16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
lowing. 'You will take command while I am
away,' he said after a silence. 'If the wind
keeps in the east, as I believe it will, you will
not be able to carry the prize a single mile
nearer Callao, though you beat up day and
night. Should it change you may come in, and
if you cannot fetch Callao we will rendezvous
off the Chinchas. But I shall give you your orders
in writing, together with a list of meetingplaces
from the Lobos Rock far to the southward.'
Indeed, to make any real progress in a
breeze as strong and steady as this a vessel
had to be rigged fore and aft, and nothing
could have been more wholly fore and aft
than the Alastor's elegant mahogany launch
with her remarkably flat-cut sails: in spite of
his deep uneasiness Jack took a pleasure in
getting all that he could from her, bringing her