Commodore (late Admiral) Anson's fatefaul circumnavigation of the globe in 1740, wherein Anson and his men encounter disaster, disease, and astonishing success,

The first novel Patrick O’Brian ever wrote about the sea – and the precursor to the famous Aubrey-Maturin series.

In the mid-eighteenth century, Peter Palafox, the son of a poor Irish parson, signs on a ship as a midshipman, just in time for Anson's epic circumnavigation of

"The finest writer of sea-stories in the English language."--J. de Courcy Ireland

At the outset of an adventure filled with disaster and delight, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin pursue a prize through the stormy seas and icebergs south of Cap