Hornblower and the Atropos
By: C. S. Forester
Edition: Third
Series: Horatio Hornblower Nº 4
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 1977
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 313
Subjects: Historical Fiction
Genres: Novel; Fiction; Adventures
First sentence: HAVING CLIMBED up through the locks, the canal boat was now winding over the pleasant Cotswold country. Hornblower was bubbling with good spirits, on his way to take up a new command, seeing new sights, travelling in an entirely new way, at a moment when the entirely unpredictable English weather had decided to stage a clear sunny day in the middle of December. This was a delightful way of travelling, despite the cold.
"Your pardon for a moment, ma'am," said Hornblower.
Maria, with the sleeping little Horatio in her arms, gave a sigh at her husband's restlessness and shifted her knees to allow him passage, and he rose under the restricted height of the first-class cabin and stepped out through the forward door into the open bow of the passage boat. Here he could stand on his sea-chest and look round him. She was a queer craft, fully seventy feet long and, judging by eye as he looked aft, he would think hardly five feet in beam—the same proportions as had the crazy dugout canoes he had seen in use in the West Indies. Her draught must be less than a foot; that was clear as she tore along behind the cantering horses at a speed that must certainly be all of eight knots—nine miles an hour he told himself, hurriedly, for that was the way they measured speeds here inland.
The passage boat was making her way from Gloucester to London along the Thames and Severn Canal; going far more smoothly than the stage coach, it was very nearly as...
Description: Here is the fourth exciting novel in the world-acclaimed saga of Horatio Hornblower, the most famous naval hero in all fiction. He's a captain now, in command of HMS Atropos, a sloop of war, admittedly the smallest ship in the British navy, but as fast and responsive as even Hornblower could ask.
It is 1806, and the British have destroyed the French and Spanish fleets in the Atlantic. Now the navy is carrying its might into the Mediterranean, to head off any moves that Bonaparte — who is in command of Continental Europe — might make there. It is to be the French army versus the Royal Navy. And Hornblower plays a thrilling and important role in the conflict.
But first he must supervise the funeral of Lord Nelson, lead a search for buried treasure in Turkish waters, and fight a gallant battle with a Spanish frigate that far outguns the Atropos...
Notes: "Hornblower has made his way into the public heart as few fictional heroes have ever done."
—The San Francisco Chronicle.