Captain Sir Horatio Hornblower, Knight of the Bath

Captain Horatio Hornblower is a post captain in the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars and commands the H.M.S. Sutherland, a 74-gun ship of the line, though the command has been lost at the opening of the novel. His age is thirty-four, and he is fit but not overly strong, and is personally critical of his thinning hair and slight roll about the middle. He is very educated and joined the naval service fairly late at the age of seventeen, as a midshipman in 1794. By about 1800, he had reached the rank of lieutenant; by 1803, the rank of lieutenant, and posted captain about 1805. Thus, he has a term of naval service at the novel's opening of some sixteen years. Hornblower is an exceptional captain, seaman and leader, though he is nervous and constantly plagued by internalized self-doubt. He usually regards...