The Far Side of the World is the tenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1984.

The story from Treason's Harbour has several points resolved, as to the success of Maturin's work identifying the French spies, the trap that Aubrey sailed out of but HMS Pollux did not, and Aubrey resolving the tension between him and Lieutenant Fielding, who escaped the worst French prisoner-of-war facility.

In Gibraltar, Captain Aubrey receives another mission, to sail HMS Surprise to protect British whalers in the Pacific Ocean from USS Norfolk, for his first voyage around Cape Horn.

Maturin receives news from his intelligence-chief in London, Sir Joseph Blaine, confirming high level infiltration of British intelligence by the French.

Maturin's wife Diana has heard rumours of his pretended infidelity in Valletta, Malta, with Mrs Fielding for intelligence reasons.

Maturin learns of his success in Malta, destroying the French intelligence network based there, all but André Lesueur taken.

Surprise rounds Cape Horn with some losses, and then reaches the Juan Fernández Islands to refit and recover.

In the Pacific, with information from a Spanish merchantman, Surprise retakes the valuable whaler Acapulco with Caleb Gill in command, nephew to the Norfolk's captain.

Arrived at the Galapagos archipelago, Maturin and Martin are amazed at the new species they see on land, in the air and in the sea.

The two men are rescued by Polynesian women on a pahi, who ultimately leave them on a small island with a fishing line.

Aubrey, Mr Martin and some of the crew take Maturin ashore for surgery; he is in a coma since hitting his head during the typhoon.

The events of The Yellow Admiral again match up with the historical years of the Napoleonic wars in sequence, as the first six novels did.

"[1] Though there is action, there are battles, the author gives the reader "the everyday meat of life, about emotions that are deep and complex, and are more important than the plot," and he "writes historical novels without the swashbuckling.

Essex sailed in South Atlantic waters and along the coast of Brazil until January 1813 when Captain David Porter undertook commerce raiding against British whaling fisheries in the Pacific.

[2] Although her voyage was hampered from a shortage of provisions and heavy gales while rounding Cape Horn, she anchored safely at Valparaíso, Chile, on 14 March, having seized schooners Elizabeth and Nereyda along the way.

In his final report, David Porter claimed that the British had violated neutrality, conducted themselves dishonorably and inhumanely, and plundered his personal property after the engagement.

He stated that the loss of Essex was simply due to a series of misfortunes and blamed Paul Hamilton for his all short range carronade armament.

Hillyar would help reconcile the Peruvian and Chilean governments which the British gave more attention to as the War of the Sixth Coalition had ended and Napoleon was exiled.

The novel provided part of the title and some of the plot-structure for the 2003 Peter Weir film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

He joins the British side, having earlier fought against it, because of his hatred for Bonaparte's betrayal of the principles of 1789—principles that are perfectly obscure to bluff Capt.

This was the age of Bligh and Cook and of voyages of discovery as well as conquest, and when HMS Surprise makes landfall in the Galapagos Islands we get a beautifully filmed sequence about how the dawn of scientific enlightenment might have felt.

Beginning with The Nutmeg of Consolation in 1991, the novels were released at about the same time in the USA (by W. W. Norton) and the UK (by HarperCollins, the name of Collins after a merger).