A Ship of the Line
C. S. Forester
233 pages
published in 1938

Everytime I read another of C. S. Forester's Hornblower books, I'm once again reminded what an insufferable egoistical prig Hornblower is. In this installment, I had to first wrestle through four chapters of Hornblower being obnoxious and condescending towards his wife, Maria, not to mention wallowing in self pity and lusting after newly married Lady Barbara, the woman he really loves. It doesn't help that the author is clearly on Hornblower's side.

Things look up when the ship (and the novel) finally get underway. Forester's greatest talent lies in writing very convincing and realistic battles, as well as being able to keep the day to day business of running an Napoleonic area warship interesting. Which is why I keep reading the Hornblower books while getting to dislike Hornblower himself more and more. Fortunately for me, A Ship of the Line has plenty of sea and land battles.

The plot is episodic. Hornblower is in command of his first ship of the line, the ex-Dutch Sutherland and assigned to a squadron under rear admiral Sir Percy, assigned the task of harassing French shipping in the western Mediterranean, largely along the Spanish coast. With his typical decisiveness after arriving on station first, he takes off for three days doing just that, after which the entire squadron of four ships is involved in a combined Spanish-English operation, with as climax a very uneven battle between the Sutherland and four French ships.

Very much fun to read, after I overcame my disdain for the good captain.