Chapter 12
Stormy PassagePetroc lowered the spyglass. “Wind’s freshening from the north. It has the bite of ice to it.” It was worrying that the convoy was spread out over a large area, and the senior ship of the escort was already invisible somewhere to leeward and far ahead of the Kestrel.
“Aye, sir. To be expected at this season. ‘Tis late in the year to be running a convoy, an’ with a convoy like this one...” The Master left his comment unfinished. From the outset, there had been a problem holding the merchantmen together. This was, in part, because some were better sailors than others, but many of the masters were eager to reach their homeports and resented having to sail with so many slower ships.
“True, but the delays in assembling the cargoes have held it back. Now it seems we a
