# Thoughts on Patrick O'Brian's Novels?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-patrick-obrians-novels/772078>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** books-writing-myths\
**Created:** [November 15, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-patrick-obrians-novels/772078 "2016-11-15T17:58:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 12

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**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thoughts-on-patrick-obrians-novels/772078/222 "2025-10-03T16:23:14Z")

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Why did the Royal Navy sell off HMS _Surprise_? An interesting discussion here: [Reddit - The heart of the internet](https://www.reddit.com/r/AubreyMaturinSeries/comments/12tu23c/hms_surprise_and_why_selling_her_out_of_the_navy/)

I’m reading a new book on the American Revolution, and there was an American privateer named _Surprise_ which did pretty well in that war. There was another American privateer of the same name in the War of 1812 which did even better: [Surprise (1813 privateer) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surprise_(1813_privateer))

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