You can find me at Joselitos Coffee House most mornings. I will gladly meet you on any suitable grounds.
Since the Cowardly Swine has declined my challenge, I shall be happy to serve as your Second.
Let me put it this way. I have read the entire MA series twice. Enjoyed it immensely.
I own the entire Hornblower series. 
I own the entire Aubrey Maturin series. In both hardback, that’s right I said hardback, as well as electronically. 20 books on the bookshelf, 20 books in my Kindle.
I’m also now listening to the Audiobooks version now, I’m on Desolation Island right at this moment, buying them from iTunes as I go. Hearing Patrick Tull read POB is a joy.
Horatio Hornblower is a great character. The film with Gregory Peck is very well done.
Hornblower is very formal, God on the quarterdeck, and constantly afraid of failure.
Jack Aubrey is a regular guy, a God of War at sea, completely incompetent on land in business dealings.
Hornblower is eventually a Lord, Aubrey is an MP.
Bolitho in the Douglas Reeman novels is pretty cool.
In theAlan Lewrie novels by Dewey Lambdin, I thought we would have a naval Flashman, but he became a stalwart Captain as Hornblower or Aubrey.
To explain, no, as the Spanish Admiral at Trafalgar said, “There isa no time. Let me Sum Up.”
Hornblower would take on the entire French fleet with Seaman Brown and Bush in a rowboat. Jack Aubrey would run like hell.
Whosr ship do you wish to sail on? 
I would sail on two boards lashed together, if Jack Aubery commanded.
Daylate, you’ve made a noble effort. Clearly, POB does not speak to you; there’s no shame in that. You may retire from the field with honor, your head bloody but unbowed. A glass of wine with you, sir!
The bottle stands by you, Sir.
The character was referring to watching Stephen throw up blood due to his addiction to laudanum. O’Brian was trying to tell us just how far Stephen was in its grips. Just FYI.
It took me a few times reading through it to get it though. I can understand someone giving it up for being inaccessible. It takes patience but it definitely pays off!
Thank you for your kind words, sir! I just wish the C.S. Forester had written more than 12 Hornblower books.
BTW, just found out the C.S. Forester was the pen name used by Cecil Louis Troughton Smith. Imagine that!
Because “Cecil Louis Troughton Smith” did not sound English enough?
Come to that, “Patrick O’Brian” was a pseudonym - I can’t remember and am too lazy to look up his real name, but it wasn’t an Irish one.
I thinnk Richard Bolitho is pretty cool guy. eh sinks frenchmen and doesnt afraid of anything.
(Nitpick: While the author is the same, Douglas Reeman is the pen-name for modern naval fiction and Alexander Kent for Bolitho.)
I’ve read many of the Bolitho series, though not all, a few Hornblowers, every Ramage book ever written, but hardly touched Aubrey. My dad gave me one for Christmas one year and I read it out of filial duty, but didn’t find I liked it as much as the other authors.
That would be Richard Patrick Russ, and no, he wasn’t Irish.
Like many here, I found the language made for slow going for most of the first book, then something clicked and I enjoyed the rest immensley. My favorite comic scene was in one of the later books where, ashore again he goes home with a select few of his men to do some maintenance on the home. One thing leads to another and the place is pretty well dismantled when Sophie come back from Ireland two weeks early.
Well, I just noticed something. I started this thread back in September, one of probably a dozen that I’ve started over the years. None of the other ones ever generated much over 10 or so posts, and this one now is OVER 90!
I feel like I’ve finally joined the big kids!
I kinda felt the same way. I read the Hornblower books when I was in high school, and pretty much adored them all. Long years later, I was working in a bookstore. I kept seeing these books with neat images of sailing vessels on the covers. “Hmm,” I thought. “Wonder if it’s anything like Hornblower?” But I kept putting off starting the series, dunno why. I did the same thing with Pratchett.
But once I stepped in, I stepped in fully. I bought the books that explained the more esoteric naval terms. I even bought the cookbook. Awesome series is awesome.
That said, it’s not really very straightforward storytelling, and the language is pretty dense. If you like that (and I do), it’s great. The bit about the first lieutenant’s religion and his relationship to Maturin become important in later books. It’s really all one great big story. I was heartily sorry when O’Brian died, because I knew I’d miss hearing about Jack and Stephen’s adventures.
You, sir, need A Guide for the Perplexed, which contains “Translations of All Non-English Phrases in Patrick O’Brian’s Sea-Tales”.
Highly recommended.
Here’s a working version of the link:
http://www.agbfinebooks.com/Publications/Perp2004/Home/Perp2004Home.htm
Thank you!