Chapter 9 Summary

Ariel escorts the transports loaded with Catalan troops back to Admiral Samaurez's fleet. D'Ullastret meets Samaurez and civilities ensue. The ships then continue onward and rendezvous with a huge commercial fleet, intending to convoy through the Baltic straits. One morning Maturin and Jagiello go aloft through a low-lying fog—Maturin exults in the beautiful view which Aubrey refers to as the 'day blink.' The convoy proceeds onward through difficult waters. Pellworm, the Baltic pilot, mentions various omens and repeatedly states the voyage is doomed. Then disaster strikes—the ship's only chronometer is broken. Aubrey delivers a rather technical discussion of time and navigation to Maturin, in which he makes it clear that without a chronometer the ship will be unable to determine their correct longitude. The broken chronometer is replaced by Maturin's hack watch, which is noted to lose about...