Jack Aubrey: Captain of HM Hired Vessel Surprise , and its owner.
Stephen Maturin: Ship's surgeon, physician, natural philosopher, friend to Jack and an intelligence officer.
Sophia Aubrey: Wife of Jack and mother of their three children.
Diana Villiers: Wife of Stephen and mother of their young daughter Brigid.
Clarissa Oakes: Living at the Aubrey home, widow of young Oakes; introduced in Clarissa Oakes .
The chase and the prizes
Thomas Pullings: Commander in the Royal Navy, Captain by courtesy, he is a volunteer aboard Surprise . He acts as its first officer when Aubrey is aboard. He takes command of the Franklin when it is seized.
Mr West: Second Mate on HM Hired Vessel Surprise . He had been a Royal Navy lieutenant, discharged for duelling, and would like to be one again. He is killed by the volcanic eruption. He was introduced in The Letter of Marque .
Reverend Nathaniel Martin: assistant-surgeon, natural philosopher, clergyman and friend to Maturin. He becomes ill en route to Peru and is sent home on a merchantman to recover. He is a beneficed clergyman now, with two livings on Aubrey's holdings.
Mr William Reade: Midshipman, now age 14, on the Surprise who lost an arm in battle; introduced in The Thirteen Gun Salute . His voice is breaking now. With young Norton promoted to the midshipman's berth, he has a friend to go skylarking.
Mr Sam Norton: Promoted to midshipman to fill the vacancy of Oakes, who sailed the prize Truelove from Moahu.
Mr Arthur Wedell: Ransomer taken from the Franklin , who stays with the Surprise and is promoted to acting midshipman. He is near the age of Reade and very lively. The three midshipmen are punished after Wedell falls through the skylight into the Captain's cabin.
Jean Dutourd: Owner of the Franklin , now a prisoner under Aubrey. He is an idealist and a talkative man, seeking an island to set up his notion of a utopian community, but likely to attack any in the way of his ideals. He is from Louisiana, now a part of the US, an enemy to the UK. His followers and crew are mainly French, from Louisiana or Canada. They chose Moahu, where the chase began.
Mr William B Chauncy: The Sailing Master aboard the Franklin , who holds a letter of marque from the US, but does not list Dutourd on the muster. He is killed, along with all his skilled seamen, by a cannonball from the Surprise during the chase.
Mr. Bulkeley: Bosun on the Surprise . At Callao, Aubrey discharges him for capabarre, a habit he learned too well when in the Royal Navy.
Barret Bonden: Captain's Coxswain on the Surprise .
Preserved Killick: Captain's Steward on the Surprise .
Awkward Davies: Able Seaman on the Surprise .
Joe Plaice: Cousin to Bonden and able seaman.
Mr Grainger: Acting mate or Lieutenant joining the Gun room. He is promoted from forecastleman due to vacancy from battle at Moahu; he sailed his own brig before joining Surprise at Shelmerston for this voyage (which began back in The Thirteen Gun Salute ).
Henry Vidal: Acting Second Lieutenant on the Surprise ; by religion, he is a Knipperdolling from Shelmerston. While Maturin walks the Andes, he is put off the ship by Aubrey for having let Dutourd escape to shore.
Ben Vidal: Nephew to Vidal who is taken on the cutter with Aubrey when trying to reach Callao to recapture Dutourd or warn Maturin.
Mr Adams: Skilled captain's clerk.
William Sadler: Replaces Vidal as acting second mate or lieutenant on Surprise .
Sarah and Emily Sweeting: Melanesian girls rescued earlier by Maturin in The Nutmeg of Consolation , rated as ship's boys. Jemmy Ducks tends them and they work in the sick berth as well as help Maturin with his collections.
Edward Shelton: One-time Royal Navy serving on the American whaler since the peace, joins Surprise as able, and shares information about the pirate ship with Aubrey.
Fabien: Apothecary's assistant from New Orleans, was aboard the Franklin , taken by Maturin as an assistant in the sick bay and for drawings of fauna in his collections.
Zeek: American whaler on the ship taken by Surprise , who killed his captain with the whaling spear, because he was about to abandon him in a small boat.
In Peru
Dr Francis Geary: Surgeon of The Three Graces merchantman, once a class mate of Maturin, who agrees to care for Martin on their return to England.
Sam Panda: Young Catholic priest, illegitimate son to Aubrey and now grown taller and larger than his father, raised by Irish missionaries in southern Africa, now a rising star in the Catholic church. Maturin is a good friend to him. Introduced in The Reverse of the Medal .
Eduardo: Maturin's Inca guide in the Andes, notable naturalist, fluent in Spanish and Quechua.
Don Jaime O'Higgins: Vicar-General in Peru, abolitionist and supporter of the split from Spain.
Joselito: Mule belonging to Don Bernardo O'Higgins and loaned to Maturin for his botanizing walk.
Pascual de Gayongos: Wealthy Catalan merchant and revolutionary sympathiser in Peru with whom Maturin makes a strong link. He supplies the boat to take Maturin from Arica along the coast near Valparaiso.
General Hurtado: High-ranked Peruvian General who made the decision that the revolution could not proceed with the charges of foreign gold in the air.
Castro: Low level official in Lima who is the unstable figure trying to gain benefit from Dutourd's noisy talk.
Howmeward bound
Heneage Dundas: Captain of HMS Berenice and longtime friend of Aubrey.
Philip Aubrey: Much younger half-brother of Jack, who has been sailing with Captain Dundas as a midshipman.
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