Hornblower Saga: Chronological Order #3
Hornblower and the Hotspur
C.S. Forester
Hornblower has married Maria, his former landlady's daughter. She may be smitten but he feels railroaded and since he's off to war he has two nights to consummate the marriage. In any case she's unlikely to see much of him.
In book one a friend dies fighting a duel on his behalf. Since a Midshipman even as young as 12 is a ship's officer commissions were bought so his father paid for it. This is book 3 of an 11-book series.
Napoleon declaring war on Great Britain saved Naval Officers from shore-bound half-pay or worse and sent Hornblower to sea on a small ship. Not all sailors are born with sea legs and this one became seasick in harbour on his first trip to a boat. As captain seasickness is an ignominious condition he'd rather hide though the pail outside his cabin reveals an unspoken acknowledgement of his condition.
Wise is the officer who defers to the superior knowledge of his older more experienced officers and seamen. A captain must appear to know what he is doing even when he doesn't know what he's doing.
The author uses the argot of the age of sail to full effect indicating no small knowledge of the language of sailing. There's an entire encyclopedic list of words describing every part of a sail for example including the fact that a sheet is a rope or line that controls the sail, not the sail itself, a halyard raises and lowers it. Somewhere this writer has a copy of the Annapolis textbook on seamanship.
The book begins and ends in Portsmouth where his wife has borne him a son and saddled him with the moniker, Horatio.
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