HMS Leopard

"To be sure, she was something of a slug, and a ramshackle old slug, when Tom Andrews had her.  But the Dockyard has taken her in hand ... and now she is the finest fifty-gun ship afloat, not excepting Grampus. Certainly the finest fourth-rate in the service!"

Armament:  Gun Deck twenty-two 24-pound long guns, Upper Deck twenty-two 12-pound long guns, Quarterdeck four 6-pound long guns, Forecastle two 6-pound long guns

 Plans for HMS Leopard (Lyon 78)

HMS Ariel

"A trim little ship, a frigate in miniature, but with a purer unbroken line; a formidable little ship too, with her sixteen thirty-two pounder carronades and her two long nines."

Armament:  Upper Deck sixteen 6-pound long guns, Quarterdeck four 12-pound carronades, Forecastle 2 12-pound carronades

 Plans for HMS Merlin (Gardiner 62-63)

The Long Year of 1813

Patrick O'Brian adopted a flexible attitude towards the timing of actual historical events while reflecting them in his novels.  In general, his fictional world paralleled reality (with some exceptions) from Master and Commander up through The Fortune of War and even into The Surgeon's Mate.  The Fortune of War presents two "real world" events from late-1812 and mid-1813: the capture of HMS Java by the USS Constitution and the capture of the USS Chesapeake by HMS Shannon.  Jack's return to England early in The Surgeon's Mate also fits reasonably into a mid-1813 timeframe, but Patrick O'Brian as an author of a continuing series of novels faced a lack of historical time for future adventures.  The Napoleonic Wars would cease in 1814 (to be followed by a brief re-emergence of Napoleon in 1815) and the American War would end in 1815, shrinking the stage for possible heroic action.  Therefore, O'Brian introduced into his novels a world without reference to outside time - no particular years were to be specified, no events specific to a given year would be described.  For novel after novel, everything seemed to be happening in an endless year of 1813, carrying the series from The Surgeon's Mate all the way across the next ten novels and into The Yellow Admiral before real world chronology is reintroduced.  In this literary Long Year of 1813, however, the characters in the series age in general conformance to the time period over which O'Brian wrote his books.

HMS Worcester

"... one of the surviving Forty Thieves, that notorious set of line-of-battle ships built by contract with a degree of dishonesty in their scantlings, knees, fastenings - in their whole construction - that excited comment even in a time of widespread corruption."

1813:  In The Ionian Mission Jack Aubrey is in the Mediterranean in command of HMS Worcester, a 74-gun ship-of-the-line.

The Worcester is described in the novel as being of the notorious "Forty Thieves" type (a designation bestowed for their poor workmanship, although the name actually dates from after the close of the Napoleonic Wars, as the fortieth ship was not completed until long after the fighting ended), more formally known as the "Surveyors' class" that began with the launch of HMS Armada in 1810, contrary to the impression given in the novel that the Worcester is an old ship.  Although the ship class is genuine, the specific name "Worcester" is fictional.  The poor reputation of this group of Third Rates was probably not entirely deserved, and in fact the design produced more ships-of-the-line than another other class.  The Armada herself was not sold out of the service until 1863.

The data below are for HMS Armada (Winfield 80).  The plans are those for HMS Blake of a similar class of Third Rate ships-of-the-line, with the plans slightly altered to reflect the length and breadth differences. 

Armament:  Gun Deck twenty-eight 32-pound long guns, Upper Deck twenty-eight 18-pound long guns, Quarterdeck four 12-pound long guns and ten 32-pound carronades, Forecastle two 12-pound long guns and two 32-pound carronades.  

 Plans for HMS Blake (Lyon 112)

HMS Surprise

1813:   Due to the poor physical condition of the Worcester, Jack transfers to his old favorite HMS Surprise for further operations in the eastern Mediterranean, a situation continuing on into Treason's Harbour. 

Plans for HMS Surprise (Gardiner 110-11)

East India Company Ship Niobe

"The Niobe spread her wings, the water began to sing down her side again as she leant to the thrust of the not inconsiderable remaining wind, and with the tide helping she ran quite fast through the islands and into the open sea, a pretty sight with her topgallants and studdingsails aloft and alow."

1813:  Temporarily in Treason's Harbour Jack assumes command of the East India Company sloop Niobe in the Red Sea after he crosses overland from the Mediterranean

The Niobe is a fictional vessel, although the East India Company's Bombay Marine did include ship-sloops.  She probably would have in general resembled a Royal Navy sloop of the Osprey class.

The data below are for HMS Osprey (Winfield 265):  

Armament:  Two 6-pound longs guns and sixteen 32-pound carronades.

Plans for HMS Osprey (Lyon 135)

HMS Surprise

1813:   Jack Aubrey returns from the Red Sea to the Surprise in the Mediterranean.  At the beginning of The Far Side of the World he is to sail her to England where the ship is to be sold out of the service, but the Surprise is given a reprieve when Jack is suddenly ordered to the South Atlantic to intercept an American frigate and, if not successful, to follow her into the Pacific.  Surprise indeed rounds Cape Horn in pursuit of the American, eventually returning to the Atlantic and England in The Reverse of the Medal.  Ensnared in a Stock Exchange fraud, Aubrey is dismissed from the Navy, while at the same time the Surprise is sold out of the service, bought by Stephen Maturin for use as a private man of war with Jack Aubrey as its commander.  Jack in the Surprise operates in Atlantic and Baltic in The Letter of Marque.  At the beginning of The Thirteen-Gun Salute, he departs England en route to the Pacific coast of South America on a secret mission for the Admiralty. 

Plans for HMS Surprise (Gardiner 110-11)

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