Of one thing, if I am at all to trust my own annals, I was delightedly conscious. Day after day, in the sun-gilded cabin, the whiskey-dealer’s thermometer stood at 84. Day after day, the air had the same indescribable liveliness and sweetness, soft and nimble, and cool as the cheek of health. Day after day the sun flamed; night after night the moon beaconed, or the stars paraded their lustrous16 regiment17. I was aware of a spiritual change, or, perhaps, rather a molecular18 reconstitution. My bones were sweeter to me. I had come home to my own climate, and looked back with pity on those damp and wintry zones, miscalled the temperate19.
“Two years of this, and comfortable quarters to live in, kind of shake the grit20 out of a man,” the captain remarked; “can’t make out to be happy anywhere else. A townie of mine was lost down this way, in a coalship that took fire at sea. He struck the beach somewhere in the Navigators; and he wrote to me that when he left the place, it would be feet first. He’s well off, too, and his father owns some coasting craft Down East; but Billy prefers the beach, and hot rolls off the bread-fruit trees.”
A voice told me I was on the same track as Billy. But when was this? Our outward track in the Norah Creina lay well to the northward21; and perhaps it is but the impression of a few pet days which I have unconsciously spread longer, or perhaps the feeling grew upon me later, in the run to Honolulu. One thing I am sure: it was before I had ever seen an island worthy22 of the name that I must date my loyalty23 to the South Seas. The blank sea itself grew desirable under such skies; and wherever the trade-wind blows, I know no better country than a schooner’s deck.
But for the tugging24 anxiety as to the journey’s end, the journey itself must thus have counted for the best of holidays. My physical well-being was over-proof; effects of sea and sky kept me for ever busy with my pencil; and I had no lack of intellectual exercise of a different order in the study of my inconsistent friend, the captain. I call him friend, here on the threshold; but that is to look well ahead. At first, I was too much horrified25 by what I considered his barbarities, too much puzzled by his shifting humours, and too frequently annoyed by his small vanities, to regard him otherwise than as the cross of my existence. It was only by degrees, in his rare hours of pleasantness, when he forgot (and made me forget) the weaknesses to which he was so prone26, that he won me to a kind of unconsenting fondness. Lastly, the faults were all embraced in a more generous view: I saw them in their place, like discords28 in a musical progression; and accepted them and found them picturesque29, as we accept and admire, in the habitable face of nature, the smoky head of the volcano or the pernicious thicket30 of the swamp.
He was come of good people Down East, and had the beginnings of a thorough education. His temper had been ungovernable from the first; and it is likely the defect was inherited, and the blame of the rupture31 not entirely32 his. He ran away at least to sea; suffered horrible maltreatment, which seemed to have rather hardened than enlightened him; ran away again to shore in a South American port; proved his capacity and made money, although still a child; fell among thieves and was robbed; worked back a passage to the States, and knocked one morning at the door of an old lady whose orchard33 he had often robbed. The introduction appears insufficient34; but Nares knew what he was doing. The sight of her old neighbourly depredator shivering at the door in tatters, the very oddity of his appeal, touched a soft spot in the spinster’s heart. “I always had a fancy for the old lady,” Nares said, “even when she used to stampede me out of the orchard, and shake her thimble and her old curls at me out of the window as I was going by; I always thought she was a kind of pleasant old girl. Well, when she came to the door that morning, I told her so, and that I was stone-broke; and she took me right in, and fetched out the pie.” She clothed him, taught him, and had him to sea again in better shape, welcomed him to her hearth35 on his return from every cruise, and when she died bequeathed him her possessions. “She was a good old girl,” he would say. “I tell you, Mr. Dodd, it was a queer thing to see me and the old lady talking a pasear in the garden, and the old man scowling36 at us over the pickets37. She lived right next door to the old man, and I guess that’s just what took me there. I wanted him to know that I was badly beat, you see, and would rather go to the devil than to him. What made the dig harder, he had quarrelled with the old lady about me and the orchard: I guess that made him rage. Yes, I was a beast when I was young. But I was always pretty good to the old lady.” Since then he had prospered38, not uneventfully, in his profession; the old lady’s money had fallen in during the voyage of the Gleaner39, and he was now, as soon as the smoke of that engagement cleared away, secure of his ship. I suppose he was about thirty: a powerful, active man, with a blue eye, a thick head of hair, about the colour of oakum and growing low over the brow; clean-shaved and lean about the jaw40; a good singer; a good performer on that sea-instrument, the accordion41; a quick observer, a close reasoner; when he pleased, of a really elegant address; and when he chose, the greatest brute42 upon the seas.
His usage of the men, his hazing43, his bullying44, his perpetual fault-finding for no cause, his perpetual and brutal45 sarcasm46, might have raised a mutiny in a slave galley47. Suppose the steersman’s eye to have wandered: “You — — — — little, mutton-faced Dutchman,” Nares would bawl48; “you want a booting to keep you on your course! I know a little city-front slush when I see one. Just you glue your eye to that compass, or I’ll show you round the vessel49 at the butt-end of my boot.” Or suppose a hand to linger aft, whither he had perhaps been summoned not a minute before. “Mr. Daniells, will you oblige me by stepping clear of that main-sheet?” the captain might begin, with truculent50 courtesy. “Thank you. And perhaps you’ll be so kind as to tell me what the hell you’re doing on my quarter-deck? I want no dirt of your sort here. Is there nothing for you to do? Where’s the mate? Don’t you set ME to find work for you, or I’ll find you some that will keep you on your back a fortnight.” Such allocutions, conceived with a perfect knowledge of his audience, so that every insult carried home, were delivered with a mien51 so menacing, and an eye so fiercely cruel, that his unhappy subordinates shrank and quailed52. Too often violence followed; too often I have heard and seen and boiled at the cowardly aggression53; and the victim, his hands bound by law, has risen again from deck and crawled forward stupefied — I know not what passion of revenge in his wronged heart.
It seems strange I should have grown to like this tyrant54. It may even seem strange that I should have stood by and suffered his excesses to proceed. But I was not quite such a chicken as to interfere55 in public; for I would rather have a man or two mishandled than one half of us butchered in a mutiny and the rest suffer on the gallows56. And in private, I was unceasing in my protests.
“Captain,” I once said to him, appealing to his patriotism57, which was of a hardy58 quality, “this is no way to treat American seamen59. You don’t call it American to treat men like dogs?”
“Americans?” he said grimly. “Do you call these Dutchmen and Scattermouches [1] Americans? I’ve been fourteen years to sea, all but one trip under American colours, and I’ve never laid eye on an American foremast hand. There used to be such things in the old days, when thirty-five dollars were the wages out of Boston; and then you could see ships handled and run the way they want to be. But that’s all past and gone; and nowadays the only thing that flies in an American ship is a belaying-pin. You don’t know; you haven’t a guess. How would you like to go on deck for your middle watch, fourteen months on end, with all your duty to do and every one’s life depending on you, and expect to get a knife ripped into you as you come out of your stateroom, or be sand-bagged as you pass the boat, or get tripped into the hold, if the hatches are off in fine weather? That kind of shakes the starch61 out of the brotherly love and New Jerusalem business. You go through the mill, and you’ll have a bigger grudge62 against every old shellback that dirties his plate in the three oceans, than the Bank of California could settle up. No; it has an ugly look to it, but the only way to run a ship is to make yourself a terror.”
[1] In sea-lingo (Pacific) DUTCHMAN includes all Teutons and folk from the basin of the Baltic; SCATTERMOUCH, all Latins and Levantines.
“Come, Captain,” said I, “there are degrees in everything. You know American ships have a bad name; you know perfectly63 well if it wasn’t for the high wage and the good food, there’s not a man would ship in one if he could help; and even as it is, some prefer a British ship, beastly food and all.”
“O, the lime-juicers?” said he. “There’s plenty booting in lime- juicers, I guess; though I don’t deny but what some of them are soft.” And with that he smiled like a man recalling something. “Look here, that brings a yarn64 in my head,” he resumed; “and for the sake of the joke, I’ll give myself away. It was in 1874, I shipped mate in the British ship Maria, from ‘Frisco for Melbourne. She was the queerest craft in some ways that ever I was aboard of. The food was a caution; there was nothing fit to put your lips to — but the lime-juice, which was from the end bin15 no doubt: it used to make me sick to see the men’s dinners, and sorry to see my own. The old man was good enough, I guess; Green was his name; a mild, fatherly old galoot. But the hands were the lowest gang I ever handled; and whenever I tried to knock a little spirit into them, the old man took their part! It was Gilbert and Sullivan on the high seas; but you bet I wouldn’t let any man dictate65 to me. ‘You give me your orders, Captain Green,’ I said, ‘and you’ll find I’ll carry them out; that’s all you’ve got to say. You’ll find I do my duty,’ I said; ‘how I do it is my lookout66; and there’s no man born that’s going to give me lessons.’ Well, there was plenty dirt on board that Maria first and last. Of course, the old man put my back up, and, of course, he put up the crew’s; and I had to regular fight my way through every watch. The men got to hate me, so’s I would hear them grit their teeth when I came up. At last, one day, I saw a big hulking beast of a Dutchman booting the ship’s boy. I made one shoot of it off the house and laid that Dutchman out. Up he came, and I laid him out again. ‘Now,’ I said, ‘if there’s a kick left in you, just mention it, and I’ll stamp your ribs67 in like a packing-case.’ He thought better of it, and never let on; lay there as mild as a deacon at a funeral; and they took him below to reflect on his native Dutchland. One night we got caught in rather a dirty thing about 25 south. I guess we were all asleep; for the first thing I knew there was the fore-royal gone. I ran forward, bawling68 blue hell; and just as I came by the foremast, something struck me right through the forearm and stuck there. I put my other hand up, and by George! it was the grain; the beasts had speared me like a porpoise69. ‘Cap’n!’ I cried. —‘What’s wrong?’ says he. —‘They’ve grained me,’ says I. — ‘Grained you?’ says he. ‘Well, I’ve been looking for that.’—— ‘And by God,’ I cried, ‘I want to have some of these beasts murdered for it!’—‘Now, Mr. Nares,’ says he, ‘you better go below. If I had been one of the men, you’d have got more than this. And I want no more of your language on deck. You’ve cost me my fore-royal already,’ says he; ‘and if you carry on, you’ll have the three sticks out of her.’ That was old man Green’s idea of supporting officers. But you wait a bit; the cream’s coming. We made Melbourne right enough, and the old man said: ‘Mr. Nares, you and me don’t draw together. You’re a first-rate seaman70, no mistake of that; but you’re the most disagreeable man I ever sailed with; and your language and your conduct to the crew I cannot stomach. I guess we’ll separate.’ I didn’t care about the berth71, you may be sure; but I felt kind of mean; and if he made one kind of stink72, I thought I could make another. So I said I would go ashore73 and see how things stood; went, found I was all right, and came aboard again on the top rail. —‘Are you getting your traps together, Mr. Nares?’ says the old man. —‘No,’ says I, ‘I don’t know as we’ll separate much before ‘Frisco; at least,’ I said, ‘it’s a point for your consideration. I’m very willing to say good-by to the Maria, but I don’t know whether you’ll care to start me out with three months’ wages.’ He got his money-box right away. ‘My son,’ says he, ‘I think it cheap at the money.’ He had me there.”
It was a singular tale for a man to tell of himself; above all, in the midst of our discussion; but it was quite in character for Nares. I never made a good hit in our disputes, I never justly resented any act or speech of his, but what I found it long after carefully posted in his day-book and reckoned (here was the man’s oddity) to my credit. It was the same with his father, whom he had hated; he would give a sketch74 of the old fellow, frank and credible75, and yet so honestly touched that it was charming. I have never met a man so strangely constituted: to possess a reason of the most equal justice, to have his nerves at the same time quivering with petty spite, and to act upon the nerves and not the reason.
A kindred wonder in my eyes was the nature of his courage. There was never a braver man: he went out to welcome danger; an emergency (came it never so sudden) strung him like a tonic76. And yet, upon the other hand, I have known none so nervous, so oppressed with possibilities, looking upon the world at large, and the life of a sailor in particular, with so constant and haggard a consideration of the ugly chances. All his courage was in blood, not merely cold, but icy with reasoned apprehension77. He would lay our little craft rail under, and “hang on” in a squall, until I gave myself up for lost, and the men were rushing to their stations of their own accord. “There,” he would say, “I guess there’s not a man on board would have hung on as long as I did that time; they’ll have to give up thinking me no schooner sailor. I guess I can shave just as near capsizing as any other captain of this vessel, drunk or sober.” And then he would fall to repining and wishing himself well out of the enterprise, and dilate78 on the peril79 of the seas, the particular dangers of the schooner rig, which he abhorred80, the various ways in which we might go to the bottom, and the prodigious81 fleet of ships that have sailed out in the course of history, dwindled82 from the eyes of watchers, and returned no more. “Well,” he would wind up, “I guess it don’t much matter. I can’t see what any one wants to live for, anyway. If I could get into some one else’s apple-tree, and be about twelve years old, and just stick the way I was, eating stolen apples, I won’t say. But there’s no sense in this grown-up business — sailorising, politics, the piety83 mill, and all the rest of it. Good clean drowning is good enough for me.” It is hard to imagine any more depressing talk for a poor landsman on a dirty night; it is hard to imagine anything less sailor-like (as sailors are supposed to be, and generally are) than this persistent84 harping85 on the minor86.
But I was to see more of the man’s gloomy constancy ere the cruise was at an end.
On the morning of the seventeenth day I came on deck, to find the schooner under double reefs, and flying rather wild before a heavy run of sea. Snoring trades and humming sails had been our portion hitherto. We were already nearing the island. My restrained excitement had begun again to overmaster me; and for some time my only book had been the patent log that trailed over the taffrail, and my chief interest the daily observation and our caterpillar87 progress across the chart. My first glance, which was at the compass, and my second, which was at the log, were all that I could wish. We lay our course; we had been doing over eight since nine the night before; and I drew a heavy breath of satisfaction. And then I know not what odd and wintry appearance of the sea and sky knocked suddenly at my heart. I observed the schooner to look more than usually small, the men silent and studious of the weather. Nares, in one of his rusty88 humours, afforded me no shadow of a morning salutation. He, too, seemed to observe the behaviour of the ship with an intent and anxious scrutiny89. What I liked still less, Johnson himself was at the wheel, which he span busily, often with a visible effort; and as the seas ranged up behind us, black and imminent90, he kept casting behind him eyes of animal swiftness, and drawing in his neck between his shoulders, like a man dodging91 a blow. From these signs, I gathered that all was not exactly for the best; and I would have given a good handful of dollars for a plain answer to the questions which I dared not put. Had I dared, with the present danger signal in the captain’s face, I should only have been reminded of my position as supercargo — an office never touched upon in kindness — and advised, in a very indigestible manner, to go below. There was nothing for it, therefore, but to entertain my vague apprehensions92 as best I should be able, until it pleased the captain to enlighten me of his own accord. This he did sooner than I had expected; as soon, indeed, as the Chinaman had summoned us to breakfast, and we sat face to face across the narrow board.
“See here, Mr. Dodd,” he began, looking at me rather queerly, “here is a business point arisen. This sea’s been running up for the last two days, and now it’s too high for comfort. The glass is falling, the wind is breezing up, and I won’t say but what there’s dirt in it. If I lay her to, we may have to ride out a gale93 of wind and drift God knows where — on these French Frigate94 Shoals, for instance. If I keep her as she goes, we’ll make that island to-morrow afternoon, and have the lee of it to lie under, if we can’t make out to run in. The point you have to figure on, is whether you’ll take the big chances of that Captain Trent making the place before you, or take the risk of something happening. I’m to run this ship to your satisfaction,” he added, with an ugly sneer95. “Well, here’s a point for the supercargo.”
“Captain,” I returned, with my heart in my mouth, “risk is better than certain failure.”
“Life is all risk, Mr. Dodd,” he remarked. “But there’s one thing: it’s now or never; in half an hour, Archdeacon Gabriel couldn’t lay her to, if he came down stairs on purpose.”
“All right,” said I. “Llet’s run.”
“Run goes,” said he; and with that he fell to breakfast, and passed half an hour in stowing away pie and devoutly96 wishing himself back in San Francisco.
When we came on deck again, he took the wheel from Johnson — it appears they could trust none among the hands — and I stood close beside him, feeling safe in this proximity97, and tasting a fearful joy from our surroundings and the consciousness of my decision. The breeze had already risen, and as it tore over our heads, it uttered at times a long hooting98 note that sent my heart into my boots. The sea pursued us without remission, leaping to the assault of the low rail. The quarter-deck was all awash, and we must close the companion doors.
“And all this, if you please, for Mr. Pinkerton’s dollars!” the captain suddenly exclaimed. “There’s many a fine fellow gone under, Mr. Dodd, because of drivers like your friend. What do they care for a ship or two? Insured, I guess. What do they care for sailors’ lives alongside of a few thousand dollars? What they want is speed between ports, and a damned fool of a captain that’ll drive a ship under as I’m doing this one. You can put in the morning, asking why I do it.”
I sheered off to another part of the vessel as fast as civility permitted. This was not at all the talk that I desired, nor was the train of reflection which it started anyway welcome. Here I was, running some hazard of my life, and perilling99 the lives of seven others; exactly for what end, I was now at liberty to ask myself. For a very large amount of a very deadly poison, was the obvious answer; and I thought if all tales were true, and I were soon to be subjected to cross-examination at the bar of Eternal Justice, it was one which would not increase my popularity with the court. “Well, never mind, Jim,” thought I. “I’m doing it for you.”
Before eleven, a third reef was taken in the mainsail; and Johnson filled the cabin with a storm-sail of No. 1 duck and sat cross-legged on the streaming floor, vigorously putting it to rights with a couple of the hands. By dinner I had fled the deck, and sat in the bench corner, giddy, dumb, and stupefied with terror. The frightened leaps of the poor Norah Creina, spanking100 like a stag for bare existence, bruised101 me between the table and the berths102. Overhead, the wild huntsman of the storm passed continuously in one blare of mingled103 noises; screaming wind, straining timber, lashing104 rope’s end, pounding block and bursting sea contributed; and I could have thought there was at times another, a more piercing, a more human note, that dominated all, like the wailing105 of an angel; I could have thought I knew the angel’s name, and that his wings were black. It seemed incredible that any creature of man’s art could long endure the barbarous mishandling of the seas, kicked as the schooner was from mountain side to mountain side, beaten and blown upon and wrenched106 in every joint107 and sinew, like a child upon the rack. There was not a plank108 of her that did not cry aloud for mercy; and as she continued to hold together, I became conscious of a growing sympathy with her endeavours, a growing admiration109 for her gallant110 staunchness, that amused and at times obliterated111 my terrors for myself. God bless every man that swung a mallet112 on that tiny and strong hull113! It was not for wages only that he laboured, but to save men’s lives.
All the rest of the day, and all the following night, I sat in the corner or lay wakeful in my bunk114; and it was only with the return of morning that a new phase of my alarms drove me once more on deck. A gloomier interval115 I never passed. Johnson and Nares steadily116 relieved each other at the wheel and came below. The first glance of each was at the glass, which he repeatedly knuckled117 and frowned upon; for it was sagging118 lower all the time. Then, if Johnson were the visitor, he would pick a snack out of the cupboard, and stand, braced27 against the table, eating it, and perhaps obliging me with a word or two of his hee-haw conversation: how it was “a son of a gun of a cold night on deck, Mr. Dodd” (with a grin); how “it wasn’t no night for panjammers, he could tell me”: having transacted119 all which, he would throw himself down in his bunk and sleep his two hours with compunction. But the captain neither ate nor slept. “You there, Mr. Dodd?” he would say, after the obligatory120 visit to the glass. “Well, my son, we’re one hundred and four miles” (or whatever it was) “off the island, and scudding121 for all we’re worth. We’ll make it to-morrow about four, or not, as the case may be. That’s the news. And now, Mr. Dodd, I’ve stretched a point for you; you can see I’m dead tired; so just you stretch away back to your bunk again.” And with this attempt at geniality122, his teeth would settle hard down on his cigar, and he would pass his spell below staring and blinking at the cabin lamp through a cloud of tobacco smoke. He has told me since that he was happy, which I should never have divined. “You see,” he said, “the wind we had was never anything out of the way; but the sea was really nasty, the schooner wanted a lot of humouring, and it was clear from the glass that we were close to some dirt. We might be running out of it, or we might be running right crack into it. Well, there’s always something sublime123 about a big deal like that; and it kind of raises a man in his own liking124. We’re a queer kind of beasts, Mr. Dodd.”
The morning broke with sinister125 brightness; the air alarmingly transparent126, the sky pure, the rim60 of the horizon clear and strong against the heavens. The wind and the wild seas, now vastly swollen127, indefatigably128 hunted us. I stood on deck, choking with fear; I seemed to lose all power upon my limbs; my knees were as paper when she plunged130 into the murderous valleys; my heart collapsed when some black mountain fell in avalanche131 beside her counter, and the water, that was more than spray, swept round my ankles like a torrent132. I was conscious of but one strong desire, to bear myself decently in my terrors, and whatever should happen to my life, preserve my character: as the captain said, we are a queer kind of beasts. Breakfast time came, and I made shift to swallow some hot tea. Then I must stagger below to take the time, reading the chronometer133 with dizzy eyes, and marvelling134 the while what value there could be in observations taken in a ship launched (as ours then was) like a missile among flying seas. The forenoon dragged on in a grinding monotony of peril; every spoke136 of the wheel a rash, but an obliged experiment — rash as a forlorn hope, needful as the leap that lands a fireman from a burning staircase. Noon was made; the captain dined on his day’s work, and I on watching him; and our place was entered on the chart with a meticulous137 precision which seemed to me half pitiful and half absurd, since the next eye to behold138 that sheet of paper might be the eye of an exploring fish. One o’clock came, then two; the captain gloomed and chafed139, as he held to the coaming of the house, and if ever I saw dormant140 murder in man’s eye, it was in his. God help the hand that should have disobeyed him.
Of a sudden, he turned towards the mate, who was doing his trick at the wheel.
“Two points on the port bow,” I heard him say. And he took the wheel himself.
Johnson nodded, wiped his eyes with the back of his wet hand, watched a chance as the vessel lunged up hill, and got to the main rigging, where he swarmed141 aloft. Up and up, I watched him go, hanging on at every ugly plunge129, gaining with every lull142 of the schooner’s movement, until, clambering into the cross-trees and clinging with one arm around the masts, I could see him take one comprehensive sweep of the southwesterly horizon. The next moment, he had slid down the backstay and stood on deck, with a grin, a nod, and a gesture of the finger that said “yes”; the next again, and he was back sweating and squirming at the wheel, his tired face streaming and smiling, and his hair and the rags and corners of his clothes lashing round him in the wind.
Nares went below, fetched up his binocular, and fell into a silent perusal143 of the sea-line; I also, with my unaided eyesight. Little by little, in that white waste of water, I began to make out a quarter where the whiteness appeared more condensed: the sky above was whitish likewise, and misty144 like a squall; and little by little there thrilled upon my ears a note deeper and more terrible than the yelling of the gale — the long, thundering roll of breakers. Nares wiped his night glass on his sleeve and passed it to me, motioning, as he did so, with his hand. An endless wilderness145 of raging billows came and went and danced in the circle of the glass; now and then a pale corner of sky, or the strong line of the horizon rugged146 with the heads of waves; and then of a sudden — come and gone ere I could fix it, with a swallow’s swiftness — one glimpse of what we had come so far and paid so dear to see: the masts and rigging of a brig pencilled on heaven, with an ensign streaming at the main, and the ragged135 ribbons of a topsail thrashing from the yard. Again and again, with toilful searching, I recalled that apparition147. There was no sign of any land; the wreck148 stood between sea and sky, a thing the most isolated149 I had ever viewed; but as we drew nearer, I perceived her to be defended by a line of breakers which drew off on either hand, and marked, indeed, the nearest segment of the reef. Heavy spray hung over them like a smoke, some hundred feet into the air; and the sound of their consecutive150 explosions rolled like a cannonade.
In half an hour we were close in; for perhaps as long again, we skirted that formidable barrier toward its farther side; and presently the sea began insensibly to moderate and the ship to go more sweetly. We had gained the lee of the island as (for form’s sake) I may call that ring of foam151 and haze and thunder; and shaking out a reef, wore ship and headed for the passage.
点击收听单词发音
1 stinted | |
v.限制,节省(stint的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 vicissitude | |
n.变化,变迁,荣枯,盛衰 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 blotting | |
吸墨水纸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 blot | |
vt.弄脏(用吸墨纸)吸干;n.污点,污渍 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 withering | |
使人畏缩的,使人害羞的,使人难堪的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 collapsed | |
adj.倒塌的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 schooner | |
n.纵帆船 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 unfamiliar | |
adj.陌生的,不熟悉的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 sluices | |
n.水闸( sluice的名词复数 );(用水闸控制的)水;有闸人工水道;漂洗处v.冲洗( sluice的第三人称单数 );(指水)喷涌而出;漂净;给…安装水闸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 leeward | |
adj.背风的;下风的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 well-being | |
n.安康,安乐,幸福 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 bin | |
n.箱柜;vt.放入箱内;[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 lustrous | |
adj.有光泽的;光辉的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 molecular | |
adj.分子的;克分子的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 temperate | |
adj.温和的,温带的,自我克制的,不过分的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 grit | |
n.沙粒,决心,勇气;v.下定决心,咬紧牙关 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 northward | |
adv.向北;n.北方的地区 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 tugging | |
n.牵引感v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 horrified | |
a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 prone | |
adj.(to)易于…的,很可能…的;俯卧的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 braced | |
adj.拉牢的v.支住( brace的过去式和过去分词 );撑牢;使自己站稳;振作起来 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 discords | |
不和(discord的复数形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 picturesque | |
adj.美丽如画的,(语言)生动的,绘声绘色的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 thicket | |
n.灌木丛,树林 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 rupture | |
n.破裂;(关系的)决裂;v.(使)破裂 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 orchard | |
n.果园,果园里的全部果树,(美俚)棒球场 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 insufficient | |
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 scowling | |
怒视,生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 pickets | |
罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 prospered | |
成功,兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 gleaner | |
n.拾穗的人;割捆机 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 accordion | |
n.手风琴;adj.可折叠的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 hazing | |
n.受辱,被欺侮v.(使)笼罩在薄雾中( haze的现在分词 );戏弄,欺凌(新生等,有时作为加入美国大学生联谊会的条件) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 bullying | |
v.恐吓,威逼( bully的现在分词 );豪;跋扈 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 sarcasm | |
n.讥讽,讽刺,嘲弄,反话 (adj.sarcastic) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 galley | |
n.(飞机或船上的)厨房单层甲板大帆船;军舰舰长用的大划艇; | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 bawl | |
v.大喊大叫,大声地喊,咆哮 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 truculent | |
adj.野蛮的,粗野的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 mien | |
n.风采;态度 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 quailed | |
害怕,发抖,畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 aggression | |
n.进攻,侵略,侵犯,侵害 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 tyrant | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
55 interfere | |
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
56 gallows | |
n.绞刑架,绞台 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
57 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
58 hardy | |
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
59 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
60 rim | |
n.(圆物的)边,轮缘;边界 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
61 starch | |
n.淀粉;vt.给...上浆 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
62 grudge | |
n.不满,怨恨,妒嫉;vt.勉强给,不情愿做 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
63 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
64 yarn | |
n.纱,纱线,纺线;奇闻漫谈,旅行轶事 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
65 dictate | |
v.口授;(使)听写;指令,指示,命令 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
66 lookout | |
n.注意,前途,瞭望台 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
67 ribs | |
n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 );(船或屋顶等的)肋拱;肋骨状的东西;(织物的)凸条花纹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
68 bawling | |
v.大叫,大喊( bawl的现在分词 );放声大哭;大声叫出;叫卖(货物) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
69 porpoise | |
n.鼠海豚 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
70 seaman | |
n.海员,水手,水兵 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
71 berth | |
n.卧铺,停泊地,锚位;v.使停泊 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
72 stink | |
vi.发出恶臭;糟透,招人厌恶;n.恶臭 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
73 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
74 sketch | |
n.草图;梗概;素描;v.素描;概述 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
75 credible | |
adj.可信任的,可靠的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
76 tonic | |
n./adj.滋补品,补药,强身的,健体的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
77 apprehension | |
n.理解,领悟;逮捕,拘捕;忧虑 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
78 dilate | |
vt.使膨胀,使扩大 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
79 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
80 abhorred | |
v.憎恶( abhor的过去式和过去分词 );(厌恶地)回避;拒绝;淘汰 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
81 prodigious | |
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
82 dwindled | |
v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
83 piety | |
n.虔诚,虔敬 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
84 persistent | |
adj.坚持不懈的,执意的;持续的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
85 harping | |
n.反复述说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
86 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
87 caterpillar | |
n.毛虫,蝴蝶的幼虫 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
88 rusty | |
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
89 scrutiny | |
n.详细检查,仔细观察 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
90 imminent | |
adj.即将发生的,临近的,逼近的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
91 dodging | |
n.避开,闪过,音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 );回避 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
92 apprehensions | |
疑惧 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
93 gale | |
n.大风,强风,一阵闹声(尤指笑声等) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
94 frigate | |
n.护航舰,大型驱逐舰 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
95 sneer | |
v.轻蔑;嘲笑;n.嘲笑,讥讽的言语 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
96 devoutly | |
adv.虔诚地,虔敬地,衷心地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
97 proximity | |
n.接近,邻近 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
98 hooting | |
(使)作汽笛声响,作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 ); 倒好儿; 倒彩 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
99 perilling | |
置…于危险中(peril的现在分词形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
100 spanking | |
adj.强烈的,疾行的;n.打屁股 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
101 bruised | |
[医]青肿的,瘀紫的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
102 berths | |
n.(船、列车等的)卧铺( berth的名词复数 );(船舶的)停泊位或锚位;差事;船台vt.v.停泊( berth的第三人称单数 );占铺位 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
103 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
参考例句: |
|
|
104 lashing | |
n.鞭打;痛斥;大量;许多v.鞭打( lash的现在分词 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
105 wailing | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的现在分词 );沱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
106 wrenched | |
v.(猛力地)扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 );扭伤;使感到痛苦;使悲痛 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
107 joint | |
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
108 plank | |
n.板条,木板,政策要点,政纲条目 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
109 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
110 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
111 obliterated | |
v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
112 mallet | |
n.槌棒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
113 hull | |
n.船身;(果、实等的)外壳;vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
114 bunk | |
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位;废话 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
115 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
116 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
117 knuckled | |
v.(指人)指关节( knuckle的过去式和过去分词 );(指动物)膝关节,踝 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
118 sagging | |
下垂[沉,陷],松垂,垂度 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
119 transacted | |
v.办理(业务等)( transact的过去式和过去分词 );交易,谈判 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
120 obligatory | |
adj.强制性的,义务的,必须的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
121 scudding | |
n.刮面v.(尤指船、舰或云彩)笔直、高速而平稳地移动( scud的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
122 geniality | |
n.和蔼,诚恳;愉快 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
123 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
124 liking | |
n.爱好;嗜好;喜欢 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
125 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
126 transparent | |
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
127 swollen | |
adj.肿大的,水涨的;v.使变大,肿胀 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
128 indefatigably | |
adv.不厌倦地,不屈不挠地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
129 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
130 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
131 avalanche | |
n.雪崩,大量涌来 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
132 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
133 chronometer | |
n.精密的计时器 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
134 marvelling | |
v.惊奇,对…感到惊奇( marvel的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
135 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
136 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
137 meticulous | |
adj.极其仔细的,一丝不苟的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
138 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
139 chafed | |
v.擦热(尤指皮肤)( chafe的过去式 );擦痛;发怒;惹怒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
140 dormant | |
adj.暂停活动的;休眠的;潜伏的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
141 swarmed | |
密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 ); 云集; 成群地移动; 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
142 lull | |
v.使安静,使入睡,缓和,哄骗;n.暂停,间歇 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
143 perusal | |
n.细读,熟读;目测 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
144 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
145 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
146 rugged | |
adj.高低不平的,粗糙的,粗壮的,强健的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
147 apparition | |
n.幽灵,神奇的现象 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
148 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
149 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
150 consecutive | |
adj.连续的,联贯的,始终一贯的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
151 foam | |
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |