Jack Aubrey

Jack Aubrey

John "Jack" Aubrey, is a fictional character in the Aubrey–Maturin series of novels by Patrick O'Brian. The series portrays his rise from Lieutenant to Rear-Admiral in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The twenty (and one incomplete draft)-book series encompasses Aubrey's adventures and various commands along his course to flying a rear admiral's flag. He starts as a lieutenant, depressed, poor and without a ship until he is given his first command: a fourteen-gun brig-rigged sloop, HMS Sophie.

Most of his naval battles and adventures are drawn from actual Royal Navy history. Several of his exploits and reverses are directly based on the chequered career of Thomas Cochrane, most importantly the plots of Master and Commander, The Reverse of the Medal and Blue at the Mizzen.

Throughout the books, Aubrey is presented as a great lover of music and player of the violin. He is generally accompanied by his friend and shipmate Stephen Maturin on the cello. Aubrey is particularly fond of the music of Corelli. Aubrey is noted for his mangling and mis-splicing of proverbs, sometimes with Maturin's involvement, such as “Never count the bear’s skin before it is hatched” and “There’s a good deal to be said for making hay while the iron is hot.”

Aubrey is played by Russell Crowe in the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World and by David Robb in the BBC Radio 4 adaptations of the novels .