The Happy Return (Beat to Quarters in the US) was the first of the Horatio Hornblower novels published by C. S. Forester. It appeared in 1937. The American name derives from the expression "beat to quarters", which was the signal to prepare for combat. This book is sixth by internal chronology of the series (including the unfinished Hornblower and the Crisis).It is one of three Hornblower novels adapted into the 1951 British-American film, Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N..