16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
voices on the other side of the bulkhead –
Captain Aubrey, the two oldest forecastle
hands (rather hard of hearing), and Mr Adams
telling over the treasure of the Franklin, converting
it into Spanish dollars and reckoning
the shares – and to those on the quarterdeck:
an extraordinary number of hands had found
tasks that kept them within earshot of the open
companion, and they kept up a murmured
commentary upon the amounts, provenence
and rates of exchange of the coins handled
below, showing a wonderful grasp of the
European and American system, switching
from Dutch rixdollars to Hanover ducats with
as much ease as from Barcelona pistoles to
Portuguese joes, Venice sequins or Jamaica
guineas. The murmur, the remarkably strong
murmer, ceased when hands were piped to
dinner, but the telling in the great cabin continued,
while Stephen, without a thought for