16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
chests and vile bundles that fill it to what
would be the gunwale of a Christian boat?'
'Pray let them be brought aboard with the
utmost care. As for the boat itself, let it be
tossed off with a round turn, if you please, the
cantankerous beast, though it is the clear loss
of half a crown and eighteen pence for the
sail, almost new. It came from the same yard
and the same model as that which goes out
on Thursdays for the monastery's fish, and the
Abbot assured me that one had but to pull a
given rope, the escota, towards the back to
make it go faster: but this was not the case.
Though possibly I may have pulled the wrong
rope. There were so many boxes on the
floor... indeed, there was so little room for me
that I almost fell into the sea, at times.'
'Could you not have tossed the worst overboard?'