16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
FIVE
The barrel, the first inanimate object they had
seen outside their own wooden world for what
already seemed an age, was watched intently
by all hands as it bobbed closer; and when at
last it came aboard, seized with some difficulty
by Bonden and Yardley, tossing on the choppy
sea in the Doctor's skiff, most of the Surprise's
former whalers came as far aft alongside the
gangway as was decent, for the cask was seen
to be bound with withies, not with iron hoops,
not man-of-war fashion nor even that of a
China-going ship.
'Mr Vidal,' said Jack, 'you have been in the
South Sea fishery: what do you make of it?'