16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
dock in under a month. So he said he would
stretch away to the westward for a while on
the chance of an English whaler or a China
ship and then lie off the Chinchas again: and
he told us the sea thirty leagues to the westnorth-west
was full of whales, thick with
whales. We sailed together, separating
gradually, and the day after we had sunk his
topgallants there we were in the middle of
them, spouting all round the compass.'
'Tell me about her guns.'
'Thirty-two nine-pounders, sir, or maybe
twelves; in any case all brass. Besides her
chasers. I never seen a privateer so set out.
But I did not like to go aboard or look too curious,
let alone ask no questions, not with that
crowd of villains.'
'Was their black flag in earnest?'
'Oh yes, sir; deadly earnest. They were as