Patrick O'Brian · 1973 · sea

In the third novel Jack is given the frigate that will become the most beloved ship of the series, HMS Surprise, and charged with carrying a British envoy to the East Indies. This route follows the long voyage out, down the Atlantic by way of Brazil, wide around the Dutch-held Cape of Good Hope through the storms of the far south, and across the Indian Ocean to Bombay, and on to the South China Sea, where Jack, badly outgunned, must defend the immensely valuable China Fleet against a French squadron.

1. 1
   England

   Jack takes command of HMS Surprise, a fast, weatherly frigate he comes to love above all other ships, and is ordered to carry an envoy on a diplomatic mission to the distant East. Maturin, pining for Diana Villiers, throws himself into his double work as surgeon and intelligence agent as the Surprise stands out to sea.

2. 2
   St Paul's Rocks

   The bare mid-ocean rocks where Stephen, collecting specimens with Lieutenant Nicolls, is caught by a white squall; Nicolls is drowned, and Stephen endures days marooned on the baking stone before the battered Surprise recovers him.

3. 3
   Cape St Roque

   The Brazilian landfall where the scurvy-ridden ship puts in for citrus, greenstuff and repairs, and Stephen returns from the forest with a sloth - soon to be notoriously debauched with grog by Jack.

4. 4
   Rio de Janeiro

   Rio, where the Surprise refits and takes on mail, and Jack learns that Admiral Linois, the man who once took him prisoner, is loose in the Indian Ocean; from here she runs far south, standing wide of the Dutch-held Cape of Good Hope, into the storms of the high latitudes.

5. 5
   Bombay

   At Bombay, amid the heat and colour and crowding life of British India, Maturin pursues the elusive Diana, now under the protection of a wealthy merchant, a pursuit that will end in a duel. The diplomatic mission falters, but Jack readies his ship for the dangerous work ahead.

6. 6
   Pulo Aor

   Off Pulo Aor in the South China Sea, Jack faces the French squadron of Admiral Linois sent to destroy the China Fleet, the convoy of richly laden East Indiamen homeward bound. With a handful of merchantmen disguised as warships and sheer effrontery, he bluffs and fights the stronger enemy away, saving the fleet in one of his finest hours.