[6] Reading Response on Admiral Hornblower In The West Indies (Favorite Book of 2013)

            During the year of 2013, I read a tremendous number of books, many of them fantastic and riveting. However, I think that the one that stands out from the rest for me is Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, a novel by C.S. Forester set in the early 1800s, just after the end of the Napoleonic Wars. Hornblower’s adventure begins with his ship pulling into New Orleans on the way for a state dinner with the governor of the area. From the beginning, Forester takes us on an unrelenting journey of adventure. At a state dinner the first night Hornblower is in New Orleans, he meets a Frenchman who is attempting to sneak 500 retired French soldiers with rifles and uniforms out of the U.S., with the ultimate goal of freeing Napoleon from his jail cell and conquering France. Hornblower is immediately tasked with catching the French soldiers, and after chasing their ship through the Caribbean and finally stopping them just before they reach the Atlantic, Hornblower is quickly assigned to capture a slave ship. After a long chase and eventual capture of the ship, Hornblower wearily goes into port with his small flagship, only to go to a state dinner and be captured by pirates who demand an official pardon for Hornblower’s release. He narrowly escapes the pirates through deceitful tactics, and the end of the book finds him resting at his house in England. Through his weaving of extremely dramatic events, C.S. Forester shows amazing skill and craft. This novel stands out from his other novels, and is a fantastic read.

            Throughout the book, C.S. Forester skillfully places Hornblower in situations which reflect upon the preceding novels. This shows the development of Hornblower’s character, which has changed a tremendous amount as he has risen from a junior officer to the highest rank in the Navy. Hornblower witnesses from an Admiral’s point of view the types of struggles he had to undergo while he was rising through the ranks. One example of this is when Hornblower is on board the flagship of his entire fleet, and the captain is desperately trying to chase down a much faster slave ship. The slave ship or “slaver” as they were called in the British navy, narrowly escapes the captain’s first attempt to capture it. Hornblower remembers his days as a captain and the high stakes he faced, for he knows that if the captain does not capture the slaver when it comes out of port, he will be relieved of his command and have to survive on half pay. He also remembers his past when one of the midshipmen, a junior officer, onboard his ship is seasick and is ridiculed by the crew. The same happened to Hornblower when he joined the navy, and he feels compassion for the seasick sailor. In C.S. Forester’s words, “Hornblower looked down upon the deck, and remembered his ponderous seasick days as a midshipman.” Through these remembrances, C.S. Forester shows us Hornblower’s development as a character.

            C.S. Forester also uses masterful craft to describe Hornblower’s adventures. He utilizes a tremendous amount of detail while describing the ships, and allows us to vividly envision them throughout the book. C.S. Forester describes Hornblower’s flagship in a storm, “With the pitch and the roll as Clorinda shouldered against the sea the shadows of the weather rigging swooped back and forth over the deck; when she took a roll to windward, towards the nearly level morning sun, the shadows of the ratlines of the mizzen shrouds flicked across his eyes.” This gives us the feeling of what it is like to be on Hornblower’s ship, and does so in fantastic language. C.S. Forester also goes into rich detail to describe the people Hornblower meets in his travels. Describing the British diplomat who escorted him to the state dinner in New Orleans, C.S. Forester says, “Mr. Sharpe – surely there was never a name that accorded so ill with its possessor’s figure, for he was a fat man, a mountain of puffy flesh.” Such descriptions create vivid scenes in the book, a quality that makes it stand out.

            In all, C.S. Forester’s Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies was certainly the best book I read over the 2013 year. The novel showed what it was like to be a high-ranking British naval official in the 1800s, and mixed action with an interesting story. Combined with C.S. Forester’s fantastic writing, it made for a tremendous read, and has made me want to read more books about this era.