16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
'I shall be the same in two minutes. It was a
right hard day and night.' He paused with one
foot on the ladder and said, 'Surely it is uncommon
to see lightning in these latitudes?'
'Oh, I have known it often enough,' said
Grainger. 'Not so often as between the tropics,
but pretty often. Only down here you don't
linger on deck, so perhaps it seems much
rarer.'
Four bells, and it began to snow: the Surprise
was keeping to her sober five knots.
Six bells, and the wind strengthened, growing
so changeable that once the ship was almost
taken aback. Grainger close-reefed the foretopsail,
and almost immediately afterwards the
sky was covered entirely – no moon, no stars –
and without a warning a violent rain, mixed
with sleet, came hurtling down, so violent and
so continued, with water jetting wide from the