16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
face. 'I shall double the dose. I knew I was
right. It rectifies the humours, you understand.'
Joe Plaice, a steady forecastle-hand, was
good at all the countless skills required of an
able seaman, but he was an absolute artist in
the use of a casting-net: poised on the bowsprit,
with his left hand on the stay, he swung
the net with his right, throwing it with an exactly-calculated
twist that spread its weighted
edge so that the whole fell flat as a disk on the
surface just over one of the countless bands of
anchovies that surrounded the launch for
miles in every direction. The little fishes stared
in amazement or even tried to leap upwards.
The weights quickly carried the edge of the net
down and inwards; a string drew them together;
and the imprisoned fish were drawn
aboard. Half the first cast had been eaten by
the helmsman, who was always fed first; the
second half and two more were eaten fresh