16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
now so accustomed to it that through the general
roar he caught the strokes of the frigate's
bell marking the watches through, and they
often coincided with the minute silvery chime
of the watch in his pocket.
He was accustomed to the room, too. At one
time the frigate, as a regular man-of-war, had
carried several midshipmen, master's mates
and others and she needed two berths for
them; now, in her present ambiguous position
of His Majesty's hired vessel Surprise, engaged
in an unavowable intelligence mission but going
through the motions of being a privateer,
by way of cover, she carried only three, and a
single berth, that on the starboard side, was
enough. Earlier in the voyage from Sydney
Cove, when the stowaway Clarissa was discovered
and instantly married to the young
gentleman who had concealed her, the couple
had had this larboard berth to themselves,