Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

Captain Horatio Hornblower takes command of HMS Atropos and pursues a series of naval exploits in the Mediterranean. Sailing to Marmorice Bay, in Turkey, he oversees salvage work upon the wreck of HMS Speedwell, which contains a vast sum of gold and silver in pay chests lost when the ship sunk. The funds are recovered and returned to Gibraltar, and Atropos again cruises the Mediterranean and, with HMS Nightingale, captures the Spanish ship, Castilla, in a short but brutal engagement. Atropos travels to Palermo for repair and refit, and there she captures the attention of the King of Sicily. For diplomatic reasons, the Royal Navy agrees to sale Atropos to Sicily. Hornblower declines a commission into the Sicilian navy and returns to a doubtful future in England, where he sadly finds his infant son, Horatio, and his newborn daughter, Maria, feverish...