16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
ceive the fragility of an undressed bird's skin,
my dear.'
'Then perhaps I should tell you of some
changes you will see. Vidal has left the ship
with two of his Knipperdolling cousins, and he
has been replaced in the gunroom by William
Sadler, a thorough-going seaman. And then
before the mast, there was poor John Proby,
who lost the number of his mess two days out
of Callao.'
'That I knew. He was in a sad decline, in spite
of what little we could do for him in the way of
bark and steel and linctus. But Fabien very
kindly kept me one of his hands, recollecting
my interest in the singular calcification of its
sinews. Fabien is a most valuable assistant.'
Jack could still be made uneasy by remarks
of this kind, and it was a little while before he
went on, 'And you will not see Bulkeley any