There is a fable1 about a painter moved by Jove to the painting of the head of Medusa. Though the picture was true to the life, yet the poor artist sickened at the sight of what his forced pencil had drawn3. Thus, borne through my task toward the end, my own soul now sinks at what I myself have portrayed4. But let us forget past chapters, if we may, while we paint less repugnant things.
Metropolitan5 gentlemen have their club; provincial6 gossipers their news-room; village quidnuncs their barber's shop; the Chinese their opium-houses; American Indians their council-fire; and even cannibals their Noojona, or Talk-Stone, where they assemble at times to discuss the affairs of the day. Nor is there any government, however despotic, that ventures to deny to the least of its subjects the privilege of a sociable8 chat. Not the Thirty Tyrants9 even—the clubbed post-captains of old Athens—could stop the wagging tongues at the street-corners. For chat man must; and by our immortal10 Bill of Rights, that guarantees to us liberty of speech, chat we Yankees will, whether on board a frigate11, or on board our own terra-firma plantations12.
In men-of-war, the Galley13, or Cookery, on the gun-deck, is the grand centre of gossip and news among the sailors. Here crowds assemble to chat away the half-hour elapsing after every meal. The reason why this place and these hours are selected rather than others is this: in the neighbourhood of the galley alone, and only after meals, is the man-of-war's-man permitted to regale14 himself with a smoke.
A sumptuary edict, truly, that deprived White-Jacket, for one, of a luxury to which he had long been attached. For how can the mystical motives15, the capricious impulses of a luxurious16 smoker17 go and come at the beck of a Commodore's command? No! when I smoke, be it because of my sovereign good pleasure I choose so to do, though at so unseasonable an hour that I send round the town for a brasier of coals. What! smoke by a sun-dial? Smoke on compulsion? Make a trade, a business, a vile7 recurring18 calling of smoking? And, perhaps, when those sedative19 fumes20 have steeped you in the grandest of reveries, and, circle over circle, solemnly rises some immeasurable dome21 in your soul—far away, swelling22 and heaving into the vapour you raise—as if from one Mozart's grandest marches of a temple were rising, like Venus from the sea—at such a time, to have your whole Parthenon tumbled about your ears by the knell23 of the ship's bell announcing the expiration24 of the half-hour for smoking! Whip me, ye Furies! toast me in saltpetre! smite25 me, some thunderbolt! charge upon me, endless squadrons of Mamalukes! devour26 me, Feejees! but preserve me from a tyranny like this!
No! though I smoked like an Indian summer ere I entered the Neversink, so abhorrent27 was this sumptuary law that I altogether abandoned the luxury rather than enslave it to a time and a place. Herein did I not right, Ancient and Honourable28 Old Guard of Smokers29 all round the world?
But there were others of the crew not so fastidious as myself. After every meal, they hied to the galley and solaced30 their souls with a whiff.
Now a bunch of cigars, all banded together, is a type and a symbol of the brotherly love between smokers. Likewise, for the time, in a community of pipes is a community of hearts! Nor was it an ill thing for the Indian Sachems to circulate their calumet tobacco-bowl—even as our own forefathers31 circulated their punch-bowl—in token of peace, charity, and good-will, friendly feelings, and sympathising souls. And this it was that made the gossipers of the galley so loving a club, so long as the vapoury bond united them.
It was a pleasant sight to behold33 them. Grouped in the recesses34 between the guns, they chatted and laughed like rows of convivialists in the boxes of some vast dining-saloon. Take a Flemish kitchen full of good fellows from Teniers; add a fireside group from Wilkie; throw in a naval35 sketch36 from Cruickshank; and then stick a short pipe into every mother's son's mouth, and you have the smoking scene at the galley of the Neversink.
Not a few were politicians; and, as there were some thoughts of a war with England at the time, their discussions waxed warm.
"I tell you what it is, shippies!" cried the old captain of gun No. 1 on the forecastle, "if that 'ere President of ourn don't luff up into the wind, by the Battle of the Nile! he'll be getting us into a grand fleet engagement afore the Yankee nation has rammed37 home her cartridges—let alone blowing the match!"
"Who talks of luffing?" roared a roystering fore32-top-man. "Keep our Yankee nation large before the wind, say I, till you come plump on the enemy's bows, and then board him in the smoke," and with that, there came forth38 a mighty39 blast from his pipe.
"Who says the old man at the helm of the Yankee nation can't steer40 his trick as well as George Washington himself?" cried a sheet-anchor-man.
"But they say he's a cold-water customer, Bill," cried another; "and sometimes o' nights I somehow has a presentation that he's goin' to stop our grog."
"D'ye hear there, fore and aft!" roared the boatswain's mate at the gangway, "all hands tumble up, and 'bout2 ship!"
"That's the talk!" cried the captain of gun No. 1, as, in obedience41 to the summons, all hands dropped their pipes and crowded toward the ladders, "and that's what the President must do—go in stays, my lads, and put the Yankee nation on the other tack42."
But these political discussions by no means supplied the staple43 of conversation for the gossiping smokers of the galley. The interior affairs of the frigate itself formed their principal theme. Rumours44 about the private life of the Commodore in his cabin; about the Captain, in his; about the various officers in the ward-room; about the reefers in the steerage, and their madcap frolickings, and about a thousand other matters touching45 the crew themselves; all these—forming the eternally shifting, domestic by-play of a man-of-war—proved inexhaustible topics for our quidnuncs.
The animation46 of these scenes was very much heightened as we drew nearer and nearer our port; it rose to a climax47 when the frigate was reported to be only twenty-four hours' sail from the land. What they should do when they landed; how they should invest their wages; what they should eat; what they should drink; and what lass they should marry—these were the topics which absorbed them.
"Sink the sea!" cried a forecastle man. "Once more ashore48, and you'll never again catch old Boombolt afloat. I mean to settle down in a sail-loft."
"Cable-tier pinchers blister49 all tarpaulin50 hats!" cried a young after-guard's-man; "I mean to go back to the counter."
"Shipmates! take me by the arms, and swab up the lee-scuppers with me, but I mean to steer a clam-cart before I go again to a ship's wheel. Let the Navy go by the board—to sea again, I won't!"
"Start my soul-bolts, maties, if any more Blue Peters and sailing signals fly at my fore!" cried the Captain of the Head. "My wages will buy a wheelbarrow, if nothing more."
"I have taken my last dose of salts," said the Captain of the Waist, "and after this mean to stick to fresh water. Ay, maties, ten of us Waisters mean to club together and buy a serving-mallet boat, d'ye see; and if ever we drown, it will be in the 'raging canal!' Blast the sea, shipmates! say I."
"Profane52 not the holy element!" said Lemsford, the poet of the gun-deck, leaning over a cannon53. "Know ye not, man-of-war's-men! that by the Parthian magi the ocean was held sacred? Did not Tiridates, the Eastern monarch54, take an immense land circuit to avoid desecrating55 the Mediterranean56, in order to reach his imperial master, Nero, and do homage57 for his crown?"
"Who's Commodore Tiddery-eye?" cried the forecastle-man.
"Hear me out," resumed Lemsford. "Like Tiridates, I venerate59 the sea, and venerate it so highly, shipmates, that evermore I shall abstain60 from crossing it. In that sense, Captain of the Waist, I echo your cry."
It was, indeed, a remarkable61 fact, that nine men out of every ten of the Neversink's crew had formed some plan or other to keep themselves ashore for life, or, at least, on fresh water, after the expiration of the present cruise. With all the experiences of that cruise accumulated in one intense recollection of a moment; with the smell of tar51 in their nostrils62; out of sight of land; with a stout63 ship under foot, and snuffing the ocean air; with all the things of the sea surrounding them; in their cool, sober moments of reflection; in the silence and solitude64 of the deep, during the long night-watches, when all their holy home associations were thronging65 round their hearts; in the spontaneous piety66 and devotion of the last hours of so long a voyage; in the fullness and the frankness of their souls; when there was naught67 to jar the well-poised equilibrium68 of their judgment—under all these circumstances, at least nine tenths of a crew of five hundred man-of-war's-men resolved for ever to turn their backs on the sea. But do men ever hate the thing they love? Do men forswear the hearth69 and the homestead? What, then, must the Navy be?
But, alas70 for the man-of-war's-man, who, though he may take a Hannibal oath against the service; yet, cruise after cruise, and after forswearing it again and again, he is driven back to the spirit-tub and the gun-deck by his old hereditary71 foe72, the ever-devilish god of grog.
On this point, let some of the crew of the Neversink be called to the stand.
You, Captain of the Waist! and you, seamen73 of the fore-top! and you, after-guard's-men and others! how came you here at the guns of the North Carolina, after registering your solemn vows74 at the galley of the Neversink?
They all hang their heads. I know the cause; poor fellows! perjure75 yourselves not again; swear not at all hereafter.
Ay, these very tars76—the foremost in denouncing the Navy; who had bound themselves by the most tremendous oaths—these very men, not three days after getting ashore, were rolling round the streets in penniless drunkenness; and next day many of them were to be found on board of the guardo or receiving-ship. Thus, in part, is the Navy manned.
But what was still more surprising, and tended to impart a new and strange insight into the character of sailors, and overthrow77 some long-established ideas concerning them as a class, was this: numbers of men who, during the cruise, had passed for exceedingly prudent78, nay79, parsimonious80 persons, who would even refuse you a patch, or a needleful of thread, and, from their stinginess, procured81 the name of Ravelings—no sooner were these men fairly adrift in harbour, and under the influence of frequent quaffings, than their three-years'-earned wages flew right and left; they summoned whole boarding-houses of sailors to the bar, and treated them over and over again. Fine fellows! generous-hearted tars! Seeing this sight, I thought to myself, Well, these generous-hearted tars on shore were the greatest curmudgeons82 afloat! it's the bottle that's generous, not they! Yet the popular conceit83 concerning a sailor is derived84 from his behaviour ashore; whereas, ashore he is no longer a sailor, but a landsman for the time. A man-of-war's-man is only a man-of-war's-man at sea; and the sea is the place to learn what he is. But we have seen that a man-of-war is but this old-fashioned world of ours afloat, full of all manner of characters—full of strange contradictions; and though boasting some fine fellows here and there, yet, upon the whole, charged to the combings of her hatchways with the spirit of Belial and all unrighteousness.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
fable
|
|
| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
bout
|
|
| n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
portrayed
|
|
| v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
metropolitan
|
|
| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
provincial
|
|
| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
vile
|
|
| adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
sociable
|
|
| adj.好交际的，友好的，合群的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
tyrants
|
|
| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
immortal
|
|
| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
frigate
|
|
| n.护航舰，大型驱逐舰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
plantations
|
|
| n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
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： |
|
|
|
|
14
regale
|
|
| v.取悦，款待 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
motives
|
|
| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
smoker
|
|
| n.吸烟者，吸烟车厢，吸烟室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
recurring
|
|
| adj.往复的，再次发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
sedative
|
|
| adj.使安静的，使镇静的；n. 镇静剂，能使安静的东西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
fumes
|
|
| n.(强烈而刺激的)气味，气体 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
dome
|
|
| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
swelling
|
|
| n.肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
knell
|
|
| n.丧钟声；v.敲丧钟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
expiration
|
|
| n.终结，期满，呼气，呼出物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
smite
|
|
| v.重击；彻底击败；n.打；尝试；一点儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
devour
|
|
| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
abhorrent
|
|
| adj.可恶的，可恨的，讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
honourable
|
|
| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
smokers
|
|
| 吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
solaced
|
|
| v.安慰，慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
forefathers
|
|
| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
fore
|
|
| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
behold
|
|
| v.看，注视，看到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
recesses
|
|
| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
naval
|
|
| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
sketch
|
|
| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
rammed
|
|
| v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
steer
|
|
| vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
obedience
|
|
| n.服从，顺从 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
tack
|
|
| n.大头钉；假缝，粗缝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
staple
|
|
| n.主要产物，常用品，主要要素，原料，订书钉，钩环；adj.主要的，重要的；vt.分类 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
rumours
|
|
| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
touching
|
|
| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
animation
|
|
| n.活泼，兴奋，卡通片／动画片的制作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
climax
|
|
| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
ashore
|
|
| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
blister
|
|
| n.水疱；(油漆等的)气泡；v.(使)起泡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
tarpaulin
|
|
| n.涂油防水布，防水衣，防水帽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
tar
|
|
| n.柏油，焦油；vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
profane
|
|
| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
monarch
|
|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
desecrating
|
|
| 毁坏或亵渎( desecrate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
Mediterranean
|
|
| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
homage
|
|
| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
lingo
|
|
| n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
venerate
|
|
| v.尊敬，崇敬，崇拜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
abstain
|
|
| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
nostrils
|
|
| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
solitude
|
|
| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
thronging
|
|
| v.成群，挤满( throng的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
piety
|
|
| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
naught
|
|
| n.无，零 [=nought] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
equilibrium
|
|
| n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
hearth
|
|
| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
alas
|
|
| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
hereditary
|
|
| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
foe
|
|
| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
seamen
|
|
| n.海员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
vows
|
|
| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
perjure
|
|
| v.作伪证；使发假誓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
tars
|
|
| 焦油，沥青，柏油( tar的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
overthrow
|
|
| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
prudent
|
|
| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
nay
|
|
| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
parsimonious
|
|
| adj.吝啬的，质量低劣的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
procured
|
|
| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 )；拉皮条 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
curmudgeons
|
|
| n.坏脾气的人，吝啬鬼，守财奴( curmudgeon的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
83
conceit
|
|
| n.自负，自高自大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
derived
|
|
| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |