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'Horatio Hornblower' is a fictional character, an 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.
The character is iconic in Age of Sail traditional naval fiction. 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.^[1]

Contents

Life

Early career

Later career

The Hornblower novels

The Hornblower short stories

Historical figures portrayed in the books

Royal Navy figures

Other historical figures

Hornblower's ships

Hornblower in other media

Influence on other fiction

External links

References

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 emigré 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 and self-doubt. He regards himself as cowardly, dishonest, and, at times, disloyal. His sense of duty and a drive to succeed make these characteristics undetectable by everyone but him. His introverted nature continually isolates him from the people around him, including his closest friend, William Bush, and his wives never fully understand him. His introspection makes him a very self-conscious and lonely man, and the enforced isolation of a captain in the Royal Navy makes him lonelier still.
He suffers from severe seasickness (like Horatio Nelson) at the beginning of his voyages and plays excellent whist; he is tone-deaf and finds music an incomprehensible irritant (in a scene in ''Hotspur'' he is unable to tell the British and French anthems from each other). He is philosophically opposed to flogging and capital punishment, 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.
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 1-55750-968-9, that presents the case for a different inspiration, James Alexander Gordon.
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 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 Reve'', 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. His daring rescue of some sailors from a shipwreck, 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 Admirality and post rank is conferred immediately when Hornblower agrees to take part in a clandestine operation that eventually leads to the resounding English 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 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 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. On his return voyage, he and his well-connected passenger, Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional young sister of Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington) become dangerously attracted to each other. ''Somewhere just over the gloomy horizon of Hornblower's mind there lurked fancies stranger yet; dark phantoms of rape and murder.'' ^[2]

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 court-martial for the loss of the ''Sutherland'' but is "most honourably acquitted." Among the honours he receives is a knighthood. 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 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.
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, such as the account of his role in the defeat of a Spanish frigate in the Mediterranean. In one account, 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.

The Hornblower novels

The novels, in the order they were written:
#''The Happy Return'' (1937, called ''Beat to Quarters'' in the US)
#''A Ship of the Line'' (1938, called simply ''Ship of the Line'' in the US)
#''Flying Colours'' (1938, spelled ''Flying Colors'' in some US editions)
#''The Commodore'' (1945, called ''Commodore Hornblower'' in the US)
#''Lord Hornblower'' (1946)
#''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'' (1950, collected short stories)
#''Lieutenant Hornblower'' (1952)
#''Hornblower and the Atropos'' (1953)
#''Hornblower in the West Indies'' (1958, ''Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies'' in some US editions)
#''Hornblower and the Hotspur'' (1962)
#''Hornblower and the Crisis'' (1967, unfinished novel and short stories, ''Hornblower During the Crisis'' in some US editions)
In chronological order:
#''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'' (collected short stories)
#''Lieutenant Hornblower''
#''Hornblower and the Hotspur''
#''Hornblower and the Crisis'' (unfinished novel and short stories, ''Hornblower During the Crisis'' in some US editions)
#''Hornblower and the Atropos''
#''The Happy Return'' (called ''Beat to Quarters'' in the US)
#''A Ship of the Line'' (called simply ''Ship of the Line'' in the US)
#''Flying Colours'' (spelled ''Flying Colors'' in some US editions)
#''The Commodore'' (called ''Commodore Hornblower'' in the US)
#''Lord Hornblower''
#''Hornblower in the West Indies'' (''Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies'' in some US editions)
''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'', ''Lieutenant Hornblower'' and ''Hornblower and the Hotspur'' were compiled in one book, variously titled ''Hornblower's Early Years'', ''Horatio Hornblower Goes to Sea'', or ''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.

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.

Historical figures portrayed in the books

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 John Gore — HMS Medusa (''Hornblower and the Hotspur'')

★ Captain Richard Grindall — HMS Prince (''Hornblower and the Hotspur'')

★ Captain Graham Eden Hammond — HMS Lively (''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 (''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'')

Other historical figures

★ Aleksandr Pavlovich Romanov, Tsar Alexander I of Russia (''The Commodore'')

★ Sir John Barrow — Second Secretary to the Admiralty (''Hornblower and the Crisis'')

★ Lord William Cavendish-Bentinck (''Hornblower and the Atropos'')

★ Prince Karl XIV Johan of Sweden (''The Commodore'')

★ Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (''The Last Encounter'')

★ General Count Pierre Jacques Etienne Cambronne (erstwhile commander of the Imperial Guard) (''Hornblower In The West Indies'')

★ Colonel Karl Philip Gottlieb von Clausewitz (''The Commodore'')

★ Lord Conyngham (''Flying Colours'')

★ General Sir Hew Whitefoord Dalrymple (''Mr Midshipman Hornblower'')

★ Lady Matilda Dalrymple-Hamilton (''Mr Midshipman Hornblower'')

★ Duke d'Angoulême (the future King Louis XIX) (''Lord Hornblower'')

★ Duchess d'Angoulême, (the daughter of King Louis XVI) (''Lord Hornblower'')

★ General Hans Karl von Diebitsch (''Commodore Hornblower'')

★ John Hookham Frere (''Flying Colours'')

★ General-Lieutenant Ivan Nikolaevich Essen (''The Commodore'')

★ King George III of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (''Hornblower and His Majesty'')

★ George Augustus Frederick, The Prince Regent (later King George IV) (''Flying Colours'')

★ William Marsden — Secretary to the Lords of the Admiralty (''Hornblower and the Crisis'')

★ General Count Sebastian Francisco de Miranda (''Hornblower and the Crisis'')

★ General Count Louis Marie Jacques Alamaric Narbonne-Lara (''The Commodore'')

★ Henry Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (''Flying Colours'')

★ Spencer Perceval — Prime Minister of Britain (''Flying Colours'')

★ Richard Colley Wellesley, 2nd Earl of Mornington, Marquis Wellesley (A brother of Hornblower's fictional wife, Lady Barbara Wellesley) (''The Commodore'')

★ General Hans David Ludwig Yorck von Wartenburg (''The Commodore'')

Hornblower's ships

★ Justinian, a ship-of-the-line (''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'', Midshipman)

★ Indefatigable, 44-gun razé (''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'', Midshipman, Acting Lieutenant)

★ Renown, 74-gun two-decker (''Lieutenant Hornblower'', Lieutenant)

★ Retribution, 18-gun sloop-of-war (''Lieutenant Hornblower'', Commander)

★ Hotspur, 20-gun sloop-of-war (''Hornblower and the Hotspur'', Commander)

★ Atropos, 22-gun large sloop-of-war (''Hornblower and the Atropos'', Junior Post-Captain)

★ Lydia, 36-gun frigate (''The Happy Return'', Senior Post-Captain)

★ Natividad, 50-gun, two deck frigate (Captured, ''The Happy Return'')

★ Sutherland, 74-gun, two-decker (''A Ship of the Line'', Captain)

★ Witch of Endor, 10-gun cutter (recaptured from the French, ''Flying Colours'')

★ Nonsuch, 74-guns (''The Commodore'', ''Lord Hornblower'', Commodore, first class)

★ Lotus, Raven, sloops (''The Commodore'')

★ Moth, Harvey, bomb-ketches (''The Commodore'')

★ Clam, cutter (''The Commodore'')

★ Flame and Porta Coeli, 18-gun brigs-of-war (''Lord Hornblower'')

★ Camilla, 36-gun flush-decked frigate (''Lord Hornblower'')

★ Crab, schooner (''The Commodore'', ''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'' starred Gregory Peck in the title role, encompassing the events in ''The Happy Return'', ''A Ship of the Line'' and ''Flying Colours'', with C.S. Forester sharing writing credits.

★ The ITV and A&E television series ''Hornblower'' (1998–2003) starred Ioan Gruffudd as Hornblower, and included stories from ''Mr. Midshipman Hornblower'' up to ''Hornblower and the Hotspur''.

★ Hornblower makes an appearance in the novel, ''Sails on the Horizon''.

Influence on other fiction

★ The Star Trek character James T. Kirk was originally also supposedly modelled after Hornblower. Nicholas Meyer, director of some of the most well regarded Star Trek films, frequently cites Horatio Hornblower as one of his primary influences, although Kirk's trademark emotional impulsiveness is a far cry from Hornblower's almost masochistic reserve, and Kirk's populism contrasts with Hornblower's aloofness.

★ Gene Roddenberry based the Star Trek character of Jean-Luc Picard on Hornblower [2].

★ The science fiction space ship captain 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.

★ Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels are also inspired by Hornblower, and retell some of the same episodes of naval history.

★ David Weber's character Honor Harrington closely parallels Hornblower.

★ ''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".

External links

★ Scaryfangirl.com - the most comprehensive Hornblower page on the net

★ The HornBlog - Horatio Hornblower news and discussion

★ Horatio Hornblower television series 2001

★ Naval Chronicle - in depth discussion of the Hornblower novels

References

1. C. S. Forester, ''The Hornblower Companion'', NY, 1964, p. 87
2. C. S. Forester, ''Captain Hornblower'', NY, 1967, p. 158