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4bfc054
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Babbington] "What did [the Doctor, Stephen] do to you, sir?" [Captain Aubrey] "Well, I am ashamed to say he took a pistol-ball out of the small of my back. It must have been when I turned to hail for more hands- thank God I did not. At the time I thought it was one of those vile horses that were capering about abaft the wheel." "Oh, sir, surely a horse would never have fired off a pistol?"
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wounds
horses
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Patrick O'Brian |
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62df8c5
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Jack was already mother-naked when he heard the cry and saw the splash. He slipped from the gunwale into the clear water, made out the vague form at a surprising depth, dived, fished it up, swam to the ship, now a hundred yards away, roared for a line, passed the inanimate Herapath up the side, and followed himself. 'Mr Pullings,'he cried, very angry. 'Put an end to this infernal hallooing instantly. Always the same God-damned foolery, ever..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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e2950e6
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Jack was led out of the dark room into the strong light, and as they guided him up the steps he could see nothing for the glare. 'Your head here sir, if you please,' said the sheriff's man in a low, nervous, conciliating voice, 'and your hands just here.' The man was slowly fumbling with the bolt, hinge and staple, and as Jack stood there with his hands in the lower half-rounds, his sight cleared: he saw that the broad street was filled..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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9d114f8
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Yet,'said Maturin, pursuing his own thought, 'there is a quality in dogs, I must confess, rarely to be seen elsewhere and that is affection: I do not mean the violent possessive protective love for their owner but rather that mild, steady attachment to their friends that we see quite often in the best sort of dog. And when you consider the rarity of plain disinterested affection among our own kind, once we are adult, alas - when you conside..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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d338969
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Of course I do know it is the French who are so wicked; but there are all these people who keep coming and going - the Austrians, the Spaniards, the Russians. Pray, are the Russians good now? It would be very shocking - treason no doubt - to put the wrong people in my prayers.
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war
shifting-enemies
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Patrick O'Brian |
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e3898e4
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There is a systematic flocci-nauci-nihili-pilification of all other aspects of existence that angers me.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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ae8e520
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You are to consider that a certain melancholy and often a certain irascibility accompany advancing age: indeed it might be said that advancing age equals ill-temper. On reaching the middle years a man perceives that he is no longer able to do certain things, that what looks he may have had are deserting him, that he has a ponderous great belly, and that however much he may yet burn he is no longer attractive to women; and he rebels. Fortitu..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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51cea15
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Well, damme, William, I am sorry: I am very sorry, indeed I am. But injustice is a rule of the service, as you know very well; and since you have to have a good deal of undeserved abuse, you might just as well have it from your friends.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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0779e1f
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A puma is not a bird," said Tobias, after a hundred paces. "It is a kind of cat - felis concolor. You may see it soon: it is moving along with us, on the right." The word brought nothing into Jack's mind but a fleeting image of a shabby, brownish-black little creature called Tib that disgraced the drawing-room at home, and he plodded on in silence. Every hundred yards or so they changed shoulders, and during the third change there was a c..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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9344c0f
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For my own part,' said Captain Aubrey, 'I have no notion of disliking a man for his beliefs, above all if he was born with them. I find I can get along very well with Jews or even...' The P of Papists was already formed, and the word was obliged to come out as Pindoos.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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d96a6bd
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I was talking about children that have not been properly house-trained. Left to their own impulses and indulged by doting or careless parents almost all children are yahoos. Loud, selfish, cruel, unaffectionate, jealous, perpetually striving for attention, empty-headed, for ever prating or if words fail them simply bawling, their voices grown huge from daily practice: the very worst company in the world. But what I dislike even more than th..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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66d3a19
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And she hates being managed - that is not the word I want. What is it, Maturin?' 'Manipulated.' 'Exactly. She is a dutiful girl - a great sense of duty: I think it rather stupid, but there it is - but still she finds the way her mother has been arranging and pushing and managing and angling in all this perfectly odious. You two must have had hogsheads of that grocer's claret forced down your throats. Perfectly odious: and she is obstinate -..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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3efd53d
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Rested, shaved, coffee'd, steaked, you will be a different man.
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rest
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Patrick O'Brian |
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4413f77
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They made him [Stephen] a little canvas boat, and it was thought that if he were obliged to wear two sea-elephant's bladders, blown up and attached to his person, he could not come to harm in such a placid sea; but after an unfortunate experience in which he became involved in his umbrella and it was found that the bladders buoyed up his meagre hams alone, so that only the presence of Babbington's Newfoundland preserved him, he was forbidde..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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352fbd0
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Come all you thoughtless young men, a warning take by me And never leave your happy homes to sail the raging sea.
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sea-shanty
aubreyad
master-and-commander
the-far-side-of-the-world
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Patrick O'Brian |
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c6f3336
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For you must know, gentlemen, that when the mariner is dosed, he likes to know that he has been dosed: with fifteen grains or even less of this valuable substance scenting him and the very air about him there can be no doubt of the matter; and such is the nature of the human mind that he experiences a far greater real benefit than the drug itself would provide, were it deprived of its stench.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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792c03e
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They were furious. Did he not know he might catch cold? Why did he not answer their hail? It was no good his telling them he had not heard; they knew better; he had not got flannel ears--Why had he not waited for them? --What was a boat for? Was this a proper time to go a-swimmin? -- Did he think this was midsummer? Or Lammas? -- He was to see how cold he was, blue an trembling like a fucking jelly -- Would a new-joined ships boy have done ..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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c6eb733
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When Jack came in he found him sitting before a tray of bird's skins and labels. Stephen looked up, and after a moment said, 'To a tormented mind there is nothing, I believe, more irritating than comfort. Apart from anything else it often implies superior wisdom in the comforter. But I am very sorry for your trouble, my dear.' 'Thank you, Stephen. Had you told me that there was always a tomorrow, I think I should have thrust your calendar d..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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f9e65ac
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The event caused a certain amount of ribaldry and a fair number of sentences depriving men of their grog for playing the God-damned fool, an offense that came under Article Thirty-six 'All other crimes not capital, committed by any person or persons in the fleet, which are not mentioned in this act, or for which no punishment is hereby directed to be inflicted, shall be punished according to the laws and customs in such cases used at sea,' ..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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bcc50fc
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Jack and Stephen were neither of them human until the first pot of coffee was down, hot and strong.
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coffee-lifestyle
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Patrick O'Brian |
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0ec578a
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Trollops are capital things in port, but will not do at sea.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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d65e5c7
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Martin was a thoroughly amiable man, a man of wide reading, but when he came to write he mounted upon a pair of stilts, unusually lofty stilts, and staggered along at a most ungracious pace, with an occasional awkward lurch into colloquialism, giving a strikingly false impression of himself.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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7af75e6
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Oh, what is that bird?' 'It is a wheatear. We have seen between two and three hundred since we set out, and I have told you their name twice, nay, three times.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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5ab13ec
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I have never yet known a man admit that he was either rich or asleep.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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944911a
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There is so much ignorant prejudice against bees in a dining-room.
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Patrick o'brian |
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694c8b9
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What's wrong with (Captain) Jack Aubrey?" "Everything, since he has a command and I have not."
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rebellion
jealousy
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Patrick O'Brian |
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b10b9b7
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They played, not beautifully but deep, ignoring their often discordant strings and striking right into the heart of the music they knew best, the true notes acting as their milestones. On the poop above their heads, where the weary helmsmen tended the new steering-oar and Babbington stood at the con, the men listened intently; it was the first sound of human life that they had heard, apart from the brief Christmas merriment, for a time they..
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sea-stories
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Patrick O'Brian |
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cfff4e6
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Were you ever in Elsinore, Mr Jagiello?' asked Jack. Oh, many a time, sir,' said Jagiello. 'I know it well. I believe I could show you Hamlet's grave from here.' I was really wondering whether they had ten or thirteen inch mortars on the upper terrace,' said Jack, 'but I should be very happy to see Hamlet's grave as well.' Both ten and thirteen, sir. And if you go a little to the right from the farthest turret, there are some trees: and amo..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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96c786d
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If men were to consider what they were at - if if they were to look around them, and reflect upon the cost of life in a universe where prisons, brothels, madhouses, and regiments of men armed and trained to kill other men are so very common - why, I doubt we should see many of these poor mewling little larval victims, so often a present misery to their parents and a future menace to their kind.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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bad2600
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If I were a woman I should march out with a flaming torch and a sword; I should emasculate right and left.
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stephen-maturin
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Patrick O'Brian |
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42044ed
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Stephen's heart was big to bursting with the violence of his grief, yet even as he looked distractedly from side to side his mind told him that there was something amiss, the more so as the cheering had now almost entirely died away. The whaler had a huge spread of canvas aboard, far too great a press of sail for her possibly to enter the lagoon: she was tearing along with a great bow-wave and she sped past the mouth of the farther channel...
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endings-and-beginnings
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Patrick O'Brian |
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cfe3a04
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The lookout that first sights the cat shall have ten guineas and remission of sins, short of mutiny, sodomy, or damaging the paintwork.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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9314519
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Killick was a cross-grained bastard, who supposed that if he sprinkled his discourse with a good many sirs, the words in between did not signify:
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Patrick O'Brian |
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1f406cc
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Any innocent pleasure is a real good: there are not so many of them.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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22308f2
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Sure, it is weak and illiberal to speak slightingly of any considerable body of men; yet it so happens that the only judges I have known have been froward companions, and it occurs to me that not only are they subjected to the evil influence of authority but also to that of righteous indignation, which is even more deleterious. Those who judge and sentence criminals address them with an unbridled, vindictive righteousness that would be exce..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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0e5b074
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Hatred the only moving force, a petulant unhappy striving - childhood the only happiness, and that unknowing; then the continual battle that cannot ever possibly be won; a losing fight against ill-health - poverty for nearly all. Life is a long disease with only one termination and its last years are appalling: weak, racked by the stone, rheumatismal pains, senses going, friends, family, occupation gone, a man must pray for imbecility or a ..
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Patrick O'Brian |
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976b364
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I read novels with the utmost pertinaity. I look upon them - I look upon good novels - as a very valuable part of literature, conveying more exact and finely-distinguished knowledge of the human heart and mind than almost any other, with greater beadth and depth and fewer contraints.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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5d57ce1
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Compulsion is the death of friendship.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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1ca87a6
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Jack had never been a hypocrite until he became a father, and even now it did not come easy.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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76aaa5f
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Let us drink to the renewed success of Irish arms, and confusion to the Pope.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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265991a
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Are you very much attached to money?' asked Stephen. 'I love it passionately,' said Jack, with truth ringing clear in his voice. 'I have always been poor, and I long to be rich.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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f26ffbf
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Where there was no equality there was no companionship: when a man was obliged to say 'Yes, sir,' his agreement was of no worth even if it happened to be true.
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Patrick O'Brian |
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c31c063
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Within himself Jack had not the slightest doubt of victory, but it would never do to let this conviction take the form of even unspoken words; it must remain in the state of that inward glow which had inhabited him ever since the retaking of the Africaine, and which had now increased to fill the whole of his heart - a glow that he believed to be his most private secret, although in fact it was evident to everyone aboard from Stephen Maturin..
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victory
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Patrick O'Brian |
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9fc9d0f
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First there was the sky, high, pure and of a darker blue than he had ever seen. And then there was the sea, a lighter, immensely luminous blue that reflected blue into the air, the shadows and the sails; a sea that stretched away immeasurably when the surge raised the frigate high, showing an orderly array of great crests, each three furlongs from its predecessor, and all sweeping eastwards in an even, majestic procession.
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Patrick O'Brian |