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Horatio Hornblower is a fictional officer in the BritishRoyal Navy during theNapoleonic Wars, the protagonist of a series of novels and stories byC. S. Forester. He later became the subject of films and radio andtelevision programmes, andC. Northcote Parkinson elaborated a "biography" of him,The True Story of Horatio Hornblower.^[1]

Forester's series about Hornblower tales began with the novelThe Happy Return (US title:Beat to Quarters), published in 1937. Herein, Hornblower is a captain on a secret mission toCentral America in 1808. Later stories fill out his career, starting with his unpromising beginning as a seasickmidshipman. As the Napoleonic Wars progress, he steadily gains promotion as a result of his skill and daring, despite his initial poverty and lack of influential friends. After surviving many adventures in a wide variety of locales, he rises to becomeAdmiral of the Fleet.

Forester's original inspiration was an old copy of theNaval Chronicle that described the effective dates of theTreaty of Ghent.^[2]: 81 Two countries could be at war in one part of the world after a peace was obtained months before in another part because of the time required to communicate around the world. The burdens that this placed on captains far from home led Forester to invent a character struggling with the stresses of a "man alone".^[2]: 82

Many parallels exist between Hornblower and real naval officers of the period,^[3][4] notablyAdmiral Lord Horatio Nelson,Sir George Cockburn,Lord Cochrane,Sir Edward Pellew,Jeremiah Coghlan,Sir James Gordon, andSir William Hoste.^{[citation needed]} The actions of the Royal Navy at the time, documented in official reports and in theNaval Chronicle, provided much of the material for Hornblower's fictional adventures.^[3]

The name "Horatio" was inspired by thecharacter inWilliam Shakespeare'sHamlet and chosen also because of its association with contemporary figures such as Nelson.^[2]: 90 The surname "Hornblower" comes fromArthur Hornblow, a Hollywood producer who was a colleague and friend of Forester's.^[5][6]

Frederick Marryat has been identified as "the father of the seafaring adventure novel from which all others followed, from C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower to Patrick O'Brian'sJack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin".^[7] Hornblower and the eponymous protagonist of Marryat's novelPeter Simple both start their careers rather unpromisingly and without influential friends, but advance through hard work, honesty, and bravery. Both fight duels before their careers have properly started and both are taken prisoner early in their careers.^{[citation needed]}

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Hornblower is courageous and intelligent, and a skilled seaman, but he is burdened by intense reserve, introspection, and self-doubt, and is described as "unhappy and lonely". Despite numerous personal feats of extraordinary skill and cunning, he belittles his own achievements by numerous rationalisations, remembering only his fears. He consistently ignores or is unaware of the admiration in which he is held by his fellow sailors. He regards himself as cowardly, dishonest, and at times, disloyal, never crediting his ability to persevere, think rapidly, organise, or cut to the heart of a matter. His sense of duty, his hard work, and his drive to succeed make these imagined negative characteristics undetectable by everyone but him. He frets obsessively over petty failures that reinforce his poor self-image. His introverted nature and incredibly high standards isolate him from the people around him, including his closest friend, William Bush, with whom he is frequently foul-tempered. He is guarded with almost everyone, unless the matter is the business of discharging his duty as a king's officer, when he is clear and decisive.

Hornblower possesses a highly developed sense of duty, refusing to put personal benefit in the way of the best interests of his service and his country. This is frequently misinterpreted by those around him as either modesty or false humility, though he often fails to even recognise the possibility existed until it is pointed out to him in retrospect. On occasion, however, he is able to set his duty aside, usually in order to show loyalty to someone he respects. For example, inHornblower and the Hotspur, he contrives an escape for his personal steward who would otherwise have been hanged for striking a superior officer. Hornblower is philosophically opposed toflogging andcapital punishment, and is pained when circumstances or theArticles of War force him to impose such sentences.

He suffers fromseasickness at the start of each of his voyages. As a midshipman, he becomes seasick at the sheltered roadstead ofSpithead. He istone-deaf and finds music an incomprehensible irritant; in a scene inHornblower and the Hotspur, he is unable to recognise the Britishnational anthem.

A voracious reader, he can provide discourse on both contemporary and classical literature. His skill at mathematics makes him both an adeptnavigator and a talentedwhist player. He uses his ability at whist to supplement his income during a poverty-stricken period of inactivity. Due to time spent as a prisoner of war early in his career, he is adept in both French and Spanish, which frequently proves useful in when fighting ships of those nationalities.

With Hornblower, C. S. Forester is credited with inventing thenaval historical novel.^[3] Stephanie Jones called Hornblower "the most renowned sailor in contemporary fiction".^[8]

Igor Webb noted that Forester intended for the books to be read by adults, but they have become popular among adolescents as well.^[9]

Forester wrote the Hornblower series to avoid entanglements with real-world history. Hornblower is always off on another mission when a great naval victory occurs during the Napoleonic Wars. Similarly during theWar of 1812 he was never in a battle with Americans.

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Hornblower is born inKent, the son of a physician. He has no inherited wealth or influential connections who can advance his career. InThe Happy Return, the first novel published, Hornblower's age is given as 37 in July 1808, implying a birth year of 1770 or 1771. However, when Forester decided to write about Hornblower's early career in the sixth novelMr Midshipman Hornblower, he made his hero about five years younger, giving his birth date as 4 July 1776, the date of the adoption of theUnited States Declaration of Independence. This adjustment allows Hornblower to begin his career in wartime.^[10][11] He is given aclassical education, and by the time he joins the Royal Navy, at the age of 17, he is well versed inGreek andLatin. He is tutored inFrench by a penniless Frenchémigréand has an aptitude for mathematics, which serves him well as a navigator.

Hornblower's early exploits are many and varied. He joins the Royal Navy as amidshipman, where he is bullied and tries to resolve the matter by forcing a duel with his tormentor. He is then transferred toHMS Indefatigable underEdward Pellew and distinguishes himself. He fends offfire ships, which interrupt his (failed) first examination for promotion tolieutenant. He is given command of thesloopLe Rêve while still only an acting lieutenant; the vessel blunders into a Spanish fleet in the fog, resulting in Hornblower's capture and imprisonment inFerrol. During his captivity, he acquires a fluent knowledge of bothGalician andSpanish, and is finally confirmed as a commissioned lieutenant. He leads a daring rescue of Spanish crewmen from a shipwreck during a storm, which leads to his being picked up by a British warship patrolling offshore; since he had given his Spanish captors hisparole that he would not escape, though, he insists upon being returned to captivity. The Spanish release him for his bravery.

As a junior lieutenant, he serves in HMSRenown under Captain Sawyer, whose bouts ofparanoia on a mission to theCaribbean strain discipline to breaking point. On this voyage, he begins his long friendship with William Bush, at the time his senior in rank. Due to his exploits, Hornblower is madecommander, but his promotion is not confirmed when he returns to England following thePeace of Amiens. This causes him great financial distress; he has to repay the difference between a commander's pay and a lieutenant's from his meagrehalf-pay. He uses his skill at whist to supplement his income, playing for money with admirals and other distinguished men in anofficers' club.

In 1803, renewed hostilities against France seem imminent, and Hornblower is confirmed in the rank of commander, and appointed captain of the sloop-of-warHMS Hotspur. Before sailing, he marries Maria, the daughter of his landlady, despite his doubts about the match. Maria dotes upon the irritable Hornblower in ways that he finds vexing; she annoys him with both her ignorance and hero-worship of him. However, he warms to her over the course of several books and becomes a good (though not perfect) husband to her and father to their two children, Horatio and Maria.

After gruelling service during the blockade ofBrest aboardHotspur, he is promised a promotion topost captain by Commander-in-ChiefWilliam Cornwallis and is recalled to England. He meets the Secretary of the Admiralty and the rank is conferred when Hornblower agrees to take part in a dangerous mission he himself has suggested—delivering forged letters to AdmiralVilleneuve that lead the French fleet to sortie, leading to the British victory atTrafalgar.

Following this exploit, Hornblower is given command of thesixth-rate ship HMSAtropos. His first task is to organise Nelson's funeral procession along theRiver Thames and he has to deal with the near-sinking of the barge conveying the hero's coffin.

Atropos is ordered to join the British Mediterranean fleet. Hornblower is sent on a secret mission to recover gold and silver from a sunken British transport on the bottom ofMarmorice Bay within theOttoman Empire with the aid ofpearl divers fromCeylon. The operation is successful, though Hornblower has a narrow escape from a Turkish warship intent on capturing the gold.

After unloading the treasure at Gibraltar,Atropos and another British warship capture a large Spanish frigate after a desperate battle. In the friendly port ofPalermo, Hornblower oversees the repairs of the battle damage, but just as this work is finished, the ship is given to theKing of the Two Sicilies to keep him as an ally. Returning to England, Hornblower finds his two young children dying ofsmallpox.

Later in the timeline, but written of in the first novel in order of publication, he makes a long, difficult voyage in command of thefrigate HMSLydia round theHorn to the Pacific, where his mission is to support amegalomaniac, El Supremo, in his rebellion against the Spanish. He capturesNatividad, a much more powerful Spanish ship, but reluctantly has to 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 injury to insult, as he had given up theprize money to maintain the uneasy alliance with the madman.

Hornblower also takes on an important passenger in Panama, Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional younger sister ofArthur Wellesley (later to become theDuke of Wellington). He is at first nettled and infuriated by her forthright and outspoken manner, her ability to see easily through his reserve, and the great social gap between them. Over time, however, her beauty, strength, and intelligence win his heart, and the two become dangerously attracted to each other. Before things get out of hand, Hornblower informs Lady Barbara that he is married. She leaves theLydia two days later when they rendezvous with other British ships. Hornblower fears for his career, having offended "the daughter of anearl, the sister of amarquis".

After these exploits, he is given command of HMSSutherland, a74-gunship of the line. His feelings are disturbed during this period by the fact that his commander, Admiral Leighton, has recently married Lady Barbara. The admiral treats Hornblower with disdain.

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, earning the nickname "the terror of the Mediterranean". After saving Admiral Leighton's flagship, HMSPluto, which had become dismasted in stormy seas, from the French battery at Rosas, he learns that a French squadron of four ships of the line has slipped the blockade at Toulon. He decides that his duty requires that he fight them 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 (including Lt. Bush), he surrenders to the French, but not before severely crippling three of the French ships and damaging the fourth. As a prisoner in Rosas, he witnesses the destruction of the French ships at anchor by Leighton's squadron.

He is sent with his coxswain, Brown, and his injured first lieutenant, Bush, to Paris for a show trial and execution on charges of piracy for using a false flag to enter a French-held harbour despite him raising the British ensign before opening fire. During the journey, Hornblower and his companions escape. After a winter sojourn at the chateau of the Comte de Graçay, during which he has an affair with the nobleman's widowed daughter-in-law, the escapees travel down the RiverLoire to the coastal city ofNantes. There, he recaptures a Royal Navycutter, theWitch of Endor, mans the vessel with a commandeered gang of galley prisoners, and escapes to theChannel Fleet.

As an indication of Admiralty approval of Hornblower's actions, Lt. Bush is promoted intoWitch of Endor as commander, and shortly thereafter to post captain, with "the dockyard job at Sheerness waiting for [him]."

When Hornblower arrives home, he discovers that his first wife Maria has died in childbirth, that the baby boy survives, and that Lady Barbara (now widowed after Admiral Leighton died of wounds sustained during the attack on Rosas that Hornblower had observed as a prisoner) has taken charge of the child, with her brothers Lords Wellesley and Wellington acting as godfathers.

Hornblower faces a mandatorycourt-martial for the loss of theSutherland, but is "most honourably acquitted." A national hero in the eyes of the public and a useful propaganda tool for various politicians and thePrince Regent, he is made aKnight of the Order of the Bath and appointed aColonel of Marines (asinecure which confers a salary without any additional duties).

Hornblower and Lady Barbara are now free (after a decent interval) to marry. They move to the fictional village of Smallbridge, Kent, where Hornblower has purchased an estate. However, the new lord of the manor longs for the sea.

A return to duty comes when he is appointed to becommodore and sent with a squadron of small craft on a mission to theBaltic Sea, where he must be a diplomat as much as an officer. He foils an assassination attempt onTsarAlexander I of Russia and is influential in the monarch's decision to resist theFrench invasion of theRussian Empire. While at the court of the tsar, it is implied that he is unfaithful to Barbara, dallying with a young Russian noblewoman. He provides assistance in thesiege of Riga, employing hisbomb ketches against the French army, where he meets GeneralCarl von Clausewitz of thePrussian Army.

Ill withtyphus, he returns to England. Upon his recovery, he is tasked with dealing with mutineers off the coast of France. After tricking the French into attacking the mutinous ship, he rounds up the rebels, personally shooting their ringleader as he tries to escape. When he is approached by a French official willing to negotiate the surrender of a major port, he seizes the opportunity and engineers the return of theBourbons to France. He is rewarded by being created apeer as Baron Hornblower of Smallbridge in the County of Kent. However, his satisfaction is marred by the death in action of his friend, Bush.

When Napoleon returns from exile at the start of theHundred Days, Hornblower is staying at the estate of the Comte de Graçay. While there, he renews his affair with Marie de Graçay. When the French Army goes over to Napoleonen masse, Hornblower, the Count, and his family choose to fight rather than flee to Britain. He leads a Royalistguerrilla force, and causes the returned Emperor's forces much grief before his band is finally cornered; in a desperate shootout, Marie is slain, and Hornblower is captured. After a brusque hearing before a military tribunal, the Count and he are both sentenced to death, but he is granted a stay of execution and ultimately released due to Napoleon's defeat at theBattle of Waterloo.

After several years ashore, he is promoted to rear admiral and appointed navalCommander-in-Chief of the West Indies. He foils an attempt by veterans of Napoleon's Imperial Guard to free Napoleon from his captivity onSaint Helena, captures aslave ship, and encountersSimón Bolívar's army. He also discovers a plot by Lady Barbara to engineer the escape of a Marine bandsman sentenced to death for a minor offence. He overlooks her breach of the law and reassures her of his love. While attempting to return to England, the Hornblowers are caught in a hurricane, and Horatio saves Barbara's life from the storm. In a moment of terror and desperation, she reveals that she never loved her first husband, only him. Hornblower retires to Kent and eventually becomes Admiral of the Fleet.

His final 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 beLouis Napoleon Bonaparte, the nephew of Hornblower's great nemesis and the future president and later emperor of France. For his assistance, Lord Hornblower is created aChevalier of the Legion of Honour.

At the end of his long and heroic career, Hornblower is wealthy, famous, and contented, a beloved, 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 ofThe Happy Return, which was the first Hornblower novel written. The second occurs midway throughThe 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 inHornblower 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. InThe Happy Return, Bush is serving with Hornblower for the first time, but other books in the series set earlier in his career completely disregard that. It appears that these discrepancies arose as the series matured and accounts needed to be modified to coincide with his age and career.

C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a fictional biography of Hornblower with the encouragement of C. S. Forester's widow, detailing his career and personal information. It corrects or elucidates some questionable points in the novels, and includes a confession that Hornblower kicked Captain Sawyer down the hatchway of theRenown. It adds subsequent careers of Lord Hornblower's relatives, ending with the present Viscount Hornblower's emigration to South Africa in the late 1960s. According to Parkinson, Hornblower in later life became a director ofP&O, governor of Malta (1829–1831), commander in chief at Chatham (1832–1835), a viscount (in 1850), and Admiral of the Fleet, dying at the age of 80 on 12 January 1857.^[12]

This biography has confused some readers, who have taken it as a factual work.^[3] Parkinson includes in Horatio's family tree a number of real-life Hornblowers. They include:

• Jonathan Hornblower senior andJonathan Hornblower junior, noted engineers who designed and worked with steam engines inCornish mines in the late 18th century
• Josiah Hornblower, an engineer who moved to America and became speaker of the New England Assembly
• Jabez Carter Hornblower, son of Jonathan junior and another engineer

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The Hornblower canon by Forester consists of 11 novels (one unfinished) and five short stories.In addition,The Hornblower Companion includes maps showing where the action took place in the 10 complete novels and Forester's notes on how they were written.

Another short story, "The Point and the Edge", is included only as an outline inThe Hornblower Companion. The following diagram shows the relationship between the dates of the stories' action and of their publication.

Story and Publication Dates

The first three novels written,The Happy Return,A Ship of the Line, andFlying Colours were collected asCaptain Hornblower R.N (1939) by Michael Joseph and asCaptain Horatio Hornblower (1939) by Little Brown in the US. Both a single-volume edition and a three-volume edition (in a slip case) were published.

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower,Lieutenant Hornblower, andHornblower and the Atropos were compiled in one book, variously titledHornblower's Early Years,Horatio Hornblower Goes to Sea, orThe Young Hornblower.Hornblower and the Atropos was replaced byHornblower and the Hotspur in later UK editions ofThe Young Hornblower.

Hornblower and the Atropos,The Happy Return, andA Ship of the Line were compiled into one omnibus edition, calledCaptain Hornblower.

Flying Colours,The Commodore,Lord Hornblower, andHornblower in the West Indies were presented as a third omnibus edition calledAdmiral Hornblower to fill out the series.

Commodore Hornblower,Lord Hornblower, andHornblower in the West Indies were also compiled into one book, calledThe Indomitable Hornblower.

Four "Cadet Editions" were released by Little Brown and later by Michael Joseph, each collecting two Hornblower novels and edited for younger readers:Hornblower Goes to Sea (1953, 1954), fromMr. Midshipman Hornblower andLieutenant Hornblower;Hornblower Takes Command (1953, 1954), fromHornblower and The Atropos andBeat To Quarters;Hornblower in Captivity (1939, 1955), fromA Ship of the Line andFlying Colours; andHornblower's Triumph (1946, 1955), fromCommodore Hornblower andLord Hornblower.

The short stories "The Hand of Destiny", "Hornblower's Charitable Offering", and "Hornblower and His Majesty" plus other Hornblower material not previously published in book-form were collected inHornblower One More Time (4 July 1976) though only 350 copies were printed.^[18]

As of June 2017Amazon offers an electronic (Kindle) omnibus,Hornblower Addendum, consisting of the stories: "Hornblower and the Hand of Destiny", "Hornblower and the Widow McCool", "Hornblower's Charitable Offering", "Hornblower and His Majesty", and "The Last Encounter", although two of these are also included in the bookHornblower During the Crisis.

The Hornblower novels were all serialised in US periodicals and most also in UK periodicals. Except for the first novelBeat to Quarters, the serialisations appeared before the books.

• The filmCaptain Horatio Hornblower (1951) starsGregory Peck in the title role, encompassing the events inThe Happy Return,A Ship of the Line, andFlying Colours, with C. S. Forester sharing writing credits. Peck and co-starVirginia Mayo would recreate their roles on a one-hourLux Radio Theater program broadcast on 21 January 1952, which is included as an audio-only feature in the film'sDVD release.^[20]
• An episode of the American TV seriesAlcoa Premiere,Hornblower (1963) starringDavid Buck in the title role was based onLord Hornblower^[21]
• TheITV andA&E television seriesHornblower (1998–2003) starsIoan Gruffudd as Hornblower, and included stories fromMr. Midshipman Hornblower,Lieutenant Hornblower, andHornblower and the Hotspur.

• Michael Redgrave played Hornblower in a radio series of the same name between 1952 and 1953, later rebroadcast overMutual in the United States syndicated via Towers of London.^[22]
• Nicholas Fry played Hornblower in the radio seriesThe Hornblower Story in 1979/80 for the BBC (20 × 30 min.).^[23] This series covers the books,Mr Midshipman Hornblower,Lieutenant Hornblower,Hornblower and the Hotspur andLord Hornblower.

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• In the fictional setting ofThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen byAlan Moore, Hornblower is the equivalent of Lord Nelson, withThe Black Dossier (2007) depictingHornblower's Column as one of London's most popular landmarks.
• A "biography", calledThe Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower, was published in 1970 byC. Northcote Parkinson which gives various scholarly "corrections" to the stories told by Hornblower's creator.^[12]
• InDudley Pope's 1965 novelRamage, Hornblower is mentioned in passing as a former shipmate of the title character, Lord Ramage, when both were midshipmen.
• Sten Nadolny's 1983 novelThe Discovery of Slowness contains allusions to the Hornblower cycle. For instance, theLydia is written among other vessels in a sailor's bar in Plymouth. Lieutenant Gerard who appears inThe Happy Return andA Ship of the Line is mentioned several times.
• InDewey Lambdin'sKing, Ship, and Sword, the main characterAlan Lewrie (another fictional British captain of the era) makes a visit to the Admiralty and takes particular note of a tall, thin lieutenant in a threadbare uniform with a melancholy expression. While the lieutenant's name is never mentioned, he displays several of Hornblower's best-known characteristics, and the state of a penniless lieutenant fits with the events at the end ofLieutenant Hornblower (this scene takes place during thePeace of Amiens).

Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know",^[24] andWinston Churchill stated, "I findHornblower admirable."^[25]

The popularRichard Sharpe novels byBernard Cornwell were inspired by the Hornblower series; Cornwell avidly read the series as a child, and was disappointed to learn that there was no similar series chronicling the Napoleonic Wars on land, so he set out to rectify this.^[26]

The first ofPatrick O'Brian'sAubrey/Maturin novels was commissioned by an editor at American publisherJ. B. Lippincott & Co., who thought that it was likely that O'Brian could write more novels in the Hornblower genre.^[27]

TheRichard Bolitho series byDouglas Reeman (writing as Alexander Kent) has drawn him acclaim "as the true heir to the highly successfully C. S. Forester [author of the Horatio Hornblower series of sea adventures]."^[28]

Dudley Pope was encouraged by C. S. Forester to create hisLord Ramage series of novels set around the same period.^[29]

Gene Roddenberry was influenced by the Hornblower character while creating theStar Trek charactersJames T. Kirk andJean-Luc Picard.Nicholas Meyer, director of some of theStar Trek films, frequently cites Horatio Hornblower as one of his primary influences.^[30][31]

David Weber's characterHonor Harrington closely parallels Hornblower, and Weber deliberately gave her the same initials.^[32] Like Hornblower, Harrington comes from a modest background, lacking patronage of any sort, and throughout the series accrues promotions, peerages and other honours, rising to the rank of admiral.

Lois McMaster Bujold'sVorkosigan Saga uses the Hornblower series as a structural model.^[33]

The astronauts of the 1972Apollo 17 mission to the Moon named a small crater near the landing siteHoratio in honour of Horatio Hornblower.^[34]

In 1980, US President Jimmy Carter gave his speech accepting the Democratic Party's nomination on August 14. This was notable for his gaffe intended to be a tribute toHubert Humphrey, whom he referred to as "Hubert Horatio Hornblower".^[35]

• C. S. Forester Society, dedicated to the author and his works
• Complete novels, from the Internet Archive

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