16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
ning-conductor, our best Snow Harris lightning-conductor;
and when I told him of it he
had the provoking effrontery to defend his action
on the grounds that everyone knew that
metal attracts the flesh and that a glass ball at
the masthead was the only true safeguard.
And as for the other things, they were quite
worn out.'
Discussing the perils of the sea in general
and of lightning in particular came very near
to talking shop, an act less criminal than sodomy
(which carried the death sentence) but
not very much so, and the gunroom cast some
nervous looks at their guest the Captain, a
stickler for naval etiquette; but since it was
clear both from his thoroughly amiable expression
and his own anecdotes that lightning
was this side of the barrier between right and
wrong, the subject occupied the company for