Beat to Quarters
The Happy Return (Beat to Quarters in the US) was the first of the Horatio Hornblower novels published by C. S. Forester. It appeared in 1937. The American name derives from the expression "beat to quarters", which was the signal to prepare for combat.
The story begins in June of 1808, with Hornblower in command of the 36-gun frigate HMS Lydia and sailing off the Pacific coast of Nicaragua, with orders to form an alliance with a local landowner desiring to revolt against the Spanish (at this time Spain was allied with Napoleon), to find a water route across Central America, and to take down the 50-gun ship of the line Natividad, all while carrying a female passenger Barbara Wellesley.
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