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![]() First edition (UK) | |
Author | Patrick O'Brian |
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Language | English |
Genre | Historical novel |
Publisher | Rupert Hart-Davis (UK) & W.W. Norton (USA) |
Publication date | 1959 |
Publication place | United Kingdom |
Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
Pages | 320 paperback |
ISBN | 978-0-393-31538-7 W. W. Norton paperback edition 1996 |
OCLC | 43224687 |
Preceded by | The Golden Ocean |
The Unknown Shore is an historical novel published in 1959 by Patrick O'Brian. It is the story of two friends, Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow, who sail aboard HMS Wager as part of the voyage around the world led by Commodore George Anson in 1740. Their ship did not make it all the way around the world, unlike the flagship. The novel is a fictionalised version of actual events which occurred during the Wager mutiny.
Some reviewers feel that the midshipman Byron and the somewhat unworldly surgeon's mate Barrow are prototypes for Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the central protagonists of O'Brian's subsequent Aubrey–Maturin series set during the Napoleonic Wars.
In the early part of the novel, set in London, other members of the expedition are featured. They appear in more detail in The Golden Ocean , another O'Brian novel about the Anson expedition, published in 1956.
The expedition is beset by storms while rounding Cape Horn, and the Wager is shipwrecked off the coast of Chile when her position cannot be determined. After the wreck, the crew rejects the authority of their officers and leaves the captain, some officers, and some other crew on the island (now known as Wager Island) while they sail away in a boat built from the wreck. The marooned officers make their way to a Spanish settlement with the help of the native people. The novel is based on the accounts of actual survivors. Survivors from the lower deck made their way back to Britain long before the officers. The novel describes the crew members asserting that the officers had no authority over them, once their ship was wrecked.
The Wager's crew did reject the authority of their officers, once the ship was wrecked, in what became known as the Wager mutiny in 1741. [1] The lesson of the wreck of the Wager played a role in revising British naval discipline, so that officers did retain formal authority over crew members even when their ships were lost or captured.
John "Jack" Byron was an historical person and the basic facts of the story are true. He went on to a distinguished naval career, rising to the rank of vice-admiral. There is an "easter egg" that O'Brian includes in the novel: his version of Jack Byron secretly writes poetry, and wants Tobias to refrain from mentioning it to any of his peers. This is perhaps an allusion to the fact that the famous poet Lord Byron was one of John Byron's grandsons.
Vice-Admiral John Byron was a British Royal Navy officer and explorer. He earned the nickname "Foul-Weather Jack" in the press because of his frequent encounters with bad weather at sea. As a midshipman, he sailed in the squadron under George Anson on his voyage around the world, though Byron's ship, HMS Wager, made it only to southern Chile, where it was wrecked. He returned to England with the captain of the ship. He was governor of Newfoundland following Hugh Palliser, who left in 1768. He circumnavigated the world as a commodore with his own squadron in 1764–1766. He fought in battles in the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution. He rose to Vice Admiral of the White before his death in 1786.
John "Jack" Aubrey, is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series of novels portrays his rise from lieutenant to rear admiral in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The twenty -book series encompasses Aubrey's adventures and various commands along his course to flying a rear admiral's flag.
The Nutmeg of Consolation is the fourteenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1991. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
Post Captain is the second historical novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1972. It features the characters of Captain Jack Aubrey and naval surgeon Stephen Maturin, and is set in the early 19th century during the Napoleonic Wars.
Desolation Island is the fifth historical novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. It was first published in 1978.
The Fortune of War is the sixth historical novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1979. It is set during the War of 1812 and much of the story takes place in Boston, Massachusetts.
The Ionian Mission is the eighth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1981. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars.
The Far Side of the World is the tenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1984. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
Treason's Harbour is the ninth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1983. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars.
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.
The Yellow Admiral is the eighteenth naval historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by English author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1996. The story is set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars.
The Wine-Dark Sea is the sixteenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1993. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
Clarissa Oakes is the fifteenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by British author Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1992. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
The Golden Ocean is a historical novel written by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1956. It tells the story of a novice midshipman, Peter Palafox, who joins George Anson's voyage around the world beginning in 1740. The story is written much in the language and spelling of the mid-18th century. Palafox is a Protestant Irish boy from the west coast of Ireland, schooled by his father, a churchman, and eager to join the Royal Navy. He learns naval discipline and how to determine his ship's position at sea as part of a large berth of midshipmen on HMS Centurion. His friend Sean O'Mara joins with him, considered his servant initially by officers and put among the seamen, rising in rank as he shows his abilities, to bosun's mate.
The Thirteen-Gun Salute is the thirteenth historical novel in the Aubrey–Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1989. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812.
HMS Surprise was the name the Royal Navy gave to the French Navy's corvette Unité after Unité's capture in 1796. Unité was launched on 16 January 1794. Surprise gained fame in 1799 for the recapture of HMS Hermione. In 1802 Surprise was sold out of the service.
HMS Wager was a square-rigged sixth-rate Royal Navy ship of 28 guns. It was built as an East Indiaman in about 1734 and made two voyages to India for the East India Company before the Royal Navy purchased her in 1739. It formed part of a squadron under Commodore George Anson and was wrecked on the south coast of Chile on 14 May 1741. The wreck of Wager became famous for the subsequent adventures of the survivors who found themselves marooned on the desolate Wager Island in the middle of a Patagonian winter, and in particular because of the Wager Mutiny that followed.
The Wager Mutiny took place in 1741, after the British warship HMS Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the south coast of present-day Chile.
Captain David Cheap was a Scottish Royal Navy officer.
John Bulkeley was a British seaman, best known for leading survivors of the wreck of HMS Wager to safety. Bulkeley was the ship's gunner, not one of her commissioned officers. David Cheap, the ship's acting captain, had lost the confidence of his former crew, many of whom were convinced that when the ship was sunk, and their pay ended, they were no longer bound by the Royal Navy's discipline or chain of command.
However, once ashore a dispute arose regarding the Captain's powers of command over the soldiers who had been aboard and the sailors who, once their ship was wrecked, were no longer paid by the Navy.