Of course CSF wrote Chapter 24 of The Commodore. Well, not exactly.
He wrote Chapter 24 of Commodore Hornblower, which is the US title
and book, which has 24 chapters while the UK edition has only 23 chapters.

Why? Very simple. The US publisher, Little, Brown & Co. (or, maybe,
the Saturday Evening Post, if this was serialized in that), wanted a
different ending than CSF desired, which was to end the book at the
time when HH's actions in Russia ceased. HH had done his job to the
best of his ability, Napoleon was retreating from the ally that HH
had been instructed to aid, and HH was tired and ill. Think of the
typical endings of CSF's books. No Happy Returns in most of them, eh?
That's CSF all over. Chapter 24 gets HH home again and on the road to
recovery, the kind of ending more satisfactory to the US readers.

John Forester, MS, PE
Bicycle Transportation Engineer
7585 Church St.
Lemon Grove, CA 91945-2306
619-644-5481 www.johnforester.com