16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
now at north-west.
Obviously he had made his turn later than
Jack, which set him close on a mile behind
and almost as much farther east; yet even so
he thought he too might weather the iceisland,
although it was moving steadily northwards.
This particular island – for there were
many others in sight, south and east – could
now be seen as a whole in the increasing
light, full two miles across, rising in steep
crags and spires, green in general but ice-blue
in the towering middle regions; and its northwestern
point, the point which the Surprise
must weather if she were to have any chance
of escaping destruction, and the point for
which the American was steering with such
energy, ended in a sheer ice-cliff, much worn,
fretted into pinnacles.
To begin with the American, with his full
man-of-war's complement of hands, had been