The Mauritius Command

The Mauritius Command is the fourth naval historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1977.

Aubrey is married and the father of twin girls, owner of a cottage with a fine observatory he built. He is more than ready to be back at sea. He and Stephen Maturin join a convoy charged with taking two strategic islands in the Indian Ocean from the French. The mission provides scope for each man to advance in his specialty.

A review written at first publication found the novel to be written in "language deep with detail and the poetry of fact", appreciating the period detail. A later review, written at the reissue, finds the author a graceful writer but sees a difficulty with the novel's structure, building to climaxes that do not occur. Others writing at that time saw the novel more as part of the longer series, with humour, erudition and "impeccable period detail".

Allusions to history

The military actions of the novel are very closely based upon the real-life Mauritius campaign of 1809–1811, carried out by the Royal Navy under Commodore Josias Rowley with the assistance of army forces under Harry Keating. O'Brian notes this in the preface. Réunion (known to the French as Île Bourbon or Île Buonaparte) was taken completely in July 1810, and Mauritius (known as Île de France, earlier called Mauritius by the Dutch) was formally captured on 3 December 1810. Many of the historical figures involved in the campaign are characters in the novel.

O'Brian used literary license in making Aubrey a Commodore while still a relatively junior captain, which puts him equal in rank to the man who actually led the squadron in history, Commodore Rowley. In the novel, Aubrey is appointed directly by the Admiralty thanks to Maturin's persuasion, as Maturin had been at work on the intelligence side of the project. There are other differences from the historical events, one being that the French captain of the Vénus, Jacques Félix Emmanuel Hamelin, was not killed in action and actually survived the encounter, surrendering to the British and going on to honor in France. In contrast, Captain Corbett's reputation and death aboard ship match that of Robert Corbet, who was captain of Néréide and then given the Africaine when he brought the captured Caroline to England. Corbet was killed under controversial circumstances during the action of 13 September 1810, which is depicted accurately in the novel.

Lord Clonfert is fictional, in place of Nesbit Willoughby, who was captain of the actual HMS Néréide; though Willoughby had a spotty career and took many wounds, he survived the battle and lived unmarried. Lord Clonfert takes the same splinter wound to the eye as Willoughby received during the Battle of Grand Port in August 1810. In the historical battle, Samuel Pym of the Sirius was taken prisoner by the French and released only when a later squadron from Cape Town re-took Île de la Passe in December 1810, freeing Pym and others taken prisoner. For the loss of his ship, Pym faced the usual court-martial but was exonerated of blame. In the novel, it is Captain Lord Clonfert who is left a prisoner in the action, seriously wounded, under the care of his own and French physicians until the squadron arrives under Admiral Bertie to accept the island's capitulation, though Clonfert does not live to face a court-martial.

The ending of the novel, with Admiral Bertie sailing in and taking credit, also matches the historical event, as Bertie did in fact lead the victorious squadron in December 1810. Some historians have viewed the defeat at Grand Port as the most serious to the Royal Navy in all of the Napoleonic Wars; the interim defeat and very real loss of ships were overshadowed, however, by the conquest of the islands just a few months later. The French mark this victory on the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, the only naval action noted there. Though Aubrey expects no baronetcy for his accomplishments in the novel, in history, both Admiral Bertie and Commodore Rowley received a baronetcy in recognition of their success in a popular military campaign.

Historically a commodore indicated on which ship in his squadron he was sailing by showing his broad pendant (some editions have 'broad pennant').

It is mentioned in the novel that Aubrey makes the acquaintance at the Royal Society of Miss Caroline Herschel, famed astronomer and sister to William Herschel, and that she aided him in the technique of polishing the lens for his telescope. She was in her sixties during the time period depicted in the novel. In his development as a scientific sailor, Aubrey had presented a paper on his method for improving navigation by tracking the planets.

The island now called Réunion (French La Réunion) had several names in this era, including Île Bourbon and Île Buonaparte, reflecting the opposing sides in France. Bourbon was the name of the royal family deposed by the French Revolution and a way to refer to the royalists among the French; Napoleon Bonaparte was the emperor of the expanding French Empire. The French ship Caroline was rechristened as HMS Bourbonnaise, both because there was already a ship named Caroline in the Royal Navy, and the island where she was taken had that as one of its names.

The story of the Russian Captain Golovnin aboard the ship Diana, caught at a British port when the national alliances changed while he was sailing, refers to an historical situation which occurred in the same year that the squadron to take the two French islands was assembled.

Allusions to literature

The story contains numerous allusions to the ideas and thinking of others. At one point Aubrey is recorded "adding, not without pride, Ex Africa surgit semper aliquid novo, – novi, eh?" ("Always something new coming out of Africa".) This is the popular version of a quotation from Pliny the Elder, "unde etiam vulgare Graeciae dictum semper aliquid novi Africam adferre".

Literary significance and criticism

"Taken together, the novels are a brilliant achievement. They display staggering erudition on almost all aspects of early nineteenth century life, with impeccable period detail....[Compared to Forester's characters] Aubrey and Maturin are subtler, richer items; in addition Patrick O'Brian has a gift for the comic which Forester lacks.

"Jack's assignment: to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mauritius from the French. That campaign forms the narrative thread of this rollicking sea saga. But its substance is more beguiling still..." —Elizabeth Peer, Newsweek

Kirkus Reviews found the language of the novel to be "shot through with unobtrusive culture and period texture that flows like a serenade". The characters are drawn well, with "a crazy inner skip to their hearts", summing up the writing as having "the poetry of fact on blue-water currents under the trades."

Reviews published at the re-issue in 1991 were favorable and detailed. Publishers Weekly found O'Brian to be "a graceful writer, and the book is full of wonderful period details". The novel's "peculiar narrative structure" suggests climaxes that do not happen. Richard Snow wrote in 1991 that he had read the novels from Master and Commander to Desolation Island from American publishers twenty years earlier. He enjoyed the happy ending of Master and Commander and was grateful for more, including "a complex and fascinating successor [which] appeared -- The Mauritius Command."

Kevin Myers wrote in The Irish Times that "O'Brian's sheer brilliance as a writer constantly dazzles, and his power over the reader is unique. No writer alive can move one as O'Brian can; no one can make you laugh so loud with hilarity, whiten your knuckles with unbearable tension or choke with emotion. He is the master."

Adaptations

From 3 April 2011 the BBC broadcast Roger Danes' dramatization of the book, in three one-hour parts, in the Classic Serial strand on BBC Radio 4. Produced and directed by Bruce Young, its cast was:

Captain Jack Aubrey – David Robb
Doctor Stephen Maturin – Richard Dillane
Governor Farquhar – David Rintoul
Lt-Col Keating – Thomas Arnold
Lord Clonfert – Sam Dale
Captain Corbett – Christian Rodska
Lt Seymour – Max Dowler
Midshipman George Johnson – Nyasha Hatendi
Dr McAdam/Admiral Bertie – Sean Baker
Captain Pym – Brian Bowles
Mrs Williams – Joanna Monro
Sophie – Sally Orrock

Publication history

1977, UK, Collins Publishers Hardcover First edition
1978, May UK, Fontana Paperback
1978, May USA, Stein & Day Hardcover edition
1989, February UK, Fontana Paperback
1991, May USA, W. W. Norton & Company Paperback Reprint edition
1992, December USA, William A. Thomas Braille Bookstore Hardcover edition
1993, April UK, ISIS Audio Books Audio book Patrick Tull (Narrator)
1994, USA, W. W. Norton & Company Hardcover Reprint edition
1996, September UK, HarperCollins Paperback
1997, January UK, HarperCollins Audio book Robert Hardy (Narrator)
2000, November USA, Thorndike Press Hardcover
2001, March UK, Chivers Hardcover Large-print edition )
2001, November UK, Recorded Books Unabridged Patrick Tull (Narrator)
2001, December UK, Chivers Paperback Large-print edition
2002, September UK, Soundings Audio book (CD), Stephen Thorne (Narrator)
2004, USA, Blackstone Audiobooks audio edition, August 2004, MP3 CD, Simon Vance (Narrator)
2004, USA, Blackstone Audiobooks audio edition, August 2004, MP3 CD, Simon Vance (Narrator)
2011, December USA, W. W. Norton & Company e-book

This novel was first issued in the UK in 1977 by Collins and in 1978 in the US by Stein & Day. It was among the many re-issued in paperback by W W Norton in 1990–1991, 14 years after its initial publication by Collins (note list above). More reviewers read this book and others in the series, and the series gained a new audience.</blockquote>