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

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The boatswain smacked his lips. “There’ll be fine pickings, sir, once we find a passage. Cockles, and clams, and who knows what!”

“We’ll find a way in, never fear. From our latitude, we should sight the land close to Providential Channel, through which Captain Cook sailed the Endeavour.”

Nelson lay on the floor boards, listening to the talk as coolly as if dining with the captain aboard the Bounty.

“From what I have heard Captain Cook say,” he remarked, “there must be many passages leading in to the sheltered water. No doubt we shall have several to choose from.”

“So I believe,” said Bligh.

At about nine o’clock that night, the captain lay down beside me to sleep.

“Keep a sharp lookout, Mr. Cole,” he said; “we may be closer to the reefs than we suppose.”

A swell from the east had set in, but the breeze was steady and light, and there were no whitecaps to wet us with spray. I lay half in a doze, half in a stupor, for several hours, listening to Bligh’s quiet breathing. At last I fell asleep.