HMS Leopard

HMS Leopard is a two-decker, fourth-rate, ship of the line. Leopard carries fifty guns and is a fictionalized representation of the historic HMS Leopard involved in the infamous Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, occurring June 22, 1807. During that incident the British ship attacked and boarded the American ship to press escaped British sailors. Leopard was Aubrey's command during a previous novel, but upon the opening of the present novel is in such an advanced state of disrepair that she is converted form a warship to a transport.

HMS La Flèche

La Flèche is a dispatch-carrying ship upon which Maturin and Aubrey take passage from Pulo Batang to somewhere off the coast of Cape Town. She is a twenty-gun sixth rate, displacing about 450 tons, with a normal complement of one hundred and fifty-five. She is captained by Yorke who is a competent if uninspired leader, and has Warner as...