16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
had already gone aboard the Franklin, meaning
to take advantage of the calm sea to carry
out the delicate manoeuvre of getting the new
mast in by the old, the composite old; for by
now neither ship could provide adequate
sheers. With propitious weather, an eager and
highly competent skipper and an eager and
highly competent first lieutenant, both of them
capable of hard-horse driving, there was certainly
not going to be any leisure for mocking
at a Yorkshire word: there was not indeed going
to be loss of a single minute, and the carpenter
heaved himself up the side, limping to
his place by the new mainmast's heel.
Nearly all the Surprise's hands were aboard
the prize, prepared to haul, heave, or gather
up the wreckage in the by no means improbable
event of accident, and it was Stephen
who rowed Bentley across in his little skiff: a
frightening experience. Having delivered the