16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
go on deck?'
It was indeed a lurid and portentous sight,
the sky quite hidden and the diffused glow,
now more orange than umber, showed an irregularly
turbulent sea flecked as far as the
eye could see (which was not much above
three miles) with broken water that should
have been white and that in fact had taken on
an unpleasant acid greenish tinge, most evident
in the frigate's leeward bow-wave – an irregular
bow-wave too, for now, although the
swell was still very much present, rolling
strongly from the north-east, the series of
crests was interrupted by innumerable crossseas.
They stood in silence; and all along the
gangway and on the forecastle there were little
groups of seamen, gazing in the same attentive
way, with a few low murmured words.