Product Description

There is no more famous a vessel in naval fiction than HMS Surprise, the principal ship in Patrick O'Brian's much-celebrated "Aubrey-Maturin" series of sea stories. Yet, the frigate also had a true historical career serving in both the French and British navies before being captured by Inconstant in the Mediterranean in 1796 and delivered into the fictional captaincy of Jack Aubrey.This sumptuous new volume, written by acclaimed naval historian Brian Lavery, not only reveals the complete career history and commentary of HMS Surprise in both its guises, but also presents an all-embracing construction history of the Fifth Rate including some 50 line drawings as well as historical artworks and detailed photographs together with stills and model shots from the ship used in the film "Master & Commander: the Far Side of the World". The book is presented in full colour throughout and additionally includes a series of specially-commissioned sketches and paintings by co-author Geoff Hunt RSMA, the acclaimed artist of the Patrick O'Brian cover artworks and related prints. Geoff Hunt also contributes a most illuminating chapter on his experiences in, and challenges faced, when illustrating this ship. Detailed line and isometric plans are being drawn by prolific marine draughtsman Karl Heinz Marquardt.HMS Surprise sails again and this time it's for real - a must for all Patrick O'Brian readers. It is a stunning collaboration between two of the most respected naval authorities. Much of Surprise's actual history is as exciting as her fictional career. It is a meticulously researched first-rate book for all naval devotees.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12005 in Books
• Published on: 2008-11-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 144 pages

Customer Reviews

Essential
In the years B. P. (Before Patrick) an average bookworm sailing enthusiast with a penchant for historical naval fiction was seriously limited in choice, so, almost by default, the brave but emotionally fragile Hornblower became our hero. Forrester was, of course, a brilliant story teller, but characterisation was hardly his forte. It would take the genius (not too strong a word, I believe!) of Patrick O'Brian to breathe life into this bygone age of "Nelson's Navy" with intimate portrayals of the minutiae of shipboard life and the men that inhabited it.

O'Brian's ability to transport readers into the very heart of Jack Aubrey's fictional world, a world so convincing and utterly believable, derives from his skill at creating realistic characters. This applies as much to ships as it does to people: each ship becomes almost a living breathing force in its own right, with its own faults and foibles, from little dainty Sophie to the "horrible old" Leopard. Best of all is Surprise, an old yet sweet sailing frigate that would later re-enter Aubrey's life as his personal property.

Surprise is much loved, a backbone of Aubrey's life, and pivotal to our enjoyment of these novels, but she was not simply a figment of O'Brian's imagination - Surprise was a real ship! Launched in January 1794 as the French L'Unité, she was captured by the British a couple of years later and renamed Surprise. By 1802, after a short but distinguished career, she was sold out of the service and broken up. This is the story told by this book!

Brian Lavery is one of our foremost writers on this era of naval history and once again he doesn't disappoint. With extensive and thorough research he describes the ship, her adventures and the people who sailed her. These chapters are accompanied by many and varied illustrations, including Hunt's paintings and a superb set of plans by Karl Heinz Marquardt, and conclude with an outline of her fictional career under Jack Aubrey. In the book's final two chapters Geoff Hunt discusses the complexities of painting these ships, and then takes us through his drawings and details of cover paintings accompanied by brief descriptions. The book concludes with appendices giving detailed chronology, crew list (at October 1799) and more.

I can find no fault with this book - it is a delight from beginning to end. Aside from Lavery's prose, undemanding and concise yet quite definitive, Hunt's gorgeous paintings are distributed throughout, gloriously printed in full-page or larger enabling the full effect of his artistry and attention to detail to shine. Any student of O'Brian should have a copy, but anyone interested in the era will find this a fascinating portrait of a real ship. Thoroughly recommended.

In a word, superb!
With even a larger format than the standard Conway nautical reference volume, the pages of "The Frigate Surprise" are filled with large reproductions of glorious Geoff Hunt paintings of the ship made famous by the novels of Patrick O'Brian, along with Royal Navy plans of Surprise herself upon her capture from the French (and of her sister ship, La Tourterelle), exquisite plans and drawings by Karl Marquardt (providing sail plans both per historical records and, as described in the O'Brian novels, with the mainmast of a 36-gun frigate), and photographs of the 20th century-built HMS Rose in her guise as the Surprise for the film "Master and Commander" and of other tall ships and models, plus narrative text from Brian Lavery on the Surprise's historical and fictional careers and by Geoff Hunt upon the challenges of painting the ship. There are also lists of spar dimensions as equipped the Surprise in 1802 and of the actual crew as of Oct. 1, 1799, a copy of an 1801 evaluation of the ship's sailing qualities by her captain, and even a little pen sketch by Patrick O'Brian himself of the deck plan as he envisioned it. There is also a wonderfully vivid "tour" through the Surprise detailed by Lavery.

The Surprise for any fan of the Aubrey-Maturin Canon must occupy a spot in our hearts rather like 221B Baker Street in the Sherlock Holmes Canon: both a paradigmatic locale for the heroes and a nexus between the real world and their fictional universe.

I cannot imagine how any fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels could fail to be captivated by this superb volume. For Aubrey-Maturin readers, "The Frigate Surprise" deserves the highest recommendation.

And complete is Right!
This is a large format book with hard back and colour illustrations on almost every page. In short, an awful lot of book for the price. Whilst, generally speaking, books about a single ship tend to appeal to the smallest possible audience, this book will have a wider application because of the excellent way in which it has been laid out, the additional information it embraces, of course, the extra interest generated by the fans of those books by Patrick O' Brian. HMS Surprise was captured from the French in 1796 and then served in the Royal Navy with distinction. She was decommissioned at Deptford in 1802. Unlike other ships to have suffered a similar fate, it is at this point that HMS Surprise becomes the command of Jack Aubrey and went on to be the most famous ship in fictional literature.

As with all "fiction based on fact," there will be those who always wanted to know more about the real HMS Surprise and this book does justice to that demand, the period of naval history in question and, most important of all, the ship itself. The text is fascinating and as riveting as any work of fiction as we work our way through the life and trials of this vessel. The photography is not only of the highest standard, it is also well thought out and includes examples of similar items and ships which survive to this day. Then there are the maps, plans and line drawings - with sufficient information for any scale modeller.

As a writer whose own books contain outstanding marine art, I am also able to fully appreciate the work involved in producing the paintings reproduced throughout this work. They are exceptional and, in addition to the obvious skills of artist Geoff Hunt, reveal his detailed research and analysis of each ship type which enabled him to finally produce such excellent work.

This book is as complete a work on a subject as one might hope to find. It will be of interest to historians, ship lovers, enthusiasts of yesterday's navy, scale modellers and will also fill a very big gap for those fans of the fictional adventures of Captain Aubrey. Perhaps most important of all, it will appeal to anyone who likes reading a really good quality book.

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