Post Captain (Aubrey & Maturin, #2)

by Patrick O'Brian

a stuffed whale or a double-headed ape got with child by the bosun.

‘I have the best part of a wife!! viz, her heart!!’

‘Now listen, Jack, will you? I am somewhat given to lying: my occasions require it from time to time. But I do not choose to have any man alive tell me of it.’