The Unknown Shore
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| Author | Patrick O'Brian |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Historical novel |
| Publisher | |
| Publication date | 1959 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 288 p. (hardback edition) & 265 p. (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-00-225409-3 (hardback edition) & ISBN 0-00-649795-0 (paperback edition) |
The Unknown Shore is a novel published in 1959 by Patrick O'Brian. It is the story of two friends, Jack Byron and Tobias Barrow who sail aboard HMS Wager as part of Anson's 1740 expedition. The midshipman Byron and somewhat unworldly surgeon's mate Barrow are prototypes for Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin who appear in many of O'Brian's later novels.
Plot introduction
In reality, John "Jack" Byron was a historical person and the basic facts of the story are true. He went on to a distinguished naval career, rising to the rank of Vice-admiral. There is an "easter egg" that O'Brian includes in the novel: his Jack Byron secretly writes poetry. He wants Tobias to refrain from mentioning it to any of his peers. Byron's grandson was the famous poet Lord Byron.
Plot summary
In the early part of the novel, set in London, other members of the expedition are featured. They appear in more detail in The Golden Ocean, another O'Brian novel about the Anson expedition.
The expedition is beset by storms while rounding of Cape Horn, the Wager is shipwrecked off the coast of Chile as their position could not be determined. The crew reject the authority of their officers, once the ship was wrecked and leave the captain, some officers and some other crew on the island when they sail away in a boat built from the wreck. The marooned officers make their way to a Spanish settlement with the help of the native people. The novel is based on the accounts of the survivors. Survivors from the lower deck made their way back to Britain long before the officers. The novel describes the crew members asserting that the officers had no authority over them, once their ship was wrecked. The wreck of the Wager played a role in revising officers' commissions, so that they retained formal authority over the crew, even if their ship was lost.
Characters in "The Unknown Shore"
- Jack Byron – main protagonist
- Tobias Barrow – "Jack's" friend
Allusions/references from other works
There is an important passage in O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series novel Desolation Island where Byron's name comes up. Maturin and Pullings, the first Lieutenant, fall into a conversation about Pullings' grandfather who had sailed with Byron, and the wrecks they had gone through together, and the conclusions they had drawn about how a wreck can test men's character. It provides important, painless foreshadowing for the discipline problems that were to arise aboard the Leopard.
See also
- The Golden Ocean - another work by Patrick O'Brian, whose two protagonists are young men aboard one of the other vessels on the same expedition as the Wager.
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