The French Admiral

Серия: Lewrie, книга 2

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Requests for such permissions should be addressed to McBooks Press, Inc., ID Booth Building, 520 North Meadow St., Ithaca, NY 14850.

Cover painting by Dennis Lyall, courtesy of Tall Ships Books.

This one's for

DEREK ROOKE

Former Lieutenant, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve

A "Wavy Navy" fighter pilot, who first "got my feet wet" in '76 aboard Seafire off Gulfport and Biloxi.

See what you started?

And for your good lady Louise, and Chris

and Charlotte Rooke of Rooke Sails, Memphis.

But didn't we look grand

touched mahoghany by the sun

with sweat salt and sea salt grit

in that millpond quiet harbor,

everything bagged and furled

and the motor grumbling the pier

with white eyes and white teeth beaming

in the last glimmer of a scarlet sky

as we laughed to finish fifth in class?

Didn't we share a conjurement

a God-hell knockdown wonder

And weren't we so alive?

Coelum non animum qui trans mare currunt.

Those who cross the seas change climate but not their character.