"A leafless forest of mast and spar and rigging lifted against the bright stars and crescent moon, and that light and the lanterns atop the wall reflected from the rippling waters. A creak and groan of timber sounded through the night, wind in the tracework of rigging, call of a watchman, the sound of waves slapping like wet hands at the planking of hulls. There was a thick smell of the sea, of brackish water and tar, bilges and cargoes."
-SM Stirling, On The Oceans Of Night (New York, 2000), Chapter Four, p. 74.
The sounds are meticulously listed. Waves like wet hands! What were the cargoes?
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, very Andersonian, this use by Stirling of the senses and the metaphors he used. I also tried to find out what some of those cargoes were by looking up page 74 and the pages immediately before and after it. No luck, but then it was largely about King Isketerol's meeting with William Walker's emissary Odikweos and the samples of the more advanced arms sent to Tartessos. Along with manuals on how to make them. In return Isketerol promised to send Walker more cotton and quicksilver.
Sean
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