Mr. Midshipman Hornblower

Mr. Midshipman Hornblower is a naval novel by the English writer C. S. Forester, published in 1950. It is the story of the first years of a career rather than a single campaign, and it runs through a series of named incidents with a chapter to each.

Hornblower comes aboard his first ship inexperienced and unimpressive. He is despised in the midshipmen's berth, particularly by a man called Simpson, and the novel follows him through the processes by which a boy in that position either breaks or learns: a duel, a series of chases, a boarding action, and a stretch of time in circumstances where nobody is watching and the work has to be done anyway.

The book was written as a prequel after the Hornblower novels had already begun appearing, and it is the first of eleven books about the character. Its method is episodic, which suits the subject: a career at sea in the 1790s is made up of separate commissions, and the reader watches a gawky and seasick teenager turn into an officer who is trusted with other people's lives.