A Ship of the Line

A Ship of the Line is a novel by C. S. Forester, published in 1938. It is the seventh book of the Hornblower series by internal chronology but the second he wrote, and it follows Hornblower from the frigate command of the earlier books to a seventy-four, the ship of the line of the title.

He has come home from the Pacific with a reputation, because the Navy knows how he sank a much stronger ship, but without the money that would let him live as he would like. The Sutherland, once a Dutch vessel, is given to him, and in his own estimation she is the ugliest and least desirable two-decker on the Navy List, under Rear Admiral Leighton, the new husband of Lady Barbara Wellesley.

The first duty is the convoy, which brings an attack by two privateer luggers at once and leaves Hornblower with more work than his crew can cover. Because he has been sent out under strength, he fills his complement by taking men from the Indiamen he is escorting, which is against the regulations. From there the novel follows him along the Spanish coast with the ship he did not want.