The Real Captain Sawyer
I don't know how many people know about a certain Charles Sawyer, who seems to me to be the basis of Forester's character of James Sawyer. I was reading The Pursuit of Victory, a biography about Horatio Nelson, when I came across this passage, many events which bear great resemblance to events depicted in Lieutenant Hornblower (Mutiny/Retribution):
The [Blanche] had been in Nelson's squadron since March 1796, but her crew had recently experienced the unsettling and unusual matter of having her captain, Charles Sawyer, court-martialled for homosexuality- 'having a fondness for young men and boys', the words of Jacob Nagle, a seaman in the Blanche. The court martial found that Sawyer had been found in bed with his coxswain several times; two midshipmen and a seaman were also involved. This homosexuality had become known in the ship, the coxswain having denounced the captain publicly. The facts went beyond the ship as a result of a quarrel between the captain and his first lieutenant in the last rush of the evacuation from Corsica: at one point Sawyer ordered several officers, including all the lieutenants, to be confined.
The [Blanche] had been in Nelson's squadron since March 1796, but her crew had recently experienced the unsettling and unusual matter of having her captain, Charles Sawyer, court-martialled for homosexuality- 'having a fondness for young men and boys', the words of Jacob Nagle, a seaman in the Blanche. The court martial found that Sawyer had been found in bed with his coxswain several times; two midshipmen and a seaman were also involved. This homosexuality had become known in the ship, the coxswain having denounced the captain publicly. The facts went beyond the ship as a result of a quarrel between the captain and his first lieutenant in the last rush of the evacuation from Corsica: at one point Sawyer ordered several officers, including all the lieutenants, to be confined.