HARBORS AND HIGH SEAS

For armchair seafarers who who follow every adventure of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin but have no idea where on earth Christmas Island is, let alone how far it is from Annamooka, here is the ideal (if unauthorized) Baedeker. Book by book, journey by journey, knot by knot, book packager King provides a geographical guide to Aubrey and Maturin's adventures. (Distinguishing between real locales and those invented by O'Brian was the worst part of the job, notes King.) Cartographer William Clipson provides maps. And maritime historian Hattendorft gives background on the patterns of winds and ocean currents—information so necessary to navigators—and informs us that, in the early 1790s, it would have taken 124 dys to sail from holland to Cape Town. In fact, all that's missing here is a do-it-yourself model of Aubrey's ship, HMS Surprise.