The Yellow Admiral
Encyclopedia
The Yellow Admiral is a novel by English author Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian
Patrick O'Brian, CBE , born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of novels set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars and centred on the friendship of English Naval Captain Jack Aubrey and the Irish–Catalan physician Stephen...

, the eighteenth in the Aubrey-Maturin series of historical fiction
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...

 set in the era of the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

.

Plot summary

The novel opens with Jack Aubrey
Jack Aubrey
John "Jack" Aubrey, KB , is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series 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...

 home at Woolcombe in Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...

 on parliamentary leave. Once again, Jack’s fortune has come under threat — this time due to a number of legal disputes concerning captured slaving-ships. It appears that Sophie will have to sell Ashgrove Cottage to keep the family solvent. Stephen Maturin has returned from Spain with his family, but impoverished, Spanish authorities having seized his gold after his pro-independence revolutionary activities in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

. Effectively penniless, Stephen and his retinue stay at Jack's manor.

Stephen and Jack spend time exploring Jack's estate, and Jack explains to Stephen the process of enclosing commons
Enclosure
Enclosure or inclosure is the process which ends traditional rights such as mowing meadows for hay, or grazing livestock on common land. Once enclosed, these uses of the land become restricted to the owner, and it ceases to be common land. In England and Wales the term is also used for the...

, something which Jack opposes. Many of Jack's wealthy neighbours plan to enclose the common land
Common land
Common land is land owned collectively or by one person, but over which other people have certain traditional rights, such as to allow their livestock to graze upon it, to collect firewood, or to cut turf for fuel...

 of Simmon's Lea, thus preventing the villagers from grazing their animals and increasing their dependency on paid employment. Jack becomes the villagers' champion, while Jack's neighbour, Captain Griffiths, fronts the wealthy land-owners. One day at a pub Barrett Bonden accepts a challenge to a boxing-match
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...

 in the Dripping Pan with Griffith's gamekeeper, which he subsequently loses.

A message arrives for Jack recalling him to the squadron blockading Brest
Brest, France
Brest is a city in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. Located in a sheltered position not far from the western tip of the Breton peninsula, and the western extremity of metropolitan France, Brest is an important harbour and the second French military port after Toulon...

. Diana
Diana Villiers
Diana Villiers is a fictional character in the Aubrey-Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. Described as beautiful, mercurial, and entirely unreliable, she is the great love and great sorrow of Stephen Maturin's life....

, understanding that Admiral Stranraer wants Jack to miss the parliamentary vote on enclosing Simmon's Lea, contrives for Jack to leave immediately for London without receiving his orders so that duty will not compel him to miss the vote. Jack prevents the enclosure of Simmon's Lea and returns to Woolcombe. Receiving his orders, he returns to the fleet blockading Brest. Lord Stranraer, who had been a driving force behind his nephew Griffiths' attempts at enclosing Simmon's Lea, was very displeased with Jack for voting against the enclosure and so punishes Jack by sending him to the inshore blockading-squadron. At the same time the Admiral consults Stephen for an ailment that Stephen treats. Before Stephen leaves the flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...

 he receives a covert mission involving landing on the French coast near Brest.

On the dark of the moon, Jack has Stephen rowed ashore for his covert mission with a Catalan informer, Inigo Bernard. Apparently at the same time, two French ships slip through the blockading squadron in the sector that Jack's ship, Bellona
HMS Bellona (1760)
HMS Bellona was a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, she was a prototype for the iconic 74-gun ships of the latter part of the 18th century...

, should have patrolled. The Admiral rebukes Jack and has him return to the offshore squadron. During this time Jack receives a letter from Sophie, in which she, having seen a letter from Amanda Smith (Jack's lover in The Surgeon's Mate
The Surgeon's Mate
The Surgeon's Mate is a historical novel written by Patrick O'Brian and set during the Napoleonic Wars. It is the seventh book in the Aubrey–Maturin series.-Plot summary:...

), accuses him of adultery and announces her intention of leaving him.

During manoeuvres in foggy weather the Bellona spots a French privateer chasing a merchantman
Cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is any sort of ship or vessel that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year; they handle the bulk of international trade...

 and Jack decides to give chase (despite a lookout possibly making out a flagship-signal to Tack all together). The Bellona captures the privateer, Les Deux Frères (a rich prize which had captured two Guineamen), but not before a storm sets in, battering the Bellona to the point of needing repairs, and the ship heads for the docks in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

. Jack returns to Woolcombe while waiting on repairs for the Bellona, and unexpectedly find his family still there. He asks Sophie for forgiveness, but she rebuffs him (Sophie having been exposed only to her mother's point of view, and that repeatedly). The Ringle leaves to report the situation to the Admiral and to retrieve Stephen from France.

With the Bellona repaired, Jack returns to the squadron, but finds that the Ringle has been ordered to retrieve Stephen early and has taken him to England. Stephen sets off for London, where he tells Sir Joseph Blaine about a plot by an outwardly laughable but potentially dangerous Spanish intelligence officer to burgle Blaine’s house. He also brings information about a Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

an plan for independence. Blaine sets a trap and, with the assistance of the invaluable Mr Pratt, captures the Spanish agent red-handed. Stephen presents a proposal to an Admiralty committee for an expedition to help Chilean independence with Jack in command, partly as a means of keeping Jack from getting yellow
Admiral (United Kingdom)
Admiral is a senior rank of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-9, outranked only by the rank Admiral of the Fleet...

ed. The proposal receives approval. Reference is made to Stephen's restored fortune, the inference being that it was returned to him during Spanish negotiations regarding the spy.

Stephen stops at Woolcombe to see his family and learns about Sophie and Jack’s problems. He also finds that Clarissa and Diana have enlightened Sophie as to the possibility of enjoying sex, and have suggested that she avoid feeling morally superior, perhaps by having her own affair. As Stephen departs to return to the fleet, Sophie writes a letter of reconciliation to Jack. Once Stephen returns to the fleet he once again treats Admiral Stranraer. The Bellona hears distant broadsides and rushes to find the inner squadron fighting two French ships. Upon seeing the Bellona and another British ship, the two seventy-fours turn and run for their harbour.

In the following months the Bellona endlessly sweeps the bay, blockading Brest. During this time Stephen tells Jack of his plan for Chile, which Jack agrees to. After a few more months, the flagship, the Queen Charlotte, comes to visit the inner squadron. The Admiral comes to the Bellona to thank Stephen for his treatment and also invites Jack to dinner with all the captains on the flagship. At the dinner the Admiral informs the captains of progress in the war
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

 on land and predicts Napoleon's
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

 imminent surrender.

This soon comes to pass, and the Bellona returns to port and into ordinary storage. Jack and Stephen spend time catching up on world-events at Black's and then meet the three men from the Chilean independence-movement at The Grapes in the Liberties of the Savoy. With the Chileans approving of Jack, he goes through the steps of getting suspended from the Navy List
Navy List
A Navy List or Naval Register is an official list of naval officers, their ranks and seniority, the ships which they command or to which they are appointed, etc., that is published by the government or naval authorities of a country....

 so that he can initiate the covert mission to Chile. Stephen finances the fitting-out of the Surprise, and Jack and Stephen set off with their families for Madeira
Madeira
Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...

, at which they will part company. The novel ends as they tour the island in company with the Chileans: a message arrives from Lord Keith, commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, telling Jack that Napoleon has escaped from Elba
Elba
Elba is a Mediterranean island in Tuscany, Italy, from the coastal town of Piombino. The largest island of the Tuscan Archipelago, Elba is also part of the National Park of the Tuscan Archipelago and the third largest island in Italy after Sicily and Sardinia...

. He appoints Jack a commodore and tells him to take command of the Royal Navy ships in the harbour of Madeira to blockade the Straits of Gibraltar.

Characters

  • Jack Aubrey - Post Captain
  • Stephen Maturin - ship's surgeon, friend to Jack and an intelligence-officer
  • Sophie Aubrey - Jack's wife
  • Diana Maturin - Stephen's wife
  • Brigid Maturin - Stephen's daughter
  • Mrs Clarissa Oakes - Stephen and Diana's companion
  • Preserved Killick - Jack's steward
  • Barret Bonden - Jack's coxswain
    Coxswain
    The coxswain is the person in charge of a boat, particularly its navigation and steering. The etymology of the word gives us a literal meaning of "boat servant" since it comes from cox, a coxboat or other small vessel kept aboard a ship, and swain, which can be rendered as boy, in authority. ...

  • Padeen Colman - Stephen's servant
  • William Reade - Master's mate
    Master's mate
    Master's mate is an obsolete rating which was used by the Royal Navy, United States Navy and merchant services in both countries for a senior petty officer who assisted the master...

    , in command of Bellonas tender, Ringle
  • Sir Joseph Blaine - Head of Intelligence at the Admiralty
  • Mr Callaghan - Midshipman on the Bellona
  • Mr Whewell - First Lieutenant on the Bellona
  • Charlotte, Fanny and George Aubrey - Jack and Sophie's children
  • Philip Aubrey - Jack's half-brother
  • Captain Griffiths - Jack's neighbour at Woolcombe


  • Mr Cholmondeley - a wealthy friend of Diana
  • Captain Heneage Dundas - Captain of the Berenice
  • Lord Stranraer - Admiral of the Brest blockading squadron
  • Evans - Griffith's gamekeeper
  • Captain William Fanshawe - Post Captain of the Ramillies; commander of the inner squadron
  • Mr Geoghegan - Midshipman and oboist; dies from a fall from the yards
  • Mr Harding - First Lieutenant on the Bellona
  • Mr Miller - Third Lieutenant on the Bellona
  • Mr Walkinshaw - schoolmaster on the Bellona
  • Yann - former French fisherman and pilot
  • Inigo Bernard - wealthy Catalan merchant (from Barcelona); member of Spanish intelligence service
  • Mr Pratt - a private investigator
  • Mr Craddock - secretary to Admiral Stranraer
  • Captain Calvert - Captain of the Fleet
  • Garcia and two other Chileans - representatives of the Chilean independence movement

Ships mentioned

The British:

The Brest outer squadron:
  • HMS Queen Charlotte
    HMS Queen Charlotte
    Four ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Queen Charlotte after Charlotte, queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.*The first was a first rate of 100 guns, built at Chatham and launched in 1790. She took part in several actions against the French navy, and flew the flag of...

     - 104 gun three-decker flagship, vice-admiral of the white
  • HMS Zealous
    HMS Zealous (1785)
    HMS Zealous was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built by Barnard of Deptford and launched on 25 June 1785.She served in a number of battles of the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars, notably the Battle of the Nile, where she engaged the French ship Guerrier,...

     - seventy-four
  • HMS Bellona
    HMS Bellona (1760)
    HMS Bellona was a 74-gun Bellona-class third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy. Designed by Sir Thomas Slade, she was a prototype for the iconic 74-gun ships of the latter part of the 18th century...

     - seventy-four
  • HMS Monmouth
    HMS Monmouth (1796)
    HMS Monmouth was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 23 April 1796 at Northfleet. She had been designed and laid down for the Honourable East India Company, but was purchased by the Navy after the start of the French Revolutionary War.She was hulked in 1815, and...

     - seventy-four
  • HMS Naiad
    HMS Naiad (1797)
    HMS Naiad was a Royal Navy fifth-rate frigate that served in the Napoleonic Wars. She was built by Hall and Co. at Limehouse on the Thames, launched in 1797 and commissioned in 1798. She served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and her last actions occurred in 1824-5. She was paid...

     - frigate
  • HMS Doris
    HMS Doris (1808)
    HMS Doris was a 36-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy that served between 1808 and 1829. She was the second ship of the Royal Navy to be named after the mythical Greek sea nymphe Doris....

     - frigate
  • HMS Alexandria - frigate


The Brest inner squadron:
  • HMS Ramillies
    HMS Ramillies (1785)
    HMS Ramillies was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 12 July 1785 at Rotherhithe.In 1801, she was part of Admiral Sir Hyde Parker's reserve squadron at the Battle of Copenhagen, and so did not take an active part in the battle.In August 1812, Sir Thomas Masterman...

  • HMS Aboukir
    HMS Aboukir (1807)
    HMS Aboukir was a 74-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 18 November 1807 at Frindsbury.She was placed on harbour service in 1824, and was sold in 1838....

  • HMS Phoebe
    HMS Phoebe (1795)
    HMS Phoebe was a 36-gun fifth rate of the British Royal Navy. She had a career of almost twenty years and fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812...

     - frigate
  • HMS Nimble
    HMS Nimble
    Several vessels of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Nimble. was a purchased 12-gun cutter that ran aground in 1808 in Stangate Creek in the Medway and was then sold...



Re-inforced with:
  • HMS Grampus
    HMS Grampus (1802)
    HMS Grampus was a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line of the Diomede Class of the Royal Navy. She was commissioned in March 1803 at Portsmouth by Captain Hugh Downman, but in the following month command passed to Captain Thomas Gordon Caulfield. The ship was completed on 11 April 1803 and was...

     - fifty-gun two-decker
  • HMS Scipion - seventy-four
  • HMS Eurotas
    HMS Eurotas
    Two ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Eurotas, after Eurotas, a character in Greek mythology: was a 38-gun fifth rate launched in 1813 and broken up in 1817. was a 46-gun fifth rate launched in 1829, converted to screw propulsion in 1856 and sold in 1865....

     - thirty-eight gun frigate
  • HMS Penelope
    HMS Penelope (1798)
    HMS Penelope was a fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1798 and wrecked in 1815.Under Sir Henry Blackwood, she took part in the battle of 30 March 1800 against the Guillaume Tell. Penelope was credited for engaging and dismantling the masts of Guillaume Tell with two raking broadsides...

     - frigate


Funchal harbour, Madeira:
  • HMS Pomone
    HMS Pomone (1811)
    The Astrée was a 44-gun Pallas-class frigate of the French Navy, launched at Cherbourg in 1809. In December of the next year she captured HMS Africaine. The Royal Navy captured Astrée in 1810 and took her into service under her French name, but then in 1811 recommissioned her as HMS Pomone...

     - thirty-eight, Captain Wrangham; Jack raises his broad pennant on her
  • HMS Dover
    HMS Dover
    Eight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Dover, after the English town and seaport of Dover: was a pink captured from the Royalists in 1649 and sold in 1650. was a 48-gun ship launched in 1654, rebuilt in 1695 and 1716 and broken up in 1730. was an 8-gun dogger captured from the Dutch...

     - thirty-two; troop-ship
  • HMS Rainbow and HMS Ganymede - two corvettes (joined by HMS Briseis)


Others:
  • HM Hired Ship Surprise - twenty-eight - Privately owned by Maturin
  • HMS Dryad
    HMS Dryad (1795)
    HMS Dryad was a fifth-rate sailing frigate of the Royal Navy that served for 64 years, at first during the Napoleonic Wars and then in the suppression of slavery. She fought in a notable single-ship action in 1805 when she captured the Proserpine, an action that would later earn her crew the Naval...

     - thirty-six gun frigate
  • HMS Achates
    HMS Achates
    Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Achates after Achates, a character in Roman mythology. A sixth was planned but never completed:...

     - sixteen-gun sloop
  • Ringle - Baltimore clipper
    Baltimore Clipper
    Baltimore Clipper is the colloquial name for fast sailing ships built on the south-eastern seaboard of the United States of America, especially at the port of Baltimore, Maryland...

    (privately owned by Jack Aubrey, used as
    Bellonas tender by Aubrey)


The French:
  • Les Deux Frères - heavily-armed privateer
  • Clorinde - frigate
  • two seventy-fours


Critical reception

The Telegraph called the Yellow admiral "an interim novel". The exceptional amount of time the characters spend ashore, leaves the story "rather pedestrian" compared to the other books. However, all in all the book keeps the series going and excites fan of the series.

Editions

  • Audio Edition Recorded Books, LLC; Unabridged Audio edition narrated by Patrick Tull (ISBN 1419341170)
  • E-book edition, W. W. Norton & Company, 2011, ISBN 9780393063714
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