16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
into the cavity of his thorax, into his pleura,
with the strangest effect on one lung. This they
discussed at length, in Latin, to the great satisfaction
of the sick-berth, where heads turned
gravely from one speaker to the other, nodding
from time to time, while the patient himself
looked modestly down and Padeen Colman,
Dr Maturin's almost monoglot Irish servant
and loblolly-boy, wore his Mass-going
reverential face.
They never heard the orders that attended the
swaying-up of the new topgallantmast, an
anxious business at such a height and with
such a swell; nor did they hear the cry of
'Launch ho!' as the bosun's mate at the topmast
head banged the fid home through the
heel of the topgallantmast, thus supporting it
on the topmast trestle-tree. The complex business
of securing the long unhandy pole escaped
them too – an exceedingly complex