16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
pointed, aware of an emptiness. He managed
to get up the side with a shove, but only just.
Even in his present state he loved his ship and
he was heartily glad to be alive and aboard
her again, but he could not cope with the
quarterdeck's awed congratulations nor with
the open amazement of all hands before the
mast. He went as steadily as he could down
the companion ladder and to his cabin, and
when he had drunk four pints of water – more,
he thought vaguely, would amount to that excess
so fatal to cows, horses and sheep – he
looked at Plaice and Ben in their hammocks,
washed the filth from his person, threw off his
clothes, ate six eggs with soft-tack, followed by
a whole water-melon, and stretched out on his
cot, his eyes closing as his head went down.
A little after sunset he climbed up from a bottomless
sleep, in a ship as silent as the grave,
the light fading fast. He gathered himself into