16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
beat off the pirates of the South China Sea:
they have nothing like the very heavy crew of a
man-of-war, above all an American man-ofwar,
and they could not fire a full broadside
even if they carried the guns, which they don't.
No. In the unlikely event of their keeping all
together and manoeuvring just so, they must
still fall victims to even a quite small frigate
capable of firing three well-directed hundred
and forty-four-pound broadsides in under five
minutes.'
'Well,' said Stephen. And then, 'If we must
wait for your more or less mythical Chinamen,
if we must wait until your sense of duty is satisfied,
may we not go just a little way south, just
to the edge of the ice? How charming that
would be.'
'With all due respect, Stephen, I must tell you
that I utterly decline to go anywhere near any
ice whatsoever, however thin, however deeply