16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
aft as the launch, towing astern, was hauled
alongside to receive Mr Reade, her crew, barrels
of water for the parched Franklin, and two
carronades. The precious water, mercifully,
could be pumped from the hold into barrels in
the boat, but in the nature of things carronades
could not: they were lowered down from
the reinforced main yardarm, lowered with an
infinity of precautions as though each were
made of spun glass rather than of metal, and
they were received with even more. They were
ugly, squat little objects yet they had their advantages,
being only a third the weight of the
Surprise's regular twelve-pounder cannon but
firing a ball twice as heavy; furthermore they
could be fought by a much smaller crew – two
zealous hands at a pinch, as opposed to the
seven or eight gathered round a long twelve.
On the other hand they could not fire their
heavy ball very far nor very accurately, so