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'Lucky' Jack Aubrey, currently Commander of the Sophie, is a big, cheerful, fellow and will almost certainly buy you a drink. He's a bit rough around the edges, can't keep still during a concert, is likely to say the wrong thing in polite society (and might sleep with your wife). Get him on the water though, and he does a lot better. He's been in the Royal Navy since he was twelve, and even if he struggled with his exams a touch, he came through and is now hoping to make post-Captain; that is, full Captain, with the assurance of rising through the rankings and ending his career as an Admiral.

He's an instinctive tactician, rides his luck when he can, goes for the big prizes and rarely backs away from a fight. He commands respect, gives it to his crew in turn, and is a fine chap to be friends with. He's an honourable man and naturally disposed to good humour; he's well-bred, a (somewhat rough) gentleman, but wears his heart on his sleeve; he's a man of big emotion, big fight and big heart. He's a tad undisciplined when it suits, there's a hint of the wild about him at sea, and he's a little too independent for his superior's liking...but still, a right seaman and no one will deny it.


'Jack, have you ever known any gentlemen on the lower deck?'
'Yes: a few.'
'And how did you like it yourself, when you were a midshipman and your captain turned you before the mast for incompetence?'
'It was not for incompetence.'
'I distinctly remember that he termed you a lubber.'
'Yes, but a lecherous lubber: I kept a girl in the cable-tiers. It was a reflection upon my morals, not my seamanship.' - - from Book 5: Desolation Island.



Appearance: I'm using icons from the movie, because it's easy, not too inaccurate, and I'm lazy. Despite that, Jack doesn't look exactly like his PB; he's taller, bigger, and heavier (he weighs about sixteen stone). He has very bright blue eyes, and his hair is really blond, (his crew nicknames him 'Goldilocks' for this reason, but rarely to his face). After events in book 1, he's also missing the lower part of his right ear, and will likely enter the bar with this in place.


"Now, in the warm night, there was no one to be comforted, kept in countenance, no one could scorn him for virtuosity, and he could let himself go entirely; and as the grave and subtle music wound on and on, Stephen once more contemplated on the apparent contradiction between the big, cheerful, florid sea-officer whom most people liked on sight but who would have never been described as subtle or capable of subtlety by any one of them (except perhaps his surviving opponents in battle) and the intricate, reflective music he was now creating. So utterly unlike his limited vocabulary in words, at times verging upon the inarticulate.

'My hands have now regained the moderate ability they possessed before I was captured,' observed Maturin, 'but his have gone on to a point I never thought he could reach: his hands and his mind. I am amazed. In his own way he is the secret man of the world.'”- - from Book 17: The Commodore.


Canon: I'll be using book canon, as it's extensive and offers lots of opportunities to play. He'll move through as I read and re-read them, and will enter the bar from some point in Book 1: Master and Commander.


"Different ships have different ways, sir, as you are aware. I do not mean to criticise any other commander, but I desire to have things done my way in Surprise. Some people like their deck to look like a ball-room: so do I, but it must be a fighting ball-room. Gunnery and seamanship come first, and there never was a ship that fought so well without she was a happy ship. If every crew can ply their gun brisk and hit the mark, and if we can make sail promptly, I do not give a damn for an occasional heap of shakings pushed under a carronade. I tell you this privately, for I should not wish to have it publicly known; but I do not think a man deserves flogging for a handful of tow. Indeed, in Surprise we do not much care for rigging the grating, either. Once the men understand their duty and have been brought to a proper state of discipline, officers who cannot keep them to it without perpetually starting them or flogging them do not know their business. I hate dirt and slovenliness, but I hate a flash ship, all spit and polish and no fighting spirit, even worse." - - from Book 3: H.M.S. Surprise.




Jack Aubrey is from the Master & Commander series, and is the property of Patrick O'Brian. He appears here solely for the purpose of role-playing in milliways_bar, from which no profit whatsoever is being made.