16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
quarter in order to sail westward round the
southern shore of the last island in the group
before hauling her wind and steering as near
north into the Pacific as the breeze would allow.
Both her watches were on deck, of
course, a meagre crew: and with so few hands
no brisk manoeuvre could be expected. Yet
even so she seemed strangely hesitant about
this sensible, straightforward operation; and
all at once it occurred to Jack that she was the
leader, the ship which had been there before,
which pointed out the way, and that she was
finding it very difficult to induce her second
astern to take notice of her signals. Admittedly,
the second astern was more often
blurred by fog than not; and in this light flags
were difficult to read. His theory was confirmed
almost at once: the leading ship fired a
gun, and all her people stared eagerly astern
to see what effect it would have. She seemed