16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
Jack.
In fact the big American did not round the
point until well on in the afternoon. The devoted
brig had not only lost her yard, shot
through in the slings, but had also stopped a
nine-pounder ball just under the waterline and
sprung a butt: water and pieces of ice were
pouring into her. By this time the Surprise,
keeping the wind one and two points on her
starboard quarter as far as the ice allowed it,
had travelled ten miles in a straight line –
more of course when her deviations to avoid
icebergs and close-packed ice-fields were
counted – and it was from this distance, the
fog having largely cleared, that at last her
lookout saw the big American. Yet she too
would have to thread those devious channels
and circumvent the same islands, and Jack sat
down to his belated dinner with as easy a