Patrick O'Brian

Patrick O’Brian (Richard Patrick Russ, 1914 to 2000) was a British author of the Aubrey-Maturin series, twenty completed novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars beginning with Master and Commander (1969). The books follow Captain Jack Aubrey and the naturalist and intelligence agent Stephen Maturin. O’Brian is noted for technical accuracy in seamanship, rigging, and period detail drawn from contemporary records. The series extended the age-of-sail naval novel begun by C. S. Forester and was adapted for the 2003 film Master and Commander.