Horatio Hornblower saga

Horatio Hornblower is only seventeen when he joins His Majesty's Royal Navy as a Midshipman. He's dangerously unschooled in seafaring and the ways of seamen, but he's saved by his quick, mathematical mind and keen eye ... This is where it all begins-- where young Hornblower gets his sea legs and shows the makings of the legend he will later become.

Preparation for war against the French, daring commando-style raids and the rigors of naval discipline tests Hornblower's ingenuity and courage to the limit.

"Hornblower, uncertain of his abilities, receives orders to go to the Pacific coast of Central America where he fights two successful battles with the same Spanish frigate."*** "Captain Hornblower has been ordered to find a water route across the Central American isthmus and destroy a fifty-gun Spanish ship, but Hornblower finds himself distracted by his newest passenger, the beautiful Lady Barbara Wellesley." June 1808, somewhere west of Nicaragua...

A prisoner of the French after he was forced to surrender his ship, Captain Horatio Hornblower faces a trial by his captor, if he can escape, a court-martial back in England

Once again the indomitable Hornblower risks his career in the fight against Napoleon. Allied with him is his old love Marie. She is by no means the least of the obstacles in the way of his return to the arms of Lady Barbara.

After two hard years on blockade at Brest, Captain Hornblower has relinquished the helm of the Hotspur.