The Thirteen Gun Salute, by Patrick O'Brian


Geography in The Thirteen Gun Salute by Patrick O'Brian


The Thirteen Gun Salute is the thirteenth book in the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian. Like the others, this was the third time I have read it, - the first time was in 1995. Earlier postings on this series begin here.
I have been trying to follow the geography this time through, with the help of Harbors and High Seas, by Dean King.
When the book opens, they are in Portsmouth, at Jack's house Ashgrove Cottage. Portsmouth was, and is, a large naval base in Hampshire. A timeline of Portsmouth history can be found here. Portsmouth is on the south coast of England, protected from the storms of the English Channel by the Isle of Wight.

They meet a ship in the Atlantic, west of Lands End, which they chase up the east coast of Ireland through the Irish Sea- they lose it and go around the northern coast through the North Channel between Ireland and Scotland, go around Malin Head and turn south going off the west coast of Ireland in the open sea heading directly to Lisbon, Portugal. This map of Ireland comes from ireland-information.com.


The voyage to Lisbon is uneventful. Lisbon is on the Atlantic coast of the Iberian Peninsula, about halfway down. This map can be found at LonelyPlanet.com.


They stay in Lisbon for a time, but there Jack gets orders reinstating him on the post captains list and giving him command of the Diana, a French frigate he had cut out in Normandy. He and Stephen travel overland from Lisbon to Corunna, Spain (now called La Coruna), on the Bay of Biscay, where they take ship for London. This map from LonelyPlanet.com shows that their trip to La Coruna was almost directly north from from Lisbon.


In London, Jack is reinstated. given command of the Diane and sent on a mission to take an ambassador to Pulo Prabang, in what is now Indonesia, to make a treaty with the Sultan. Meanwhile, the Surprise will continue under Pullings from Lisbon, acrosss to South America, around Cape Horn, across the Pacific to meet them off Java.
They go south, and skirt the Cape of Good Hope, going into the forties as they turn east, then eventually northeast as they come to Batavia, (now Jakarta) on the island of Java, where they meet the governor, Raffles (who really was the governor). Here is a map from the University of Texas of the area.

From there, they go to Pulo Prabang a fictional volcanic island somewhere off the coast of Sumatra, south of Singapore and north of Bangka.


There they conduct the treaty, and head to the rendevous with the Surprise near the False Natunas in the South China Sea. Upont their return, they strike a rock, and are forced ashore. This seems to be in between the island of Bangka and the island of Biliton.
As the book ends they are on this island in the South China Sea.

Posted: Sun - January 25, 2004 at 03:54 PM          

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