16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
leeward scuppers and the watch huddled under
the break of the quarterdeck, that it was
impossible to strike seven bells.
Yet half-past three in the morning it was;
Stephen's watch said so, and as it was telling
the hour so Stephen, for the second time in his
life and in the same ship, was woken by an
enormous noise or combination of noises that
he instantly recognized. The frigate had surely
been struck by lightning.
She had indeed. Her mainmast was utterly
shattered, its fragments flung into the sea: its
yards, however, lay athwartships, and like the
foremast they were quite untouched. The ship
had at once put before the wind, whatever the
helmsmen might do; but as the snow and rain
had calmed the sea she was reasonably
steady, though unmanageable, and Stephen
was soon called down to the sick-berth.