today is being left on a bad note, time to think about black sapphire and Silverbell accepting that they’re not going to work out and say their goodbyes as Silverbell begins to tear up with Black Sapphire pinned down and a dagger against his neck
As I referred to last time, this novel begins with a volcanic eruption in the middle of the ocean. It’s fucking cool, and also scary. But what the book is about is an even scarier natural phenomenon than that: growing apart gradually from someone you used to be close with. That’s what happens to Stephen and his erstwhile pal Nathaniel Martin. This book is about FAKE FRIENDS. Don't you hate fake friends? Boy I sure do.
Because of the structure of these books I tend to take awhile to warm up to secondary characters. Not because I don’t like them but with Jack and Stephen sharing protagonist duties they kind of take up all the air in the room, so to speak, so that even I, a certified Minor Character Investor who has dreamt for years of being a Metal Gear Solid miniboss, tend to take awhile to warm up to the secondary and tertiary characters. Sometimes it takes a couple novels but then after that I’m like. I would die for you, Tom Pullings. He is 100% my fucking girlfriend. He’s everyone’s girlfriend. God we love Tom Pullings.
One character I did warm up to right away when he was introduced, though, was Nathaniel Martin, who appeared for the first time back in The Ionian Mission. He starts as a chaplain and then when Jack starts privateering becomes the assistant surgeon to Stephen in the Surprise.
If I could once more compare our characters here to cartoons I watched in the 90s/early 00s: if Jack Aubrey is Bart Simpson (daring, occasionally foolish, troublemaker, bad boy) and Stephen is his BFF Milhouse Van Houten (nerd with deep seated psychological issues) then Nathaniel Martin is their Martin Prince: he exists to be a nerd AND a square, to give Stephen someone to talk to but also to stand near Stephen and make Stephen look cooler in comparison. Stephen is a nerd, of course, but he’s down with gay people, his views on women are more progressive than typical men of his time period, and he loves to get high; all of this contrasted with Martin, who’s a bit of a fuddy duddy with more traditional views on those sort of things. (Though, in his defense, he is sort of right to question Stephen on some things. Like the "loves to get high" stuff, for example.)
Like Stephen, he is a naturalist and he has one eye because he was observing an owl’s nest and the bird attacked him and gouged his eye out. Honestly, fuck all these soldiers and sailors with their battle scars, talk about an actual honorable wound in the line of duty. I’m also monocular and I like birds so this biographic detail was what endeared me to Martin from the very start.
Another thing I like about him is how his friendship with Stephen is contrasted with Stephen’s friendship with Jack. The thing is, Jack is sort of low-key loathes Martin a little bit?? They don’t outright hate each other, of course, but Jack finds him grating because of Jack’s habitual discomfort around clergymen, the fact that Martin’s a pretty poor musician whenever he tries to play with Stephen and Jack, and, most petty of all, the fact that Martin and Stephen get on so well. Jack is conscious that his dislike is unjust and at least partially fueled by jealousy; he’s aware that Stephen and Martin have a lot more in common than Jack and Stephen do. It’s a very middle school “my friend has another friend she likes more than me but GOD I hate her!!” type of dislike. A humanizing bit of frailty on Jack’s part.
Another thing about Martin that I like is that he does tend to call Stephen out on some of his shit, in a way Jack can’t or won’t. Martin is, I think, the only character we see who confronts Stephen about his laudanum use before the disaster in The Letter of Marque. Of course, a lot of good that does, since obviously Stephen was too self-deluded to actually listen to anyone at that point but, you know, it was nice that someone was there to stand in the background and be like uh. That’s a lot of laudanum dude.
Honestly, Stephen could use that now! “Hey, that’s a lot of coca leaves, dude,” was literally my commentary through the entire second half of this novel, when Stephen gets to Peru and replenishes his stash finally. He sort of reminds me when an alcoholic quits drinking but they start smoking a lot instead. Call it harm reduction, I guess?? Friendship ended with DOWNERS, now UPPERS are my new best friend. Christ almighty.
Before the coca leaf binge, though, Martin is ejected from the book due to illness, just as the Surprise finally reaches Peru. It’s a very abrupt end to the character, if not to his friendship with Stephen; he’s not dead, but something about his exit has a very nail in the coffin feel to it. I’m of two minds about it; I’m somewhat disappointed that a character who has been around for so long, and was so important to Stephen, was just booted out of the novel with not much mention or ceremony afterwards. But I do like the realism how gradually the two of them drifted apart; Stephen starts to see that their interests and passions in life have diverged, but even in the previous novel, I think there was a clue that Martin wasn’t cut out for the seafaring life much longer:
“[Stephen said,] ‘Yet on the other hand I do not find that the turmoil of a ship prevents me reading: with a good clear candle in my lantern and balls of wax in my ears, I read with the utmost delight. The confinement of my cabin, the motion of my hanging cot, the distantly-heard orders and replies, the working of the ship – all these enhance my enjoyment.’
‘I have tried your wax balls,’ said Martin, ‘but they make me apprehensive. I am afraid that there will be the cry “She sinks, she sinks! All is lost. She cannot swim,” and I shall not hear.’
‘You were always rather apprehensive, Nathaniel,’ said Paulton, taking off his spectacles and looking at him kindly with his myopic gaze.” - 14-The Nutmeg of Consolation, ch.9, paragraph 94
It’s funny; like Stephen, Martin is also constantly described by most of the sailors as a hopeless lubber, but Martin lacks Stephen’s occasionally troubling “if I die I die lmao” outlook on life that makes him weirdly suited to the naval life. Again: Martin’s a bit of a fuddy duddy. He’s no 100% perfect ride or die girlfriend like Tom Pullings. But then, who is?
Personal Ranking
The Far Side of the World (10) > HMS Surprise (3) > Desolation Island (5) > The Reverse of the Medal (11) > The Nutmeg of Consolation (14) > The Ionian Mission (8) > The Fortune of War (6) > The Wine-Dark Sea (16) > Clarissa Oakes/The Truelove (15) > Master & Commander (1) > The Surgeon’s Mate (7) > Treason's Harbour (9) > The Letter of Marque (12) > The Thirteen-Gun Salute (13) > Post Captain (2) > The Mauritius Command (4)
