Patrick O'Brian · 1981 · mediterranean

The eighth novel returns Jack to the Mediterranean and the grinding tedium of blockade. Given the worn old ship of the line Worcester, he joins the fleet off Toulon, watching the French in harbour through the weary months, before being sent east into the Ionian Sea on a delicate mission among the islands and the rival Turkish beys of the Adriatic shore. This route follows him from England to the Toulon blockade and on into Greek waters, where the diplomacy ends, as it so often does, in gunfire.

1. 1
   England

   Jack is given command of the Worcester, a tired and ill-built seventy-four, and ordered to the Mediterranean fleet. It is no glamorous frigate command but a lumbering line-of-battle ship, and his heart sinks a little, though Stephen is glad enough of the chance to return to those warm and well-loved waters.

2. 2
   Toulon

   Off Toulon, Jack takes his place in the blockading fleet, the long, dull, dangerous watch on the French squadron penned in the great harbour. Weeks pass in monotony and foul weather, the ships beating endlessly to and fro, until orders come at last to detach the Worcester for service in the eastern sea.

3. 3
   Cephalonia

   Among the Ionian Islands off the western coast of Greece, Jack and Stephen take up a tangled mission, to weigh and support one of three rival Turkish beys against the French interest along the Adriatic shore. It is delicate, shifting work, as much for the diplomat and the spy as for the sailor.

4. 4
   The Adriatic

   The careful negotiations come, in the end, to a hard-fought action off the coast, the Worcester and her consorts engaging the enemy in the narrow Adriatic waters. Jack is in his proper element again at last, with the smell of powder and the certainty of a fight to settle what talk could not.