Sea Stories - Hornblower, Jack Aubrey, Etc.

[TransWarpDrive]

This thread is for anyone who, like myself, is a fan of sea stories - fact or fiction. I have the complete set of C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels; I've been a fan since the late 70's when I first discovered them. As a result, I've developed an interest in the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, as well as sailing ships in general. To that end, I've been collecting books on the subject. I've also got the complete set of DVDs of the Hornblower movies that the A&E cable network ran a few years ago. I also have a DVD of "Master and Commander; The Far Side of the World" - excellent movie there! - not to mention the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies (although I think I only have the first two on disc).
So anybody out there wants to come on board and spin a few yarns, you're more than welcome to, mates. Just leave space on the quarterdeck for the captain to take his daily walk, and don't drink all the rum. ;)

[lunchmeat]

The BBC Hornblower series was superb, I'm hoping that they'll do the later stories in the series now that the cast members are a bit older.

[Fireand'chutes77]

I've read all of Patrick O'Brian's books, and I thought they were really good. (After going through all 20 of them, though, the details start to run together. :unsure:) Heck, I even put a shout-out to the series in OLS in the form of Dr. Maturin. :D

I never really got into the Hornblower series, mostly because I was reading O'Brian at the same time I discovered the existence of Horatio.

[TransWarpDrive]

I started reading the first O'Brian book, Master and Commander, but I bogged down midway through it because A) they still hadn't put to sea yet, and B) the way it's written, I wasn't sure whether a given bit of dialogue was what a character was thinking, or saying. It was a bit confusing, so I put the book aside for a while.
I still want to give the series a fair shake, having seen the film starring Russell Crowe (which I greatly enjoyed); but I have to wonder: Do the Aubrey books get better as they progress? Or am I missing something by not having finished the first one?
I started reading the Hornblower books back in the 70's because I read that Gene Roddenberry, who created Star Trek, was partly inspired by Forester's novels. So I began reading them out of curiosity, and I liked what I found - good, solid sea stories populated by believable characters. Even after 30 years, the novels still hold up; I enjoy rereading them today. If you were to look at my set of Hornblower books, you'd notice how their covers are Scotch-taped together. I've read them so much, they've started to fall apart. 'Chutes, I highly recommend Hornblower. Now that you've read the Aubrey books, look into Forester's series. I promise you, you won't be disappointed. :thumbup:

[jeriddian]

I never read either series, but I greatly enjoyed the Russell Crowe movie as well as the movies with Ioan Gryffudd as Hornblower.

[lunchmeat]

The Hornblower miiseries is available on DVD, as a set.

[campy]

You absolutely should give Aubrey another go, TWD. I've gone through O'Brien's series twice, and it's well worth the trip.

The ongoing Dewey Lambdin series starring Captain Alan Lewrie is another series well worth checking out. The King's Coat is the first one.

[TransWarpDrive]

You absolutely should give Aubrey another go, TWD. I've gone through O'Brien's series twice, and it's well worth the trip.

The ongoing Dewey Lambdin series starring Captain Alan Lewrie is another series well worth checking out. The King's Coat is the first one.

I take it Dewey Lambdin is the series' author?
Thanks for the recommendation, campy. I'll look into it.
As for that Aubrey book, well, I'll have to find where I put it. I hope I didn't put it in a box that I took to my storage cubicle.... :unsure:

[campy]

You absolutely should give Aubrey another go, TWD. I've gone through O'Brien's series twice, and it's well worth the trip.

The ongoing Dewey Lambdin series starring Captain Alan Lewrie is another series well worth checking out. The King's Coat is the first one.

I take it Dewey Lambdin is the series' author?
Thanks for the recommendation, campy. I'll look into it.
As for that Aubrey book, well, I'll have to find where I put it. I hope I didn't put it in a box that I took to my storage cubicle.... :unsure:Yes, Lambdin is the author and Lewrie is the character. Sorry if I wasn't clear the first time.

[TransWarpDrive]

I'm currently rereading some of my favorite Hornblower novels. Over the weekend, I finished "Ship of the Line", and now I'm reading "Flying Colors." Like I said earlier: even after 30 years, Forester's novels still hold my interest. I enjoy coming back to them again and again - especially now that I have some more reference books that give me a clearer picture of what life was like in the Royal Navy during that period.

[lunchmeat]

A couple of good ones are Delilah by Marcus Goodrich and Away All Boats by Kenneth Dodson.

The prose in Delilah is very literary (the guy who wrote it also did the screenplay for It's A Wonderful Life) and gets a little slow in spots but has some really great action sequences. Besides being a great read, it's a good way to prep for the English portions of the GRE and SAT.

Away All Boats is about an attack transport (AKA) in the climactic invasions of the Pacific war. It's well written and gives a pretty accurate portrayal of life in the Navy's service force, as well as the idiosyncracies of the men who serve on ships.

[TransWarpDrive]

A couple of good ones are Delilah by Marcus Goodrich and Away All Boats by Kenneth Dodson.

The prose in Delilah is very literary (the guy who wrote it also did the screenplay for It's A Wonderful Life) and gets a little slow in spots but has some really great action sequences. Besides being a great read, it's a good way to prep for the English portions of the GRE and SAT.

Away All Boats is about an attack transport (AKA) in the climactic invasions of the Pacific war. It's well written and gives a pretty accurate portrayal of life in the Navy's service force, as well as the idiosyncracies of the men who serve on ships.

Thanks for the referrals there, lunchmeat! :thumbup: I'll have to look up those books. Away All Boats sounds familiar; I thought my parents had a copy in hardcover once. I seem to remember seeing it on one of the bookshelves in the basement of our present house when I was a boy. I'm not sure if Mom still has that copy, though - I'll have to ask her.

[lunchmeat]

There was also a movie of Away All Boats made, I believe it was Jeff Chandler's last role. It doesn't come on very often, usually on the late, late show or one of those war movie marathons that they have on TCM around veteran centric holiays.

[TransWarpDrive]

My mom just bought a book as a birthday gift she's giving to my 17-year-old niece and godchild: a sea story titled "Under Enemy Colors" by S. Thomas Russell. It takes place in 1793, during the Napoleonic Wars, on board a British frigate on a mission to France. The capsule descriptions I've read sound intriguing; I may just pick up a copy for myself.
BTW, that reminds me: I need to stop at Borders and get a gift card for my niece. Can't have her thinking her uncle/godfather's forgotten her birthday now... :innocent:

[TransWarpDrive]

I was just rereading Forester's Beat to Quarters when I noticed something: The opening salvo fired by the Lydia against the Natividad in their second battle was with the starboard battery in the novel; yet in the chart of that fight in The Hornblower Companion, it's listed as the port battery. Yet the descriptions in the novel clearly indicate it was the starboard side that opened fire. The only explanation I can find for this discrepancy is that the mapmaker drew that particular chart backward...:unsure:

[campy]

Yesterday I finished reading The Baltic Gambit, the latest in Dewey Lambdin's ongoing series featuring Capt. Alan Lewrie. I really wish I'd read this one last month when I was actually in the Baltic. The climax is the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. While Lewrie's frigate was taking fire from the Trekroner Fortress, I would have been able to go out on my balcony and see the fortress while reading about it.

[TransWarpDrive]

Yesterday I finished reading The Baltic Gambit, the latest in Dewey Lambdin's ongoing series featuring Capt. Alan Lewrie. I really wish I'd read this one last month when I was actually in the Baltic. The climax is the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. While Lewrie's frigate was taking fire from the Trekroner Fortress, I would have been able to go out on my balcony and see the fortress while reading about it.

Wow - that would have been something. To be in a historic location while reading what events took place there....
Really cool! :thumbup::biggergrin:

[TransWarpDrive]

Speaking of things nautical, I read in Blake & Lawrence's book, The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy, that you can actually purchase the exact rum they served British sailors daily until 1979 (when the RN ended that tradition). It's sold as Pusser's Rum, 42% alcohol by volume; produced in Trinidad and Tobago and bottled in the British West Indies. It's distilled in the same wooden pot stills that were used to make the rum for the British Navy over two centuries ago, so it's supposed to taste exactly like it did back in Nelson's day. I bought a bottle and tried some. It's not too bad; not as good-tasting as Wild Turkey bourbon, but interesting nonetheless. Pusser's also sells a "grog mix" that one can add to the rum to make grog like the British sailors did to dilute their daily rum ration; I'm thinking of getting a bottle and trying that out. I'll let you know the results. :cheers:

[jeriddian]

Well, it's been a year and more for this thread, but I just finished watching the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower, starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo, based on the original book by C. S. Forester, and interestingly, the book was adapted into the screen play for this movie by the author himself.

[TransWarpDrive]

Well, it's been a year and more for this thread, but I just finished watching the 1951 film Captain Horatio Hornblower, starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo, based on the original book by C. S. Forester, and interestingly, the book was adapted into the screen play for this movie by the author himself.

That film combines plot elements of three Hornblower books: Beat to Quarters, where Hornblower first meets Lady Barbara Wellesley; Ship of the Line, where Hornblower's assigned to duty in the Mediterranean harrassing the French forces in Spain; and Flying Colors, where he makes a daring escape from imprisonment in the heart of France itself. Those three books were published in an omnibus edition under the title Captain Horatio Hornblower. I found a copy in my high school library after I'd learned of Hornblower's influence on Gene Roddenberry, creator of Star Trek, so I checked it out and read it. I've been a Hornblower fan ever since.:thumbs:

[lunchmeat]

Speaking of things nautical, I read in Blake & Lawrence's book, The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy, that you can actually purchase the exact rum they served British sailors daily until 1979 (when the RN ended that tradition). It's sold as Pusser's Rum, 42% alcohol by volume; produced in Trinidad and Tobago and bottled in the British West Indies. It's distilled in the same wooden pot stills that were used to make the rum for the British Navy over two centuries ago, so it's supposed to taste exactly like it did back in Nelson's day. I bought a bottle and tried some. It's not too bad; not as good-tasting as Wild Turkey bourbon, but interesting nonetheless. Pusser's also sells a "grog mix" that one can add to the rum to make grog like the British sailors did to dilute their daily rum ration; I'm thinking of getting a bottle and trying that out. I'll let you know the results. :cheers:

It's good stuff, I've a bottle at the house and have a glass, now and again.

Here's a weird factoid for you: while I was attending UCB, I used to walk past the hotel that Forester lived in on my way to and from classes.