Q&A ยท 55:51-56:39

Hornblower's imagined twentieth-century commands

A playful Hornblower answer maps an Age of Sail hero's narrative pattern onto twentieth-century ship types and conflicts.

Question

What might Horatio Hornblower's career look like if he entered the Royal Navy in 1910?

Short answer

His fictional habit of reaching every crisis would likely place him in a cruiser, then destroyers and the Russian Civil War, and eventually an aircraft carrier by the Second World War.

Notes

Moving Hornblower's fictional career to an entry into naval service in 1910 would still place him in repeated crises and major battles. Cruiser service is suggested for the early First World War. Destroyers or other small ships would follow later in the war, along with a likely encounter with the Russian Civil War. By the Second World War, the imagined career would probably put him in command of an aircraft carrier.