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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“I had hoped to take the launch,” said Bligh. “She should be placed in the museum of the Admiralty. A finer boat was never built! I love her, every frame and plank!”

“How did you fare at the auction?” asked Sparling.

Bligh laughed ruefully. “Damned badly!” he replied. “If I may remark upon it, sir, your method of conducting an auction strikes me as inferior to ours.”

“Yes, from the seller’s standpoint. I have attended your English auctions. Where the bids mount higher and higher, the bidders are apt to lose their heads.”

“You should have been there, Ledward,” said Bligh. “They set a high figure at first, which the auctioneer brings down gradually until someone bids. Small danger of losing one’s head when there can be only one bid! Several Dutch captains were on hand; half a dozen Malays, a Chinaman or two, and some others—God knows what they may have been! There was one Englishman present besides ourselves,—Captain John Eddie, commanding a ship from Bengal. He’d come merely to look on, not to bid. The auctioneer put up the schooner first, at two thousand rix-dollars. The figure came down to three hundred, without an offer! By God, Mr. Sparling, a Scot or a Jew would starve to death in competition with your seafaring countrymen! At three hundred, an old Chinaman showed signs of interest, casting shrewd glances at a Dutch captain standing close by. At two hundred and ninety-five, Captain Eddie raised his hand. By God! I was grateful to him for that! The price was not a third of her value, but Eddie kept those bloody sharks from getting her. It warmed my heart to see their disappointment.”