Adventures of Horatio Hornblower

1952-12-26_0023_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Horatio_Meets_Marie_and_Escapes

1952-12-19_0022_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Prisoner_in_1811_a

1952-12-12_0021_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Napoleon_Is_Defeated

1952-10-03_0011_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Guerilla_Action

1953-04-10_0038_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Prisoner_of_the_French_on_the_Peek_

1952-10-24_0014_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Mutiny_on_the_Flame

1953-04-24_0040_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Spain_Becomes_Neutral

1953-04-03_0037_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Hornblower_s_First_Command

1952-11-14_0017_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Capture_of_Le_Harve_the

1953-02-20_0031_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Attack_on_Fort_At_Fisher_s_Half

1953-03-06_0033_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Delaying_the_French

1953-03-13_0034_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_French_Are_Stopped_the

1952-10-31_0015_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Disguised_As_the_Flame

1953-01-09_0025_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Rejoining_the_Fleet

1952-09-08_0010_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Disguised_As_a_French_Ship

1952-09-01_0009_-_Adventures_of_Horatio_Hornblower_the_-_Protecting_the_Convoy

After seven months at sea Captain Horatio Hornblower and his crew aboard HMS Lydia finally sight land. But the land looks like a burning mountain with two volcanoes. It seems that they have arrived at the entrance to the Gulf of Fonsica where Hornblower is requested and required to form an alliance with Don Julian Al Farado a large landowner there who intends with their help to rise in rebellion against the Spanish monarchy.

After seven months at sea Captain Horatio Hornblower and his crew aboard HMS Lydia finally sight land. But the land looks like a burning mountain with two volcanoes. It seems that they have arrived at the entrance to the Gulf of Fonsica where Hornblower is requested and required to form an alliance with Don Julian Al Farado a large landowner there who intends with their help to rise in rebellion against the Spanish monarchy.

Besides wondering whether he could man his ship in time to return to sea Hornblower had other worries because his wife Maria was with him in his lodgings. She was tearful and told him that he might become a parent again. He felt guilty as he was just getting over the shock of the news that Lady Barbara Wellsley over whom he had nearly made a fool of himself aboard the Lydia, had just married Admiral Leyton a man under whom Hornblower was now serving.

Lady Barbara was having a humanising affect on Hornblower and the elaborate pose he had with difficulty built up before his officers and men of being a hard, silent, unemotional machine was jeopardized by those long tropical evenings at the rail under the white moon and the soft pacific breeze.

In all Hornblower’s years at sea both before and since that memorable time he does not remember being so utterly weary as he was after the Natividad plunged burning under the surface of the deep Pacific. But his own ship, Lydia was not without damage herself and thirty-eight of his men had been killed.

Many years have passed since that terrible day when the probability of death and defeat stared Horatio Hornblower in the face but he can close his eyes now and still feel that exhaustion and faintness that he dared not let any man see. It was a nightmare pause in a nightmare battle two partially disabled ships drifting rapidly apart and each with no purpose than to patch its wounds and return to destroy the other…