Captain Horatio Hornblower

In 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, Royal Navy Captain Horatio Hornblower is given command of the 38-gun frigate HMS Lydia and tasked with a secret mission to Central America: he is to provide arms and support to a local warlord, Don Julian Alvarado, who has organized a rebellion against the colonial authorities of Spain, an ally of Britain's enemy France. Alvarado turns out to be a bloodthirsty megalomaniac who calls himself "El Supremo" ("The Almighty"). Hornblower also learns that a much more powerful warship, the 60-gun Natividad, is en route to suppress the rebellion. When it anchors nearby, Hornblower and his crew board and capture it in a surprise night attack. He then reluctantly surrenders the ship to Alvarado over his own personal feelings of disgust towards the man, and they go their separate ways.