Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the British Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, originally the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester, and later the subject of films and television programs.

Contents

1 Life 1.1 Early Career 1.2 Later Career 2 The Hornblower novels 3 Hornblower's shipmates 3.1 Real Royal Naval officers who appear in the novels 4 Hornblower's ships 5 Hornblower in other media 6 External link

Life

According to Forester, Hornblower was born on July 4, 1776.

Hornblower is a skilled pilot and navigator. He is philosophically opposed to capital punishment to the extent that he contrives escape for a crewman condemned to the yard-arm in Hornblower and the Hotspur. This, despite believing that severe corporal punishment (e.g. flogging round the fleet ) is the only way to maintain discipline in the face of severe privation. Despite near-constant success, he judges himself lacking professionally and personally. He is contemptuous of those around him (including both his wives and his best friend, Capt. Bush), but strives to shield them from his contempt and savages himself for failing to possess those qualities of theirs he sees as desirable.

As in the novels of Frederick Marryat and Patrick O'Brian, many of Hornblower's exploits are based upon those of Horatio Nelson and Thomas Cochrane. Brian Perett has written a book The Real Hornblower: The Life and Times of Admiral Sir James Gordon, GCB, ISBN 1557509689, presenting the case for a different inspiration.

A "biography" of Hornblower, called The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower, was published in 1970 by C. Northcote Parkinson.

Early Career

Hornblower's early exploits include confronting Spanish fire ships during his exam for Lieutenant, surviving a Captain with paranoid schizophrenia, orchestrating the funeral of Horatio Nelson from a sinking barge conveying the coffin, recovering sunken treasure with the aid of pearl divers from Ceylon, and having his ship gifted to the King of the Two Sicilies for diplomatic reasons. He later makes a long, difficult voyage out of sight of land, meets a mad rebel against Spanish Colonial authorities, defeats a superior ship twice, and brings home Barbara Wellesley, the Duke of Wellington's youngest sister.

Forester offers two different brief summaries of Hornblower's career. The first was in the first chapter of The Happy Return, the first Hornblower novel he wrote. The second occurs mid-way through Commodore Hornblower, when the Czar asks him to describe his career. The second account is incompatible with the first. The first account would have made Hornblower about five years older than the second. The second account is compatible with the rest of Hornblowers career.

Later Career

After these exploits in a frigate, he is ordered to command a ship of the line, where he, while waiting for the squadron commander to arrive, raids the south coast of France, and loses the ship to a superior squadron, and is imprisoned. Captain Hornblower breaks himself, his coxswain, and the injured Lt. Bush out of transportation to trial, and recaptures a cutter. He arrives home to find his wife dead, and an infant son in the care of Barbara, Wellington's sister. He marries her and settles in the country. After this, he is a Commodore on a mission in the Baltic, where he must serve as a diplomat as much as an officer. He returns ill to England, yet soon goes off to bring in mutineers off France. After bringing in the mutinous ship, he sets up the return of the Bourbons to France, and becomes Lord Hornblower. When Napoleon returns from exile, Hornblower is at the estate of a French Comte that aided him in his escape, and leads a Royalist Guerrilla movement, where he is to be killed until news of Waterloo comes. After several years ashore, he is sent to be the Commander of the West Indies. He foils a landing of the Old Guard on Saint Helena, captures a slave ship, and encounters Simón Bolívar's army. The last Forrester wrote of him, he was Admiral of the Fleet, living retired in Kent, aiding Napoleon III on his way to France.

The Hornblower novels

The novels, in the order they were written:

1. The Happy Return (1937, called Beat to Quarters in America)
2. A Ship of the Line (1938, called simply Ship of the Line in America)
3. Flying Colours (1938, spelled Flying Colors in America)
4. Commodore Hornblower (1945)
5. Lord Hornblower (1946)
6. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (1950, collected short stories)
7. Lieutenant Hornblower (1952)
8. Hornblower and the Atropos (1953)
9. Hornblower in the West Indies (1958)
10. Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962)
11. Hornblower and the Crisis (1967, unfinished novel + short stories)

 
In chronological order:

• Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (collected short stories)
• Lieutenant Hornblower
• Hornblower and the Hotspur
• Hornblower and the Crisis (unfinished novel + short stories)
• Hornblower and the Atropos
• The Happy Return (called Beat to Quarters in America)
• A Ship of the Line (called simply Ship of the Line in America)
• Flying Colours (spelled Flying Colors in America)
• Commodore Hornblower
• Lord Hornblower
• Hornblower in the West Indies

Hornblower's shipmates

A list of all the Royal Naval sea-going characters in the Hornblower novels

• Bailey — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Benskin — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Brown — Hornblower faithful and burly coxswain, and later domestic servant

• William Bush — Hornblower's "closest friend" and loyal subordinate. Briefly his superior officer in Lieutenant Hornblower, but happy for Hornblower to be promoted over him. Hornblower's second-in-command in HMS Hotspur, HMS Lydia, and HMS Sutherland and his flag-captain in NHS Nonsuch.

• Chump the Negro — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia, missing in action
• Clay — midshipman HMS Lydia, killed in action
• Clifton, James — boatswain's mate, HMS Lydia, killed in action
• Crystal — sailing master of HMS Lydia
• Dawson — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia, missing in action
• Galbraith, Donald Scott — third lieutenant, HMS Lydia, killed in action
• Gerard — second lieutenant, HMS Lydia
• Gray — master's mate, HMS Lydia, HMS Sutherland
• Hall — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Hankey — surgeon in HMS Lydia, dies before the start of The Happy Return
• Harper — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia, missing in action
• Harrison — boatswain on board HMS Lydia
• Holroyd — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Hooker — midshipman on board HMS Lydia
• Howell — carpenter, HMS Lydia
• Hudson — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Jenkins — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Knyvett — midshipman, HMS Lydia
• Laurie — purser's steward/loblolly boy, HMS Lydia
• MacEvoy — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Marsh — gunner, HMS Lydia
• North — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia, missing in action
• Polwheal — Captain's steward, HMS Lydia
• Poole — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Price — master-at-arms, HMS Sutherland
• Owen — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Rayner — fourth lieutenant, HMS Lydia
• Savage, Howard — midshipman on board HMS Lydia, killed in action
• Simmonds, Samuel — Lieutenant, Royal Marines, HMS Lydia
• Sullivan — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia, fiddler
• Summers, John — master's mate, HMS Lydia, killed in action
• Thompson — captain of the forecastle, HMS Sutherland
• Tooms — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Vincent, Henry — boatswain's mate, HMS Lydia, killed in action
• Whipple — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Wilcox — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Williams — ordinary seaman, HMS Lydia
• Wood — purser, HMS Lydia

Real Royal Naval officers who appear in the novels

• Rear Admiral Sir James Saumarez, The Happy Return
• Admiral Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth, Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
• Admiral John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent, Lord Hornblower, Atropos
• Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood, Atropos

Hornblower's ships

• Justinian (Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Midshipman)
• Indefatigable (Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Midshipman, Acting Lieutenant)
• Renown, 2 decker (Lieutenant Hornblower, Lieutenant)
• Hotspur (Hornblower and the Hotspur, Commander)
• Atropos , 22 gun large sloop (Hornblower and the Atropos , Junior Post-Captain )
• Lydia, 36 gun frigate (The Happy Return, Senior Post-Captain)
• Natividad, 50 gun 2 decker (Captured briefly, The Happy Return)
• HMS Sutherland (A Ship of the Line , Captain)
• Witch of Endor, 10 gun French cutter (captured, Flying Colours )
• Nonsuch (Commodore Hornblower ,Lord Hornblower , Post Captain and Commodore first class)
• Lotus, Raven sloops (Commodore Hornblower )
• Moth, Harvey, bomb-ketches (Commodore Hornblower )
• Clam, cutter (Commodore Hornblower )
• Flame and Porta Coeli, 18 gun brigs (Lord Hornblower )
• Camilla, 36 gun flush decked frigate (Lord Hornblower )
• Crab, schooner (Hornblower in the West Indies )
• Phoebe, Clorinda, Roebuck, frigates (Hornblower in the West Indies , Admiral and Commander-in-Chief)

Hornblower in other media

• The 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower stars Gregory Peck as Hornblower.

• The television series Hornblower (1998 - ) stars Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower.

External link

• Ha - H'm. The Hornblower Page