H.M.S. Surprise is the third book in the Aubrey-Maturin series.
Stephen reflects on his introverted nature, his inclination toward not truly knowing those around him:
How remote it seemed, that quarterdeck, crowded with blue coats, red coats and half a dozen black, with the busy check-shirted seamen moving among them: no great distance vertically – fifty feet or so – but still now remote. He knew all the men there, liked several o them, loved young Babbington and Pullings; and yet he had the impression of living in a vacuum. It came to him strongly now, though some of the upturned faces were winking and nodding at him… ‘So full a ship, close close-packed a world, moving urgently along, surrounded by its own vacuum; each man bombinating in his own, no doubt. My journal, re-read but yesterday, gives me this same impression: an egocentric man living amidst pale shades. It reflects none of the complex, vivid life of the crowded vessel. In its pages, my host (whom I esteem) and his people hardly exist, nor yet the gun-room,’ he reflected during intervals of conversation as he sat at the envoy’s left…”
(p. 172-173, HarperCollins Paperback)
Jack shows Stephen the initials he carved into the Suprise years earlier when he was only a midshipman:
‘You will have to stand up. Steady, now – clap onto the cheek-bolt. There!’ He pointed to the cap, a dark, worn, rope-scored, massive block that embraced the two masts. ‘We cut it out of greenheart in a creek on the Spanish main; it is good for another twenty years. And here, do you see, is my relic.’ On the broad rim of the square hole that sat on the topmast head there were the initials JA cut deep and clear…
‘Does that not raise your heart?’ he asked.
‘Why,’ said Stephen, ‘I am obliged to you for the sight of it, sure.’
‘But it does raise your heart, you know, whatever you say,’ said Jack. ‘It raises it a hundred feet above the deck. Ha, ha – I can get out a good thing now and then, given time – oh, ha, ha! You never smoked it – you was not aware of my motions.’
(p.239, HarperCollins Paperback)
