← The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower
The Adventures of Horatio Hornblower — 1952
23 episodes broadcast in 1952.
Seven months at sea, the Lydia raises the volcanic coast of the Gulf of Fonseca, where Hornblower must court a self-styled 'divine' rebel to open a front against Spain.
Uneasily bound to the deranged Don Julian, Hornblower gambles half his crew ashore against the chance a Spanish warship appears before he can take his prize.
His orders force Hornblower to hand the captured Natividad to the murderous 'El Supremo' -- then to scheme to keep the tyrant from butchering his Spanish prisoners.
Ordered to hunt down the very ship he once seized by stealth, Hornblower must now best the Natividad in a straight fight on the open Pacific.
Two shattered frigates drift apart in the swell, each crew bent only on patching up and crawling back to finish the kill -- the nightmare climax of Hornblower's Pacific duel.
The Natividad gone to the bottom, a crippled Lydia and her exhausted, thinned-out crew turn for Panama to refit.
The poised Lady Barbara, a passenger aboard, quietly thaws the cold iron mask Hornblower wears before his officers and men.
Home again, Hornblower is torn between a tearful, pregnant wife and the sting of learning Lady Barbara has married the very admiral he now serves under.
Seasick and heartsick aboard an undermanned Lydia, Hornblower draws the thankless duty of shepherding six slow merchantmen.
The luck of a tossed coin decides which of two captains sails north against the enemy shore -- with far-reaching consequences for Hornblower.
Given three days to do all the harm he can, Hornblower snaps up a supply brig, levels a shore battery, and takes seven small craft.
On the eve of a joint operation, Hornblower broods under Admiral Leyton's suspicion that he was once Lady Barbara's lover.
Warned of four French sail closing astern, Hornblower must weigh a tempting fight against the cooler discipline the moment demands.
The mutinous crew of the brig Flame hold their captain hostage in the Bay of the Seine, threatening to hand the ship to France unless they win amnesty.
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Other seasons: 1953