16 The Wine-Dark Sea - Libro della tutto

Patrick O'Brian The Wine-Dark Sea
in the recent blow had been. Though the ship
was heavy with prize-goods such as ambergris
and cloth of gold taken from the Alastor, with
specie, mostly chests of silver, and with provisions
of a quantity and above all a quality to
make a flagship stare, she had scarcely a stick
to call her own.
'After endless lamentations and if only's', said
Jack as he and Stephen were settling to their
music, 'it was decided that by using the
launch's mast and the rough-tree rail we could
raise stump enough and gaff enough to
spread a tolerable mizen. Enough, at all
events, to sail with the wind ahead at a moderate
pace without straining the rudder right
off its pintles; and if it ain't elegant why, be
damned to elegance.'
'What are pintles?'
'Those right-angled pieces in the front of the