press hardback (USA edition)
  • 2000, January Chivers Large Print hardback (UK edition)
  • 2000, March Books on Tape audio cassette (USA edition)
  • 2000, March Books on Tape audio CD (USA edition)
  • 2000, August Harper paperback (UK edition)
  • 2000, September W. W. Norton paperback (USA edition)
  • 2000, September Thorndike Press paperback (USA edition)
  • 2000, September Soundings Ltd audio CD (UK edition)
  • 2001, March Chivers Large Print paperback (UK edition)
  • 2007, May Blackstone Audio MP3/CD (USA edition)
  • 2008 Playaway audio (USA edition)
  • 2008, February Blackstone Audio audio cassette (USA edition)
  • 2008, June Harper Perennial paperback (UK edition)
  • 2011, W. W. Norton & Company e-book edition (USA edition)
  • 2011, Harper e-book edition ASIN B006FH2W76 (UK and Canada edition)
  • 2014, December Audible Studios (UK and USA editions)

Publishers Weekly noted that over three million copies of the books in the Aubrey-Maturin series have been sold, by November 1999.