16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
ship a great way, at great speed, south and
east into the high fifties, a cold region at the
best and now even colder in this unusual year,
even without a wind: frequent rain; even more
frequent sleet and snow; most hands wet most
of the time; all of them always cold.
In such very thick weather observation was
impossible for days on end, and in spite of his
chronometers and well-worn sextant, and of
the presence of three other expert navigators
aboard, Jack could not be sure of his longitude
or latitude, dead-reckoning in such wind
and seas being wonderfully uncertain. He
therefore reduced sail, and the frigate moved
eastwards at an average of no more than
three knots, sometimes under bare poles or
with a mere scrap of sail right forward to give
her steerage-way when the wind blew a full
gale from the west. Yet there were also those
strange antarctic calms, when the albatrosses