16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
ion-ladder at half a glass before five bells in
the forenoon watch, hauling himself up step
by step. It was an exceptionally beautiful day,
brilliant, cloudless, with the immense sky a
deeper, more uniform blue than usual and the
sea, where it was not chopped white, an even
deeper shade, the true imperial blue. The
wind was still due east, singing quite loud in
the rigging; but although the Franklin could
have spread topgallant-sails she was in fact lying
to, bowing the uneven seas with her main
topsail aback and a balancing mizen. Under
her lee lay her most recent prize, a fur-trader
down from the north, a fat, comfortable vessel,
but naturally so unweatherly and now so
foul-bottomed as well that she was utterly incapable
of working to windward at all, and
Captain Aubrey was waiting for the return of
the south-east or south-south-east trade to see
her in. She carried no extraordinary cargo –