Золотой океан: Исторический роман о кругосветном путешествии

1956 novel by Patrick O'Brian

The Golden Ocean is a historical novel written by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1956. It tells the story of a novice midshipman, Peter Palafox, who joins George Anson's voyage around the world beginning in 1740. The story is written much in the language and spelling of the mid 18th century. Palafox is a Protestant Irish boy from the west coast of Ireland, schooled by his father, a churchman, and eager to join the Royal Navy. He learns naval discipline and how to determine his ship's position at sea as part of a large berth of midshipmen on HMS Centurion. His friend Sean O'Mara joins with him, considered his servant initially by officers and put among the seamen, rising in rank as he shows his abilities, to bosun's mate. The book contains a wealth of period detail, and includes historical figures, like Anson, the midshipman Keppel, Mr Walter, the chaplain to Anson and kind guide and keeper of the purse for Peter Palafox, and captains of other vessels in the squadron. Reviews in 1994 found it not a mature work), who rides with them to Cork, and takes the horses home. Mr Richard Walter: He was in seminary with Peter's father. He secured the appointment for Peter and is Chaplain aboard ship. He is modelled on the real person, Chaplain to Commodore Anson. Peregrine FitzGerald: He is a boy in powdered red hair with a strong sense of honour and offence. He sails to England with Peter, also to be midshipman on Centurion; he is very sea sick and slow to take to the discipline. He leaves the ship at Funchal, Madeira to join the merchants of the East India Company. He leaves behind his cold weather clothes, a boon to Peter and Sean. Lord Culmore: He is a friend to FitzGerald, who loans him 10 guineas after FitzGerald lost his money to gambling and Peter lost his to a thief. Commodore Anson: He leads the squadron and is captain of HMS Centurion, a strong leader. Mr Keppel: He is already 5 years at sea, a midshipman since age 10, who appears so very young to Peter, and a character from history who rose high in the navy and in society. Mr Ransome: He is an older boy in the midshipmen's berth, once in the crew and promoted by Anson. He is tall and strong and at sea since age 8. Mr Elliot: Midshipman who helps Peter to understand the trigonometry after Funchal. He dies of scurvy while ship goes so slowly around Cape Horn. Captain Callis: He also courted Peter's mother, asks to be remembered to Peter's parents at dinner aboard Centurion. Captain Dandy Kidd: The first Captain of HMS Wager, who Peter meets at dinner with the Commodore. Mr John Byron: Midshipman aboard Wager, who Peter meets at dinner with the Commodore. Mr Saunders: First lieutenant of the Centurion, who often corrects Peter in his duty. He is later promoted to captain on another ship in the squadron. Colonel Cratcherode: Head of the land forces for the squadron, who Peter meets at dinner with the Commodore. Mr Pascoe Thomas: He is schoolmaster for the midshipman, who is long in his position, after 35 years teaching boys at sea. Mr Blew: Master for the Centurion, who teaches navigation to the midshipmen. Mr Saumarez: He is a lieutenant aboard HMS Centurion, who holds Mr Saunders place when he is sent to be captain on HMS Tryal. He is based on a real person in the Royal Navy. Kirkus Reviews finds this novel "Not a mature piece of work, but appealing enough to satisfy fans of O'Brian's naval sagas." Tom Clark writing in the Los Angeles Times says that "evidently in keeping with an aim of appealing to a younger audience, the darker aspects of the crew's experience are played down in favor of a robust and exhilarating rendering of the great adventure of it all." It is a first sea novel with a young boy as the main character, but "if there's any character in The Golden Ocean with heavyweight potential, it's the sea itself, whose power as a kind of fate is rendered with the Conradian force that shows where O'Brian was headed as a narrative writer." Clark notes that "At least two of those accounts, those of Anson's chaplain, Richard Walter, and of a young Irish midshipman, John Philips, appear to have supplied O'Brian much of what he needed to paint with charming pictorial realism the life both above and below decks on Anson's flagship Centurion." Library Journal noted that this book by O'Brian "set the course they [Aubrey Maturin series] later followed." It is recommended for all ages: "A humorous adventure for all collections." Scott Veale writing in The New York Times was upbeat about this novel, saying that "As always, the author's erudition and humor are on display, whether he's describing the singing of the masts in the wind, the harrowing seas of Cape Horn or 18th century superstitions." Veale found the period detail to be "uncompromising", and expected that readers "will be swept up by the richness of O'Brian's prodigious imagination."

The same expedition is described from the perspective of two on one of the ships in the squadron that did not make it around the globe in O'Brian's The Unknown Shore. It focusses on the ship HMS Wager and different main characters, including John Byron, then a midshipman, age 18. Mr Walter the chaplain wrote his own account of the voyage of Anson, noted by Clark (above) as one of O'Brian's historical sources for this novel and the interactions among the officers and crew. An original copy was at auction in 2009. In 1969, O'Brian published Master and Commander, the first book in a 20 novel series, known as the Aubrey Maturin series. It is set in the Napoleonic Wars, begins in 1800, and features a pair of men who become the closest of friends, Captain Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, physician and natural philosopher. In Post Captain, the second novel of the series, Aubrey recalls Anson, and asks Maturin if he has read Anson's book. Maturin has, but finds Anson's journey wasteful, as Anson noted nothing of the natural world that he saw on the journey. Aubrey is impressed that Anson made the journey and succeeded in it. The Royal Navy has changed since Anson's voyage, as have the politics of the world, with the thirteen British colonies in North America now the nation of the United States of America, the War of the Austrian Succession over, including the exit of France from nearly all its North American colonies, the French Revolution in the past, and the Irish Rebellion of 1798 also a past event. The Royal Navy and physicians have learned the need for fresh food and citrus to combat scurvy, a disease which killed so many in Anson's squadron, before this connection was made between scurvy and fresh food. The Napoleonic Wars endured so long, that they make a broad canvas of history against which the author sets the lives of his main characters, still keeping a sharp eye to historical detail and period language, which is a different structure than The Golden Ocean, which tells the tale of one long and daring voyage. In one sense, O'Brian views the long eighteenth century as the setting of his works, putting this novel in the same time period as the later series, while technically happening in two different centuries, the 18th and the 19th. They are both set in the Age of Sail, an even longer period of time than the long eighteenth century.

The story is based on a real event, George Anson's voyage around the world that began in 1740. Places named in Ireland, England, Madeira, the Pacific coast of South America, Manila, Macau and Canton in China are real, including St. Catherine's Island off Brazil at 24 degrees South latitude, shown on this map. The Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Covadonga, after the battle, was sold at Macau and the treasure transferred to Centurion, which proceeded to England after a brief rest, arriving there in June 1744.

This novel was aimed at younger readers, as well as adults, and takes the viewpoint of a new midshipman joining the Royal Navy on HMS Centurion in 1740 on this voyage. The boy is on the one ship that makes the entire voyage, and he is one of the survivors. Seen by the midshipman Peter Palafox, the sense of the adventure is depicted, as he sees the world and learns the discipline, hardships and rewards of the Royal Navy. The hardships of the voyage are not dismissed, with counts of the deaths from scurvy, whose cure was not yet understood, and the problems of navigation without the precise knowledge of location gained by chronometers to measure longitude, depicted in detail.

Rupert Hart Davis published many of O'Brian's works, including translations (e. g., Papillon and Banco: The Further Advancement of Papillon in 1970 and 1973), The Road to Samarcand, The Golden Ocean, The Unknown Shore and short stories from 1953 to 1974. In 1994, The Golden Ocean was re issued by HarperCollins in the UK and W W Norton in the US.