 the ionian mission is the eighth historical novel in the aubrey-maturin series by patrick o'brian, first published in 1981. the story is set during the napoleonic wars. ==plot summary== maturin and villiers are happily married. after a time together in their new house on half moon street, maturin settles in his rooms at the grapes, where diana comes often, and from which he walks to breakfast with her daily. he has missions to do, and aubrey needs to get away from his financial problems. aubrey gets a stint on hms worcester for toulon blockade duty. jagiello brings the maturins to port in his own carriage, which upsets, making stephenâs arrival rather last-minute. while she is doing gunnery practice with gunpowder bought from a fireworks firm, worcester encounters the french ship jemmapes. worcester engages immediately, not having changed to ordinary gunpowder. jemmapes sees the bright colors as the sign of some new weapon, and sails away. some of the crew practice an oratorio while the midshipmen practice hamlet. passengers are dropped off at gibraltar and port mahon (graham, professor of moral philosophy), though the parson nathaniel martin is aboard long enough for maturin to discover their shared interest in birds, before martin joins hms berwick. worcester joins the squadron off toulon. babbington, master and commander, joins the squadron in the mediterranean as captain of the dryad. babbington fell in love with admiral harteâs daughter fanny. but her father wants the best husband for his daughter that money can buy, and that is andrew wray. babbington figures that wray and harte combined got him assigned to blockade duty. before dryad, the worcesters see hms surprise arrive with mail for this fleet, joining it. admiral thorntonsâs desire is to engage the french in a fleet action. the second-in-command, harte, has lesser goals. harte sends aubrey and babbington on a mission to the north coast of africa, with the notion that babbington will be taken by the french ships in the neutral port medina. babbington sees the ships before he enters port and rejoins worcester. being told not to fire first at the french, aubrey enters the neutral port in hopes the frenc
1810s_in_fiction 1981_novels AubreyaMaturin_series