16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
Yet the Surprise, lying there in the road, had
three midshipmen aboard, and what they
lacked in intelligence they made up for in
physical activity. Reade, having but one arm,
could no longer go skylarking, hurling himself
about the upper rigging regardless of gravity,
but his messmates Norton and Wedell would
hoist him by an easy purchase to astonishing
heights, and from these, having still one powerful
hand and legs that could twist round any
rope, he would plunge with infinite satisfaction.
He was at the masthead, negligently
holding the starboard main topgallant shrouds
with the intention of sliding straight down the
whole length of the topgallant backstay, well
over a hundred feet, when his eye, wandering
towards San Lorenzo, caught the odd spectacle
of a very small boat trying to tow a much
larger one. Even at this distance the very small
boat looked surprisingly like the Doctor's pea-