Collected Works
Horatio Hornblower R.N.
by Paul Chamberlain, NA
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At right, Model of Nelson on display at Horatio Nelson: The Hero and The Man, the new gallery at the Royal Naval Museum, Portsmouth. (Picture courtesy and copyright Flagship Portsmouth Trust) Boxtree have produced The Making of Hornblower by Tom McGregor (Hardback, price £ 14.99, published 1998), which is the official companion to the ITV series. This sumptuously illustrated book gives all the background detail to the making of the films. There is an interesting section on the building of The Grand Turk, the vessel on which Horatio Hornblower experiences many an adventure. The other full-size ship used is a Baltic trader named the Julia, built in the 1930s. Eleven other vessels are used to portray the naval warfare of the time, but these are all models of around five metres in length that did battle on a water tank at Pinewood Studios near London. The Making of Hornblower looks at the art of film-making on board these vessels, both on deck and below, relating the particular problems encountered in the filming. Some of the sea-going filmwork was performed in the Crimea, while later scenes were shot in Portugal. Photographs include action shots of Hornblower (played by Ioan Gruffudd) in his various adventures on sea and land, and some very nice shots of Cherie Lunghi and Estelle Skornik (she played Nicole in the Renault Clio adverts). The book includes profiles of the actors and the characters they portray; descriptions of the uniforms and how they were produced; the creation of action sequences and behind the scenes; and a very basic history of life in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars. One section gives brief resumé of the stories portrayed on film, while there is a glossary of naval terms to complement the technical dialogue. The text is written in a somewhat flippant and chatty style, but remember that this book is a very general guide to the TV series and how it came to be made, not a history book in anyway. If you like the Hornblower stories and films, then this volume will be of general interest to you. Chatham published The Hornblower Companion in October last, price £ 12.95 in paperback. This was first published in 1964 and was written by C.S. Forester as a guide to each of his novels, together with the story of how he came to write them. In The Hornblower Companion Forester describes all the incidents that his fictional character experienced, and has picked out some thirty adventures that are described in detail together with accompanying maps. While Hornblower's adventures were from the viewpoint of a fictional character, they were in fact based around actual incidents in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. For example, Map 2 details the Bay of Biscay which was the focal point of much of the naval struggle during the period, involving the Royal Navy in blockade duty and action against French and Spanish privateers. This formed the backdrop to Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. Each map traces the route of Hornblower's adventure, indicating where particular events in the story occurred. In Hornblower and the Hotspur, the Hotspur's track to Torbay is traced in a simple plot of the vessel's journey from off Ushant across the Channel to Torbay. The importance of Torbay as an anchorage is discussed. Each section and map describes a Hornblower event in its historical context and complements the novels by giving the background to each story. Half of the book is taken up by such maps and historical accounts, while the other half is about how the author came to write the novels; how his knowledge and perception of the period were influenced by The Naval Chronicle and Oman's History of the Peninsular War; and how he came to devise and develop the characters. This part of the book is an interesting story of how Forester wove together fact and fiction. Those readers who like to find out more about the author of such works as the Hornblower novels will find this book of interest; especially so as C.S.Forester was an accomplished author before these novels were conceived and written. Forester began his literary career in 1922 and wrote such historical works as Napoleon and His Court (1924), Josephine: Napoleon's Empress (1925), Lord Nelson (1929); together with fictional works (although many were based on historical fact as with the Hornblower novels) such as Rifleman Dodd (alternate title Death To the French, 1932), The Gun (1933), The African Queen (1935, filmed in 1951 starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn) and The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck (1959; alternate title, and the one used for the film version made in 1960, Sink the Bismarck!). His books also include many other novels written both for adults and children; Forester was indeed a prolific writer. As an aside, it might be of interest to know that Gene Roddenberry modelled his character of Captain James T. Kirk on Hornblower. If you would like to find out more about this author, there is a C.S. Forester Society. Contact the Secretary, 390 Hansen Ave.S., Salem, Oregon 97302, USA. Email vamberry@teleport.com, or visit their Website on http://www.teleport.com/~vamberry/. I obtained much of the detail of the author and his work from this detailed website. C. Northcote Parkinson Another well-known author and historian was C. Northcote Parkinson who was an enthusiastic promoter of naval history, and author of a very good history of the naval warfare of the period entitled Britannia Rules. In 1970 he wrote a fictional biography of Horatio Hornblower in which he told the story of the hero's life alongside the factual naval life of the period. Sutton Publishing first produced The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower by C. Northcote Parkinson in 1996 complete with black and white plates to illustrate the story (price £ 12.99 paperback) and re-issued the book last year in a smaller format priced at £ 6.99. His biography chronicles Hornblower's rise from a midshipman in 1794 to a revered Admiral of the Fleet in 1847, looking at his personal as well as his professional life. While a fictitious account of a fictitious naval officer, the detail is very much factual and is a good description of naval life of the time, as well as giving us a vivid picture of the places that Forester inserted his character into and the people of the time that went in and out of Hornblower's life. Bryan Perrett While Hornblower is very much a fictional character based upon a mix of real people, Bryan Perrett in The Real Hornblower: The Life and Times of Admiral Sir James Gordon maintains that much of the fictional hero was based upon a real naval officer, whose story is just as exciting and varied as those that Forester devised. Perrett shows many parallels between Hornblower's career and that of a real hero, Admiral Sir James Gordon, who came from a modest background, joined the navy at age 11, served more than 75 years and died an Admiral of the Fleet. In his introduction he looks at how C.S. Forester formulated the character of Hornblower and draws some parallels between him and Gordon. The latter was a colourful and heroic character, but perhaps too colourful for Hornblower to be based entirely upon him. Hornblower was a capable but average naval officer of the period; lacking position, influence and money, and was in no way exceptional. He had a long and eventful career during which he was honoured by his countrymen and reached the top of his profession entirely by his own efforts and sheer determination. The author came across a mention of Captain James Alexander Gordon when researching the Chesapeake Bay Campaign of 1814. Gordon commanded a small squadron that sailed up the Potomac and captured the town of Alexandria in the face of stiff opposition, returning with 21 prizes in tow. Gordon spent his childhood in Scotland and entered the navy in 1793 at the tender age of 11. He soon teamed up with the other ship's boys, learning the trade, while at the same time hunting rats with harpoons and learning the finer points of swearing! The early chapters in the book relate much of the story of the Royal Navy of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, and each chapter ends with notes to explain the historical context of Gordon's story, and relate this to that of Hornblower. The navy gave Gordon an education not only in naval skills but also in literacy as well. He fought at the Battles of Cape St. Vincent and the Nile; took part in actions against privateers; on convoy duty; and spent a few months as a prisoner of war on parole in the West Indies. The year 1803 found him again in that theatre and he was the first to discover the French fleet in the area in May 1805. For his efforts in the detection of this force and shadowing them to remain in contact he was promoted to Post-Captain. 1808 found him in command of the frigate Active. Gordon gained varied experience in different vessels in the West Indies, the Atlantic, the Channel and the Mediterranean. He distinguished himself on the North American station during the War of 1812 and continued in service after 1815. In 1840 he became Lieutenant Governor of the Royal Naval Hospital at Greenwich; in 1849 he received the Naval General Service Medal 1793-1840, having seven bars issued with his - the most number issued. In 1868 he was promoted Admiral of the Fleet. Gordon had a long, varied and distinguished career and Bryan Perrett, while emphasising the similarities between this officer and his fictional counterpart, tells a fascinating and interesting story. Whether or not you believe that Gordon was the real Hornblower, this book is a worthwhile read in itself. The Real Hornblower is published by Arms and Armour price £ 9.99 paperback. For further details of these and the other naval books published by these companies contact: Boxtree Ltd., 25 Eccleston Place, London, SW1W 9NF. Tel. 0171 881 8000.
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By the time you read this article you will have seen the four Hornblower films on the television screen. No doubt many of you have read the novels on this fictitious naval officer of the Napoleonic period (all of which have been republished to coincide with the films incidentally). A number of books have been published to complement the TV series, and this article will give a brief review of what is on offer.