Hornblower and the Atropos

With his wife Maria and baby son going to London on a Cotswold canal, Hornblower is called upon to act as a bargeman, giving the reader an unexpected image of late 18th century England. In London and captain of the Atropos, Hornblower finds his abilities challenged as he manages 38 barges for the naval procession carrying Nelson's casket from Greenwich up the Thames to Whitehall. In his next successful adventure, he notices an oar with a crossed numeral 7 floating in a dense fog in the Broads. …