> Subject: RE: Cutty Sark fire: what happens now?
> From: GUEST,CJB
> Date: 27 Apr 12 - 11:00 AM
>
> But I always remember that great sequence in the first
> series of the recent Hornblower t.v. films. The Brits had
> raided and invaded a French ship and fought of the
> 'frogs.' Then Hornblower climbed up the ratlines to get to
> one of the yards in order to hand the sail, he stepped
> onto where the footlines should have been, and suddenly
> discovered that the French rigging of the day did not have
> footropes (or the French had removed them). Anyway he fell
> into the ocean and was saved by of of his watch.
>
> CJB

I'm sorry to have to say it, but both the film starring Gregory Peck and the TV series of Hornblower are crap compared with the original books. I've been a C S Forrester fan all my life, and have read most, actually I think all, of the Hornblower books at least twice.

The thing that is remarkable about the books is their realism. This realism is lost in the TV series because the idiots who make them have watched far too many trashy modern American movies of the one-man-against-a-world-conspiracy type and feel that they have to melodramatise everything.

Thus that sequence of Hornblower finding there were no footropes comes just after or before, I can't remember which, him reencountering the senior midshipman from his previous ship who had made his life a misery, and with whom he'd fought a duel, and who is more intent on revenge on Hornblower than his duty to navy and country. The idea that anybody so junior as a midshipman would dare to disobey orders, let alone attempt to kill a fellow officer in the middle of an engagement, is just not credible.

In the book, "Mr Midshipman Hornblower", what actually happens is that after the duel he leaves behind the ill-fated first ship with its sick captain, and never encounters that midshipman ever again.

When 'cutting-out' the French ship, he feels for the footrope with his feet, and, realising that there's nothing there, and that, although he's scared of heights, there's nothing for it but to walk along the yard, that's what he and his detachment do.

I would recommend anyone who watches the TV series to switch them off, go down to their local library or shop, and read the books instead. They are infinitely more rewarding.

Also, if you want to read the book that probably gave someone the idea for the Sharpe series, read "Death To The French" by the same author.

There was also a rather poor film made of his excellent book "The Gun".