"Ever since Jack Aubrey had been dismissed from the service, ever since his name, with its now meaningless seniority, had been struck of the list of post-captains, it had seemed to him that he was living in a radically different world; everything was perfectly familiar, from the smell of seawater and tarred rigging to the gentle heave of the deck under his feet, but the essence was gone and he was a stranger.
Other broken sea-officers, condemned by court-martial, might be worse off: indeed, two had come aboard without so much as a sea-chest between them, and compared with them he was uncommonly fortunate, which should perhaps have been a comfort to his mind—it was none t his heart. Nor was the fact that he was innocent of the crime for which he had been sentenced.
Yet there was no denying that materially he was well...