The doctor was in excellent form. On the Fourteenth Street car a human being was arguing fiercely and loudly with the conductor about some controversial [37]matter touching6 upon fares and destinations. The clamour was great. Said the doctor, adjusting his eye-glass and gazing with rebuke7 toward the disputants: "I will be gratified when this tumult8 subsides9." The doctor has been added to the membership of the club in order to add social tone to the gathering10. His charm is infinite; his manners are of a delicacy11 and an aplomb12. His speech, when he is of waggish13 humour, carries a tincture of Queen Anne phraseology that is subtle and droll14. A man, indeed! L'extrême de charme, as M. Djer-Kiss loves to say what time he woos the public in the theatre programmes.
The first thrill was when Bowling Green, Esq., secretary, cast an eye upward as the club descended15 from the Fourteenth Street sharabang, and saw, over the piers16, the tall red funnels17 of the Aquitania. This is going to be great doings, said he to himself. O Cunard Line funnels! What is there that so moves the heart?
Bowling Green, Esq., confesses that it is hard to put these minutes into cold and calculated narrative18. Among ships and seafaring concerns his heart is too violently stirred to be quite ma?tre de soi.
The club moved forward. Welcomed by the suave19 commissionaire of the Cunard Line, it was invited to rise in the elevator. On the upper floor of the pier the members ran to the windows. There lay the Aquitania at her pier. The members' hearts were stirred. Even the doctor, himself a hardened man of the sea, showed a brilliant spark of emotion behind his monocular attic20 window. A ship in dock—and what a ship! A ship at a city pier, strange sight. It is like a lion in a [38]circus cage. She, the beauty, the lovely living creature of open azure21 and great striding ranges of the sea, she that needs horizons and planets for her fitting perspective, she that asks the snow and silver at her irresistible22 stern, she that persecutes23 the sunset across the purple curves of the longitudes—tied up stiff and dead in the dull ditch of a dockway. The upward slope of that great bow, it was never made to stand still against a dusty pier-end.
The club proceeded and found itself in a little eddy24 of pure Scotland. The Columbia was just in from Glasgow—had docked only an hour before. The doctor became very Scots in a flash. "Aye, bonny!" was his reply to every question asked him by Mr. Green, the diligent25 secretary. The secretary was addressed as "lad." A hat now became a "bonnet26." The fine stiff speech of Glasgow was heard on every side, for the passengers were streaming through the customs. Yon were twa bonny wee brithers, aiblins ten years old, that came marching off, with bare knees and ribbed woollen stockings and little tweed jackets. O Scotland, Scotland, said our hairt! The wund blaws snell frae the firth, whispered the secretary to himself, keeking about, but had not the courage to utter it.
Here the secretary pauses on a point of delicacy. It was the purpose of the club to visit Capt. David W. Bone of the Columbia, but the captain is a modest man, and one knows not just how much of our admiration27 of him and his ship he would care to see spread upon the minutes. Were Mr. Green such a man as the captain, would he be lowering himself to have any [39]truck with journalists and such petty folk? Mr. Green would not. Mark you: Captain Bone is the master of an Atlantic liner, a veteran of the submarine-haunted lanes of sea, a writer of fine books (have you, lovers of sea tales, read "The Brassbounder" and "Broken Stowage"?) a collector of first editions, a man who stood on the bridge of the flagship at Harwich and watched the self-defiled U-boats slink in and come to a halt at the international code signal MN (Stop instantly!)—"Ha," said Mr. Green, "Were I such a man, I would pass by like shoddy such pitifuls as colyumists." But he was a glad man no less, for he knew the captain was bigger of heart. Besides, he counted on the exquisite28 tact29 of the doctor to see him through. Indeed, even the stern officials of the customs had marked the doctor as a man exceptional. And as the club stood patiently among the outward flux30 of authentic31 Glasgow, came the captain himself and welcomed them aboard.
Across immaculate decks, and in the immortal32 whiff, indefinable, of a fine ship just off the high seas, trod the beatified club. A ship, the last abiding33 place in a mannerless world of good old-fashioned caste, and respect paid upward with due etiquette34 and discipline through the grades of rank. The club, for a moment, were guests of the captain; deference35 was paid to them. They stood in the captain's cabin (sacred words). "Boy!" cried the captain, in tones of command. Not as one speaks to office boys in a newspaper kennel36, in a voice of entreaty37. The boy appeared: a curly-headed, respectful stripling. A look of respect: how well it sits upon youth. "Boy!" said [40]the captain—but just what the captain said is not to be put upon vulgar minutes. Remember, pray, the club was upon British soil.
In the saloon sat the club, and their faces were the faces of men at peace, men harmonious38 and of delicate cheer. The doctor, a seafaring man, talked the lingo39 of imperial mariners40: he knew the right things to say: he carried along the humble41 secretary, who gazed in melodious42 mood upon the jar of pickled onions. At sea Mr. Green is of lurking43 manners: he holds fast to his bunk44 lest worse befall; but a ship in port is his empire. Scotch45 broth46 was before them—pukka Scotch broth, the doctor called it; and also the captain and the doctor had some East Indian name for the chutney. The secretary resolved to travel and see the world. Curried47 chicken and rice was the word: and, not to exult48 too cruelly upon you (O excellent friends!), let us move swiftly over the gooseberry tart4. There was the gooseberry tart, and again, a few minutes later, it was not there. All things have their appointed end. "Boy!" said the captain. (Must I remind you, we were on imperial soil.) Is it to be said that the club rose to the captain's cabin once more, and matters of admirable purport49 were tastefully discussed, as is the habit of us mariners?
"The drastic sanity50 of the sea"—it is a phrase from a review of one of the captain's own books, "Merchantmen-at-Arms," which this club (so it runs upon the minutes), as lovers of sea literature, officially hope may soon be issued on this side also. It is a phrase, if these minutes are correct, from a review [41]written by H.M. Tomlinson, another writer of the sea, of whom we have spoken before, and may, in God's providence51, again. "The drastic sanity of the sea" was the phrase that lingered in our mind as we heard the captain talk of books and of discipline at sea and of the trials imposed upon shipmasters by the La Follette act. (What, the club wondered inwardly, does Mr. La Follette know of seafaring?) "The drastic sanity of the sea!" We thought of other sailors we had known, and how they had found happiness and simplicity52 in the ordered combat with their friendly enemy. A virtue53 goes out of a ship (Joseph Conrad said, in effect) when she touches her quay54. Her beauty and purpose are, for the moment, dulled and dimmed. But even there, how much she brings us. How much, even though we do not put it into words, the faces and accents of our seafaring friends give us in the way of plain wisdom and idealism. And the secretary, as he stepped aboard the hubbub55 of a subway train, was still pondering "the drastic sanity of the sea."
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1
bowling
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| n.保龄球运动 | |
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confidential
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| adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的 | |
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tepid
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| adj.微温的，温热的，不太热心的 | |
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tart
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| adj.酸的；尖酸的，刻薄的；n.果馅饼；淫妇 | |
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pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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rebuke
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| v.指责，非难，斥责 [反]praise | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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subsides
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的第三人称单数 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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aplomb
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| n.沉着，镇静 | |
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waggish
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| adj.诙谐的，滑稽的 | |
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droll
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| adj.古怪的，好笑的 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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piers
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| n.水上平台( pier的名词复数 )；（常设有娱乐场所的）突堤；柱子；墙墩 | |
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funnels
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| 漏斗( funnel的名词复数 )； （轮船，火车等的）烟囱 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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suave
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| adj.温和的；柔和的；文雅的 | |
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attic
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| n.顶楼，屋顶室 | |
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azure
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| adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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persecutes
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的第三人称单数 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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eddy
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| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
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diligent
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| adj.勤勉的，勤奋的 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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flux
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| n.流动；不断的改变 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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abiding
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| adj.永久的，持久的，不变的 | |
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etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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deference
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| n.尊重，顺从；敬意 | |
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kennel
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| n.狗舍，狗窝 | |
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entreaty
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| n.恳求，哀求 | |
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harmonious
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| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
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lingo
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| n.语言不知所云，外国话，隐语 | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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41
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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42
melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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lurking
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| 潜在 | |
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44
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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45
scotch
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| n.伤口，刻痕；苏格兰威士忌酒；v.粉碎，消灭，阻止；adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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46
broth
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| n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等) | |
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47
curried
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| adj.加了咖喱（或咖喱粉的），用咖哩粉调理的 | |
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48
exult
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| v.狂喜，欢腾；欢欣鼓舞 | |
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49
purport
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| n.意义，要旨，大要；v.意味著，做为...要旨，要领是... | |
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50
sanity
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| n.心智健全，神智正常，判断正确 | |
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51
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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52
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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53
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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54
quay
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| n.码头，靠岸处 | |
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hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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