# Favorite Royal Navy Fiction Author **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 2, 2001, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041 "2001-11-02T02:37:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lord\_Derfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@Lord\_Derfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Derfel)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/21 "2001-11-02T23:56:00Z")
I never saw the movie you’re talking about, but do you mean Mr. Bush? Was the movie worth seeing? I wasn’t particularly enamored with the recent A&E Hornblower miniseries. I didn’t care for the actor who played Hornblower. Like most movie adaptations, I’d rather read the book. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2001, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/22 "2001-11-03T00:13:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lord Derfel \* > \*\*do you mean Mr. Bush? \*\* Bush was in it, but not seaman Brown. They combined Brown and Coxswain whosis in the same character. They compress from the El Supremo thing to marrying Lady Barbara in two hours, so it’s kind of crowded, if you will. The escape from France (Bush keeps his leg) and cutting out _The Witch Of Endor_ are cool. Forester wrote the screenplay. Damn, someone just posted and probably stole my thunder. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/23 "2001-11-03T00:21:54Z")
Forester is my favourite, although I like O’Brien too. I think the Hornblower books were closely based on a real person, and that Forester wrote a book about him. But my books are elsewhere, so I can’t check. If you want an extension onto land, try George McDonald Fraser. History, comedy, action - he does it all! ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/24 "2001-11-03T00:30:53Z")
Well, I haven’t read Forester yet, but I’m almost done with the Aubrey-Maturin series. I particularly love how, in the course of nineteen books or so, we see the harmless Dr. Maturin not transformed, but _revealed_ to be (big spoilers) a spy, a clumsy fool, an opium addict, a coke fiend, a treasonous revolutionary, a graverobber, a human vivisectionist, a cold-blooded murderer, and a cheater at cards. And _still_ you can’t help loving the silly little man. _That’s_ why Patrick O’Brian is a good author. For some reason, I remembered it as a gorilla suit. ---
**Author:** ![Sofa\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/58956e/32.png) [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/25 "2001-11-03T00:34:08Z")
And, I might add, O’Brian is the _only_ author I’ve ever seen to have the balls to sneak a twenty-page “rats on crack” joke into his work. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2001, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/26 "2001-11-03T00:58:29Z")
Card cheat? Card dheat? What the devil are you talking about? Aubrey: “This coffee has a damned odd taste.” Maturin: “I attribute that to the excretment of rats, my love.” Aubrey:“I though it was familiar.” ---
**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:** [November 3, 2001, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/27 "2001-11-03T02:34:28Z")
> [@](#): > > On a side note, for those who might be interested in “Hornblower in Space”, check out David Feintuch’s “Midshipman’s Hope”, et al… It’s basically Forester translated, rather succesfully, into a sci-fi universe. I haven’t read this, but there hav been too many damned “Hornblower i Space” claimants. Heck, Roddenbery even pushed Star Trek as Hornblower in Space (when it wasn’t “Wagon Train to the Stars”). But it never felt tht way. Nor did R. Bertram Chandler’s books. David Weber’s Honor Harrington is the closest I’ve read (althogh Harry Harrison once wrote a very cute story about a color-blind British naval captain who doesn’t believe that a “little green man” they fish out of the sea is really green.) ---
**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:** [November 3, 2001, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/28 "2001-11-03T02:46:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \* > \*\*(althogh Harry Harrison once wrote a very cute story about a color-blind British naval captain who doesn’t believe that a “little green man” they fish out of the sea is really green.) \*\* I read that in Fantasy and Science Fiction long before I read Hornblower. Do you remember the title? ---
**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:** [November 3, 2001, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/29 "2001-11-03T02:56:17Z")
No, but it’s colleced in **The Best of Harry Harrison** ---
**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:** [November 3, 2001, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/30 "2001-11-03T03:11:57Z")
The library doesn’t have it. This is a plot to get me back on Ebay, isn’t it? How much of a kickback do you get? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/31 "2001-11-03T04:20:31Z")
**Great Swiss Naval Battles** By M. N. Thaller ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/32 "2001-11-03T06:10:47Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lord Derfel \* > **Hornblower: > [li] Escaped France by killing his escort (who was taking him to be executed), finding a sympathetic Frenchman to stay with, building his own boat, and stealing a captured British ship to escape by enlisting the help of disgruntled French prisoners.[/li] > Aubrey: > [li] Escaped France in a bear suit.[/li]** Don’t know anything about Aubrey and the bear suit, but Hornblower didn’t kill his escort, Caillard. On Hornblower’s orders, Brown knocked him out in the snowstorm, Hornblower and Brown tied him up with his sash of the Legion of Honour and their handkerchiefs (obviously handkerchiefs were larger during the Napoleanic Wars than they are today) and stuffed him into the carriage. Then they carried Bush on his stretcher to the river, got aboard the row boat, and Bob’s your uncle. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/33 "2001-11-03T06:14:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by TV time \* > \*\*I rather prefer O’Brian, not so much for Luck Jack Aubrey, but more for his portrayal of Stephen Maturin, the non-nautical navy surgeon. > > He is pretty much the ultimate outsider; the lubber among seamen, the intellectual amidst a culture of braun, a lettered man among the illiterate, a soldier in a secret war surrounded by men who fight the most obvious wars. > > I like the way O’Brian draws him. > > TV \*\* I’m with you, TV Time–no offense to Hornblower and crew, of course. And I’m grateful for this thread–it reminds me that I’ve gotten behind in my nautical reading. ---
**Author:** ![Deptford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Deptford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deptford)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/34 "2001-11-03T15:09:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by glee \* > \*\* . > > I think the Hornblower books were closely based on a real person, and that Forester wrote a book about him. > But my books are elsewhere, so I can’t check. > > \*\* ``` Quite right , both Aubrey and Hornblower were based upon Lord Thomas Cochrane. ``` A man in his time as famous as Nelson and known to his comtempories as “The Sea Wolf”. Many episodes of both mens adventures were directly based upon or inspired by famous actions of his. A fact which both authors freely admitted. As one example Aubrey’s taking of the CACAFUEGO (spelling?)is based upon Cochranes taking of the EL GAMO. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2001, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/35 "2001-11-03T15:22:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Deptford \* > \*\*Cochranes taking of the EL GAMO. \*\* Lord Thomas Cochrane was broke, had an estate to rebuild and needed prize money. A larger ship would not fire first. they being somewhat gentlemanly back then. Cochrane found you could position yourself right next to the Gentleman, where his guns couldn’t depress enough to fire at you, and blast the snot out of him. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2001, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/36 "2001-11-03T22:36:43Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Deptford \* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by glee \* > > I think the Hornblower books were closely based on a real person, and that Forester wrote a book about him. > > ``` > Quite right , both Aubrey and Hornblower were based upon Lord Thomas Cochrane. > > ``` > > A man in his time as famous as Nelson and known to his comtempories as “The Sea Wolf”. Many episodes of both mens adventures were directly based upon or inspired by famous actions of his. A fact which both authors freely admitted. Deptford, Welcome to the board! Thanks for the information. You’re not based near the Thames, are you?! ---
**Author:** ![Manach](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Manach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manach)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2001, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/37 "2001-11-04T01:13:20Z")
For me it has to be O’Brian, especially his quirky Irishman Maturin. ---
**Author:** ![Deptford](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Deptford](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deptford)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2001, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041/38 "2001-11-05T11:02:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by glee \* > > Welcome to the board! > Thanks for the information. > You’re not based near the Thames, are you?! \*\* Indeed Deptford is where i grew up, although i live in Lewisham now. To return to the OP however:- The main reason i prefer Aubrey to Hornblower is the fact that Hornblower is so unlikeable.He’s ok in the earliest book ,which is a collection of short stories. Or when the story is told from another characters perspective but from his own the man’s unbearable.I re-read “The Happy Return” over the weekend, the one with El Supremo and dear god he’s hard work. It’s self-loathing over this , self-contempt over that, the stifiling of any appearance of humanity.He goes to a dinner feeling miserable and decides if he’s miserable he’s going to make a conscious effort to make everybody else at the dinner so. I found myself rolling my eyes at his latest outbreak of character flaws about once every 10 pages. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-royal-navy-fiction-author/91041.md?page=1)