Ah, Mr. Webster says:
**within ** prep…(3) : in or into the range of <reach> <sight>.
I don’t know what it means exactly. Lying close by, maybe? Lying between the frigate and the land? “Lying within” isn’t in my Sea of Words glossary.
AuntiePam, did you enjoy that seen where Stephen falls in the water when trying to come aboard ship? It gets to the point where, later in the series, there’s a scene where Pullings is expecting a visit from Stephen and he goes ahead and orders a bowl of oil to be prepared for Stephen’s watch.
Sweet oil. 
In The Ionian Mission Stephen jumps in for a dip just as Surprise goes in pursuit. They almost miss there prize, and the mariners who usually worship him are quite put out.
Oh lord, I laughed! I shouldn’t have, because he was hurt, but it’s such a good running joke. My impression of Stephen is that he’s a bit frail, but he really should learn how to get on and off the ships.
Oh, and what is “drowned baby”? They had that for dinner.
It is a desert.
My best guess: the ship lying within (the lea of) the frigate.
What I like about the book is how defeated foes were treated-enemy officers were brothers-and dined in the wardroom with the ship’s officers.
If you put up a gallant fight, and then surrendered your sword, Aubrey would treat you with respect and courtesy.
That attitude became a casualty of the 20th century wars.
Thanks! I don’t think my store carries shredded suet. Guess I won’t be trying this recipe. Or the salted penguins.
Kizarvexius, yeah, that sounds likely.
ralph124c, I like that too, and how after a ship strikes its colors, the men have to stop hitting each other. It reminded me of a teacher showing up at a schoolyard fight.
You probably don’t want this book then. And even though I started a thread on it, suet wasn’t actually hard to find - it was in the novelty meats section of my local supermarket. I’d bet any market that cuts its own meat would have it or be able to give you some. Had to shred it myself though.
Or the soused hog’s face. Or the millers. :eek:
Especially not the millers.
You must always select the lesser of two weevils.
You should only eat them when they are dead.
Was that the best pun Jack ever came up with? I think so. He strains so, trying to be funny. He values wit but doesn’t have much of it himself.
Another thing I like about the books is that people are always wishing each other joy. I’m gonna work that into conversation, I think. It’s so sweet.
Haven’t run across anyone eating millers yet, unless I forgot. I think I’d remember. Blech. They’re so dusty!
If you’re reading the books in order, you have.
Actually, Jack’s best puns are the unintentional ones, when he mangles his languages. My Latin, French and Spanish are not much better than Jack’s, but a few of his lapsi linguarum have nearly sent me to the hospital with uncontrollable fits of mirth. This is seconded only by Stephen’s habit of deliberately mangling the captain’s saws. “They have had their cake, and now they must lie down in it,” for example.
And if you’ve read the passage in which the term “miller” is etymologized, then you’re read about them being eaten. Recall the episode in which Dr. Maturin’s “lab rats” are scavaged by the midshipmen, who are subsequently subjected to a form of revenge only a doctor could concoct.
SO explain some of them to use. I recognized “putain” in one, which I presume means prostitute, but most go by.
Oh yes, millers are rats. I was thinking the weevils they knock out of hardtack.
“I didn’t mean to eat him, Sir, but he was already dead.”
Millers are rats? I missed that, or forgot. Sometimes I’ll stop and try to puzzle something out, but usually I’m so caught up, I just keep reading.
Most of them whoosh right by me as well. I often suspect from the setup that something witty has just flown past my head, but I don’t have the erudition to catch up to it. I will try to locate one or two of the howlers I did latch onto when I have the books at hand this evening.
“Millers” are rats, yes; the weevils (or at least one species of them) they called “bargemen”.
Soldiers in the American Civil War also ate a lot of weevils in their hardtack. B.A. Botkin’s Treasury of Southern Folklore has a funny story of Confederate soldiers in the trenches before Petersburg being reproved by an officer for not throwing their scraps out of the trench: “We tried, sir, but they kept crawling back!”