# Aubrey vs. Hornblower **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2007, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416 "2007-09-25T13:25:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/41 "2007-09-26T00:25:09Z")
[QUOTE=Xema] Was Jack Aubrey ever emotional in a battle? Ashore, certainly - but in combat he seems the essence of a cool, rational commander. [/QUOTE] He was depressed afterwards, particularly when they sank the pursuing _Whatchamacallit_ in a storm and what, 600 people were killed when she broached. On the other hand when the American frigate was prepared to rake his friend’s ship, one of them remarked, “Oh no, this won’t do”, and his associate struck. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/42 "2007-09-26T01:21:09Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] He was depressed afterwards, particularly when they sank the pursuing _Whatchamacallit_ in a storm and what, 600 people were killed when she broached. [/QUOTE] Right - he was often melancholy after a battle. But I can’t think of a case where he was anything but cool and effective during an action. I believe the ship in question is the _Waakzaamheid_ (which I believe translates as _Alertness_ or _Vigilance_). ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/43 "2007-09-26T10:03:07Z")
Ramage kicks both their butts and sails off into the sunset having incurred minimal casualties owing to some quick thinking and outrageous luck. At the opening of _Ramage and the Saracens_ his frigate _Calypso_ blunders into two French seventy-fours, but he induces them to collide with each other and then goes on to get on with the actual story. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/44 "2007-09-26T10:43:06Z")
You know, I’ve seen the movies, but never read the books and this thread makes me want to read them. TO THE LIBRARY! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/45 "2007-09-26T12:38:15Z")
[QUOTE=Malacandra] Ramage kicks both their butts and sails off into the sunset [/QUOTE] I was trying to remember his name. The Lord with a throbbing Harry Potter scar and an Italian royal girl friend. I enjoyed those novels too, although I have apparently missed some. There is also Alexander Kent’s Bolitho series (was the guy who came up from being a seaman to an officer?) Dewey Lambkin’s series that began as a naval Flashman, the guy I can find no trace of who wrote three novels about a Captain in the East India Company’s military navy. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Goob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c77e96/32.png) [@Mr.Goob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Goob)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/46 "2007-09-26T12:44:23Z")
Aubrey had a lot of independant commands and missions and had to sort everything out himself, including all his problems on shore. Hornblower seemed to always have his fairy Godfather Capt. later Adm Pellew\* to bail him out. Hornblower is smart and clever but one lucky bastard. Finally marries Barbara is wealthy as hell, and is made a lord. Aubrey had to scratch for everything he ever got and most times lost it all again. You could feel the sheer joy for the character when he finally got his blue pennant to fly at the mizzen. How could they fight one on one anyway? In rowboats? - the name eludes me it’s been a while. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/47 "2007-09-26T12:54:07Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Goob] How could they fight one on one anyway? In rowboats? [/QUOTE] Perhaps presentation sabers at dawn, or boiled babies across the table. Maybe see who can take a Xebec frigate with a sloop most quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/48 "2007-09-26T13:11:43Z")
[QUOTE=Miss Purl McKnittington] Stranger, I’m not disagreeing with what you said, but I have to correct one thing. The phrase is “mano a mano,” referring to hand-to-hand combat. “Mono y mono” would be a “monkey and monkey” fight… [/QUOTE] And here I thought Mono y Mono was a Paraguayan audio system manufacturer. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/49 "2007-09-26T13:20:44Z")
Aubrey could certainly drink Hornblower under the table. With Bonden standing by with a wheelbarrow to get him back to his ship. “Drunk, even by naval standards.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/50 "2007-09-26T13:27:37Z")
[QUOTE=Eleanor of Aquitaine] “Drunk, even by naval standards.” [/QUOTE] “Paralytic?” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/51 "2007-09-26T17:05:53Z")
> [@](#): > > I was trying to remember his name. The Lord with a throbbing Harry Potter scar and an Italian royal girl friend. I enjoyed those novels too, although I have apparently missed some. There is also Alexander Kent’s Bolitho series (was the guy who came up from being a seaman to an officer?) Dewey Lambkin’s series that began as a naval Flashman, the guy I can find no trace of who wrote three novels about a Captain in the East India Company’s military navy. That’s the Phillip Hazard series by V.A. Stuart. And don’t forget the Nathaniel Drinkwater series by Richard Woodman. ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/52 "2007-09-26T17:09:02Z")
Heh. Had forgotten about Ramage. ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/53 "2007-09-26T17:16:08Z")
[QUOTE=Random] Heh. Had forgotten about Ramage. [/QUOTE] Well, let’s face it. Aubrey and Hornblower are the Kirk and Picard of Napoleonic naval fiction. Ramage and Bolitho are the Sisko and Janeway. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/54 "2007-09-26T17:38:07Z")
[QUOTE=Rube E. Tewesday] Ramage and Bolitho are the Sisko and Janeway. [/QUOTE] What does that make Alan Lewrie, who went to sea because he was caught humping his cousin? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/55 "2007-09-26T17:45:42Z")
How about C. Northcote Parkinson’s Captain Delancey (the closest Hornblower Clone there is) or Fox? ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/56 "2007-09-26T17:52:08Z")
Damn it, I’m an Internet pontificator, not an all purpose analogizer! ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2007, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/57 "2007-09-26T21:19:32Z")
[QUOTE=Rube E. Tewesday] Damn it, I’m an Internet pontificator, not an all purpose analogizer! [/QUOTE] Marturin channeling McCoy? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/58 "2007-09-27T02:19:28Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] Read other books, CP – Flying Colors was the last of Forester’s initial Hornblower trilogy. [/QUOTE] I’ve got the library under control. Would you suggest chronological order, or as written? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416/59 "2007-09-27T06:21:24Z")
[QUOTE=carnivorousplant] I’ve got the library under control. Would you suggest chronological order, or as written? [/QUOTE] Chronological order, absolutely. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aubrey-vs-hornblower/420416.md?page=2)