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Hornblower's Navy: Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson

In this lively study of the British Royal Navy and the men who turned it into the most phenomenal war machine of its day, author Stephen Pope dives into the waves over which Britannia ruled to uncover the fictional realm of C.S. Forester's great hero Horatio Hornblower and the brutal, dramatic, real-life world that inspired Hornblower's adventures. Interestingly, Pope finds Forester's depictionnot far off the mark. Despite a tendency to sanitize the realities of shipboard life (a netherworld inhabited by the dregs of British society), Hornblower's 20th-century creator had an excellent grasp of the traditions and standards that bolstered the 18th-century Royal Navy and spurred its superbly trained, audacious leaders on to incredible feats of heroism. Lavishly illustrated and compulsively readable, here is the intriguing history of a unique and colorful era in which ordinary men rose to extraordinary heights to claim the oceans as their own. 8 1/2" x 11". Color & b&w illus.

  • Format
  • paperback
  • Pages
  • 111
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9781566490306
  • Genres
  • history, historical
  • Release date
  • 1998