16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
with its promise of blinding squalls.
'Larbolines bowse,' cried Captain Aubrey,
watching the spare topmast with anxious care.
'Bowse away. Belay!' And to his first lieutenant,
'Oh Tom, how I hope the Doctor comes on
deck before the land vanishes.'
Tom Pullings shook his head. 'When last I
saw him, perhaps an hour ago, he could
hardly stand for sleep: blood up to the elbows
and blood where he had wiped his eyes.'
'It would be the world's pity, was he to miss
all this,' said Jack. He was no naturalist, but
from first light he had been very deeply impressed
not only by this mineral landscape but
also by the universal death all round as far as
eye could see. Countless fish of every kind,
most wholly unknown to him, lay dead upon
their sides; a sperm whale, not quite grey,
floated among them; abyssal forms, huge