Horatio Hornblower

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Admiral of the Fleet Horatio Hornblower, 1st Baron Hornblower, RN is a fictional protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester, and later the subject of films and television programs. Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know." [1]

Hornblower is iconic in Age of Sail traditional naval fiction, and any writer in the genre must deal with comparisons to Forester. There are many parallels between Hornblower and real naval officers of the period, especially Thomas Cochrane and Horatio Nelson. The name "Horatio" was inspired by the character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet and chosen also because of its association with contemporary figures such as Nelson.[2] (The name Hornblower was probably derived from the American film producer Arthur Hornblow, Jr. who C.S. Forester had been working with prior to writing the first Hornblower novel) At the same time, Forester wrote the body of the works carefully to avoid entanglements with real world history, so Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval victory occurs during the Napoleonic Wars; concurrently, whatever he has Hornblower dealing with is usually important too, if less heralded.

Forester's original inspiration was an old copy of the Naval Chronicle, which described the effective dates of the Treaty of Ghent. Because of the times required to communicate around the world, it was possible for two countries to still be at war in one part of the world after a peace was obtained months before in another. The burdens this placed on captains far from home led him to a character struggling with the stresses of a "man alone".[3]

The original Hornblower tales, which began with the appearance of a reserved-to-the-point-of-withdrawn Captain on independent duty on a secret mission to the Pacific coast of South America, struck a chord with the public, and subsequent stories were eagerly serialized. The several short story collections date from this appetite by the pre-television public for more about the heroic captain. As counterpoint to hardcore naval discussions, the novel featured a love interest with Lady Barbara Wellesley, who gradually teases Hornblower into a less stiff and reserved character. Subsequent sequels explore the relationship they develop; Forester conveniently has Hornblower's wife Maria die in childbirth to continue the scandalous courtship even when Lady Barbara becomes the spouse of his immediate superior. As the series matured, the two were able to marry and live together comfortably. Hornblower ages gracefully and with a touch of humor now and again performs acts of human kindness against what duty would dictate, in a manner that would have bothered the young Hornblower's conscience to the point of nervous breakdown. Such fine splitting of moral hairs in the end creates a triumphant figure who has risen above and surpasses his early training.

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

Contents

[edit] Life

According to Forester, Hornblower, the son of a doctor, was born on July 4, 1776 (the date of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence) in Kent. He was given a classical education, and by the time he joined the Royal Navy at age seventeen, he was well-versed in Greek and Latin. He was tutored in French by a penniless French émigré and had an aptitude for mathematics, which served him well as a navigator.

Described as "unhappy and lonely", Hornblower is chiefly characterised by his reserve, introspection, and self-doubt—at least until particularly difficult feats of seamanship, organisation, or navigation are called for under pressing circumstances, things which few others could do, and fewer still in such combination. He belittles such feats by numerous rationalizations, remembering only his fears—and forgetting he overcame them; diminishing amazing feats of seamanship—apparently unaware of the admiration in which they are regarded by his fellow seamen, while they stand amazed instead — believing that no one could have pulled that off.

He regards himself as cowardly, dishonest, and, at times, disloyal—never crediting his ability to persevere, think rapidly, organize, or cut to the nub of a matter and put such things aside while staying focused on the priority of the moment. His sense of duty, hard work, and a drive to succeed make these imagined negative characteristics undetectable by everyone but him, and being introspective, he blows up petty things beyond reasonable measure to reinforce his poor self image. His introverted nature continually isolates him from the people around him, including his closest friend, William Bush, and his wives never fully understand him. He is guarded with nearly everyone and reticent to the point of giving offense, unless the matter is the business of discharging his duty as a Kings' officer, in which case he is clear, decisive, and almost loquacious while giving orders and instructions, as the needs of the exigency demand. His introspection makes him a very self-conscious and lonely man, a characteristic which is displayed even in the short fiction about his career as a midshipman and lieutenant; through most of the books, the enforced isolation of being "The captain" (and later, as Admiral) in the Royal Navy makes him lonelier still.

He suffers from severe chronic seasickness, especially occurring at the beginning of his voyages and for a time was known derisively as the midshipman who was sick (in the excellent sheltered harbour) at Spithead. He has an immense reading appetite and can discourse on the works of various contemporary figures of literature and the classics, has mastered the difficult art of celestial navigation and its arcane mathematics to the point that in Lydia he made a perfect landfall while voyaging five months out of sight of land or contact with other ships (an interpretation of his orders to maintain secrecy) and furthermore, plays excellent whist, essentially professionally—a talent which he uses to maintain himself financially from time to time, as when a “not confirmed” field promotion to commander was never confirmed. This left him in an unfortunate position of debt to his government, having to pay back the difference in the two salaries; a job he was quite capable of undertaking with the help of his card playing abilities.

He is tone-deaf and finds music an incomprehensible irritant (in a scene in Hotspur he is unable to tell the British and French national anthems from each other), and when Lady Barbara played guitar when long balmy Pacific airs had Lydia becalmed, he kept away from the gaggle of off-duty officers despite longing to mix in. He is philosophically opposed to flogging and capital punishment, in many cases when called for by the Articles of war, yet as Captain and Lieutenant had to call men to account knowing such harshness would be the result. While possessing a superb sense of duty—one might say hyper-developed—on occasion he is able to set it aside for his more human and humane component parts underlying the facade of the strict officer—to the extent that in Hornblower and the Hotspur he contrives an escape for his personal steward who would otherwise have been hanged for striking a superior.

[edit] Early career

Hornblower's early exploits are many and varied. Joining the Royal Navy as a midshipman, he fends off fire ships which interrupt his first (disastrous) examination for promotion to lieutenant. Still only an acting lieutenant, he is given command of the sloop Le Rêve, which blunders into a Spanish fleet in the fog, resulting in Hornblower's capture and imprisonment in Ferrol [1]. He is finally confirmed as a commissioned lieutenant while still a prisoner of war, a state he will endure again later in his career at the end of Ship of the Line and detailed in Flying Colours—along with his daring escape from the heart of France, which earns him a sentence of death from a trial held in absentia from Napoleon—and a rather flattering reward offer for his capture. In the first captivity, his self-sacrificing, difficult and daring rescue of surviving sailors from a shipwreck hanging on a harbor entrance and rocky breakwater under extremely hazardous storm conditions, and his honourable adherence to the parole he had given, is rewarded by his Spanish captors by his release. His captivity leaves him with a fluent knowledge of Spanish, which proves highly useful in several further adventures.

As a junior lieutenant, he serves under Captain Sawyer, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia on a trip to the Caribbean, during which he begins his long friendship with William Bush. Returning to England, Hornblower is demobilised after the peace of Amiens, causing him great financial distress — he resorts to making a living as a professional gambler, playing whist with admirals and other senior figures for a modest income.

In 1803, he is reactivated and confirmed as commander of HMS Hotspur when hostilities resume against Napoleon. After gruelling service during the blockade of Brest, he finally is promoted to captain and recalled to England. Once there, he meets the secretary of the Admiralty and post rank is conferred immediately when Hornblower agrees to take part in a clandestine operation that eventually leads to the resounding British victory at the Battle of Trafalgar that cost Nelson his life.

Hornblower then organises Nelson's funeral procession along the River Thames and has to deal with the near-sinking of the barge conveying the hero's coffin. Later, he secretly recovers sunken gold and silver from a sunken ship on the bottom of Marmorice Bay within the Ottoman Empire with the aid of pearl divers from Ceylon, narrowly escaping a Turkish warship at the end. Upon unloading the treasure and refitting, his ship, HMS Atropos, is taken away from him to be given to the King of the Two Sicilies for diplomatic reasons. On his return to England, he finds his two young children dying of smallpox.

He later (in the time line, but presented in first novel written) makes a long, difficult voyage in command of the frigate HMS Lydia, round the Horn to the Pacific, where he supports a madman, El Supremo, in his rebellion against the Spanish. He captures the Natividad, a much more powerful Spanish ship of the line, then has to reluctantly cede it to El Supremo to placate him. When he finds that the Spanish have switched sides in the interim, he is forced to find and sink the ship he had captured—adding insult to injury, as he'd given up a fortune in prize money to maintain an uneasy alliance with the insane revolutionary. On his return voyage, he and his well-connected passenger, Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional younger sister of Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington) become dangerously attracted to each other, resulting in a kiss that is interrupted by Lady Barbara's maid Hebe—when she is sent away, Hornblower is reluctant to re-enter the moment, and perceiving herself rejected, Barbara's temper flares. She leaves the Lydia two days later, and Hornblower fears the worst for his career having offended the daughter of an earl and sister of a Marquis.

[edit] Later career

After these exploits, he is given command of HMS Sutherland, a seventy four gun ship of the line. While waiting at his Mediterranean rendezvous point for the rest of his squadron - and its commander - to arrive, he carries out a series of raids against the French along the south coast of Spain. He learns that a French squadron of four ships of the line is loose, having slipped the blockade. He decides that his duty requires that he fight at one-to-four odds to prevent them from entering a well-protected harbour. In the process, his ship is crippled and, with two-thirds of the crew incapacitated, he surrenders to the French.

He is sent with his coxswain, Brown, and his injured first lieutenant, Bush, to Paris for a show trial and execution. During the journey, Hornblower and his companions escape, and after a winter sojourn at the chateau of the Comte de Graçay, navigate down the Loire river to the coastal city of Nantes. There, he recaptures a Royal Navy cutter, the Witch of Endor, mans the vessel with a gang of slave labourers and escapes to the Channel Fleet.

Hornblower faces a mandatory court-martial for the loss of the Sutherland, but is "most honourably acquitted." A national hero in the eyes of the public, he is awarded a knighthood and made a Colonel of Marines. When he arrives home, he discovers that his first wife Maria had died in childbirth and that his infant son has been adopted and cared for by Lady Barbara. As she has been widowed by the death of her husband, Hornblower's former commander, Admiral Leighton, they are free (after a decent interval) to marry. Barbara is more beautiful, cleverer and far richer than the poor Maria (whom Hornblower had more pitied than loved). Thereafter, he lives (uncomfortably) as a country squire in Kent.

Freedom from this purgatory comes when he is promoted to commodore and sent on a mission to the Baltic Sea, where he must be a diplomat as much as an officer. He foils an assassination attempt on the Russian Czar and is influential in the ruler's decision to resist the French invasion of his vast country. He provides invaluable assistance in the defence of Riga against the French army, where he meets Carl von Clausewitz.

He returns ill with typhus to England, yet soon after his recovery goes off to deal with mutineers off the coast of France. After taking the mutinous ship by trickery, he sets up the return of the Bourbons to France, and is created a peer as Baron Hornblower, of Smallbridge in the County of Kent.

When Napoleon returns from exile at the start of the Hundred Days, Hornblower is staying at the estate of the Comte de Graçay. He leads a Royalist Guerrilla movement; after capture by the French, he is about to be shot under an earlier warrant for his execution when he is saved by news of Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo.

After several years ashore, he is promoted to Rear Admiral and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the West Indies. He foils an attempt by veterans of Napoleon's Imperial Guard to free Napoleon from his captivity on Saint Helena, captures a slave ship, and encounters Simón Bolívar's army. He retires to Kent and eventually becomes Admiral of the Fleet.

His final, improbable achievement occurs at his home, when he assists a seemingly-mad man claiming to be Napoleon to travel to France. That person turns out to be Napoleon III, the nephew of Hornblower's great nemesis and the future president (and later emperor in his own right) of France. For his assistance, Lord Hornblower is created a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. At the end of his long and heroic career, he is wealthy, famous, and contented; a loving and indulgent husband and father; and finally free of the insecurities and self-loathing that had driven him throughout his life.[citation needed]

Forester provides two different brief summaries of Hornblower's career. The first was in the first chapter of The Happy Return, which was the first Hornblower novel written. The second occurs mid-way through The Commodore, when Czar Alexander asks him to describe his career. The two accounts are incompatible. The first account would have made Hornblower about five years older than the second. The second account is more nearly compatible with the rest of Hornblower's career, but it omits the time he spent as a commander in Hornblower and the Hotspur. There are other discrepancies as well; in one account of his defeat of a Spanish frigate in the Mediterranean, he distinguished himself as lieutenant and in another he is a post-captain with less than three years seniority. It appears that these discrepancies arose as the series matured and accounts needed to be modified to coincide with his age and career.

[edit] The Hornblower novels

The novels, in the order they were written:

  1. The Happy Return (1937, called Beat to Quarters in the US)
  2. A Ship of the Line (1938, called simply Ship of the Line in the US)
  3. Flying Colours (1938, spelled Flying Colors in some US editions)
  4. The Commodore (1945, called Commodore Hornblower in the US)
  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, Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies in some US editions)
  10. Hornblower and the Hotspur (1962)
  11. Hornblower and the Crisis (1967, unfinished novel and short stories, Hornblower During the Crisis in some US editions)

In chronological order:

  1. Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (collected short stories)
  2. Lieutenant Hornblower
  3. Hornblower and the Hotspur
  4. Hornblower and the Crisis (unfinished novel and short stories, Hornblower During the Crisis in some US editions)
  5. Hornblower and the Atropos
  6. The Happy Return (called Beat to Quarters in the US)
  7. A Ship of the Line (called simply Ship of the Line in the US)
  8. Flying Colours (spelled Flying Colors in some US editions)
  9. The Commodore (called Commodore Hornblower in the US)
  10. Lord Hornblower
  11. Hornblower in the West Indies (Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies in some US editions)

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, Lieutenant Hornblower and Hornblower and the Atropos were compiled in one book, variously titled Hornblower's Early Years, Horatio Hornblower Goes to Sea, or The Young Hornblower. Hornblower and the Atropos was replaced by Hornblower and the Hotspur in later UK editions of The Young Hornblower. There are also simplified "cadet" collections of the Hornblower books for children.

Hornblower and the Atropos, The Happy Return and A Ship of the Line were also compiled into one omnibus edition, called Captain Hornblower.

In the US Beat to Quarters, Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours were also compiled into one book, called Captain Horatio Hornblower.

Flying Colours, The Commodore, Lord Hornblower, and Hornblower in the West Indies make up a third omnibus edition called Admiral Hornblower to fill out the series.

Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower, and Admiral Hornblower In The West Indies were also combiled into one book, called The Indomitable Hornblower.

[edit] The Hornblower novels — German edition

A German translation of the Hornblower was published by Wolfgang Krüger Verlag (Hamburg, 1967 and Frankfurt am Main, 1982).

There are 11 volumes. (Some of the titles are not translations of the titles in English.) In chronological order:

  1. Fähnrich Hornblower (Mr. Midshipman Hornblower)
  2. Leutnant Hornblower (Lieutenant Hornblower)
  3. Hornblower auf der Hotspur (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  4. Kommandant Hornblower (Hornblower and the Atropos)
  5. Der Kapitän (The Happy Return)
  6. An Spaniens Küsten (A Ship of the Line)
  7. Unter wehender Flagge (Flying Colours)
  8. Der Kommodore (The Commodore)
  9. Lord Hornblower (Lord Hornblower)
  10. Hornblower in Westindien (Hornblower in the West Indies)
  11. Zapfenstreich (Unfinished novel, two short stories — Hornblower and the Widow McCool, The Last Encounter — and C. S. Forester on his books)

[edit] The Hornblower short stories

Three short stories by C. S. Forester about Hornblower were also published in 1940 and 1941. The stories are:

  • Hornblower's Charitable Offering (aka The Bad Samaritan), published in Argosy, May 1941, and was originally intended as a chapter for A Ship of the Line.
  • Hornblower and His Majesty, in Collier's, March 1940, and in Argosy, March 1941.
  • The Hand of Destiny, in Collier's, November 1940.

Two other stories Hornblower and the Widow McCool (aka Hornblower's Temptation) (1967) and The Last Encounter (1967), are often included with the unfinished novel Hornblower and the Crisis.

Another short story The Point And The Edge is included as an outline only in The Hornblower Companion (1964), a book in which Forester describes and illustrates with maps the incidents which his fictional hero experienced, and describes how the novels were written, what inspired them and how they relate to the real world of the Royal Navy.

[edit] Historical figures portrayed in the books

[edit] Royal Navy figures

  • Vice-Admiral The Honourable Sir Henry Blackwood (Hornblower and the Atropos)
  • Admiral Prince William Henry, Duke of Clarence (later King William IV) (Flying Colours)
  • Admiral Lord Collingwood (Hornblower and the Atropos)
  • Admiral Sir William Cornwallis (Hornblower and the Widow McCool, Hornblower and the Hotspur, Hornblower and the Atropos)
  • Admiral Lord Gambier (Flying Colours)
  • Rear-Admiral Lord Gardner, second in command to Admiral Cornwallis (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Captain Richard Bowen — HMS Terpsichore, but called Captain Sir Richard Bowen, killed at Teneriffe
  • Captain John Gore — HMS Medusa (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Captain Richard Grindall — HMS Prince (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Captain Graham Eden Hamond — HMS Lively, but called Hammond (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Captain Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy — HMS Triumph (Flying Colours)
  • Admiral Sir John Jervis, 1st Earl of St Vincent (Hornblower and the Atropos, Lord Hornblower)
  • Captain Charles John Moore Mansfield — HMS Minotaur, but called Marsfield (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Captain Graham Moore, later Admiral Sir Graham Moore, — HMS Indefatigable (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Admiral of the Fleet Sir Peter Parker (Hornblower and the Atropos)
  • Rear-Admiral Sir William Parker (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Captain Lord Henry Paulet — HMS Terrible (Hornblower and the Hotspur)
  • Captain Sir Edward Pellew (later Admiral Pellew, Viscount Exmouth) — HMS Indefatigable (Mr Midshipman Hornblower, Hornblower and the Hotspur, Lord Hornblower)
  • Admiral Sir James Saumarez, later Lord de Saumarez, — HMS Temeraire (The Happy Return)
  • Captain Samuel Sutton — HMS Amphion (Hornblower and the Hotspur)

[edit] Other historical figures

[edit] Hornblower's ships

HMS Lydia from the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower
HMS Lydia from the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower

[edit] Hornblower in other media

Gregory Peck as Captain Horatio Hornblower from the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower
Gregory Peck as Captain Horatio Hornblower from the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower

[edit] Influence on other fiction

  • The Star Trek character James T. Kirk is often compared to Hornblower (and Shakespeare's Hamlet). Nicholas Meyer, director of some of the Star Trek films, frequently cites Horatio Hornblower as one of his primary influences. [6][7]
  • Gene Roddenberry was influenced by the Hornblower character while creating Star Trek character of Jean-Luc Picard.[8]
  • The science fiction character John Grimes is acknowledged by his author A. Bertram Chandler to be not only based upon Horatio Hornblower, but has Hornblower himself as a distant relative.
  • The Hope science fiction series by David Feintuch is heavily influenced by the Hornblower series.
  • The popular Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell were inspired by C.S. Forester's Hornblower series.[9]
  • Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels are also inspired by Hornblower, and retell some of the same episodes of naval history.[citation needed]
  • David Weber's character Honor Harrington closely parallels Hornblower and he deliberately gave her the same initials.[10] In one of the novels the character is described reading a Hornblower novel. The first Honor novel is dedicated to C.S. Forester.
  • Captain Honario Harpplayer, R.N. is a short story parody written by the science fiction author Harry Harrison. While Hornblower is tone-deaf, Harpplayer is one of the rare people who are completely colour-blind, with the result that he cannot recognize a little green man as an alien from outer space. Harpplayer reflects on the "imaginary colors" that other people claim to see, and refers to the alien as "Mr. Greene".
  • In the Warhammer 40,000 universe, a frigate captain by the name of "Horatio Bugler" appears in one of the historical notes found in the Ciaphas Cain novel The Traitor's Hand.

The Episode "Smile Time" on the series angel contained a puppet named Horatio Hornblower, though other than name, no connection to the character is evident.

  • The British comedy film Carry On Jack featured a character named Midshipman Poopdecker, played by Bernard Cribbins, who was possibly a parody of Hornblower.
  • Its common for adult entertainment films to "spoof" the titles of authentic works of fiction and film. Unfortunately Horatio Hornblower is no exception to this tradition. In August 2007 an adult film named The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower was released under strict internet pay-per-view distribution.

[edit] References

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (June 2007)
  1. ^ Time Magazine, Monday, May. 28, 1945.
  2. ^ C. S. Forester, The Hornblower Companion, NY, 1964, p. 87
  3. ^ C. S. Forester, The Hornblower Companion, Michael Joseph Ltd (London), 1964, pp. 81,82
  4. ^ Review @ Classic Film Guide. Retrieved on 2006-08-17.
  5. ^ Make-Or-Break Speeches. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
  6. ^ http://www.rambles.net/forester_hotspur62.html
  7. ^ http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/hornblowernewadv.php
  8. ^ Becoming Picard (Patrick Stewart interview). BBC Online (bbc.co.uk).
  9. ^ Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe's Story, 2007, p.11
  10. ^ David Weber interview, Wild Violet online magazine. wildviolet.net (Spring 2007 issue).

[edit] External links