出典(authority):フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』「2014/07/16 12:59:45」(JST)
| Horatio Hornblower | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | The Happy Return (1937) |
| Last appearance | The Last Encounter (1967) |
| Created by | C. S. Forester |
| Portrayed by | Gregory Peck Michael Redgrave |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Horry (by his first spouse) |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Naval Officer |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Mason (†) Lady Barbara Wellesley |
| Children | Horatio Hornblower (†) Maria Hornblower (†) |
| Nationality | British |
Horatio Hornblower is a fictional Napoleonic Wars era Royal Navy officer who is the protagonist of a series of novels by C. S. Forester. He was later the subject of films, radio and television programs.
The original Hornblower tales began with the 1937 novel The Happy Return (U.S. title Beat to Quarters) with the appearance of a junior Royal Navy captain on independent duty on a secret mission to Central America, though later stories would fill out his earlier years, starting with an unpromising beginning as a seasick midshipman. As the Napoleonic Wars progress, he gains promotion steadily as a result of his skill and daring, despite his initial poverty and lack of influential friends. Eventually, after surviving many adventures in a wide variety of locales, he rises to the pinnacle of his profession, promoted to Admiral of the Fleet, knighted as a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath, and named the 1st Baron Hornblower.
Ernest Hemingway is quoted as saying, "I recommend Forester to everyone literate I know,"[1] and Winston Churchill stated, "I find Hornblower admirable."[2]
There are many parallels between Hornblower and real naval officers of the period, notably Admiral Lord Nelson and also Sir George Cockburn, Lord Cochrane, Jeremiah Coghlan, Sir James Gordon, Sir William Hoste and many others. The actions of the Royal Navy at the time, documented in official reports, gave much material for Hornblower's fictional adventures.[3]
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.[4]
Forester's original inspiration was an old copy of the Naval Chronicle, which described the effective dates of the Treaty of Ghent[citation needed]. Because of the time 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 that this placed on captains far from home led him to a character struggling with the stresses of a "man alone".[5] 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.
Described as "unhappy and lonely", Hornblower is courageous, intelligent and a skilled seaman; but he is also burdened by his intense reserve, introspection and self-doubt. Despite numerous personal feats of extraordinary skill and cunning, he belittles his achievements by numerous rationalizations, remembering only his fears. He consistently ignores or is unaware of the admiration with 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, organize or cut to the heart of a matter. His sense of duty, hard work, and drive to succeed make these imagined negative characteristics undetectable by everyone but him, and being introspective, he obsesses over petty failures 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, unless the matter is the business of discharging his duty as a King's officer, in which case he is clear and decisive.
Hornblower possesses a hyper-developed sense of duty, though on occasion he is able to set it aside; for example, in Hornblower and the Hotspur, he contrives an escape for his personal steward, who would otherwise have to be hanged for striking a superior officer. He is philosophically opposed to flogging and capital punishment, and is pained when circumstances or the Articles of War force him to impose such sentences.
He suffers from chronic seasickness, especially at the start of his voyages. As a midshipman, he was once sick at the sheltered roadstead of Spithead. His embarrassment haunts him throughout his career. He is tone-deaf and finds music an incomprehensible irritant (in a scene in Hotspur he is unable to recognize the British national anthem).
A voracious reader, he can discourse on both contemporary and classical literature. His skill at mathematics makes him both an adept navigator and an extremely talented whist player. He uses his ability at whist to supplement his income during a period of inactivity in the naval service.
Hornblower is born in Kent, the son of a doctor. He has no inherited wealth or influential connections who can advance his career. In The Happy Return, the first novel by order of publication, Hornblower was born June 11 in 1771. His age is given as 37, and the events of the novel take place during 1808, in which year Spain was first at war with Great Britain but then changed sides. However, when Forester decided to write about Hornblower's early career in the sixth novel Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, he made his hero about five years younger, giving his birthdate as July 4, 1776 (the date of the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence). This adjustment allows Hornblower to begin his career in wartime.[6] He is given a classical education, and by the time he joins the Royal Navy at age seventeen, he is well-versed in Greek and Latin. He is tutored in French by a penniless French émigré and has an aptitude for mathematics, which serves him well as a navigator.
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. During his captivity, he acquires a fluent knowledge of Spanish, which proves highly useful in several further adventures, and is finally confirmed as a commissioned lieutenant. His daring rescue of sailors from a shipwreck under extremely hazardous conditions, and his honourable adherence to the parole he had given, is rewarded by his Spanish captors by his release.
As a junior lieutenant, he serves under Captain Sawyer, who suffers a breakdown due to paranoid schizophrenia on a trip to the Caribbean. It is on this voyage that he begins his long friendship with William Bush, at the time his senior officer. Returning to England, Hornblower is demobilized 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. Following his appointment to this command, he marries Maria, the daughter of his landlady while living on half-pay in Portsmouth. Originally he is written as having mixed feelings about Maria (to the extent of wondering, during the wedding ceremony, whether it is not too late to back out). Maria is portrayed as a somewhat dull woman who dotes upon the irritable Hornblower in ways he finds distressing—she knows little of the sea, and annoys him both with her ignorance and her desire for social status derived from his promotions, as well as her hero-worship of him, which clashes with his eternally low self-image. Despite this unfortunate beginning, however, over the course of several books, he warms to her, and becomes at least a good, if not perfect, husband to her, and father to their first two children, also named Horatio and Maria.
After gruelling service during the blockade of Brest aboard the Hotspur, he finally gains the coveted promotion to Captain, by the assistance of Commander-in-Chief William Cornwallis, and is 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 costs Nelson his life.
Hornblower then organizes 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 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 given to the King of the Two Sicilies for diplomatic reasons, much to his disappointment. On his return to England, he finds his two young children dying of smallpox. Their deaths were referred to in the first novel to be published.
Later (in the time line, but written of in the first novel), he makes a long, difficult voyage in command of the frigate HMS Lydia round the Horn to the Pacific, where his mission is to support a madman, El Supremo, in his rebellion against the Spanish. He captures the Natividad, a much more powerful Spanish ship (Bush refers to it as a "ship of the line", although Hornblower believes this is stretching a point), but 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 injury to insult, as he had given up a fortune in prize money to maintain the uneasy alliance with the megalomaniac.
Hornblower also takes on an important passenger in a stop in Panama—Lady Barbara Wellesley, the fictional younger sister of Arthur Wellesley (later to become the Duke of Wellington)—also Hornblower's future wife, and without doubt the love of his life. He is at first nettled and infuriated by her forthright and outspoken manner, her ability to easily see through his reserve, and her refusal to be cowed or overawed by him. Over time, however, her beauty, strength, and intelligence win his heart, and the two become dangerously attracted to each other. This results in a kiss that is interrupted by Lady Barbara's maid Hebe—when she is sent away, the spell is broken, and Hornblower, engaging in his typical self-loathing and second-guessing behavior, refuses to give in to his feelings again. Perceiving herself to be rejected, Lady Barbara leaves the Lydia two days later when they rendezvous with other British ships. Hornblower fears for his career, having offended the daughter of an earl and sister of a marquis.
After these exploits, he is given command of HMS Sutherland, a seventy-four gun ship of the line. His feelings are disturbed during this period by the fact that his commander, Admiral Leighton, has recently married Lady Barbara, thereby apparently ending any hope that she and Hornblower might act on their feelings for one another. Hornblower is tormented by jealousy of Leighton, compounded by the admiral's dismissive treatment of him; this treatment is due in fact to Leighton's rightly suspecting his wife's attraction to the famous captain, and feelings of inferiority towards Hornblower, but naturally the self-doubting captain is incapable of realizing this.
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. As a prisoner he witnesses the destruction of the French squadron, while at anchor, by the British force his ship was formerly attached to.
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. 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 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 (a sinecure which confers a second salary without any additional duties). When he arrives home, he discovers that his first wife Maria has 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. Thereafter, he lives as a country squire in the fictional village of Smallbridge, Kent, largely satisfied but longing for the sea.
A return to duty 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 Tsar Alexander I of Russia and is influential in the monarch's decision to resist the French invasion of the Russian Empire. While at the court of the Tsar, it is implied (but not explicitly confirmed) that he is unfaithful to Barbara, dallying with a young Russian noblewoman. He provides invaluable assistance in the defence of Riga against the French army, where he meets General Carl von Clausewitz of the Prussian Army.
He returns ill with typhus to England. Soon after his recovery, he is given the difficult task of dealing with mutineers off the coast of France. After provoking the French by trickery 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 the Bourbons to France. He is rewarded by being created a peer as Baron Hornblower of Smallbridge in the County of Kent. However, his satisfaction is marred by the death of his longtime friend, Bush.
When Napoleon returns from exile at the start of the Hundred Days, Hornblower is staying at the estate of the Comte de Graçay, which he was visiting after again growing tired of his life in Smallbridge. While there, he renews his affair with Marie de Gracay, so that he has now been unfaithful, with her, to both of his wives. When the country goes over to Napoleon en masse, Hornblower, the Count, and his family choose to fight rather than flee to Britain. He leads a Royalist guerrilla force, and causes the returned Emperor's forces much grief before his band is finally cornered; in a desperate shootout, Marie is slain, and a devastated Hornblower captured. After a brusque hearing before a military tribunal, he and the Count are both sentenced to the firing squad the next morning by an officer who obviously regrets the task. However, in the morning when his cell door is opened, he is granted a stay due to Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Napoleon had tried to stir up support for a renewed national resistance when he arrived in Paris after Waterloo, but the temper of the legislative chambers, and of the public generally, did not favor his view. Lacking support, Napoleon abdicates and after he is again sent into exile, Hornblower is released.
After several years ashore, he is promoted to rear admiral and appointed naval 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 also discovers a plot by Lady Barbara to engineer the escape of a Marine bandsman sentenced to death for a minor offence. An astonished Hornblower overlooks her breach of the law and reassures her of his love. Finally, while attempting to return to England, the Hornblowers are caught in a hurricane, and Horatio struggles desperately to save Barbara's life from the storm. In a moment of terror and desperation, she bares her heart to him, revealing that she never loved her first husband, only him. The two survive, and this revelation does much to heal the last self-inflicted wounds in Hornblower's soul. 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 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 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.
C. Northcote Parkinson, more famous for his invention of Parkinson's Law, wrote a "biography" of Hornblower, detailing his career as well as personal information. The biography sheds light upon what really happened to Captain Sawyer on HMS Renown (including a confession that Hornblower pushed Captain Sawyer down the hatchway), as well as subsequent careers of Lord Hornblower's descendants, ending with the present Lord Hornblower's emigration to Apartheid South Africa in the late 1960s. According to Parkinson, Hornblower in later life became a director of P&O, Governor of Malta (1829–1831), Commander in Chief at Chatham (1832–1835) a Viscount (in 1850), and an Admiral of the Fleet, dying at the age of 80 on 12 January 1858.[7]
This fictional biography of a fictional character has confused some readers, who have taken it as a factual work.[3] Parkinson includes in Horatio's family tree at least two real life Hornblowers, though he nowhere admits to this. They are Jonathan Hornblower senior and junior, who were noted engineers designing and working with steam engines in mines in Cornwall in the late 18th century. In their spare time they were active Baptist Christians, founding a church in Chacewater whose offshoot in Truro is very much alive to this day.
The Hornblower canon by Forester consists of eleven novels (one unfinished) and five short stories. In addition, The Hornblower Companion includes maps showing where the action took place in the ten complete novels plus Forester's notes on how they were written.
| UK Title | Story Dates | UK Date of First Publication[8][9] | UK Publisher | US Title | US Date of First Publication[10] | US Publisher | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Happy Return, The The Happy Return | 01808-06-01-0000Jun 1808–01808-10-01-0000Oct 1808 | 01937-02-04-0000Feb 4, 1937 | Michael Joseph | Beat to Quarters | 01937-04-06-0000Apr 6, 1937 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Ship of the Line, A A Ship of the Line | 01810-05-01-0000May 1810–01810-10-01-0000Oct 1810 | 01938-04-04-0000Apr 4, 1938 | Michael Joseph | Ship of the Line | 01938-03-18-0000Mar 18, 1938 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Flying Colours | 01810-11-01-0000Nov 1810–01811-06-01-0000Jun 1811 | 01938-11-01-0000Nov 1, 1938 | Michael Joseph | Flying Colours | 01939-01-03-0000Jan 3, 1939 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Hornblower and His Majesty | 01812-01-01-00001812 | 01941-03-01-0000Mar 1941 | Argosy (UK) | Hornblower and His Majesty | 01940-03-23-0000Mar 23, 1940 | Collier's | Short story | |
| Hornblower and the Hand of Destiny | 01798-01-01-00001798 | 01941-04-01-0000Apr 1941 | Argosy (UK) | Hand of Destiny, The The Hand of Destiny | 01940-11-23-0000Nov 23, 1940 | Collier's | Short story | |
| Hornblower's Charitable Offering | 01810-06-01-0000Jun 1810 | 01941-05-01-0000May 1941 | Argosy (UK) | Bad Samaritan, The The Bad Samaritan | 01941-01-18-0000Jan 18, 1941 | Argosy (US) | Short story intended as a chapter of A Ship of the Line | |
| Commodore, The The Commodore | 01812-04-01-0000Apr 1812–01812-12-01-0000Dec 1812 | 01945-03-12-0000Mar 12, 1945 | Michael Joseph | Commodore Hornblower | 01945-05-21-0000May 21, 1945 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Lord Hornblower | 01813-10-01-0000Oct 1813–01814-06-01-0000Jun 1814 | 01946-06-11-0000Jun 11, 1946 | Michael Joseph | Lord Hornblower | 01946-09-24-0000Sep 24, 1946 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | 01794-01-01-0000Jan 1794–01798-03-01-0000Mar 1798 | 01950-05-22-0000May 22, 1950 | Michael Joseph | Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | 01950-03-13-0000Mar 13, 1950 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Hornblower and the Big Decision | 01799-01-01-00001799 | 01951-04-01-0000Apr 1951 | Argosy (UK) | Hornblower's Temptation | 01950-12-09-0000Dec 9, 1950 | The Saturday Evening Post | Short story subsequently published as Hornblower and the Widow McCool in Hornblower and the Crisis | |
| Lieutenant Hornblower | 01800-05-01-0000May 1800–01803-03-01-0000Mar 1803 | 01952-02-11-0000Feb 11, 1952 | Michael Joseph | Lieutenant Hornblower | 01952-03-27-0000Mar 27, 1952 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Hornblower and the Atropos | 01805-12-01-0000Dec 1805–01808-01-01-0000Jan 1808 | 01953-11-09-0000Nov 9, 1953 | Michael Joseph | Hornblower and the Atropos | 01953-09-10-0000Sep 10, 1953 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Hornblower in the West Indies | 01821-05-01-0000May 1821–01823-10-01-0000Oct 1823 | 01958-09-29-0000Sep 29, 1958 | Michael Joseph | Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies | 01958-08-28-0000Aug 28, 1958 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Hornblower and the Hotspur | 01803-04-01-0000Apr 1803–01805-07-01-0000Jul 1805 | 01962-07-27-0000Jul 27, 1962 | Michael Joseph | Hornblower and the Hotspur | 01962-08-01-0000Aug 1, 1962 | Little Brown | Novel | |
| Hornblower Companion, The The Hornblower Companion | 99999 | 01964-12-04-0000Dec 4, 1964 | Michael Joseph | Hornblower Companion, The The Hornblower Companion | 01964-12-06-0000Dec 6, 1964 | Little Brown | Supplementary book comprising "The Hornblower Atlas" and "Some Personal Notes" | |
| Hornblower and the Crisis | 01805-08-01-0000Aug 1805–01805-12-01-0000Dec 1805 | 01967-06-04-0000Jun 4, 1967 | Michael Joseph | Hornblower During the Crisis | 01967-11-08-0000Nov 8, 1967 | Little Brown | Novel (unfinished) plus Hornblower and the Widow McCool and The Last Encounter | |
| Last Encounter, The The Last Encounter | 01848-11-01-0000Nov 1848 | 01967-06-04-0000Jun 4, 1967 | Michael Joseph | Last Encounter, The The Last Encounter | 01967-04-01-0000Apr 1967 | Argosy (US) | Short story subsequently published in Hornblower During the Crisis |
Another short story, "The Point and the Edge," is included only as an outline in The Hornblower Companion.
The first three novels written, The Happy Return, A Ship of the Line, and Flying Colours were collected as Captain 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, 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.
Hornblower and the Atropos, The Happy Return, and A Ship of the Line were compiled into one omnibus edition, called Captain Hornblower.
Flying Colours, The Commodore, Lord Hornblower, and Hornblower in the West Indies were presented as a third omnibus edition called Admiral Hornblower to fill out the series.
Commodore Hornblower, Lord Hornblower, and Hornblower in the West Indies were also compiled into one book, called The 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), from Mr. Midshipman Hornblower and Lieutenant Hornblower; Hornblower Takes Command (1953, 1954), from Hornblower and The Atropos and Beat To Quarters; Hornblower in Captivity (1939, 1955), from A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours; and Hornblower's Triumph (1946, 1955), from Commodore Hornblower and Lord Hornblower.
The short stories The Hand of Destiny, Hornblower's Charitable Offering, Hornblower and His Majesty plus other Hornblower material not previously published in book-form was collected in Hornblower One More Time (01976-07-04-0000Jul 4, 1976) though only 350 copies were printed.[11]
The Hornblower novels were all serialised in US periodicals and most also in UK periodicals. Except for the first novel Beat to Quarters, the serialisations appeared before the books.
| US Novel Title | Story Dates | US Serial Dates[12] | US Parts | US Magazine | UK Serial Dates[12] | UK Parts | UK Magazine | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beat to Quarters | 01808-06-01-0000Jun 1808–01808-10-01-0000Oct 1808 | 01938-09-17-0000Sep 17, 1938–01938-10-22-0000Oct 22, 1938 | 6 | Argosy (US) | 01949-05-01-0000May 1949 | 1 | Argosy (UK) | |
| Ship of the Line | 01810-05-01-0000May 1810–01810-10-01-0000Oct 1810 | 01938-02-26-0000Feb 26, 1938–01938-04-02-0000Apr 2, 1938 | 6 | Argosy (US) | ||||
| Flying Colours | 01810-11-01-0000Nov 1810–01811-06-01-0000Jun 1811 | 01938-12-03-0000Dec 3, 1938–01939-01-07-0000Jan 7, 1939 | 6 | Argosy (US) | ||||
| Commodore Hornblower | 01812-04-01-0000Apr 1812–01812-12-01-0000Dec 1812 | 01945-03-24-0000Mar 24, 1945–01945-05-12-0000May 12, 1945 | 8 | The Saturday Evening Post | ||||
| Lord Hornblower | 01813-10-01-0000Oct 1813–01814-06-01-0000Jun 1814 | 01946-05-18-0000May 18, 1946–01946-07-06-0000Jul 6, 1946 | 8 | The Saturday Evening Post | ||||
| Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | 01794-01-01-0000Jan 1794–01798-03-01-0000Mar 1798 | 01948-03-06-0000Mar 6, 1948–01950-03-11-0000Mar 11, 1950 | 9 | The Saturday Evening Post | 01948-08-01-0000Aug 1948–01950-06-01-0000Jun 1950 | 10 | Argosy (UK) | |
| Lieutenant Hornblower | 01800-05-01-0000May 1800–01803-03-01-0000Mar 1803 | 01951-09-15-0000Sep 15, 1951–01951-11-17-0000Nov 17, 1951 | 9 | The Saturday Evening Post | 01951-10-06-0000Oct 6, 1951–01952-01-12-0000Jan 12, 1952 | 10 | John Bull | |
| Hornblower and the Atropos | 01805-12-01-0000Dec 1805–01808-01-01-0000Jan 1808 | 01953-07-25-0000Jul 25, 1953–01953-09-12-0000Sep 12, 1953 | 8 | The Saturday Evening Post | 01953-10-03-0000Oct 3, 1953–01953-11-28-0000Nov 28, 1953 | 9 | John Bull | |
| Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies | 01821-05-01-0000May 1821–01823-10-01-0000Oct 1823 | 01957-05-11-0000May 11, 1957–01958-04-26-0000Apr 26, 1958 | 10 | The Saturday Evening Post | 01957-05-25-0000May 25, 1957–01958-09-13-0000Sep 13, 1958 | 13 | John Bull | |
| Hornblower and the Hotspur | 01803-04-01-0000Apr 1803–01805-07-01-0000Jul 1805 | 01962-10-01-0000Oct 1962 | 1 | Argosy (US) | 01962-02-24-0000Feb 24, 1962–01962-04-07-0000Apr 7, 1962 | 7 | Today | |
| Hornblower During the Crisis | 01805-08-01-0000Aug 1805–01805-12-01-0000Dec 1805 | 01966-07-16-0000Jul 16, 1966–01966-07-30-0000Jul 30, 1966 | 2 | The Saturday Evening Post |
| Name of ship | Rate of ship | Guns | Main armament | Hornblower's rank | Novel or short story title | End of commission |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HMS Justinian | 3rd rate | 74 | 32 lb | Midshipman | Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | Is transferred to Indefatigable by Justinian's well-meaning captain to get him away from a bully of a senior midshipman. |
| HMS Indefatigable | 5th rate | 44 | 24 lb | Midshipman, later acting lieutenant | Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | Is made prize master of Marie Galante, seized as a prize by Indefatigable. |
| Marie Galante | Captured merchant brig | none | Midshipman | Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | Ship sinks when a leak causes the cargo of rice to expand disastrously. | |
| HM transport Caroline | Transport brig | none | Acting lieutenant | Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | Returns to Indefatigable after a medical quarantine ends without incident. | |
| Le Reve | Sloop | 4 | 4 lb | Acting lieutenant | Mr. Midshipman Hornblower | Is captured by the Spanish. |
| HMS Marguerite | 5th rate | 36 | 18 lb | 1st lieutenant | "The Hand of Destiny" | Is paid off. |
| HMS Renown | 3rd rate | 74 | 24 lb | Lieutenant | Lieutenant Hornblower | Is paid off. |
| HMS Retribution | Sloop-of-war | 18 | 9 lb | Acting commander | Lieutenant Hornblower | Is paid off, as the Peace of Amiens begins. |
| HMS Hotspur | Sloop-of-war | 20 | 9 lb | Commander | Hornblower and the Hotspur | Is promoted to post-captain (and becomes too high ranking to command such a small ship). |
| HMS Atropos | 6th rate | 22 | 9 lb | Junior post-captain | Hornblower and the Atropos | Ship is given to the King of the two Sicilies to maintain his support against Napoleon. |
| HMS Lydia | 5th rate | 36 | 18 lb | Senior post-captain | The Happy Return and Beat to Quarters | Is paid off. He and the crew are transferred to HMS Sutherland. |
| HMS Sutherland | 3rd rate | 74 | 24 lb | Post-captain | A Ship of the Line | Severely damaged in battle while single-handedly disabling three French ships of the line, forcing them to seek refuge in Rosas Bay. Burned to the waterline to prevent its reuse by the enemy in 'Flying Colours' during an attack by the Mediterranean fleet which destroys the three French ships. |
| Witch of Endor | Cutter | 10 | 6 lb | Post-captain | Flying Colours | Liberates the previously captured Witch with the help of Bush, Brown and a gang of prisoners, and escapes from France to England. This feat gains him much fame and assists at his mandatory court-martial for surrendering the Sutherland. |
| Augusta | Yacht | 6 | Post-captain | "Hornblower and his Majesty" | ||
| HMS Nonsuch | 3rd rate | 74 | 32 lb | Commodore of the first class | The Commodore and Lord Hornblower | Contracts typhus and returns to England from the Baltic Sea on the Clam. |
| Lotus and Raven | Sloops | Commodore of the first class | The Commodore | |||
| Clam | Cutter | Commodore of the first class | The Commodore | |||
| Harvey and Moth | Bomb-ketches | Mortars | Commodore of the first class | The Commodore | ||
| Porta Coeli | Brig | 18 | 6 lb | Commodore | Lord Hornblower | After suppressing a mutiny on Porta Coeli's sister ship Flame, he transfers to Flame. |
| Flame | Brig | 18 | 6 lb | Commodore | Lord Hornblower | Is made Governor of Le Havre. |
| Crab | Schooner | 2 | Rear-Admiral, Commander-in-Chief | Hornblower in the West Indies | Transfers his flag back to Clorinda. | |
| HMS Phoebe | 5th rate | 36 | 18 lb | Rear-Admiral, Commander-in-Chief | Hornblower in the West Indies | Assignment as Commander-in-Chief ends. |
| HMS Clorinda | 5th rate | 36 | 18 lb | Rear-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief | Hornblower in the West Indies | Assignment as Commander-in-Chief ends. |
| HMS Roebuck | 5th rate | 36 | 18 lb | Rear-Admiral and Commander-in-Chief | Hornblower in the West Indies | Assignment as Commander-in-Chief ends. |
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