Called "as gripping and realistic a sea tale as you are likely to run across" by the New York Times, C. S. Forester's Beat to Quarters finds Hornblower faced with a near-impossible mission off the coast of Nicaragua.
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 or face court-martial. A daunting enough set of orders -- even if the happily married captain were not woefully distracted by the passenger he is obliged to take on in Panama: Lady Barbara Wellesley.
"I find Hornblower admirable, vastly entertaining". -- Winston Churchill
"A rousing tale of history, character, and adventure."-- Chicago Tribune
Notes about Other Books:
THE HORNBLOWER NOVELS OF C. S. FORESTER
Mr. Midshipman Hornblower
Lieutenant Hornblower
Hornblower and the Hotspur
Hornblower During the Crisis
Hornblower and the Atropos
Beat to Quarters
Ship of the Line
Flying Colours
Commodore Hornblower
Lord Hornblower
Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies
C. S. Forester (1899-1966) wrote many highly acclaimed novels, including the eleven-volume Hornblower saga and The African Queen.
Back Bay Books
Pub Date: September 30, 1985
0.78" H x 8.26" L x 5.53" W
288 pages
Paperback