Surprise

Surprise is a private man-of-war, owned and captained by Jack Aubrey, and hired by the Royal Navy to prosecute official business as a hired vessel. She was French-built and has previously been known as L'Unité, Retaliation, and Retribution. Her figure-head is a gilded woman with an ample bosom and a surprised look on her face. She displaces about six hundred tons, has a crew of about two hundred men, and carries a main armament of twelve-pounder long guns. She also carries thirty-two pounder carronades as ballast; the main guns can be switched around with a few days' work.

HMS Éclair

HMS Éclair is a fast cutter that appears in the vicinity of Norfolk Island and thereafter gives chase to Surprise. Aubrey fears Éclair means to search Surprise for stowaways—there are two, namely Padeen and Clarissa—and thus Aubrey attempts to avoid the cutter. In...