16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
she had meant to fill up her hold with seals'
skin down at Mas Afuera – but those Surprises,
and there were several of them, who
had been on the Nootka run and who had
conversed with their prisoners, knew that in
sea-otter skins and beaver alone the able
seaman's share of the prize would be in the
nature of ninety-three pieces of eight; and it
was a cheerful ship that her Captain was now
about to inspect.
The starboard watch had already brought up
their clothes bags, arranging them in a low
pyramid on the booms, and the larbowlines
were laying theirs in a neat square far aft on
the quarterdeck when Jack appeared. As he
had done a thousand times on such occasions
he cast an eye at the sea, the sky, and the
ship's trim: literally an eye, for even if the other
had not been hidden by a bandage it could
not bear this brilliant light, whilst in the dim-