Chapter 1 Summary

Admiral Hornblower is commander-in-chief of the West Indies station from 1821 to 1823, and experiences several situations which demand personal intervention. First, Hornblower must personally intervene to prevent a French contingent from attempting to reinstate Napoleon as the emperor of France. He then intrigues to capture a Spanish slave ship and shortly thereafter spends a brief period of time as hostage to a band of dim-witted pirates. Hornblower subsequently escapes entanglement in a South American revolution and then survives a hurricane while attempting to return to England with his wife, Barbara.

As the narrative opens Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Hornblower, commander-in-chief of His Britannic Majesty's ships and vessels in the West Indies, pays an official courtesy visit to New Orleans. Hornblower commands three frigates and fourteen sloops and schooners, but as the frigates are either undergoing refit or on distant duty, his flagship is the...