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Historical person

Robert Corbet

d. 1810

Robert Corbet was a British Royal Navy officer whose career in the Napoleonic Wars was marked by energetic service and a notorious reputation for severe discipline. He entered the navy in the late eighteenth century and rose through command appointments in wartime. By 1809 he commanded HMS Néréide in operations around the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and Réunion, capturing French vessels and participating in the aggressive British campaign against French bases.

In 1810 Corbet was appointed to command HMS Africaine, whose crew initially resisted his arrival because of reports about his harsh treatment of sailors. The threatened mutiny was suppressed and Africaine sailed to the Indian Ocean. On 13 September 1810, during the campaign around Mauritius, the frigate fought the French ships Iphigénie and Astrée and was forced to surrender after heavy casualties. Corbet was mortally wounded in the action and died shortly afterward, ending a career remembered for both professional aggression and disciplinary controversy.

Patrick O’Brian’s The Mauritius Command places Robert Corbet among the captains under Jack Aubrey during the British campaign to seize Réunion and Mauritius from France. Corbet’s difficult temperament and conduct in command form part of Aubrey’s larger problem of coordinating independent naval officers whose personal rivalries can endanger a complex amphibious operation.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Robert Corbet (1 series)

Aubrey–Maturin Novels in Order

by Patrick O’Brian 21 books 4.5(73,173)

The Aubrey–Maturin novels follow Royal Navy officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon, naturalist and intelligence agent Stephen Maturin from the wars against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France through the War of 1812 and the first years after Waterloo. Across twenty completed novels, their friendship links shipboard command, espionage, science, domestic…

All books in this series