16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
you three men capable of standing a watch:
Mr Smith, for one, and he will stiffen their
gunnery. And even if we were not so well supplied,
two of the ransomers were mates of
their ship, the one a fur-trader on the Nootka
run, the other a whaler. Have you any observations,
Captain Pullings?'
'Well, sir,' said Pullings, returning his smile,
but with a certain constraint, 'I take it very
kindly that you should give me the command,
of course. As for Vidal, he is a prime seaman,
of course: there is no doubt of that. But he is
the leader of the Knipperdollings, and the
Knipperdollings and the Sethians have been at
odds ever since the love-feast at the Methody
chapel in Botany Bay. And as you know very
well, sir, some of the most respected hands on
board are Sethians or their close friends; and
to have a Knipperdolling set over them...'
'Hell and death, Tom,' said Jack. 'You are