AN: I always thought it was sweet of Sophie to rob the larder to feed Jack when she heard from Stephen that he wasn’t eating well. I also wondered, like Stephen, how she accounted for it later…

“My mind dwells with real concern, and yet with what I might term an inquisitive, slightly vulgar concern, upon the state of Mother Williams’s heart when she ( Read more... )

“How do you come to be here, Pullings, in all your glory?”   “Why sir, I could not get a ship and they would not confirm me in my rank. “No white lapels for you, Pullings, old cock,’ they said. “We got too many coves like you, by half.’”                                                         
“What a damned shame," cried Jack, who had seen Pullings ( Read more... )

AN: Though the footpad Scriven is a relatively minor character in Post Captain, he did have his uses, and his botched attempt to rob Jack did make me laugh. The last time we see him, he is opening the door just before bailiff’s men rush in to the feast to capture Jack, and I for one wondered what happened to him afterward. Considering Stephen’s ( Read more... )

Fathers and Brothers

The announcement, ‘at Woolhampton, on the 19th instant, to the lady of General Aubrey, a son’ merely rounded out the anecdote.

-Post Captain, pg. 79, Norton Press paperback edition

...and there he had been, prancing about the town, dressed like the King’s birthday for every sneaking attorney to behold. The thought made him feel ( Read more... )

AN: Jack’s illness and recovery after his trial in the bearskin is one that is only told retrospectively, in the next chapter. Yet I’ve often wondered what Stephen must have been feeling toward Jack at this time, considering the mess with Diana.

Love and Jealousy

Stephen sat, as he had been sitting for hours now, by Jack’s bed.

In fact, the bed was ( Read more... )

AN: O’Brian never gives us a definitive description of Jack’s father. The one I include in this tale is how I always pictured him when I read the books. Nor does he mention much about Jack’s mother. Therefore, the details I have included are largely extrapolation from the various clues spread throughout the series, or plain invention. I chose ( Read more... )

AN: James Dillon is perhaps one of the most complex characters in the first novel. Most of what goes on in his head is shown to us through the lens of Stephen’s meetings with him, his private thoughts regarding his old friend, and of course what he writes about him. Judging Dillon on Stephen’s assessment, we can safely assume he found some closure ( Read more... )

In Reverse of the Medal, Fanny mentions that Jack had ‘always been kind to her’ which surprised me at the time because I could not recall a meeting between them taking place in the books. I figured it was another omitted scene, likely because O’Brian never expected his series to go as far as it did, and indeed, Master and Commander never makes ( Read more... )

AN: Davies being rescued by Jack is something that the books commonly mention, yet the original incident itself is never included. Davies is in several of the earlier books, including the first, which makes me think that the rescue must have taken place while they were on board the Sophie together. In Post Captain, when Jack is discussing rescues ( Read more... )

Genuine Certificated Physician

Word spread quickly through the Sophie. Most men had either seen Mr. Day have his accident, or heard about it later, and there had not been a man aboard who thought that more than two days would pass before the gunner too would be put over the side, along with the other dead.

To be sure, this Doctor Maturin, this ( Read more... )