"A trifle tardy, Mr. Perrquine," the captain remarked.

It was the month of June in the year of our Lord 1808, and the seas off the coast of Nicaragua were teeming with the promise of a splendid naval battle. Captain Horatio Hornblower, the master of the thirty-six-gun frigate HMS Lydia, stood on the deck, surveying the scene with a keen eye. "Beat to quarters," the midshipman cried, and the sound of drums echoed through the ship. The cannons thundered and the air was filled with smoke and splinters as the enemy shot flew around them. "A trifle tardy, Mr. Perrquine," the captain remarked, with a touch of irony in his voice.