Читать книгу Men Against the Sea – Book Set. The Greatest Maritime Adventure Novels: The Bounty Trilogy, Lost Island, The Hurricane, Botany Bay, The Far Lands, Tales of the South Seas… онлайн

268 страница из 953

I made him known to Tehani, and as he pressed her hand young Tom Ellison came up to me. “What do you think of our ship, Mr. Byam?” he asked. “She’s only thirty feet long, but Mr. Morrison hopes to sail her to Batavia. We’ve christened her already: Resolution’s to be her name. By God, it takes resolution to build a ship without nails, or proper tools, or sawn-out plank!”

I shook hands with old Coleman, the Bounty’s armourer, and with the German cooper, Hillbrandt. Norman and McIntosh, the carpenter’s mates, were there, and Dick Skinner, the hairdresser who had been flogged in Adventure Bay. All worked with a will, under Morrison’s direction; some impelled by a desire to reach England, others, conscious of their guilt, by the fear that a British ship might take them before their little vessel could set sail.

At sunset the shipwrights laid down their tools, and, leaving Tehani to return to the house with Hina and my taio, I accompanied Morrison to his residence at the foot of One Tree Hill. He and Millward lived with the warrior Poino, their friend, a stone’s throw from Stewart’s house.