16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
pray help yourself to bacon and pass the dish
– I will show you something more extraordinary
by far. Our rudder has gone by the
board.'
'Oh, oh,' cried Stephen, aghast. 'Are we rudderless,
so?'
'I will not deceive you, brother: we are without
a rudder. Do you remember asking me
about pintles?' Stephen nodded, still much
concerned. 'Well, it appears that at some
point in our dreadful passage through the
drift-ice a great floe must have lifted the pintles
off the dumb-chalder and the braces, or
most of them, and destroyed the wood-locks,
so that it was hanging by little more than the
tiller. We did not notice it, since we barely
touched the helm sailing large; but when the
lightning struck the rudder-head, shattering all
down to the water-line, why, it dropped clean
away.' He pointed to the shattered, blackened