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The second novel written in C.S. Forester's magnificent Horatio Hornblower series (though it's the 8th in chronology -- how in the world did Forester write 11 Hornblower books in non-chronological order? Wow.) This one, like all of the others, is a joyous, adventuresome read. It hasn't so much plot as some, being mainly the recounting of events in the course of one sailing mission, but that doesn't keep it from being a terrific reading experience. Its surprising ending has me scrambling to find the next volume in the series. If you've never read a Hornblower book, grab "Mr. Midshipman Hornblower" and start there. If you like (or even if you don't like) seafaring adventure, you will fall in love with these books. Forester (who also wrote "The African Queen," among many other books) writes with great clarity and dry wit. This is one of the best of the series. ( )

Another great novel of an English captain at time of Napoleon which ends with him taking on 4 French ships at once and being forced to surrender. ( )

Summary: Hornblower finally gets a big ship to command and knows what to do with it.

Things I liked:

The way the character sizes up the other characters, some people would see this as cheap exposition, but I think it tells you a lot about Hornblowers view of the world and is not just a plot device.

The way the author keeps managing to find new challenges for the character no matter where he is in the chain of command. Not just more of the same.

Things I thought could be improved:

Cliffhangers I think are a bit cheap as a way to end a book. If I didn't have the next one ready to go I'd be a bit upset.

Hightlight:

The final battle 4-1 was awesome, Bush gets hammered, destruction everywhere. It's where you sort the Hornblower from everyone else ( )

This reads like the sophomore effort it is: while some of Hornblower's trademark brilliance makes an appearance, most of the book is a slog through the horrors and stupidities of war. Forester is clearly trying not to duplicate his first book but is just as clearly unsure how to tell a different sort of story and still entertain.

Because this is only rarely entertaining. Hornblower is awake to the psychological toll of war, but reading as he destroys the livelihoods of French civilians or accomplishes the Napoleonic war equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel is painful at best. Add in the constant hum of Hornblower's romantic angst, his admiral's incompetence, and the last ten pages of death, death, and more death—capped by a morose cliffhanger ending—and it's no wonder this is my least favorite of the series so far. ( )

Very good as far as Hornblower books go—but that's not saying much. Lots of action; in one three-day period Hornblower launches about a dozen different attacks. The glorification of war, usually one-sided slaughters (e.g., 500 enemy men versus two pigs) is rather disturbing. Hornblower is a superhero (to whom Forester tries to give some humanity with extremely clumsy writing), but still. It is like Grand Theft Auto in a book, made worse by the historical fiction setting, and Forester's pretense of gravity.

> The toast was drunk with a murmur of approval while Hornblower blushed and stammered. The admiration of men whose approval he valued was overwhelming; more especially as now he was beginning to realize that he had won it under false pretenses. Only now was the memory returning to him of the sick fear with which he had waited the Natividad's broadsides, the horror of mutilation which had haunted him during the battle. He was one of the contemptible few, not like Leighton and Elliott and Bolton, who had never known fear in their lives. If he had told the whole truth, told of his emotions as well as of the mere maneuvers and incidents of the fight, they would be sorry for him, as for a cripple, and the glory of the Lydia's victory would evaporate. ( )

In the preface, Forrester apparently got the idea for this book from looking at a sheskabob... tiny bits of good eating skewered together by an spear.

In this book you see a series of naval actions by Hornblower and his crew while they are waiting for the rest of the ships-of-the-line to rendezvous in the Mediterranean.

If you are reading this series in order then you MUST read [Flying Colours]... it is a follow up to this story. ( )

הורנבלאואר הולך ונהיה פחות קדוש ויותר אלים ( )

Incredible book. When I read the last page I did a double take to make sure no pages were missing. Hornblower is a great character...as are all of his companions. Mr. Bush is very memorable. The Hornblower series contains some of the best writing I have ever read. ( )

A cliffhanger? He ends the book on a cliffhanger?? Arrrgghhh! Anyway, Ship of the Line is the sequel to Beat to Quarters. Captain Hornblower has returned from his assignment in the Pacific Ocean and is assigned to the the HMS Sutherland, a ship of the line in Admiral Leighton's squadron. After his many months alone in the Pacific, Hornblower chafes a bit at being part of a squadron under the Admiral's direct orders. But Hornblower still finds opportunities for adventure, striking blow after blow to Napoleon's war effort.
--J. ( )

As a journeyman captain of a ship of the line, Hornblower has plenty of opportunities to strut his stuff--Lots of action. Detached to operate in the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic wars, he submits command to Lord What's his name, the husband of his love, the Lady Barbara. Many clashing sea battles that are well described in detail. "old Boney" is the villain. The ending is a cliff-hanger, unusual for a Forester book. ( )

Its been a while since I read one but this one dragged on. I'd like to see Hornblower screw up once in a while. Just 4 to go. ( )

A series of stories from the point of view of the flawed but likable Captain Hornblower, ending in a naval battle against long odds with a cliffhanger to lead in to the next book in the series. I admire the clarity of Forester's writing despite the unfamiliarity of the terminology as well as the customs of the time. It's a quick and engaging read, a good way to cleanse the palate between books of more gravitas. ( )

This book is the sixth of the Hornblower saga. He is now in command of the Sutherland that has been ordered to assist in the Mediterranean in the hope of harassing Bonaparte's souther shores. Many of the Hornblower exploits, as outlandish as they often seem, are actually based on the true accomplishments of Lord Cochrane whose biography I read several years ago. Sometime the adventures take an amusing turn.

The captain and a group of volunteers take the captain's barge ashore after spying a French coastal vessel slowly making its way along a seemingly impregnable inland waterway. They successfully surprise the small ships' crew by swimming naked, armed only with cutlasses strapped around their waists, out to the ship in the middle of the canal. They banish the crew to the ship's dinghy and set the ship afire. They discover upon swimming back to the shore that the enemy have destroyed their clothes so they are forced to march through some fields and across the beach in a rather uncomfortable state. The image created of nine swarthy seamen being piped back aboard the Sutherland is just too preposterous to be a complete fiction. I suspect this tale is based on one of Cochrane's real feats. ( )

Hornblower was the inspiration for Star Trek's Captain James Kirk, as well as Cornwell's Sharpe. Hornblower is more cerebral and socially awkward than Kirk (or O'Brien's Aubrey), more educated and refined than Sharpe. In his own right, Hornblower is certainly an engaging and complex character and the series is an interesting study in leadership, and a fascinating portrait of life at sea in the Age of Sail during the Napoleonic wars.

I think the best books in the series run from Hornblower and the Hotspur to Flying Colours when he captained ships of his own. Hornblower has his faults, his moments of self doubt, and his dealings with women... well. But especially in the course of reading several books he begins to feel real in a way few fictional characters do. I'd say he's easily as indelible and remarkable a literary creation as Sherlock Holmes--and just as brilliant in his field as Holmes was as a detective. This isn't my favorite in the series, but it is considered one of the best by many, the middle of an arch between The Happy Return and Flying Colours. Few books, in and out of the series, gift us with such rousing adventures at sea. ( )

Action-filled adventure in the Mediterranean: "Ship of the Line" was the second story written in C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower series. As the name implies, Captain Hornblower has command of the ship of the line in this book set during the Napoleonic Wars. Although his ship of the line is an old, unweatherly 74, Hornblower successfully takes her on a cruise off the French and Spanish Mediterranean coast. This book features great naval action, including cutting-out expeditions and a lively

This was the second Horatio Hornblower book that I read, although I had seen the A&E TV series. As a devotee of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, I was pleasantly surprised with this Hornblower book and I found Hornblower a much more authentic character than the superman of the TV series. Still, it is hard for me not to compare Hornblower with Captain Aubrey: although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I find Aubrey a much more fun and likable character than Hornblower. Hornblower is a much more serious and deep character who is driven by self-doubt.

This is a very good book, and I recommend it to anyone with an interest in naval warfare or historical fiction. It is an action-filledt account of naval life and warfare during the Napoleonic era. C.S. Forester started a genre with Horatio Hornblower, and this book is packed with action and adventure.

I didn't care for how this one began... or ended. This just reinforces my belief that I liked Hornblower much better when he was a junior officer. Can't wait to see how he makes out from here, though. ( )

A solid Hornblower book, although as always, not quite up to the standard of the earlier/later books (the ones written later, set earlier). In this book, Hornblower's extreme anxiety about his social and monetary position is highlighted perhaps more than in any other of the series; it makes for uncomfortable reading, as one does grow to love him but also grows to see that he can be quite an awful creature to Maria. ( )

A solid Hornblower book, although as always, not quite up to the standard of the earlier/later books (the ones written later, set earlier). In this book, Hornblower's extreme anxiety about his social and monetary position is highlighted perhaps more than in any other of the series; it makes for uncomfortable reading, as one does grow to love him but also grows to see that he can be quite an awful creature to Maria. ( )

This was the first Hornblower book to leave you on a cliffhanger. It was quite enjoyable. Hornblowers little quirks are amusing most of the time, which makes him more human-seeming. In this story, Hornblower is captain of the Sutherland, an ugly two-deck ship of the line fit for only the lowliest captain. His "love interest" Lady Barbara marries an admiral, to whom Hornblower finds himself reporting. The admiral is a moron, though, and this creates no small amount of problems. The best success Hornblower realizes is when he is away from the fleet and on his own.

All in all, it's an entertaining yarn and full of action. It certainly is one of the better Hornblower novels. ( )

vertaling van A Ship of the Line, 1938

Another good adventure in the series. ( )

My journey through the life of Horatio Hornblower continues. Honestly, I think I find Horatio a bit less interesting to read about as an accomplished captain than when he's younger. I don't know if it's due to something intrinsic to the more unsure (and less insane) character of the earlier books or just because of the fact that the earlier books were written later on and Forester sharpened his skills as he went. Certainly it does help that young Hornblower didn't spend all his time mooning over Lady Barbara, though. This book feels less like a novel and, like Hornblower and the Atropos before it, more like a series on incidents that just happen to occur in order on the same ship. It's a little harder to get into as a result, and it might be my least favorite novel in the series yet, but there's still some to enjoy, particularly Hornblower's sneaky impressment of the crews of the East India Company and his ability to be always brilliant, such as when he takes out three forts single-handedly.

added March 2019:
This time, reading it second in publication order, I enjoyed it much more. It's a rousing return for a character one wanted to see come back, like, say, the opening of Superman II. Hornblower is on the top of his form in this book, sailing from triumph to triumph to triumph. Last time that kind of irritated me, because it seemed like he faced no real challenges, but this time I enjoyed it, partially because I hadn't read as much Hornblower recently, and partially because I knew what was coming. Ship of the Line follows one of the classic trilogy structures, the one where the second installment ends in devastating defeat for the hero. Ship of the Line is filled with successes, then, to highlight the devastation of the failure at the end, and I think foreknowledge of that-- knowing that Hornblower is going to face a reckoning-- makes reading a novel about success after success after success a lot more enjoyable. (The bit about impressing the East India sailors I had totally forgotten about, and it was once again my favorite part. Impressment is such a bizarre practice, and one of the highlights of Ship of the Line is how much it delves into it.)

I do still struggle with Hornblower's relationship with Lady Barbara. One wants Hornblower to be pure and heroic, but he's not, and I guess that's good from the standpoint of complexity. Perhaps I'm too influenced by Ioan Gruffudd's performance on screen, but's hard for me to imagine him being unfaithful. In this novel, I did kind of reach an understanding of it, though. In Russell T Davies's The Writer's Tale, he talks about how a character's strengths and flaws should really be the same thing. I saw that here. Hornblower's sense of duty makes him into a superb commander and fighting machine, but it also makes him into a man who feels obligated to stay in a loveless marriage, and also refuses to act for his own pleasure outside that marriage. But as I read deeper into the series this interpretation of Hornblower's character didn't quite hold up...

Hornblower has just been given a ship of the line and must serve under the inexperienced command of Lady Barbara's husband, who became an admiral through connections rather than experience.

Hornblower with the remnants of his former crew and whomever else he can drum up is sent to the Mediterranean to harass the French along the coast of Spain. After several intrepid forays, Hornblower, against his better judgment, ends up at the head of an ill-fated landing party in Spain and facing down four French ships all alone.

A rousing sea-faring story full of adventure with little time for Hornblower to obsess about his supposed lack of courage. This story is full of old and new endearing characters and a huge naval battle described in all its confusion. The ending is a terrible cliff-hanger. Make sure you have the next one on hand before starting this one. ( )

http://fireandsword.blogspot.com/2006/12/ship-of-line-by-c.html

Before there was an Aubrey and Maturin swanning about the seven seas, we had to rely on Horatio Hornblower to keep old Boney at bay across the Channel. It was a tough job, but someone had to do. Lucky for us, we had C.S. Forester to tell us all about it.