16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
end of the ship to the other, and Captain Aubrey's
walk was accompanied by the steady
thump of caulker's mallets. It was early in the
day, and although the weather was as fair as
could be wished, apart from the lack of wind,
the quarterdeck had nobody upon it who was
not called there by duty: Vidal and Reade, officer
and midshipman of the watch; the men
at the helm; the carpenter and two of his crew
at the taffrail, putting the frigate's modest
decorative carving, her gingerbread-work, to
rights. The usual daily procession of Jemmy
Ducks, Sarah and Emily, carrying hen-coops
and leading the goat Amalthea, had come
and gone; and as usual Jack, reflecting upon
the rapid growth of the little girls, thought of
his own daughters, their present height, weight
and happiness, their possible but unlikely progress
in deportment, French and the pianoforte
under Miss O'Mara. But neither Stephen