If I remember the Hornblower books (which incidentally were written out of sequence, so there are a few inconsistencies and errors), Hornblower's first command on being made Post-Captain, was the sloop HMS "Atropos", which was a 22-gun sloop i.e. with only one more gunport per side than HMS "Hotspur". So, a mere lick of paint will keep things fairly close to the book.

After that, things get more difficult. First, Hornblower commands the 36-gun frigate HMS "Lydia", and then the 74-gun third-rate HMS "Sutherland".

As far as I know, there are no replica frigates in existence, and certainly no ships-of-the-line (unless you count HMS "Victory", which is still on the strength of the Royal Navy (oops, nearly forgot, the USS "Constitution")


So, unless you keep Hornblower low down in seniority, or do some "Lord-of-the-Rings" forced perspective shots, Hornblower will have to sail the good ship CGI [Computer Generated Image]