“Names from Hornblower”
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“Names from Hornblower” Introduction C S Forester, Hornblower’s biographer, wrote eleven books covering the most active and dramatic episodes of the life of his subject. In addition he also wrote a Hornblower “companion” and the so called three “lost” short stories. There were of course some years and activities in Hornblower’s life that were not written about before the biographer’s death and therefore not recorded. However, the books and stories that were published describe in an enthralling and entertaining way what Hornblower did and what was in his mind as he encountered so much in his career. In the course of his life Hornblower came across many men and women from all levels and backgrounds. Various members of royalty and members of the aristocracy were encountered but the range of people extended from politicians, senior naval officers and soldiers to a multitude of seamen and various other “ordinary” people. Many individuals from other countries crossed his path. The three principal women in his life, his wives Maria and Barbara, and his mistress, Marie, are comprehensively portrayed as are the two men who gave him long and devoted service, Bush and Brown. Throughout the books and short stories, Mr Forester in most cases named the people who formed part of Hornblower’s life, however indirectly in some cases. The intention of the list of names that follows is to provide a helpful reference and background for the many keen and well-read followers of Hornblower. By John Maunder 2016 1 The Hornblower books: MID: Mr Midshipman Hornblower. LTH: Lieutenant Hornblower. HOT: Hornblower and the Hotspur. CRS: Hornblower and the Crisis. ATR: Hornblower and the Atropus. HAP: The Happy Return. SOL: A Ship of the Line. FLY: Flying Colours. COM: The Commodore. LDH: Lord Hornblower. HWI: Hornblower in the West Indies. OMT: Hornblower One More Time. CPN: The Hornblower Companion. Books with individual chapter titles: Mr Midshipman Hornblower: (10 chapter headings) The Even Chance MID -EC The Cargo of Rice -CR The Penalty of Failure -PF The Man Who Felt Queer -MQ The Man Who Saw God -MG The Frogs and the Lobsters -FL The Spanish Galleys -SG The Examination for Lieutenant -EL Noah’s Ark -NA The Duchess and the Devil -DD Hornblower in the West Indies: (5 chapter heading) St Elizabeth of Hungary HWI -EH The Star of the South -SS The Bewildered Pirates -BP The Guns of Carabobo -GC The Hurricane -HU Hornblower and the Crisis: (3 chapter headings) Hornblower and the Crisis (unfinished novel) CRS Hornblower and the Widow McCool (short story CRS-WM The Last Encounter (short story) CRS-LE Hornblower One More Time: (the “missing” three short stories) Hornblower and the Hand of Destiny OMT -HD Hornblower’s Charitable Offering -CO Hornblower and His Majesty -HM 2 Chronology of Hornblower’s Career 4th July 1776 is generally regarded as Hornblower’s date of birth. June 1794 to March 1798 Mr Midshipman Hornblower (MID) October 1796 to December 1796 The Hand of Destiny (OMT-HD) Late 1799 Hornblower and the Widow McCool (CRS-WM) May 1800 to March1803 Lieutenant Hornblower (LTH) April 1803 to July 1805 Hornblower and the Hotspur (HOT) August 1805 to December 1805 Hornblower and the Crisis (CRS) December 1805 to January 1808 Hornblower and the Atropus (ATR) June 1808 to October 1808 The Happy Return (HAP) May 1810 to October 1810 A Ship of the Line (SOL) June 1810 Hornblower’s Charitable Offering (OMT-CO) November 1810 to June 1811 Flying Colours (FLY) May 1812 to October 1812 The Commodore (COM) 1813 Hornblower and His Majesty (OMT-HM) October 1813 to May 1815 Lord Hornblower (LDH) 1819 The Point and the Edge (CPN May 1821 to October 1823 Hornblower in the West Indies (HWI) November 1848 The Last Encounter (CRS-LE) 3 Names in Alphabetical Order Abbott: Mr Abbott was a midshipman on HMS Renown. He was first mentioned when ordered by Smith, the fourth lieutenant, to “pipe the hands to the braces” when the ship altered course. As the Renown went into action in Sanama Bay in Santo Domingo, Abbott was used by Bush carry messages between decks. Later, Abbott took part in the landing by one hundred and eighty men at Scotchman’s Bay on their way to attack and capture the Spanish fort near Cape Sanama. He was in subordinate command of Bush’s division and was shouted at by him for not keeping up whereas Bush saw that Wellard was still at Hornblower’s side. (LTH) Abercrombie: The planning required by Hornblower for the water-borne funeral procession for Nelson on the Thames was considered by him to be as elaborate “as Abercrombie’s landing on the Egyptian coast”. (ATR) Alcudia: “Carlos Leonardo Luis Manuel de Godoy y Boegas, First Minister of His Most Catholic Majesty, Prince of the Peace, Duke of Alcudia and Grandee of the First Class, Count of Alcudia, Knight of the Most Sacred Order of the Golden Fleece, Knight of the Holy Order of Santiago, Knight of the Most Distinguished Order of Calatrava, Captain General of His Most Catholic Majesty’s forces by Land and Sea, Colonel General of the Guardia de Corps, Admiral of the Two Oceans, General of the cavalry, of the infantry and of the artillery”. This multi-titled gentleman was Spain’s First Minister who signed an order for the release from captivity of Hornblower and his return under a flag of truce in recognition of his ”courage and self-sacrifice in saving life at the peril of his own”. (MID-DD) Alexander: To Maria Hornblower, having read about his exploits in Brittany in the Gazette, her husband was “her Maritime Alexander”. (HOT) Alexander: Tsar Alexander of Russia, and often mentioned during Hornblower’s time as a commodore in the Baltic. At that stage, Russia was under serious threat from Napoleon and a French invasion. According to French propaganda, he was “the barbarian ruler of a barbarian people”, “the successor of Genghis Khan”. Hornblower met him at a conference held with the Swedish ruler, Bernadotte. In diplomatic circles it was considered that “Russia is the Tsar”. At the time of his conference with Bernadotte at the Peterhof Palace, he had already “swallowed Finland” and all the other Baltic provinces. It was reported that Alexander took tight security precautions because, as Wychwood observed, “every Tsar for the last three generations has been murdered”. Hornblower actually saw the Tsar for the first time when he was introduced to the Russian Minister of Marine. Alexander was officially “not there” and he sat in a dark corner of the room. He was described as “tall and slender, in a beautiful light-blue uniform. He was strikingly handsome, but as though he came from another world; the ivory pallor of his cheeks, accentuated by his short black side-whiskers”. When as the Comte du Nord visiting the Nonsuch incognito, Alexander was described as “young and impressionable” and Hornblower took the opportunity to make an impassioned speech about the role of the Royal Navy and the effect it was having against “the tyrant of Europe”. (COM) Alfonso: He was the “negroid major-domo” of el Supremo. (HAP) 4 Altos: “His Excellency the Conde de los Altos” was the Spanish commander of a bedraggled group of Spanish and Portuguese soldiers who had defected from the French forces during the siege of Riga. He was described as “a ragged officer …on a bony horse at the head of an even worse-mounted staff”. He wanted his men to be transported back to Spain to join his country’s army fighting against the French there. (COM) Alvarado: see under el Supremo and Moctezuma. (HAP) Alvarez: He was “the heroic defender of Gerona” who was remembered as having passed along the same road as Hornblower in his captivity and on route to Paris for likely execution. (FLY) Ambrose: Petty Officer Ambrose, captain of the foretop on HMS Renown, was appointed by Hornblower at the end of the attack on the Spanish fort near Cape Sanama in Santo Domingo to guard the magazine. He spoke in a broad Devon accent despite his long service in the navy. (LTH) Andrade: (see under Crespo). (HAP) Andrews: Captain Andrews of HMS Flora. (see under Cornwallis). (HOT) Angouleme- Duke: The Duc d’Angouleme, or Monseigneur, was the “eventual heir of the Bourbon line and eldest son of the Comte d’Artois, Louis’ brother (and heir). By his mother he descends from the House of Savoy. And he married Marie Therese, the Prisoner of the Temple, daughter of the martyred Louis XVI. He must be aged about forty now”. These were the details given to Hornblower by Hau, one of his aides while he was the Governor of Le Havre. (see also under Hau). His arrival marked “a Bourbon prince setting foot on French soil for the first time in twenty years”. When he landed, he was described as “a tall, stiff man in a Hussar uniform, a blue ribbon across his chest”. Later, it was said that “His Royal Highness possessed much of that stoical power to endure hardship in public without flinching which royalty must always display, but seemingly it had been acquired at the cost of making him silent and reserved”. Hornblower looked on the future Dauphin, if his father survived his uncle, as “a man of convinced stupidity whose characteristic most easily remembered was a high-pitched mirthless laugh something like the cackling of a hen”. At the end of the mutiny on the Flame, Hornblower did not relish the idea of hanging some twenty mutineers but at the same time naval discipline prevented him from not doing so.