16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
Monmouth caps, Welsh wigs or padded
domes with flaps to protect the wearer's ears
and strings to tie beneath his chin.
This serving-out happened on a Tuesday in
fine clear weather, a pleasant topgallant
breeze blowing from the north-west, and it
seemed almost absurd: on Friday the ship was
tearing eastwards with four men at the wheel,
snow blurring both binnacles, hatches battened
down, and the muffled watch on deck
sheltering in the waist, dreading a call to
grapple with the frozen rigging and board-stiff
sails.
Presently, in this incessant roar of sea and
wind, and in this continual tension, the vision
of the warm and mild Pacific faded, leaving
little evidence apart from Stephen's collections,
neatly labelled, noted and wrapped in oiled
silk and then sailcloth, carefully packed into
thoroughly watertight casks set up by the coo-