16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
able to spread more canvas in spite of the
damage and slaughter of that brief pointblank
engagement and to make up some of
the lost distance; but now that the Surprises
had set their gun-deck in order they evened
the difference and both ships raced through
the frigid sea with everything their masts could
bear, bowlines twanging taut, both firing
chasers as they ran.
Jack left the gunnery to Pullings and Mr
Smith. He stood at the con, sailing the ship,
getting every inch of windward distance out of
the wind's thrust, calculating leeway, gazing at
the fatal cliff with his good eye, feeling the
pain in his heart as the bows and cutwater hit
drifting ice, a terribly frequent sound and
sometimes very dangerous. He dared not ship
a protective bow-grace: he could not risk the
slightest diminution of the frigate's speed.
It was with the horror of a nightmare that he