Of a pleasant midnight, our good frigate5, now somewhere off the Capes6 of Virginia, was running on bravely, when the breeze, gradually dying, left us slowly gliding7 toward our still invisible port.
Headed by Jack1 Chase, the quarter-watch were reclining in the top, talking about the shore delights into which they intended to plunge8, while our captain often broke in with allusions9 to similar conversations when he was on board the English line-of-battle ship, the Asia, drawing nigh to Portsmouth, in England, after the battle of Navarino.
Suddenly an order was given to set the main-top-gallant-stun'-sail, and the halyards not being rove, Jack Chase assigned to me that duty. Now this reeving of the halyards of a main-top-gallant-stun'-sail is a business that eminently10 demands sharpsightedness, skill, and celerity.
Consider that the end of a line, some two hundred feet long, is to be carried aloft, in your teeth, if you please, and dragged far out on the giddiest of yards, and after being wormed and twisted about through all sorts of intricacies—turning abrupt11 corners at the abruptest of angles—is to be dropped, clear of all obstructions12, in a straight plumb-line right down to the deck. In the course of this business, there is a multitude of sheeve-holes and blocks, through which you must pass it; often the rope is a very tight fit, so as to make it like threading a fine cambric needle with rather coarse thread. Indeed, it is a thing only deftly13 to be done, even by day. Judge, then, what it must be to be threading cambric needles by night, and at sea, upward of a hundred feet aloft in the air.
With the end of the line in one hand, I was mounting the top-mast shrouds14, when our Captain of the Top told me that I had better off jacket; but though it was not a very cold night, I had been reclining so long in the top, that I had become somewhat chilly15, so I thought best not to comply with the hint.
Having reeved the line through all the inferior blocks, I went out with it to the end of the weather-top-gallant-yard-arm, and was in the act of leaning over and passing it through the suspended jewel-block there, when the ship gave a plunge in the sudden swells16 of the calm sea, and pitching me still further over the yard, threw the heavy skirts of my jacket right over my head, completely muffling17 me. Somehow I thought it was the sail that had flapped, and, under that impression, threw up my hands to drag it from my head, relying upon the sail itself to support me meanwhile. Just then the ship gave another sudden jerk, and, head-foremost, I pitched from the yard. I knew where I was, from the rush of the air by my ears, but all else was a nightmare. A bloody18 film was before my eyes, through which, ghost-like, passed and repassed my father, mother, and sisters. An utterable nausea19 oppressed me; I was conscious of gasping20; there seemed no breath in my body. It was over one hundred feet that I fell—down, down, with lungs collapsed21 as in death. Ten thousand pounds of shot seemed tied to my head, as the irresistible22 law of gravitation dragged me, head foremost and straight as a die, toward the infallible centre of this terraqueous globe. All I had seen, and read, and heard, and all I had thought and felt in my life, seemed intensified23 in one fixed24 idea in my soul. But dense25 as this idea was, it was made up of atoms. Having fallen from the projecting yard-arm end, I was conscious of a collected satisfaction in feeling, that I should not be dashed on the deck, but would sink into the speechless profound of the sea.
With the bloody, blind film before my eyes, there was a still stranger hum in my head, as if a hornet were there; and I thought to myself, Great God! this is Death! Yet these thoughts were unmixed with alarm. Like frost-work that flashes and shifts its scared hues26 in the sun, all my braided, blended emotions were in themselves icy cold and calm.
So protracted27 did my fall seem, that I can even now recall the feeling of wondering how much longer it would be, ere all was over and I struck. Time seemed to stand still, and all the worlds seemed poised29 on their poles, as I fell, soul-becalmed, through the eddying30 whirl and swirl31 of the maelstrom32 air.
At first, as I have said, I must have been precipitated33 head-foremost; but I was conscious, at length, of a swift, flinging motion of my limbs, which involuntarily threw themselves out, so that at last I must have fallen in a heap. This is more likely, from the circumstance, that when I struck the sea, I felt as if some one had smote34 me slantingly across the shoulder and along part of my right side.
As I gushed35 into the sea, a thunder-boom sounded in my ear; my soul seemed flying from my mouth. The feeling of death flooded over me with the billows. The blow from the sea must have turned me, so that I sank almost feet foremost through a soft, seething36 foamy37 lull38. Some current seemed hurrying me away; in a trance I yielded, and sank deeper down with a glide39. Purple and pathless was the deep calm now around me, flecked by summer lightnings in an azure40 afar. The horrible nausea was gone; the bloody, blind film turned a pale green; I wondered whether I was yet dead, or still dying. But of a sudden some fashionless form brushed my side—some inert41, coiled fish of the sea; the thrill of being alive again tingled42 in my nerves, and the strong shunning43 of death shocked me through.
For one instant an agonising revulsion came over me as I found myself utterly44 sinking. Next moment the force of my fall was expanded; and there I hung, vibrating in the mid-deep. What wild sounds then rang in my ear! One was a soft moaning, as of low waves on the beach; the other wild and heartlessly jubilant, as of the sea in the height of a tempest. Oh soul! thou then heardest life and death: as he who stands upon the Corinthian shore hears both the Ionian and the Aegean waves. The life-and-death poise28 soon passed; and then I found myself slowly ascending45, and caught a dim glimmering46 of light.
Quicker and quicker I mounted; till at last I bounded up like a buoy47, and my whole head was bathed in the blessed air.
I had fallen in a line with the main-mast; I now found myself nearly abreast48 of the mizzen-mast, the frigate slowly gliding by like a black world in the water. Her vast hull49 loomed50 out of the night, showing hundreds of seamen51 in the hammock-nettings, some tossing over ropes, others madly flinging overboard the hammocks; but I was too far out from them immediately to reach what they threw. I essayed to swim toward the ship; but instantly I was conscious of a feeling like being pinioned52 in a feather-bed, and, moving my hands, felt my jacket puffed53 out above my tight girdle with water. I strove to tear it off; but it was looped together here and there, and the strings54 were not then to be sundered55 by hand. I whipped out my knife, that was tucked at my belt, and ripped my jacket straight up and down, as if I were ripping open myself. With a violent struggle I then burst out of it, and was free. Heavily soaked, it slowly sank before my eyes.
Sink! sink! oh shroud! thought I; sink forever! accursed jacket that thou art!
"See that white shark!" cried a horrified56 voice from the taffrail; "he'll have that man down his hatchway! Quick! the grains! the grains!"
The next instant that barbed bunch of harpoons57 pierced through and through the unfortunate jacket, and swiftly sped down with it out of sight.
Being now astern of the frigate, I struck out boldly toward the elevated pole of one of the life-buoys which had been cut away. Soon after, one of the cutters picked me up. As they dragged me out of the water into the air, the sudden transition of elements made my every limb feel like lead, and I helplessly sunk into the bottom of the boat.
Ten minutes after, I was safe on board, and, springing aloft, was ordered to reeve anew the stun'-sail-halyards, which, slipping through the blocks when I had let go the end, had unrove and fallen to the deck.
The sail was soon set; and, as if purposely to salute58 it, a gentle breeze soon came, and the Neversink once more glided59 over the water, a soft ripple60 at her bows, and leaving a tranquil61 wake behind.
点击收听单词发音
1 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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2 mishaps | |
n.轻微的事故,小的意外( mishap的名词复数 ) | |
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3 tribulations | |
n.苦难( tribulation的名词复数 );艰难;苦难的缘由;痛苦 | |
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4 shroud | |
n.裹尸布,寿衣;罩,幕;vt.覆盖,隐藏 | |
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5 frigate | |
n.护航舰,大型驱逐舰 | |
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6 capes | |
碎谷; 斗篷( cape的名词复数 ); 披肩; 海角; 岬 | |
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7 gliding | |
v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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8 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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9 allusions | |
暗指,间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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10 eminently | |
adv.突出地;显著地;不寻常地 | |
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11 abrupt | |
adj.突然的,意外的;唐突的,鲁莽的 | |
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12 obstructions | |
n.障碍物( obstruction的名词复数 );阻碍物;阻碍;阻挠 | |
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13 deftly | |
adv.灵巧地,熟练地,敏捷地 | |
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14 shrouds | |
n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 );寿衣;遮蔽物;覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 );保密 | |
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15 chilly | |
adj.凉快的,寒冷的 | |
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16 swells | |
增强( swell的第三人称单数 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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17 muffling | |
v.压抑,捂住( muffle的现在分词 );用厚厚的衣帽包着(自己) | |
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18 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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19 nausea | |
n.作呕,恶心;极端的憎恶(或厌恶) | |
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20 gasping | |
adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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21 collapsed | |
adj.倒塌的 | |
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22 irresistible | |
adj.非常诱人的,无法拒绝的,无法抗拒的 | |
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23 intensified | |
v.(使)增强, (使)加剧( intensify的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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25 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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26 hues | |
色彩( hue的名词复数 ); 色调; 信仰; 观点 | |
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27 protracted | |
adj.拖延的;延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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28 poise | |
vt./vi. 平衡,保持平衡;n.泰然自若,自信 | |
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29 poised | |
a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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30 eddying | |
涡流,涡流的形成 | |
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31 swirl | |
v.(使)打漩,(使)涡卷;n.漩涡,螺旋形 | |
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32 maelstrom | |
n.大乱动;大漩涡 | |
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33 precipitated | |
v.(突如其来地)使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 );促成;猛然摔下;使沉淀 | |
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34 smote | |
v.猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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35 gushed | |
v.喷,涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 );滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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36 seething | |
沸腾的,火热的 | |
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37 foamy | |
adj.全是泡沫的,泡沫的,起泡沫的 | |
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38 lull | |
v.使安静,使入睡,缓和,哄骗;n.暂停,间歇 | |
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39 glide | |
n./v.溜,滑行;(时间)消逝 | |
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40 azure | |
adj.天蓝色的,蔚蓝色的 | |
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41 inert | |
adj.无活动能力的,惰性的;迟钝的 | |
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42 tingled | |
v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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43 shunning | |
v.避开,回避,避免( shun的现在分词 ) | |
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44 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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45 ascending | |
adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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46 glimmering | |
n.微光,隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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47 buoy | |
n.浮标;救生圈;v.支持,鼓励 | |
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48 abreast | |
adv.并排地;跟上(时代)的步伐,与…并进地 | |
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49 hull | |
n.船身;(果、实等的)外壳;vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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50 loomed | |
v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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51 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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52 pinioned | |
v.抓住[捆住](双臂)( pinion的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53 puffed | |
adj.疏松的v.使喷出( puff的过去式和过去分词 );喷着汽(或烟)移动;吹嘘;吹捧 | |
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54 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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55 sundered | |
v.隔开,分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56 horrified | |
a.(表现出)恐惧的 | |
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57 harpoons | |
n.鱼镖,鱼叉( harpoon的名词复数 )v.鱼镖,鱼叉( harpoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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58 salute | |
vi.行礼,致意,问候,放礼炮;vt.向…致意,迎接,赞扬;n.招呼,敬礼,礼炮 | |
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59 glided | |
v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 );掠过;(鸟或飞机 ) 滑翔 | |
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60 ripple | |
n.涟波,涟漪,波纹,粗钢梳;vt.使...起涟漪,使起波纹; vi.呈波浪状,起伏前进 | |
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61 tranquil | |
adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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