The sixth novel in C.S. Forester's eleven-volume chronicle of the naval adventures of Horatio Hornblower is a high point in the series, featuring two spectacular sea battles. June 1808 finds thirty-seven-year-old Captain Hornblower and his thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia somewhere west of Nicaragua. The Admiralty has commanded him to form an alliance against the Spanish colonial government with an insane Spanish landowner; to find a water route across the Central American isthmus; and "to take, sink, burn or destroy" the fifty-gun Spanish ship of the line Natividad or face court-martial. A daunting enough set of orders--even if happily married Hornblower were not woefully distracted by the passenger he is obliged to take on in Panama: Lady Barbara Wellesley.
Editorial Reviews
"The fight betwen the Lydia and the Navidad is the best account of an engagement at sea tat I ave ever read....Beat to Quarters....is in a class by itself." --James N. Hall, coauthor of The Bounty Trilogy
"A superb piece of work, vigorous, vivid, and of a peculiar grace in the writing." --Rafael Sabatini, author of Captain Blood
About the Author
C.S. Forester (1899-1966) wrote many highly acclaimed novels, including the eleven-volume Hornblower saga and The African Queen.
