“What ship is that?” hails Captain Pearson.
There is no reply.
“What ship is that?” comes the second hail.
The response is a storm of solid shot from the Richard’s flaming broadside.
As the Richard goes into action, Commodore Paul Jones swings his glass along the eastern horizon. The Pallas is going down the wind, in hot pursuit of the Countess of Scarboro, yawing and firing its bow-chaser as it runs; while far out to sea lies the traitor2 Landais, sulking or skulking3, it matters little which, his coward topsails just visible against the moonlit sky-line.
With the wind aft, the Richard and the Serapis head northwest, both on the port tack4. The moon makes the scene as light as day; the sea is as evenly smooth as a ballroom5 floor. The Richard goes over on the starboard tack, the Serapis holding as she is; the ships approach each other, the Richard keeping the weather-gage. For twenty minutes it is broadside and broadside as fast as men may handle sponge and rammer6. As in the hour of the Drake and Ranger7, the Yankees show smarter with their guns.
When the battle begins, the Richard has to its broadside three eighteen-pounders, as against the Serapis’ ten. With the first fire, two of the Richard’s three explode, killing8 half the men that serve them, and tearing open the main gun-deck immediately above. Lieutenant9 Mayrant, who has command in the gunroom where the three eighteens are mounted, reports the disaster to Commodore Paul Jones. The latter receives the news beamingly, as though it were the enemies’ eighteen-pounders, and not his own, that have been put out of action.
“Then we have only the twelve-pounders and the long nines to fight him with,” says Commodore Paul Jones. “It is now a thirty-two-gun ship against a forty-four. We shall beat him; and the honor will be the greater.” Then, observing Lieutenant Mayrant to be severely10 wounded in the head, he becomes concerned for that young gentleman. “Better go below to Brooks,” says he, “and have your wounds dressed.”
“I must get square for Portsea jail first,” replies Lieutenant Mayrant, who is of those exchanged ones enlisted11 at Nantes.
Lieutenant Dale, forward with the twelve-pounders, comes aft to ask about the exploded eight guns.
“They were rotten when the Frenchmen sold them to us,” says Lieutenant Dale bitterly.
“Ay!” responds Commodore Paul Jones. “I’d give half the prize money I shall get from yonder ship to have those Frenchmen here.” Meanwhile the Serapis—not yet a prize—is fiercely belching12 flame and smoke, while her shot tear the vitals out of the Richard.
The ships have been fighting half an hour—rough broadside work; the Richard with its lighter13 metal has had the worst of the barter14. They have sailed, or rather drifted, a mile and a half, edging closer to one another as they forge slowly to the north and west.
The Serapis, being the livelier ship, has fore-reached on the Richard, and Captain Pearson sees the chance to luff across the latter’s bows. Having torn the Richard open with a raking broadside, Captain Pearson will then go clear around the Yankee, put the Serapis upon the starboard tack, and claim in his turn the weather-gage. It is a brilliant thought, and Captain Pearson pulls down his helm to execute it. Already he sees victory in his fingers. He is radiant; it will make him a Knight15 Commander of the Bath.
While Captain Pearson is manoeuvring for that title, the hot broadside dispute proceeds with unflagging fury. Only the Richard is beginning to bleed and gasp16; those ten eighteen-pounders of the Serapis overmaster its weaker batteries. Also, by this time they are doubly weak; for more than half of the Richard’s twelve-pounders have been dismounted, and the balance are so jammed with wreckage17 and splinters as to forbid them being worked. Lieutenant Dale reports the crippled condition of the Richard’s broadside to Commodore Paul Jones, where the latter stands on the after-deck, in personal command of the French marines, whose captain has crept below with a hurt knee.
“We have but three effective twelve-pounders left,” says Lieutenant Dale.
“Three?” retorts Commodore Paul Jones, cheerfully. “Now, well-aimed and low, Dick, much good damage may be worked with three twelve-pounders.”
Lieutenant Dale wipes the blood and sweat and powder-stains from his face, salutes18, and goes back to his three guns; while Commodore Paul Jones, alive to the enemy’s new manouvre, takes the wheel from the quartermaster.
To check the ambitious Pearson in his efforts to luff across his forefoot, Commodore Paul Jones pays off the Richard’s head a point. The check is not alone successful, but under the influence of that master hand, the Richard all but gets the Serapis’ head into chancery.
Being defeated in his luff, Captain Pearson next discovers that his brisk antagonist19 has put him in a dilemma20. If he holds on, the Richard will run him down; he can already see the great, black cutwater rearing itself on high, as though to crush him and cut him in two. If he pays off the head of the Serapis, and avoids being run down, the Richard will still foul21 and grapple with him. Lieutenant Mayrant’s bandaged head shows above the Richard’s hammock nettings, as, with grappling irons ready for throwing, he musters22 a party of boarders—cutlass and pistol and pike—to have them in hand the moment the ships crash together. That title of Knight Commander of the Bath, and the star and garter that go with it, do not look so near at hand. Also, the Serapis, at this closer range, begins to feel the musket-fire from the Richard’s tops. One after another, three seamen23 are shot down at the wheel of the Serapis.
In this desperate emergency, Captain Pearson, good sailorman that he is, neither holds on nor pays off, but with everything thrown aback attempts to box-haul his ship. It may take the sticks out by the roots, but he must risk it. The chance is preferable to being either run down or boarded.
The Serapis is a new ship, fresh from the yards, and her spars and cordage stand the strain. Captain Pearson backs himself slowly out of the trap. He grazes fate so closely that the Richard, answering some sudden occult movement of the helm, runs its bowsprit over the larboard quarter of the Serapis, into its mizzen rigging.
“Stand by with those grappling irons!” shouts Commodore Paul Jones.
Lieutenant Mayrant throws the grapples with a seaman’s accuracy; they catch, as he means they shall, in the mizzen backstays of the Englishman. But the ships have too much way on. The Richard forges ahead; the Serapis, every sail flattened24, backs free; the lines part. Before Lieutenant Mayrant can take his jolly boarders over the Richard’s bows, the ships have swung apart, and fifty feet of open water yawn between them.
The Serapis falls to leeward25; at the end of the next five minutes both ships are back in their old positions, with their broadside guns—or what are left of them—at that furious work of hammer and tongs26.
At this crashing business of broadsiding, the Richard has no chance, and Commodore Paul Jones—a smile on his dauntless lips, eyes bright and glancing like those of a child with a new toy—stands well aware of it. He must board the Englishman, or he is lost. As showing what Captain Pearson’s eighteen-pounders can do, the Richard’s starboard battery—being the one in action—shows nine of its twelve-pounders dismounted from their carriages; while, of the one hundred and forty-three officers and men who belong with the main gun-deck battery under Lieutenant Dale, eighty-seven lie dead and wounded. The gun-deck itself, a-litter with dismounted guns and shot-smashed carriages and tackle, is slippery with blood, and choked by a red clutter27 of dead and wounded sailors.
Commodore Paul Jones turns to his orderly,
Jack28 Downes. “Present my compliments to Lieutenant Dale,” says lie, “and ask him to step aft.”
Bloody29, powder-grimed, Lieutenant Dale responds.
“Dick,” observes Commodore Paul Jones, “he’s too heavy for us. We must close with him; we must get hold of him. Bring what men you have to the spar-deck, and serve out the small arms for boarding.”
The breeze veers30 to the west, and freshens up a bit. This helps the Richard sooner than it does the Serapis; Commodore Paul Jones, having advantage of it, wears and makes directly for his enemy. This move, like a stroke of genius, brings him within one hundred feet of the Serapis, directly between it and the wind. It is his purpose to blanket the enemy, and steal the breeze from him. He succeeds; the Serapis loses way.
It is now the turn of Commodore Paul Jones to go across his enemy’s forefoot, and retort upon the Serapis that manouvre which Captain Pearson attempted against the Richard. But with this difference: Captain Pearson’s purpose was to rake; Commodore Paul Jones’ purpose is to board; for he lias now no guns wherewith to rake.
The Serapis is held as though in irons, canvas a-flap, by the blanket of the Richard’s broad sails. Slowly yet surely, like the coming of a doom31, the Richard forges across the other’s head. The design of Commodore Paul Jones is to lay the Serapis aboard, lash32 ship to ship, and sweep the Englishman’s decks with his boarders. These, armed to the teeth, as ready for the rush as so many hunting dogs, Lieutenant Mayrant is holding in the waist.
The Richard is half its length across the bows of the Serapis—still helpless, sails a-droop! Suddenly, by a twist of the helm, Commodore Paul Jones broaches33 the Richard to on the opposite tack, and doubles down on his prey34. It is the beginning of the end. The jib-boom of the Serapis runs in over the poop-deck of the Richard; a turn is instantly taken on it with a small hawser35 by Lieutenant Dale, who makes all fast to the Richard’s mizzen-mast. The ships swing closer and closer together; at last the two rasp broadside against broadside, the Richard still holding its way. As they grind along, the outboard fluke of the Serapis’ starboard anchor catches in the Richard’s mizzen-chains. First one, then another gives way; the third holds, and the ships lie together bow and stern. Commodore Paul Jones is over the side like a cat; the next moment he lashes36 the Serapis to the Richard, and the death-hug is at hand.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
watchful
|
|
| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
traitor
|
|
| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
skulking
|
|
| v.潜伏，偷偷摸摸地走动，鬼鬼祟祟地活动( skulk的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
tack
|
|
| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
ballroom
|
|
| n.舞厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
rammer
|
|
| n.撞锤；夯土机；拨弹机；夯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
ranger
|
|
| n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
lieutenant
|
|
| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
enlisted
|
|
| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
belching
|
|
| n. 喷出，打嗝 动词belch的现在分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
lighter
|
|
| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
barter
|
|
| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
knight
|
|
| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
gasp
|
|
| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
wreckage
|
|
| n.（失事飞机等的）残骸，破坏，毁坏 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
salutes
|
|
| n.致敬，欢迎，敬礼( salute的名词复数 )v.欢迎，致敬( salute的第三人称单数 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
antagonist
|
|
| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
dilemma
|
|
| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
foul
|
|
| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
musters
|
|
| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的第三人称单数 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
seamen
|
|
| n.海员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
flattened
|
|
| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
leeward
|
|
| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
tongs
|
|
| n.钳；夹子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
clutter
|
|
| n.零乱，杂乱；vt.弄乱，把…弄得杂乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
jack
|
|
| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
bloody
|
|
| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
veers
|
|
| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的第三人称单数 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
doom
|
|
| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
lash
|
|
| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
broaches
|
|
| v.谈起( broach的第三人称单数 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
hawser
|
|
| n.大缆；大索 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
lashes
|
|
| n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 )；鞭子；突然猛烈的一击；急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |