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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When all the oysters had been opened, we found that they and their liquor filled the pot to within four inches of the brim. Captain Bligh ordered Samuel to weigh out a twenty-fifth of a pound of bread for each man, making three quarters of a pound in all. A pound of fat pork was now cut up very fine and thrown into the stew, already beginning to bubble over a brisk fire. I was sitting with Nelson on the lee side, inhaling savoury whiffs of steam that drifted past.

“Let us add a quart of sea water,” said the master to Mr. Bligh. “It will serve as salt, and make the stew go further.”

“No, Mr. Fryer. What with oysters and the pork, it will be salty enough as it is.”

“We could add fresh water to make more of it. There’ll not be enough to go round.”

“Not enough, with a full pint each?” said Bligh impatiently. “If it will do for me, it will do for yourself, sir.”

Fryer said no more.

Presently the stew was ready. It was served out in Bligh’s own coconut shell, known to hold exactly a pint. My own shell held double that, and when I had been served I wished with the master that the amount might have been more. The crumbled bits of bread had boiled down to mingle with the liquor from the oysters and the fat pork, forming a sauce an alderman might not have despised. I tasted a small quantity with a little spoon I had whittled out of a bit of driftwood.