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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“Well, I’m damned!” said Nelson, with a laugh.

“Have just a crumb as an appetizer. We did, the lot of us,” said Tinkler. “Mr. Ledward, what about you?”

“Wait!” Hayward exclaimed. “Don’t you give ’em a ration, Tinkler, without weighing it. Where’s Captain Bligh’s scales?”

It warmed my heart to see them in such a merry mood, and the Bounty bread—the sight of it, at least—was indeed the best of reminders of misery past and done with.

“Is this all that was left in the launch, Tinkler?” Nelson asked.

“Yes, sir.”

“We’ve been making an estimate, Mr. Nelson,” said Hayward. “What you see on the platter would have lasted the eighteen of us another eleven days, had we not had the misfortune of finding Coupang.”

“Save for our abominable luck in landing amongst the Dutch, we might even have got home on it,” Tinkler added. “What do you think, boatswain?”

Cole looked up from his plate, holding his fork erect in his fist.

“I’ll say this, Mr. Tinkler,” he replied gravely. “If Captain Bligh was forced to take us all the way to England in the launch, with no more bread than what’s on that plate, I’ll warrant he could do it if we’d back him up.”