The Thirteen-Gun Salute

The Thirteen-Gun Salute is the thirteenth novel of the Aubrey-Maturin series by the English writer Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1989. It opens the second of the series' long voyages, and it is the book in which Aubrey returns to the Navy List and to a commissioned ship after a period of uncertainty.

Two developments redirect the mission. Spain suspects that the English are quietly supporting independence movements in its South American colonies, and London decides that an ally is needed in the Malay states, which means an envoy, a treaty to be negotiated and a ship to carry the pair of them out. The Surprise is left in other hands and Aubrey takes command of the Diane.

For Maturin the posting has a double attraction, because Pulo Prabang holds a naturalist's collection he has wanted to see for years and because his other work travels with him wherever the ship goes. Getting there is not simple: the passage to the rendezvous with the Surprise runs through shoal water, and a typhoon stands between the Diane and her destination.