O'Brian's historical fiction is well-known for his meticulus research, and Master and Commander is no exception, being in large part drawn from Thomas Cochrane's actual adventures on board HMS Speedy.. Cochrane's adventures on their own make good reading (and appear as a chapter in King and Hattendorf's Every Man Will Do His Duty), but in Master and Commander they are embroidered with close examination of friendship, rivalry, and human character, set in a finely textured background of Nelson's Navy. Jack Aubrey's character: open, good-humored, not overly wise, but a skilled naval tactician and ultimately a gifted leader leader; and Stephen Maturin's character: reserved, at times depressed, highly intelligent (though at times imprenetrably stupid on points of seamanship), and skilled as a p