Hornblower and the Atropos

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Hornblower and the Atropos is a 1953 historical novel by C. S. Forester in which Horatio Hornblower takes command of HMS Atropos, the smallest post‑captain’s ship, to salvage treasure in the Mediterranean.

In December 1805, Hornblower travels to London with his pregnant wife and their son to receive his new orders. While skimming canal work on the way, he learns basic boat handling when an assistant boatman drinks too much and Hornblower steps in. In London he takes command of the 22‑gun Atropos and is tasked with a special assignment: organize Admiral Nelson’s funeral after Trafalgar. After the funeral, Hornblower is presented to the King, who names a German prince, recently exiled by Napoleon, as one of his midshipmen on the Atropos. A major subplot follows how Hornblower treats this young prince.

The main adventure involves recovering treasure from the sunken ship Speedwell off Marmorice Bay in Turkey. Three Sinhalese pearl divers and their quarrelsome salvage master accompany Hornblower, but the Turks are already aware of the treasure and trap the Atropos with a warship and a fortified position. Hornblower delays the Turks by promising to settle the next morning, then makes a perilous, night‑time escape to protect the treasure. After delivering the treasure to Gibraltar, he helps capture a Spanish ship, the Castilla, and repairs the Atropos in a Sicilian port. Impressed by his work, the King of the Two Sicilies later lends his backing, and the Atropos is transferred to the Sicilian navy.

Hornblower returns to England only to find both of his children seriously ill with smallpox. In the broader Hornblower canon, the Castilla is sometimes shown as a lieutenant’s capture rather than a captain’s, and there is some confusion with the short story The Hand of Destiny, which depicts a different version of Castilla’s capture. Forester later adjusted the continuity, but the novel still contains some chronological inconsistencies with other books in the series.