W. W. Norton has republished his The Road to Samarcand, written in the 1930s but not published until 1954. It is, of course, not part of his 21-volume Aubrey/Maturin cycle, but just one of several earlier novels.

Two excerpts (courtesy of today's Los Angeles Times), both from chapter one:

The "Wanderer" ran faster with the freshening of the breeze; her bows cut into the choppy sea, throwing white hissing spray into the sunlight. The schooner was carrying every stitch of canvas that she could spread, and she was so close into the wind that the boy at the wheel kept glancing up at the sails, watching for them to shiver and spill the breeze; but they remained taut and full, and presently his attention faltered. His gaze went up past the dazzling white triangles of the sails to the great albatross above them.

And, as the Times reviewer wrote, here's a passage worthy of Josepth Conrad:

The "Wanderer" was climbing the back of a huge wave, with her nose pointing at the sky, and the water on the fo'c'sle surged back and carried him with it...Again and again the great following seas smashed over the schooner's stern, and each time she wallowed under a sheet of water and spray. But each time, after the spray had half drowned them, she would rise, the water shooting from her scuppers, lighten herself and speed on.

As the reviewer notes, "no one was quite like Patrick O'Brian".

__________________
Richard T. Zuelch, M.Div
Ruling Elder, OPC (not currently serving)
Westminster Presbyterian Church, CA (OPC)
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"If anyone cries at my funeral I'll never speak to him again!" - Stan Laurel (1890-1965)