16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
course, but even as he gathered his breath he
heard that never-to-be-forgotten sound of falling
ice as a mass the size of a parish church
broke from the nearest island and plunged a
hundred feet into the sea, sending up an immense
turmoil of spray and leaping water,
and he changed the order to that for tacking,
a quicker operation altogether though much
less economical in wear and tear and effort.
'The sooner we are out of this the better,' he
reflected, glancing astern at the huge forms
moving steadily northwards through the fog,
although they were already much further to
the north than they had any right to be at this
time of the year.
The ship was round on her new tack and
gathering way; all had been coiled down and
hands were laying out on the foretopgallantyards
when the brig showed dim on
the larboard beam, then plainer and plainer.