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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“Damme, sir!” said Bligh, turning to Nelson.

“Many’s the time I’ve eaten worse than this on His Majesty’s ships.”

“And many a better meal you have enjoyed less, I dare say,” Nelson replied.

“I’ve served on ships,” said Fryer, “where we’d not such a meal for six months together.”

“Aye,” said the captain. “Hunger’s the only sauce. It was damn near worth starving for a month to have such a relish for victuals.... Do you mind what day it is, Mr. Nelson?”

“What day? I could not be sure of telling you within a week.”

“It is Friday, the twenty-ninth of May: the anniversary of the Restoration of King Charles the Second. We shall call this Restoration Island, in his memory. The name will serve in a double sense. We have been restored, God knows!”

Employing some self-restraint, I managed to eat my share so as to take a full half hour to finish it. Fryer, I observed, gulped his down in an instant, and held out his shell for the few spoonfuls left over for every man. Purcell and Lenkletter played the gluttons as well, and I was forced to warn Simpson, still in a very weak state, against swallowing his food too fast.