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PREFACE
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 In the following chapters, wherein I have endeavoured to write down my experiences at sea, in Australia and on the South Sea Islands, I have not gone beyond the first four or five years of my life abroad, but later on I hope to do so, if I get the chance. I have made no attempt to moralise in my book, and if I appear to have been guilty of doing so, be assured it was a spasm1 of the intellect and quite forgotten all about a few minutes after I had written it down.
 
All I have attempted in this book is to endeavour to tell exactly my experiences as they occurred in my travels in many lands; also I have wished to reveal a little of the usual experiences, the ups and downs, that youths pass through when they go to sea and are left completely on their own in other lands, seeking to see the world, often ambitious to find a fortune, but generally succeeding in only gathering2 heaps of grim experiences. Unfortunately no one can buy his experience first, and so the general rule of green fortune-seekers overseas is to end in failure, and to be honest, I was no exception to the rule. Nevertheless my loss of all that might have been was amply compensated3 by the rough brave men whom I met, seafarers and otherwise, who revealed to me the best side of humanity and XIthe value of good comradeship: devil-may-care fellows with hearts that were blazing hearth-fires of welcome in the coldest days of adversity of long ago, ere I, crammed4 up with experience and nothing much else, down in the stokehold of a tramp steamer, returned across the ocean to my native land, eventually to get the roving fever and again go seaward.
 
Pom-pe-te, pom-pe-te, pom, pom,
All thro’ the burning night
Shovelling5 coal for the engine’s heart
Down in the blinding light.
Working my passage, penniless,
Over the western main,—
And I know they’ll all be sorry
To see me home again.
Pom-pe-te, pom-pe-te, pom, pom,
Shiver and shake and bang;
Thundering seas lifting us up,
Making the screw-shaft clang.
Unshaven faces thrust to the flame,
Washed by the furnace bright,
And England thousands of miles away
In the middle watch to-night.
Oh! what would they say could they see me
Mask’d thick with oil and dirt,
Shovelling deep down under the sea?
This sweater for a shirt,
With the funnel’s red flame blowing
Out in the windy sky,
And the family pride perspiring6
To keep the steam-gauge high!
XIII can hear the wild green chargers
Pounding the boat’s iron side—
Old Death, impatient, knocking away
All night to get inside!
Where haggard men like shadows move,
Toil7 in the flame-lit gloom.
Oh, it’s just the whole world over
Sailing the wave of Doom8.
For the aristocrats9 are sleeping
Snug10 in their bunks11, I know,
All on the upper deck, while we,
Are sweating away below!
Hard-feeding the white heat’s fury,
Piling the wake with foam12,
Unravelling13 all the knots that wind
The way that takes them home.
I’ve clung on an old wind-jammer,
I’ve done things—best untold14;
Hump’d the swag on many a rush,
Found everything—but gold!
But oh! for the flashlight homeward!
The anchor’s running chain,
And the sight of their dear old faces—
To see me home again!
Be assured that I have given no artificial colouring in my book, neither have I seriously set out to describe what I have seen, though I am confident that I must have succeeded in giving some local atmosphere, since all that I have written is drawn15 from true experience, but I cannot be certain that all the events followed exactly in the order that I have written them, for with the flight of time the dates of days, months and years fade away. I have XIIIleft to silence almost one year of my South Sea Island life, especially of that period when I, with a kindred spirit of my own age, lived for several months in a hut of our own fashioning on the shore side near Pangopango harbour off the Isle16 of Tutuela; also I have passed over several months of my Australian bush experiences, and I have done this for reasons of my own. Later on I hope to record the experiences of my sea life that followed my twentieth birthday.
 
All I say of the South Sea missionaries17 is said in good-fellowship. Some of the best men are missionaries and sacrifice years of their life in a hopeless quest. So bear with the honesty of one who has fought side by side with the best and worst, and face to face with the grim realities of existence. For the present I hope someone will like what I have written in this, my book—one more ambitious plunge18 of a failure.

A. S.-M.

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1 spasm dFJzH     
n.痉挛,抽搐;一阵发作
参考例句:
  • When the spasm passed,it left him weak and sweating.一阵痉挛之后,他虚弱无力,一直冒汗。
  • He kicked the chair in a spasm of impatience.他突然变得不耐烦,一脚踢向椅子。
2 gathering ChmxZ     
n.集会,聚会,聚集
参考例句:
  • He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
  • He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。
3 compensated 0b0382816fac7dbf94df37906582be8f     
补偿,报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 ); 给(某人)赔偿(或赔款)
参考例句:
  • The marvelous acting compensated for the play's weak script. 本剧的精彩表演弥补了剧本的不足。
  • I compensated his loss with money. 我赔偿他经济损失。
4 crammed e1bc42dc0400ef06f7a53f27695395ce     
adj.塞满的,挤满的;大口地吃;快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满;填入;临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)
参考例句:
  • He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
  • All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。
5 shovelling 17ef84f3c7eab07ae22ec2c76a2f801f     
v.铲子( shovel的现在分词 );锹;推土机、挖土机等的)铲;铲形部份
参考例句:
  • The workers are shovelling the sand. 工人们正在铲沙子。 来自辞典例句
  • They were shovelling coal up. 他们在铲煤。 来自辞典例句
6 perspiring 0818633761fb971685d884c4c363dad6     
v.出汗,流汗( perspire的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • He had been working hard and was perspiring profusely. 他一直在努力干活,身上大汗淋漓的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • So they "went it lively," panting and perspiring with the work. 于是他们就“痛痛快快地比一比”了,结果比得两个人气喘吁吁、汗流浃背。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
7 toil WJezp     
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事
参考例句:
  • The wealth comes from the toil of the masses.财富来自大众的辛勤劳动。
  • Every single grain is the result of toil.每一粒粮食都来之不易。
8 doom gsexJ     
n.厄运,劫数;v.注定,命定
参考例句:
  • The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
  • The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。
9 aristocrats 45f57328b4cffd28a78c031f142ec347     
n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Many aristocrats were killed in the French Revolution. 许多贵族在法国大革命中被处死。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • To the Guillotine all aristocrats! 把全部贵族都送上断头台! 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
10 snug 3TvzG     
adj.温暖舒适的,合身的,安全的;v.使整洁干净,舒适地依靠,紧贴;n.(英)酒吧里的私房
参考例句:
  • He showed us into a snug little sitting room.他领我们走进了一间温暖而舒适的小客厅。
  • She had a small but snug home.她有个小小的但很舒适的家。
11 bunks dbe593502613fe679a9ecfd3d5d45f1f     
n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位( bunk的名词复数 );空话,废话v.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位( bunk的第三人称单数 );空话,废话
参考例句:
  • These bunks can tip up and fold back into the wall. 这些铺位可以翻起来并折叠收入墙内。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • At last they turned into their little bunks in the cart. 最后他们都钻进车内的小卧铺里。 来自辞典例句
12 foam LjOxI     
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫
参考例句:
  • The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
  • The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。
13 unravelling 2542a7c888d83634cd78c7dc02a27bc4     
解开,拆散,散开( unravel的现在分词 ); 阐明; 澄清; 弄清楚
参考例句:
  • Nail head clamp the unravelling of nail exteriorize broken nails and clean. 钉头卡钉,拆开钉头取出碎钉并清洁。
  • The ends of ropes are in good condition and secured without unravelling. 缆绳端部状况良好及牢固,并无松散脱线。
14 untold ljhw1     
adj.数不清的,无数的
参考例句:
  • She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
  • They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖,因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。
15 drawn MuXzIi     
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的
参考例句:
  • All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
  • Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。
16 isle fatze     
n.小岛,岛
参考例句:
  • He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
  • The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。
17 missionaries 478afcff2b692239c9647b106f4631ba     
n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Some missionaries came from England in the Qing Dynasty. 清朝时,从英国来了一些传教士。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The missionaries rebuked the natives for worshipping images. 传教士指责当地人崇拜偶像。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
18 plunge 228zO     
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲
参考例句:
  • Test pool's water temperature before you plunge in.在你跳入之前你应该测试水温。
  • That would plunge them in the broil of the two countries.那将会使他们陷入这两国的争斗之中。


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