'These youngsters think too much of their ease,' said Jack. 'They are nothing but a parcel of helots.'
'Pray have helots a particular nautical signification, like dogs, mice, fishes and so on?' asked Stephen.
'Oh no, just the ordinary sense of idle young devils, you know - limbs of Satan. I must stir them up, and make their lives a misery.'
This is ( Read more... )

I read the first two Aubrey/Maturin books many many years ago, and while I enjoyed them I never quite got into the habit of pursuing the series. A couple of years back I picked up Desolation Island from Bookmooch (which seems incidentally to have lurched back into activity in the last month or so, which is good news) and have now submitted to ( Read more... )