Simpson is a sailor and a bully, to the point of making the new Midshipman Horatio Hornblower dream of suicide. As the fog lifts, Hornblower finds that he is in the midst of a Spanish fleet of not less than ten ships of war. As Pique is the faster sailer, Hornblower devises a plan to slow her down: he sets a fire, which soon spreads to the very flammable paint locker.

Who would want four wives at any time, especially when one pays for the doubtful privilege by abstaining from wine? As the silhouette fades in the dim and the men onboard quietly go about their business over the calm sea knowing tomorrow, yes new tomorrows may cease but why continue a question which will never be answered fully for the simple reason people are a mystery even more than any book can describe.

When viewed from a 3rd part narrator, as he is in some of the novels through Leftenant Bush, he seems cold and aloof, but when you are inside his brain, it is a shocking counterpoint.

This novel -- in which young Horatio gets his sea legs, proves his mettle, and shows the makings of the legend he will become -- is the first of the eleven swashbuckling Hornblower tales that are today regarded as classic adventure stories of the sea. However, instead of taking credit for the fire, Hornblower suggests that there may have been spontaneous combustion in the paint locker, as a way of punishing himself for losing Marie Galante in the first place. Story 9: “Hornblower and Noah’s Ark” – This chapter reminds me a lot of The Pirate Coast by Richard Zachs, a book I read many years ago, long before starting this book-review blog. It is actually ten short(ish) stories tracking the adventures of young Hornblower from his first day on a ship (a sort of floating Rugby School with its own equivalent of Flashman) to his first responsibility taking a prize back to England and all the way to his capture and imprisonment by the Spaniards. Horatio Hornblower is just a teenaged midshipman here, an intelligent and sensitive overthinker who sort of reminds me of a shy, grumpy puppy.He concludes that “kill or be killed” is his only escape, so at the next, most minor provocation, he feigns outrage and challenges Billy Simpson to a dual.