Hornblower and the 'Atropos' by C. S. Forester

This is the eighth Hornblower novel in publication order and the fourth in internal chronological order; the first-published novel The Happy Return being the fifth in the chronology, the series has now come full circle, as becomes increasingly clear towards the end of this book.

( With all the will in the world, diving for dear life, when we could be diving for pearls )

Forester then went and messed things up by writing two more novels (and half of a third) totally out of order, but never mind, I'll see what I think of those next.