At the end, Foster challenges Hammond to a duel, and when Foster tells Hornblower he owes him his life Hornblower answers "Not for much longer, it would seem" - indicating he thinks the result is fairly certain.
Furthermore, we never see or hear of Foster after this story, whereas Hammond appears both in Retribution and Loyalty. So, does anyone know his fate for certain?
I suspect the problem is that you have too many paperclips up your nose
I think we can assume Hammond killed Foster in the duel. Such a shame, Foster was highly entertaining.
shareYeah... and he was the same guy who played Wedge Antilles in Star Wars!
R.I.P Foster
I suspect the problem is that you have too many paperclips up your nose
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My guess is that the duel never took place. At the end of "The Duchess and the Devil," Hornblower receives his promtion to Lt. after being a prisoner of war for almost two years (according to the books). When learning of his promotion from Capt. Pellew, Pellew states something like, "it was the only thing agreed upon by two captains who couldn't agree on anything."
sharenot to sound silly but I always though Foster could easily beat Hammond in a duel. Were two captains allowed to duel back then?
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I think that duelling was not encouraged, and in fact was being suppressed at this time. That said, even if there was a duel, it need not have been fatal to either side. They could each take a shot and miss; and sometimes it was considered correct to *deliberately* miss. Honour only required facing the opponent and permitting him to fire at you; it was a test of your courage to prove that you could face the possibility of death without flinching. It wasn't necessary to actually kill the other person. And if they did shoot and miss, for whatever reason, that was it - the duel was over. They didn't reload and keep shooting until one of them was dead. Duels between English gentlemen were not like shootouts in the Old West.
Flat, drab passion meanders across the screen!
I think Pellew's reference to the Examination Board surprisingly voting to make Horatio a lieutenant after all (at the end of "The Duchess and the Devil") clearly indicates that Foster was not killed in the duel with Hammond. As Rosabel says, duels did not always have to end with someone's death. So maybe Foster was wounded, but not mortally, or maybe Hammond missed, or had a misfire, or maybe they even made up again without exchanging shots. Foster doesn't strike me as the type to find it easy to make formal apologies but things may have been hushed up like this as they certainly were lots of times. Just think of the way the lieutenant in "The Even Chance" tries to settle the dispute between Horatio and Simpson at the card table - that must have been very common.
shareI think you're right. Hopefully, by the next morning they would have come to their senses. Also, Foster was totally out of order - Hammond had done all he could to keep his rowing boat up with the fireship.
EDIT: I want to change my mind! I've just remembered that Hammond turns out to be a thoroughly nasty piece of work who is spying for the French, so maybe he was trying to sabotage Hornblower and Foster's attempt to bring the fire ship under control. Perhaps Foster met with an "accident" on his way to the duel.
I doubt very much that Hammond kills Foster because until Hornblower learns of Hammond's treachery in the Loyalty episode, he is fairly pleasant to him. Hornblower clearly admires Foster and holds him in high regard, so if Hammond had killed him Hornblower would never have ever been remotely civil in his company, even though he wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.
England expects every man will do his duty - Lord Horatio Nelson, Trafalgar 1805
It is likely Foster simply wasn't in the Caribbean at the time of the court martial (which was actuially just an awkward board of inquiry in the book), and as such could not take part.
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Hm, but if Pellew refers to them two agreeing in D&D (my, this sounded bad)...
Why would Hammond agree to make Hornblower a Lieutenant without even taking the exam? He seemed to instinctively dislike the lad (or was his default mood "evil son of a bitch"?)
He almost failed the actual exam, but his actions during the fire ship attack convinced them that he deserved a promotion, hence Pellew's statement of, "You should be thankful of small mercies, and even more thankful of large ones" and "Three captains who would not normally agree on the colour of an orange unanimously approved your promotion."
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