Ship of the Line - Hardcover

Forester, C. S.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0718103351 ISBN 13: 9780718103354

Publisher: Michael Joseph Ltd, 1951

Synopsis

May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems "the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List." Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must enlist and train "poachers, bigamists, sheepstealers," and other landlubbers. By the time the Sutherland reaches the blockaded Catalonian coast of Spain, the crew is capable of staging five astonishing solo raids against the French. But the grisly prospect of defeat and capture looms for both captain and crew as the Sutherland single-handedly takes on four French ships.

About this title

Book Description:

Read by the star of the new TV series, another of C.S. Forester's famous Hornblower novels on abridged audio for the first time.

About the Author:

C. S. Forester was born in Cairo in 1899, where his father was stationed as a government official. He studied medicine at Guy's Hospital, and after leaving Guy's without a degree he turned to writing as a career. On the outbreak of war he entered the Ministry of Information and later he sailed with the Royal Navy to collect material for The Ship. He made a voyage to the Bering Sea to gather material for a similar book on the United States Navy, and it was during this trip that he was stricken with arteriosclerosis, a disease which left him crippled. However, he continued to write and in the Hornblower novels created the most renowned sailor in contemporary fiction. He died in 1966.

About this edition

• Publisher: Michael Joseph Ltd
• Publication date: 1951
• ISBN 10: 0718103351
• ISBN 13: 9780718103354
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 236