英語聽書《白鯨記》第849期

所屬教程:英語聽書《白鯨記》

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2019年04月25日

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Chapter 101 The Decanter

第一百零一章圓酒瓶

Ere the English ship fades from sight be it set down here, that she hailed from London, and was named after the late Samuel Enderby, merchant of that city, the original of the famous whaling house of enderby and sons; a house which in my poor whaleman's opinion, comes not far behind the united royal houses of the Tudors and Bourbons, in point of real historical interest. How long, prior to the year of our Lord 1775, this great whaling house was in existence, my numerous fish-documents do not make plain; but in that year (1775) it fitted out the first English ships that ever regularly hunted the Sperm Whale; though for some score of years previous (ever since 1726) our valiant Coffins and Maceys of Nantucket and the Vineyard had in large fleets pursued the Leviathan, but only in the North and South Atlantic: not elsewhere. Be it distinctly recorded here, that the Nantucketers were the first among mankind to harpoon with civilized steel the great Sperm Whale; and that for half a century they were the only people of the whole globe who so harpooned him.

趁那艘英國船還遙遙在望的時候，這里不妨提一下，那艘船來自倫敦，并且以倫敦一個商人——已故的撒母耳·恩德比，也就是著名的恩德比父子捕鯨公司的創(chuàng)始人——為名；就我這捕鯨人的微薄的見識，以歷史考據(jù)的觀點說來，這個公司的開設(shè)時期，大約并不遲于都鐸和波旁聯(lián)合王朝的時代。不過，在公元一七七五年之前，這個大捕鯨公司究竟已經(jīng)開了多久，我雖然查考了許多捕魚文獻還是弄不明白：但是，在那一年（一七七五年），正是第一批正式獵捕抹香鯨的英國船只整裝出發(fā)的一年；雖然大約在幾十年前（自一七二六年以來），我們英勇的南塔開特的科芬族和維恩耶特的梅西族的船只早已成群結(jié)隊地追擊過了大鯨（只限于南北大西洋一帶，還沒有到過別的地方）。因此，這里必須明確地記錄下來，南塔開特人是人類中首先以文明的武器去打擊大抹香鯨的人；而且在整整半個世紀中，他們就是全球中這樣打擊過抹香鯨的唯一的民族。

In 1778, a fine ship, the Amelia, fitted out for the express purpose, and at the sole charge of the vigorous Enderbys, boldly rounded Cape Horn, and was the first among the nations to lower a whale-boat of any sort in the great South Sea.

一七七八年，有一艘叫做阿美利亞的漂亮的船，目標鮮明地整裝出發(fā)，而且是在剛勇的恩德比家的獨家經(jīng)營下，勇敢地環(huán)繞了合恩角，成為世界各國在南海放下第一只小艇的船只。