Ship of the Line

After returning home from a very successful voyage to the Americas Captain Hornblower is assigned to a larger ship of the line with two gun decks, the Sutherland. He is assigned to the fleet blockading the Mediterranean coast of Spain where Napoleon's French fleet and the Spanish navy are prevented from supplying Napoleon's armies. In classic Hornblower style Hornblower isn't content to sail idly back and forth, so he finds ways to attack harbors, canals, and a French army near the shore. After several courageous engagements Hornblower becomes the only English ship between 4 enemy vessels and their safe harbor. The remainder of the English fleet is over the horizon, several hours away under sail in light winds. Following orders from the fleet Admiral Hornblower attacks all four, severely damaging three of them before the superior weight of the more numerous enemy fleet renders his ship useless. The wreckage drifts down current into the lee shore and a Spanish harbor where Hornblower is captured. As usual, Hornblower is filled with self doubts. If he ever escapes will he be stripped of his rank or even hanged for losing his ship? Will he ever see his beloved Barbara, wife of the Admiral, again? The detail of ships and sailing in the early 19th century make the Hornblower series must reading for any man who loves the sea.

The books about Horatio Hornblower include some of the most interesting and exciting novels ever written about warfare at sea during the days of sailing ships. Hornblower himself is a charming hero who doubts himself, has many weaknesses, and uses his sense of the odds to calculate the best course to take. He is more like Clark Kent than Superman in that way, but can turn into Superman briefly when the occasion calls for it. Throughout the prior volumes of this wonderful series, there has been lots of "ship of the line" envy on Hornblower's part as he made do with commanding lesser vessels. In Ship of the Line, Captain Hornblower finds himself getting his heart's desire, a two-decker called the Sutherland. Complications soon arise when Hornblower discovers that his new admiral has just married Lady Barbara Wellesley, with whom Hornblower is in love. Hornblower and his wife (Maria) meet the admiral and Lady Barbara in a social scene that you will not soon forget. With too little time to prepare, the Sutherland is soon at sea with an under sized and inexperienced crew. What follows is as action-packed a book as you can imagine. Ship of the Line has a greater variety of difficult and unusual challenges thrown Hornblower's way than any reader could possibly hope for. The details of the conflicts are stunning in their scope and scale. If you are like me, you'll find yourself racing through the pages to see what happens next . . . knowing that there are surely big surprises ahead. As usual, Hornblower's imagination and quick thinking make for enormous differences in the outcomes from what would be expected. You will enjoy the complications brought about by Lady Barbara's new husband. And Hornblower's thoughts of Lady Barbara intrude throughout the book, like the musings of a love-sick schoolboy. The book is also interesting because Hornblower is faced with many decisions that could wreck his career, leaving him unemployed at half pay for the rest of his life. While many today would enjoy an early retirement, Hornblower is only happy at sea . . . and in battle. With his strong sense of duty, he makes decisions that may surprise you from time to time, which makes the story all the richer. If you have never read any of the Hornblower books, I suggest that you start with Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and proceed through in the chronological order of Hornblower's career through the series (not the order in which they were written). If you do decide to read this book first to see if you like the books, let me caution you that the book ends in such a way that you will probably immediately decide to read the next one. For that reason, try to resist reading Ship of the Line until you have read its six predecessor volumes. Do you always take time to locate new solutions that others have not tried before? Once you see a possible solution, do you stick with that idea to work through the problems . . . or are you soon discouraged by the first foul

As the preceding volume, Beat to Quarters, shows the end of a long voyage, so here we get to see the curious activities attending on the the start of another--the captain personally responsible for acquiring his crew and his victuals (and to be repaid from prizes possibly awarded from the sale of hoped-for captured enemy ships). Second in the original series (#6 in the whole), Ship of the Line soon sees Hornblower in the Mediterranean serving in a squadron of four under his near-lover's stodgy Admiral-husband. (We remain as achingly puzzled as Hornblower how the smart Lady Barbara could ever condescend to marry this wart.) Whenever Hornblower manages detached duty he is at his best, terrorizing the French, and their army(!), on the Catalan coast, where the sea crashes into the Pyrenees. The action in this type of novel is not much fiction, but artful transformations of actual events from the long-running Napoleonic Wars, down to actual ship manoeuvres. As you read other naval novels, you will recognize certain episodes repeating, like the "cutting out" expedition here. Always they are put in different contexts, however, featuring a different cast of idiosyncratic characters. It is hard to devine why Hornblower has such fear and doubts about his own abilities, when he is worshipped by his men (more perspicacious than he!), and becomes absolutely possessed in hot battle, a human computer! He is a great contrast in this regard to O'Brian's stolid Capt. Aubrey, but that is one way in which each series is uniquely worth reading (similarly with Lambden's racy, or Woodman's severe, traversals of much of the same naval territory, up the same ladder of command). Maybe I read too many modern novels, with their grimey action and prose to match, but C.S. Forester stands out as an impressively good writer because he lacks the crutches of gore and sex. I could not put this down; even though the author gives you chapter breaks, his measured cadence and rolling words just kept me going into the wee 'ours. There's a palpable joy to reading Forester. You become aware what an artful choice of words can do. I think if I read the whole Hornblower series one right after another, I would begin to sound like him! If the language of sailing ships is a mystery to you, the new DVD of A & E's TV mini-series on Horatio Hornblower includes a glossary. But Forester does not delight in obscure, archaic expressions as does O'Brian. Having a nautical reference handy makes the confusing swirl of the climatic battle a little less of a muddle, although its horrifying devastation is quite clear enough already.

In 'Ship of the Line' daring British sea capatin Horatio Hornblower fights not only the French under the tyrant Napoleon, but his own heart as well. After falling in love with Lady Pamela Wellesley his hopes are shattered when she marries an admiral whose ego considerably outweighs his talents. What is worse Hornblower's conscience is racked with guilt over his disloyalty to his own wife, Maria. But before this becomes too much of a soap opera Forester plunges Hornblower into the dangerous swashbuckling sea where he uses every trick in the book to ensnare his French opponents. The ending is perhaps the greatest cliff hanger in all the series which leads into the next novel, 'Flying Colours.' Only a writer of Forester's genius can create so well both the moving human story and great adventure that is 'Ship of the Line.'

After seeing a spate of Hornblower TV features, I finally picked up one to read. I expected a sort of gung-ho boys' book. Instead, Ship of the Line draws a complex, interesting character who lacks either the saccharine of many "boys' books" of the late 19th or early 20th centuries or the "grit over good" tone of the rather ridiculous "tough mercenary kills all" modern cheap war paperback. I will immediately proceed to read the other ten, and I advise the reader to do so as well. Forester is trying to give us a naval social history lesson, wrapped in a complex heroic figure, and he by and large succeeds.