The construction of the galliot has not altered for centuries; and the northern European nations, Danes and Dutch, still sail the salt seas in this flat-bottomed salt-cellar of a ship; although, in addition to these, they have vessels5 of a more modern kind.
They seldom paint the galliot; but scrape and varnish6 all its planks7 and spars, so that all over it resembles the "bright side" or polished streak8, usually banding round an American ship.
Some of them are kept scrupulously10 neat and clean, and remind one of a well-scrubbed wooden platter, or an old oak table, upon which much wax and elbow vigor11 has been expended12. Before the wind, they sail well; but on a bowline, owing to their broad hulls14 and flat bottoms, they make leeway at a sad rate.
Every day, some strange vessel4 entered Prince's Dock; and hardly would I gaze my fill at some outlandish craft from Surat or the Levant, ere a still more outlandish one would absorb my attention.
Among others, I remember, was a little brig from the Coast of Guinea. In appearance, she was the ideal of a slaver; low, black, clipper-built about the bows, and her decks in a state of most piratical disorder15.
She carried a long, rusty16 gun, on a swivel, amid-ships; and that gun was a curiosity in itself. It must have been some old veteran, condemned17 by the government, and sold for any thing it would fetch. It was an antique, covered with half-effaced inscriptions18, crowns, anchors, eagles; and it had two handles near the trunnions, like those of a tureen. The knob on the breach19 was fashioned into a dolphin's head; and by a comical conceit20, the touch-hole formed the orifice of a human ear; and a stout21 tympanum it must have had, to have withstood the concussions22 it had heard.
The brig, heavily loaded, lay between two large ships in ballast; so that its deck was at least twenty feet below those of its neighbors. Thus shut in, its hatchways looked like the entrance to deep vaults23 or mines; especially as her men were wheeling out of her hold some kind of ore, which might have been gold ore, so scrupulous9 were they in evening the bushel measures, in which they transferred it to the quay24; and so particular was the captain, a dark-skinned whiskerando, in a Maltese cap and tassel25, in standing26 over the sailors, with his pencil and memorandum-book in hand.
The crew were a buccaneering looking set; with hairy chests, purple shirts, and arms wildly tattooed28. The mate had a wooden leg, and hobbled about with a crooked29 cane27 like a spiral staircase. There was a deal of swearing on board of this craft, which was rendered the more reprehensible30 when she came to moor31 alongside the Floating Chapel32.
This was the hull13 of an old sloop-of-war, which had been converted into a mariner's church. A house had been built upon it, and a steeple took the place of a mast. There was a little balcony near the base of the steeple, some twenty feet from the water; where, on week-days, I used to see an old pensioner33 of a tar34, sitting on a camp-stool, reading his Bible. On Sundays he hoisted35 the Bethel flag, and like the muezzin or cryer of prayers on the top of a Turkish mosque36, would call the strolling sailors to their devotions; not officially, but on his own account; conjuring37 them not to make fools of themselves, but muster38 round the pulpit, as they did about the capstan on a man-of-war. This old worthy39 was the sexton. I attended the chapel several times, and found there a very orderly but small congregation. The first time I went, the chaplain was discoursing40 on future punishments, and making allusions41 to the Tartarean Lake; which, coupled with the pitchy smell of the old hull, summoned up the most forcible image of the thing which I ever experienced.
The floating chapels42 which are to be found in some of the docks, form one of the means which have been tried to induce the seamen43 visiting Liverpool to turn their thoughts toward serious things. But as very few of them ever think of entering these chapels, though they might pass them twenty times in the day, some of the clergy44, of a Sunday, address them in the open air, from the corners of the quays45, or wherever they can procure46 an audience.
Whenever, in my Sunday strolls, I caught sight of one of these congregations, I always made a point of joining it; and would find myself surrounded by a motley crowd of seamen from all quarters of the globe, and women, and lumpers, and dock laborers47 of all sorts. Frequently the clergyman would be standing upon an old cask, arrayed in full canonicals, as a divine of the Church of England. Never have I heard religious discourses48 better adapted to an audience of men, who, like sailors, are chiefly, if not only, to be moved by the plainest of precepts49, and demonstrations50 of the misery51 of sin, as conclusive52 and undeniable as those of Euclid. No mere53 rhetoric54 avails with such men; fine periods are vanity. You can not touch them with tropes. They need to be pressed home by plain facts.
And such was generally the mode in which they were addressed by the clergy in question: who, taking familiar themes for their discourses, which were leveled right at the wants of their auditors55, always succeeded in fastening their attention. In particular, the two great vices57 to which sailors are most addicted58, and which they practice to the ruin of both body and soul; these things, were the most enlarged upon. And several times on the docks, I have seen a robed clergyman addressing a large audience of women collected from the notorious lanes and alleys59 in the neighborhood.
Is not this as it ought to be? since the true calling of the reverend clergy is like their divine Master's;—not to bring the righteous, but sinners to repentance60. Did some of them leave the converted and comfortable congregations, before whom they have ministered year after year; and plunge61 at once, like St. Paul, into the infected centers and hearts of vice56: then indeed, would they find a strong enemy to cope with; and a victory gained over him, would entitle them to a conqueror's wreath. Better to save one sinner from an obvious vice that is destroying him, than to indoctrinate ten thousand saints. And as from every corner, in Catholic towns, the shrines62 of Holy Mary and the Child Jesus perpetually remind the commonest wayfarer63 of his heaven; even so should Protestant pulpits be founded in the market-places, and at street corners, where the men of God might be heard by all of His children.
点击收听单词发音
1 prow | |
n.(飞机)机头,船头 | |
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2 modish | |
adj.流行的,时髦的 | |
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3 beavers | |
海狸( beaver的名词复数 ); 海狸皮毛; 棕灰色; 拼命工作的人 | |
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4 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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5 vessels | |
n.血管( vessel的名词复数 );船;容器;(具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的)人 | |
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6 varnish | |
n.清漆;v.上清漆;粉饰 | |
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7 planks | |
(厚)木板( plank的名词复数 ); 政纲条目,政策要点 | |
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8 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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9 scrupulous | |
adj.审慎的,小心翼翼的,完全的,纯粹的 | |
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10 scrupulously | |
adv.一丝不苟地;小心翼翼地,多顾虑地 | |
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11 vigor | |
n.活力,精力,元气 | |
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12 expended | |
v.花费( expend的过去式和过去分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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13 hull | |
n.船身;(果、实等的)外壳;vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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14 hulls | |
船体( hull的名词复数 ); 船身; 外壳; 豆荚 | |
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15 disorder | |
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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16 rusty | |
adj.生锈的;锈色的;荒废了的 | |
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17 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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18 inscriptions | |
(作者)题词( inscription的名词复数 ); 献词; 碑文; 证劵持有人的登记 | |
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19 breach | |
n.违反,不履行;破裂;vt.冲破,攻破 | |
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20 conceit | |
n.自负,自高自大 | |
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22 concussions | |
n.震荡( concussion的名词复数 );脑震荡;冲击;震动 | |
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23 vaults | |
n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 );地下室;撑物跳高;墓穴 | |
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24 quay | |
n.码头,靠岸处 | |
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25 tassel | |
n.流苏,穗;v.抽穗, (玉米)长穗须 | |
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26 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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27 cane | |
n.手杖,细长的茎,藤条;v.以杖击,以藤编制的 | |
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28 tattooed | |
v.刺青,文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 );连续有节奏地敲击;作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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29 crooked | |
adj.弯曲的;不诚实的,狡猾的,不正当的 | |
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30 reprehensible | |
adj.该受责备的 | |
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31 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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32 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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33 pensioner | |
n.领养老金的人 | |
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34 tar | |
n.柏油,焦油;vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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35 hoisted | |
把…吊起,升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36 mosque | |
n.清真寺 | |
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37 conjuring | |
n.魔术 | |
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38 muster | |
v.集合,收集,鼓起,激起;n.集合,检阅,集合人员,点名册 | |
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39 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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40 discoursing | |
演说(discourse的现在分词形式) | |
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41 allusions | |
暗指,间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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42 chapels | |
n.小教堂, (医院、监狱等的)附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 );(在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的)礼拜仪式 | |
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43 seamen | |
n.海员 | |
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44 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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45 quays | |
码头( quay的名词复数 ) | |
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46 procure | |
vt.获得,取得,促成;vi.拉皮条 | |
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47 laborers | |
n.体力劳动者,工人( laborer的名词复数 );(熟练工人的)辅助工 | |
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48 discourses | |
论文( discourse的名词复数 ); 演说; 讲道; 话语 | |
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49 precepts | |
n.规诫,戒律,箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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50 demonstrations | |
证明( demonstration的名词复数 ); 表明; 表达; 游行示威 | |
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51 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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52 conclusive | |
adj.最后的,结论的;确凿的,消除怀疑的 | |
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53 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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54 rhetoric | |
n.修辞学,浮夸之言语 | |
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55 auditors | |
n.审计员,稽核员( auditor的名词复数 );(大学课程的)旁听生 | |
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56 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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57 vices | |
缺陷( vice的名词复数 ); 恶习; 不道德行为; 台钳 | |
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58 addicted | |
adj.沉溺于....的,对...上瘾的 | |
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59 alleys | |
胡同,小巷( alley的名词复数 ); 小径 | |
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60 repentance | |
n.懊悔 | |
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61 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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62 shrines | |
圣地,圣坛,神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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63 wayfarer | |
n.旅人 | |
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