title: The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: The Extraordinary World War II Story of the U.S. Navy's Finest Hour
author:  James D. Hornfischer 
description: "One of the finest WWII naval action narratives in recent years, this book follows in the footsteps of <b>Flags of Our Fathers</b>.... exalting American sailors and pilots as they richly deserve.... Reads like a very good action novel."<i>Publishers Weekly</i><br /><br />"Reads as fresh as tomorrow's headlines.... Hornfischer's captivating narrative uses previously classified documents to reconstruct the epic battle and eyewitness accounts to bring the officers and sailors to life."<i>Texas Monthly</i><br /><br />"Hornfischer is a powerful stylist whose explanations are clear as well as memorable.... a dire survival-at-sea saga."<i>Denver Post<br /><br /></i>"In <b>The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors</b><i>,</i> James Hornfischer drops you right into the middle of this raging battle, with 5-inch guns blazing, torpedoes detonating and Navy fliers dive-bombing.... The overall story of the battle is one of American guts, glory and heroic sacrifice."<i>Omaha World Herald</i>
zlib_text: The Commodore
  
  
  (Published in the US as: “Commodore Hornblower”)
  
  
  
  
  
  C. S. Forester
  
  
  (1945)
  
  
  
  
  
  v1.0
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## Chapter One
  
  
  Captain Sir Horatio Hornblower sat in his bath, regarding with distaste his
  legs dangling over the end. They were thin and hairy, and recalled to his mind
  the legs of the spiders he had seen in Central America. It was hard to think
  about anything except his legs, seeing how much they were forced upon his
  attention by their position under his nose as he sat in this ridiculous bath;
  they hung out at one end while his body protruded from the water at the other.
  It was only the middle portion of him, from his waist to above his knees,
  which was submerged, and that was bent almost double. Hornblower found it
  irritating to have to take a bath in this fashion, although he tried not to
  allow it to irritate him, and he strove desperately to dismiss from his mind
  recollections of thousands of more comfortable baths taken on the deck of a
  ship, under a wash-dec