C.S. Forester wrote a short "Hornblower" story, called "Hornblower and the Widow McCool". I saw this sold as part of a collection entitled "Hornblower and the crisis", another full-length story which Forester was unable to complete before he died.

In the "Widow McCool" story, Hornblower is a junior Lieutenant aboard HMS "Renown" under Captain Sawyer (before Sawyer does a Captain Queeg act and becomes totally paranoid), serving in the Channel fleet. The "Renown" captures a French brig, which has aboard an Irish rebel named Barry Ignatius McCool. As he is a deserter from the Royal Navy, he can be tried and hanged immediately.

In return for not trying to cause a riot among the Irish crewmen of the "Renown" (and the whole Channel Fleet) before he is hanged, McCool gets Hornblower to send his only posession, a sea chest with his name carved on it, to his widow in Dublin. McCool writes a covering letter, in which he declares himself "faithful unto death". Hornblower is unable to post these before "Renown" has to put to sea again, and as he is whiling away the hours, Hornblower reads this letter and deciphers from it the means to open the secret compartment in the chest, stuffed with money and compromising documents.

Rather than cause more distress, Hornblower tips the chest and its contents overboard. He discovers much later that McCool left no widow, and that his faith was devoted to the cause of Irish freedom.




I didn't actually see the Hornblower programmes, but it sounds as if the producers drew on this source for much of the plot.