Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies

Hornblower Saga: Chronological Order #11

by C.S. Forester

Horatio Hornblower, now Admiral, sails over seas as challenging as any in his victorious career. As admiral in charge of His Britannic Majesty's West Indies Station he is as gallant, daring, implosive as ever. In this tense time after Napoleon's defeat, all kinds of vagabonds, revolutionaries, Imperial Guards. and pirates come sailing into the waters where Hornblower is working his small contingent of naval vessels to preserve the peace and eliminate piracy. With intrepid daring and brilliant strategies, Hornblower wins his victories. With this series of adventures, Volume 11, Hornblower's professional life as a British naval officer reaches its climax, not in a battle against men, but against nature. Here the inner Hornblower shows his colors.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Adventure, Classics, Nautical, War

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1957

About the author

Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith, an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure and military crusades. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series, about naval warfare during the Napoleonic era, and The African Queen (1935; filmed in 1951 by John Huston). His novels A Ship of the Line and Flying Colours were jointly awarded the 1938 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

What I thought was a novel turned out to be a series of 5 distinct yet connected short stories of Hornblower's time as Admiral of the Fleet in the West Indies. They were all very good, each showing that Hornblower was still quite himself, although now in middle age & of high station. He still didn't mind getting his hands dirty (as dirty as a captain would, at any rate) & had trouble restraining himself at times. Each story seemed to highlight at least one of his traits. I found the one about his honor most enlightening. While we know he is vain & concerned about appearances, I hadn't realized just how far that went.

1 - St. Elizabeth of Hungary - Hornblower must balance himself, his honor, against the good of all. This illustrates the concept of honor better than any other story I've ever read, I think.

2 - The Star of the South - Hornblower proves he's a man of his word & yet slicker than a New York lawyer.

3 - The Bewildered Pirates - A bad situation all around. Again, Hornblower's innovative thinking resolves the situation.

4 - The Guns of Carabobo - A really neat look at the freedom fighting in South America. Gives a pretty good thumbnail sketch.

5 - The Hurricane - Hornblower's toughness & seamanship is highlighted again, but Lady Hornblower proves she's his match in all ways.

This was a wonderful series. There were excellent snapshots of the history of the time, all true from the little I know & researched. The way Forester displays the facts in intimate settings makes them unforgettable & puts them into their historic place. For instance, in this book, canning is discovered & what it meant to people is very well displayed.

After listening to this book, I read "The Last Encounter", the final Hornblower story in the chronology. Well done! The short stories all were & I highly recommend reading them & all the book in chronological order, if at all possible. While each is self-contained, there are cliff hangers between novels & the history flows far better.

I'm sorry I waited so long to read this series. Christian Rodska did a very serviceable job reading the audio editions. At times his accent got too thick, but generally only with a single character at a time, so it was OK if a bit annoying. Still, all in all, well done & a great way to get through to books this spring when so much weeding & mowing had to be done.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume can be quite frustrating to a reader who is working her way through the series and wants to know what happened after "Lord Hornblower" -- the ending of which is as gripping as that of "Ship of the Line." "Flying Colors," the book following SOTL, starts within a day or two of the prior volume's concluding battle and continues the story seamlessly. Admiral Hornblower, however, starts years after Lord Hornblower concludes, and you just have to imagine for yourself what has happened in the interim. Horatio and Barbara are still together -- does Barbara know about Marie? And what has happened with Brown? Your guess is as good as mine.

A few good naval adventures in Admiral Hornblower, but a few clunkers too. A seriously badly developed piracy story, and the Lucy episode beggars belief. But hey, it's Hornblower, and he's always good company.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a day. We went to the farmers market, a swap meet and ate lunch at long John silvers. To top it off I finished the Hornblower series. I am tempted, ever so slightly, to give this a 4star rating. It is a cut below all the others in action, adventure and HH heroics. But I can’t. It still was a captivating and exciting novel. As always Hornblower himself rose to the occasion and saved today. I can fully recommend this series to anyone seeking an adventurous novel that features a truly heroic protagonist.

I will be saving these books in the attic to give to a grandson should that ever occur.

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this is listed as the last Hornblower novel (in chronological order). It is like the others a good one. HH is now in command of the post-war fleet in the western hemisphere and what we get here is sort of a series of small adventures leading up to the travail of a hurricane...

I liked these and suggest you might want to try these from the first. Some excellent historical fiction with adventure, romance and action.

Enjoy.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the last complete novel in the chronology of its leading character, the redoubtable Horatio Hornblower of the British Navy. (Other Hornblower books were written, but they were either incomplete novels or they were written out of chronology with the narrative.) Though not quite the end of Hornblower's life story as chronicled by C.S. Forester, it is a bit of a farewell, nonetheless. Comprising several novellas all set in the Caribbean Sea, the book is episodic but well tied together. Hornblower is still a master sailor and still filled with self-doubt, and Forester's nautical prose is still as clear and musical as ever. Each of the sequences is rich in detail, and a last segment dealing with a storm at sea is an utterly brilliant word-picture of nature at its most terrifying. It's becoming clear that there are only superb Hornblower books. It is one of the most consistent and enjoyable characters ever put into print over several books, and I am sorry to see the series nearing its end.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

By the time I got to the final book in the Hornblower series, I was more than tired of our hero and his ego-centric antics. The writing in 'Admiral' has devolved into a set of short stories - still with Hornblower's self-conscious personality issues - and not a novel with a comprehensive plotline and arc. After having read through and loved the characters, history, and naval environment of the Aubrey/Maturin series, it seems hard to believe that Hornblower could be such a disappointment. Ah well, this collection is going back to Half-Price Books.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the last addition of Forester's Hornblower series and while it may be considered a novel it is more a collection of short stories. There are 5 rather lengthy chapters and each chapter recounts a distinct event taking place during Hornblower's 3 year tenure as commander-in-chief of the British Naval forces in the West Indies and stationed at Jamaica. Of course there is a fair amount of usual naval jargon and sailing terminology but on the whole the stories are entertaining and especially if you are a fan of this genre. The final story is probably the most stirring as it details the end of Hornblower's command in Jamaica and probably the end of his naval career as he faces a life of being a beached rear admiral on half pay and sailing home to civilian life. Of course it wouldn't be a Hornblower adventure if the voyage home were all sunshine and calm seas and it wasn't. A good book worth the time to read and enjoy.

[Matti Karjalainen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hiiohoi! Vierailin kesällä Turun Tall Ships Racessa ja siitä inspiroituneena nappasin luettavakseni vanhan liiton merikirjallisuutta.

C.S. Foresterin "Hornblower Länsi-Intiassa" (Otava, 1959) päättää brittiläisen laivastoupseerin elämästä kertovan sarjan sangen onnistuneella tavalla. Lyhyehköistä kertomuksista koostuvassa kirjassa joudutaan hirmumyrskyn armoille (luonnonvoimien myllerrystä kuvataan vaikuttavasti), käytetään erityistä viekkautta huippunopean orjalaivan pysäyttämiseksi sekä päädytään merirosvojen vangiksi. Entä miten mahtaa käydä, kun merisotaoikeus uhkaa liian musikaalista kornetistia?

Seuraavaksi voisi vielä lukea keskeneräiseksi jääneen romaanin Hornblower ja hänen omatuntonsa, jonka jälkeen merimatka C.S. Foresterin kipparoimana onkin ohitse!

[Joseph · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final volume* in the Hornblower saga, but arguably it's more of a coda -- Lord Hornblower was the book that brought us to the end of the Napoleonic wars which had dominated Hornblower's entire life & naval career up to that point; and now we jump ahead almost 10 years to a world at (more-or-less) peace; and Hornblower, after sitting at half-pay for some years, now finds himself commanding a (much reduced due to peacetime) squadron in, yes, the West Indies.

As with the very first book in the series (by internal chronology, that is), Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, this is more of a collection of linked, longish short stories in which Hornblower finds himself dealing, variously, with slavers, pirates, revolutionaries, a hurricane and, well, at one point a shipful of French Bonapartists determined to make their way to St. Helena (the tiny island in the middle of the Atlantic to which Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled after he escaped from his first exile).

So, naturally, there's not as much broadside-to-broadside, but still plenty of action of one sort or another, and if I didn't know better, I'd say Horatio, Lord Hornblower, is almost becoming content with his station in life.

*except for Hornblower Addendum, but I don't think that really counts for reasons I may or may not bring up when it gets its own review

[Ali · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a journey was this. The stories were never great and mostly reminded me of Vicky the Viking 😁with miraculous saving of the hero at the end of each adventure. However it was always a light and enjoyable read

[K.M. Weiland · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable finale to the series. This harks back to some of the earlier books, which were more short story anthologies than novels. It's nice to see a glimpse of post-war life in the early 19th-century British navy. Nice as well to see the series end on such a personally happy note for Hornblower, particularly after the uncertainties presented in Lord Hornblower. Hornblower's character isn't under such scrutiny in this installment, which offers both its good points (Hornblower is more likable) and its bad points (Hornblower is much shallower). The individual installments are all rip-roaring and solid.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, that was quite a ride we had! There were times I wanted to shake Hornblower (and C.S. Forester, too), but those moments were more than outweighed by all the fun we had together. The daring high-seas adventure, the adorable best friendship, the desperate dilemmas that need only a little deck-pacing to solve! I'm sad we've reached the end and there are no more books to look forward to, but I'll return to my old favorites, without a doubt.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was very disappointed in the last of the series. It basically is 5 short stories. I missed the old characters from previous books.

[Marty Reeder · Rating 4 out of 5]

As an unabashed fan of the Horatio Hornblower stories, I zipped through the series pretty quickly, almost driving myself into Hornblower overload. As a result, I picked up the final book, read a few pages into it and then discarded it, sensing monotony and boredom (in a comparative, Hornblower, sense). What an idiot I was. Years later and only a couple pages further, I was yanked into Hornblower's world with an intensity that could stand up to any of his most exciting previous adventures. This decreased significantly after the first chapter and turned into a compilation of short stories dealing with the always interesting and cunning Hornblower. The book might well have ended there and turned out to be a fairly satisfying retirement ... but Forester adds just enough depth and touch to his story and especially his Hornblower character, that he pushes each work beyond entertaining reading into classic literature. The final chapter is the tour de force that brings Hornblower to his final and crowning point of character development (and one of the most traumatic scenes of his career--no mean feat) and leaves Hornblower, Barbara, and the reader in a very appropriate and masterfully designed conclusion to an unmatched, poignant series. One, which--by the way--will be dragged out of retirement by me, inevitably, for plenty of years to come.

[Nancy Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed this series! They're good old-fashioned adventure meant for the reader's pleasure and enlightenment. We have followed Hornblower through the 20+ years of his naval career to the point where he is now an admiral in command of the ships in the West Indies, currently awaiting his replacement after his 3-year tour so he can return to England. No matter how much he loves his wife, he is never happier than when he is on board a ship, preferably in command. He is definitely a hero in his humanity and his actions. There is even quite a bit of humor in the descriptions of his tone deafness and his inability to understand how anyone can listen to music! I have learned so much about the era of the Napoleonic Wars, life in the Royal Navy at that time, and especially the reasons the Royal Navy ruled the seas! Wonderful books!!! I wish Forester had lived longer to write more!

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read most of C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower books and have enjoyed the adventures. Hornblower in the West Indies is a series of five short stories covering the period 1821 - 1823 when Hornblower is an Admiral and in charge of the Royal Navy's West Indies fleet. The book consists of five separate events and all of them are enjoyable and entertaining.

Hornblower, now an experienced navy man, has more confidence in himself but still possesses those curmudgeonly qualities that endears himself to the reader. His men love him and he has capable staff, especially his Flag Lieutenant, Gerard, his clerk Mr Spendlove and his attendant Mr. Giles.

The five stories consist of -

- St Elizabeth of Hungary - We find Hornblower sailing into New Orleans and discovering a ship of French soldiers planning to help Napoleon escape from imprisonment in St Helen's. Hornblower must risk his honor and career to stop this fast ship from accomplishing their mission.

- The Star of the South - One of Hornblower's missions in the West Indies is to disrupt the flourishing slave trade and he is on the trail of one such ship. Following it into a port in Haiti, he must figure out a way to disable the ship prior to its departure, without offending his hosts and to enable him to catch the ship when it leaves.

- The Bewildered Pirates - Hornblower and his clerk, Spendlove, are kidnapped by a crew of pirates from a party he is attending near Montego Bay. Released so he can try to get the Governor to pardon them, Hornblower heads back to their hideout with his crew to save Spendlove and to deal with them

- The Guns of Carabobo - Hornblower finds himself involved in Bolivar's war to oust the Spanish from South America. A rich British merchant who is part Venezuelan, tricks Hornblower and others so he can deliver arms to Bolivar's rebels. Hornblower must calm the Dutch and Spanish who have been caught up in Ramsbottom's schemes.

- The Hurricane - Hornblower's time as Admiral of the West Indies fleet is over. His lovely wife Barbara has come to bring him back to their home in England. Hornblower must try to deal with a mutinous musician and then survive a hurricane on the trip home.

All of the stories were quite excellent, especially building up to the grand finale The Hurricane. There was tension throughout, crafty plans on Hornblower's part to solve his problems and pure heroism as he fights the devastating hurricane. It was a great way to end the story. As always, I've enjoyed sinking into Hornblower's world and taking part in his nautical adventures. Forester spins a fine, entertaining yarn. I'm almost sad that I've only two more of the Hornblower adventures to enjoy. (4 stars)

[Vladimiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

L'ultimo romanzo dedicato alla figura di Horatio Hornblower è un richiamo a quello che, nella cronologia interna della saga (diversa da quella di scrittura), fu il primo romanzo, cioè "Il guardiamarina Hornblower". In questa prima opera assistevamo al traumatico ingresso di Hornblower giovinetto in marina attraverso una serie di racconti slegati. Questo "Hornblower Ammiraglio" non è molto diverso, anche se siamo all'altro estremo della carriera: il nostro Horatio comanda la flotta britannica nei Caraibi, con base in Giamaica. L'età napoleonica con le sue gigantesche battaglie è finita: Hornblower è impegnato in operazioni minori come la lotta allo schiavismo e alla pirateria e i moti rivoluzionari del Sud America.

Da questo punto di vista, il romanzo offre una buona variabilità di situazioni. Il secondo e il terzo racconto sono i meno riusciti: il secondo è prevedibile nel suo svolgimento, il terzo ha qualche illogicità di trama; alcuni eventi che accadono in questi racconti non vengono poi ripresi. Sono interessanti per qualche curiosità storica, come scoprire che in Giamaica vi erano territori della giunga de facto amministrati dagli schiavi fuggiaschi e così fu per secoli. Ah, inutile ricordare che Forester è un deciso patriota, quindi qualche autocelebrazione della Royal Navy è ovviamente sempre presente (mi accontento che non vi siano denigrazioni un po' razzistelle riguardo spagnoli e "latinos").

Il primo, il quarto e il quinto racconto sono i più riusciti. Il primo si regge sul gustosissimo colpo di scena finale, ben fatto perché coinvolge anche la psicologia del nostro Hornblower. Il quarto è molto solido nello svolgimento.

L'ultimo lungo racconto è più di un racconto: è il degnissimo e soddisfacentissimo commiato con il personaggio di Horatio e la sua complessa psicologia. Per chi è giunto a questo punto, dopo dieci libri, Hornblower è ormai un vecchio amico di cui conosciamo ogni comportamento, ogni mania, ogni difetto. Tutti sappiamo del suo fortissimo senso del dovere e della propria scarsissima autostima: una miscela letale, che nel corso della saga ha portato Horatio ad autosvalutarsi costantemente e, in diverse occasioni, ad essere un "infelice".

In quest'ultimo bellissimo racconto, invece, all'interno della "cornice", elegante stilisticamente quanto violenta nella sua efficacia descrittiva, di un tremendo uragano, assistiamo all'incredibile: Hornblower, anche con l'aiuto dell'amatissima moglie Barbara, si libera definitivamente di ogni fisima psicologica e diventa finalmente "giusto giudice" di se stesso. Insomma, Horatio si riconcilia con se stesso e diventa "felice".

Per Horatio, come per il lettore, non vi poteva essere finale migliore. Perciò, anche se due racconti su cinque erano un po' debolucci, do il massimo voto.

[Will · Rating 4 out of 5]

My journey with CS Forester's Hornblower series began in 2015 (thanks, Goodreads). At the time, I was looking for a naval-based historical fiction to read, and Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series proved to be too technical for my taste (I promise to come round to it again). So then I went with the alternative, and it has been an amazing journey with Horatio Hornblower over the last three years.

The Hornblower series always delivers. While none of the books ever made it into the five-star region, the first eight books were all four-star reads. They were consistently entertaining, and my favourite part about the series is the variety of adventures that Forester puts Hornblower through. Every book has a different mission, from battling French naval forces on the high seas and punishing hurricanes to unreasonable admirals and sinking funeral boats, there's always a different challenge for Hornblower. Even though the quality of the story did dip a little towards the end, with Hornblower spending way too much time on land in Book 9 and much of the action happening off screen in Book 10, I am happy to say that Book 11, Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies, ends on a high if not bittersweet note.

This book is a collection of four short stories, and each is a return to form for Forester. My personal favourite is probably The Star of the South, where Hornblower's crew has to chase down a slave ship in peacetime. It has all the little nuggets of gems that make this story a quintessential Hornblower tale. With that said, other stories are just as good as well. Barbara once again proves herself to be one of the best characters in the series, even if she doesn't feature very prominently in the story. I sort of wished that there was a series of books told from Barbara's perspective, in a strange way.

To be honest, I am a little sad that my journey with Hornblower has come to an end. There are other naval-based historical fiction out there, of course, but there is something endearing about Hornblower as a character. It's being a good ride!

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is essentially five short stories, linked by characters and setting. Fittingly, considering the focus of the rest of the series, Forester begins with a story about a last vestige of the Napoleonic wars. There follow stories of capture of a slave ship, fighting pirates on Jamaica, getting enmeshed in intrigue in Venezuela's fight for independence, and Hornblower's voyage home, interrupted by a hurricane. Strategem often takes place of action in these stories--in a couple places literally so, as wise decisions make battle unnecessary. There is action to be had here, but pomp and ceremony take up perhaps too much of the author's attention.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das Meer ist wie immer eine gute Auszeit - egal ob draußen in der Natur oder auf Papier. Wie immer konnte ich mich ganz in Hornblower Abenteuer fallen lassen. Allerdings ist dieser Band nicht ganz so Aktion geladen wie seine Vorgänger. Auch ist mir der junge Hornblower etwas sympathischer als dieser sehr korrekte und auf seine Wirkung bedachte ältere Hornblower.
Als ganz kleiner Spoiler, wenn man es denn so nennen kann, möchte ich erwähnen, dass ich es sehr schön finde das Hornblowers erstes Schiff aufgrund seiner Ladung sank und das letzte Schoff von dem wir hier erfahren sich aufgrund seiner Ladung über Wasser hielt.

[Michael Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Somehow, despite being at peacetime, this novel had more action and intrigue than most of the wartime Hornblower novels. There's lots of good fun in this little novel.

Hornblower is given his first post as admiral, and he's over the West Indies(this could have been gleaned from the title, but I felt the need to say it for some reason). He runs into pretty much every issue a peacetime admiral of the time period might have to deal with.

There a mutiny(of sorts), he hunts a slaver, and much more! A fitting ending for Hornblower and one of the better books in the series.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked it. This one was a little different as it was more like a combination of short stories.

[Iain · Rating 4 out of 5]

The war is over, Hornblower is an Admiral. A collection of short adventures that lack the excitement of the earlier books, but still entertain.

[Jose Torroja Ribera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente final para la serie Hornblower. Entretenido sin pretensiones.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exciting from beginning to end. He barely survives one adventure before another one comes along.

[Daniel Ligon · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final volume in the series and also my personal favorite. A collection of five loosely related short stories. And with a good old-fashioned happy ending.

[Sean O · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five novellas, all set in the West Indies with the Admiral Hornblower. Good stuff, but mostly light-hearted fare. No real terrible battles.

Well, I’ve finished everything except three short stories. I can highly recommend the Hornblower stories for anyone who wants Napoleonic Naval Battles.

Next up: the Aubrey/Maturin novels!

[Stephanie Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 I enjoyed it, especially the last section. Slow start though.

[Adelaide Mcginnity · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Hornblower sailing about the West Indies. What else needs to be said?

[Simon Mcleish · Rating 3 out of 5]

Originally published on my blog here in November 1998.

Hornblower in the West Indies consists of five episodes from towards the end of his career, when he was an admiral and during a four-year term as Commander-in-Chief in the West Indies. Other than this background, and the fact that they are arranged chronologically, the stories are virtually independent; each one could certainly be perfectly comprehensible if read on its own. In these stories, Hornblower deals with an attempt to rescue Napoleon from St Helena (they take place around 1820), captures pirates, gets involved in Simon Bolivar's rebellion in South America that led to the independence of the Spanish colonies there, is kidnapped and survives a hurricane.

Hornblower's personal heroism is still there; much of the plot of these stories is set up to justify him being in situations where such an important and senior officer could display this characteristic. The short format (each section amounts to about fifty pages, so they are longish short stories) makes Forester skate over many of the strengths of earlier Hornblower stories and his characterisation of the character almost perfunctorily - the eccentricities which made him both human and more acceptable to modern tastes (such as his opposition to hanging and flogging, his famous daily baths and his tone deafness) are really only there as gestures. It is the earlier novels, dealing with his time as a captain, which are the strengths of the Hornblower series.