Patrick O'Brian · 1995 · sea

The seventeenth novel brings Jack home from his long voyage round the world and at once sends him out again, now a commodore with a squadron and two hard tasks: to suppress the slave trade on the coast of West Africa, and to intercept a French force bound on a last desperate invasion of Ireland. This route follows that double mission from England down to the Gulf of Guinea and back north to the wild coast of Bantry Bay.

1. 1
   England

   Home at last from the far side of the world, Jack returns to his family and to Stephen's, the long circumnavigation behind them. But there is little rest: he is made a commodore and given a squadron, with secret orders that will carry him first to the fever coast of Africa and then to the defence of Ireland itself.

2. 2
   Gulf of Guinea

   On the steaming coast of West Africa, in the Gulf of Guinea, Jack's squadron takes up the grim and unhealthy work of hunting the slavers, chasing and boarding the ships that carry their wretched human cargo. It is duty in a deadly climate, against an evil trade, far from the glory of a fleet action.

3. 3
   Bantry Bay

   Word comes of a French squadron slipping out to land an invading army in Ireland, to raise rebellion in Britain's back door. Racing north, Jack brings his ships to the storm-lashed approaches of Bantry Bay and falls upon the enemy, scattering the last invasion attempt of the long war in wind and high sea.