16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
private and indeed secretive a person as
Stephen Maturin was likely to discuss, and although
it flashed into his mind as a piece of
green seaweed rose momentarily on the bowwave,
all he said to his companion was 'It is a
great satisfaction to see the ocean a colour so
near to that of new wine – of certain kinds of
new wine – as it comes gushing from the
press.'
He and Nathaniel Martin, his assistantsurgeon,
were standing in the frigate's beakhead,
a roughly triangular place in front of
and below the forecastle, the very foremost
part of the ship where the bowsprit reached
out, where the seamen's privy was to be
found, and where the medicoes were least in
the way, not only of the hands trimming the
sails to capture the greatest possible thrust
from the wind but, and above all, of the gunners
serving the two bow-chasers on the fore-