Book info

• Title A Ship of the Line
• Author C. S. Forester
• Year 1938
• Genre Historical Fiction

May, 1810 – and thirty-nine-year-old Captain Horatio Hornblower has been handed his first ship of the line... Though the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland is ‘the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy’ and a crew shortage means he must recruit two hundred and fifty landlubbers, Hornblower knows that by the time Sutherland and her squadron reach the blockaded Catalonian coast every seaman will do his duty. But with daring raids against the French army and navy to be made, it will take all Hornblower’s seamanship – and stewardship – to steer a steady course to victory and home...

Thoughts

I wasn’t as keen on this set of Hornblower adventures as I have been of the previous couple. Most importantly, it was left on a bit of a cliffhanger, as Horatio took on a battle finally too big for even him to conquer and was left to surrender to the French. But other than that, there was a lot of chasing ships and doing battle, which of course there always is, but there wasn’t much else, other than pining over the woman who isn’t his wife. It was fine, but I hope the next book is better.

Rating: 2 / 5