Horatio Hornblower, Master and Commander

Hornblower assumes command of Hotspur after spending eighteen months ashore during the transient Peace of Amiens as Master and Commander. He is thus the titular captain of HMS Hotspur, a 24-gun sloop of war, on independent service. His age is twenty-seven during the beginning of the novel; he is about twenty-nine by the close of the novel. He is very educated and joined the naval service as a midshipman fairly late at the age of seventeen, being promoted to lieutenant after about four years of service. He thus has a term of naval service of ten years. Hornblower is an exceptional navigator and capable seaman though he is nervous and occasionally experiences internalized self-doubt. Hornblower's powerful drive to unqualified success masks his internal turmoil in reserve and steely self-control, and even his closest friends never fully know him.

Hornblower is entirely tone deaf and...