title: Heart of Oak: A Sailor's Life in Nelson's Navy
author:  James P. McGuane 
description: James McGuane is a master photographer and filmmaker as well as a blacksmith and sculptor. His work is frequently informed by things historical and nautical. He divides his time between his home in Greenwich Village, New York City, and Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
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  # The Fortune of War
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  #### Aubrey - Maturin Series
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  #### BOOK SIX
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### by
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ### Patrick O'Brian
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ![cover](cover.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## CHAPTER ONE
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The warm monsoon blew gently from the east, wafting HMS Leopard into the bay
  of Pulo Batang. She had spread all the sails she could, to reach the anchorage
  before the tide should turn and to come in without discredit, but a pitiful
  show they made - patched, with discoloured heavy-weather canvas next to stuff
  so thin it scarcely checked the brilliant light - and her hull was worse. A
  professional eye could make out that she had once been painted with the Nelson
  chequer, that she was a man-of-war, a fourth-rate built to carry fifty guns on
  two full decks; but to a landaman, in spite of her pennant and the dingy
  ensign at her mizen-peak, she looked like an unusually shabby merchant ship.
  And although both watches were on deck, gazing earnestly at the shore, the
  