In 'The nutmeg of consolation', Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin begin stranded on an uninhabited island in the Dutch East Indies, attacked by ferocious Malay pirates. They contrive their escape, but after a stay in Batavia and a change of ship, are caught up in a night chase in fiercely tidal waters and then embroiled in the much more insidious conflicts of the terrifying penal settlements of New South Wales.