June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua, a site suitable for spectacular sea battles. The Admiralty has ordered Captain Horatio Hornblower, now in command of the thirty-six-gun HMS Lydia, 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. A daunting enough set of orders, even if the married captain were not distracted by the passenger he is obliged to take on in Panama: Lady Barbara Wellesley.
Editorial Reviews
"As gripping and realistic a sea tale as you are likely to run across." --New York Times
"The story has an increasing dramatic tension...I do not recall, from even the greats classics of the sea, an account of such an action that is better told...It has every claim to stand with the best stories of the kind that have ever been written." --New York Herald Tribune
About the Author
C.S. Forester (1899-1966) wrote many highly acclaimed novels, including the eleven-volume Hornblower saga and The African Queen.
