Horatio Hornblower was the fictional title character of a series of popular novels and stories set during the late 18th and early 19th Century Napoleonic Wars, written by C.S. Forester in the mid-20th Century. Hornblower commanded sailing ships of His Majesty's Royal Navy, often under ambiguous orders and far from home. He depended on his vessel's capabilities, a loyal crew, and his own considerable wits to resolve military and diplomatic crises threatening his country's interests.
Background
The series can be easily compared to aspects of Star Trek, and is often cited as an inspiration. Hornblower's character was modeled after the real-life British national hero Admiral Horatio Nelson.
Gene Roddenberry's original pitch for Star Trek described the ship's Captain Robert April as a "space-age Captain Horatio Hornblower". While the Stark Trek universe strongly bore the stamp of Roddenberry's own imagination, the spirit of Hornblower and Age of Sail naval adventures are prominent in original series episodes like The Corbomite Maneuver, Balance of Terror, Arena and The Doomsday Machine, as well as the films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
The portrayal of James T Kirk as a decisive man of action was very close to Hornblower, though Kirk's romantic appetite was far more prodigious. The literary hero's introverted, intellectual nature was more closely reflected in Jean-Luc Picard. Hornblower's first officer, Lieutenant Bush, resembled aspects of Spock and William Riker, men initially more comfortable at their Captain's right hand than as commanders in their own right. Hornblower's innovative exploitation of his vessel's capabilities (the cream of early 19th century human technology), could be considered an ancestor of Star Trek's notorious technobabble.
In his audio commentary for the Director's Edition of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, director Nicholas Meyer spoke of his inability to relate to Star Trek until he "suddenly began to think of it as the adventures of Horatio Hornblower in outer space. Once I got that, I said, okay, this about the Navy... this is about gunboat-diplomacy". He revisited that interpretation in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
The non-canon novel Enterprise: the First Adventure by Vonda N. McIntyre referred to James T. Kirk's first command as the USS Lydia Sutherland. The name was an amalgam of two of Hornblower's commands, the HMS Lydia and HMS Sutherland.