About fifty years ago a company of enterprising souls took it into their heads to reclaim11 some of the land which the subtly and ceaselessly ebbing sea, rising and falling with moon-like regularity12, yet receding13 ever, though noticeably only in spans of half-centuries, was leaving behind it. They armed themselves with the necessary legal powers, they subscribed14 all the capital[25] they considered needful, and by processes of embanking, draining, manuring, and the like, they succeeded in raising wheat and grass, vegetables and flowers, where, since and long before the days of the painted Briton, shuddering16 in the November blast, or perspiring17 away his small clothes under the July sun, nothing had flourished but the dab18 and the crab19.
Yet the speculation20 on the whole was a failure. It was a patriotic21 achievement in its way, and those concerned in it deserved well of the nation; for if it be a fine thing to bleed for one’s country, how much finer must it be to add to its dimensions, to enlarge its latitude22 and longitude23, and extend the home-sovereignty of the monarch25? Yet, though a pretty considerable village stood hard by the reclaimed26 land, houses did not increase. The builder, whose Christian27 name is Jerry, came down to Brokers’ Bay, and took a look around, and went home again, and did nothing. He was not to be decoyed, he said. Brokers’ Bay was not the right sort of place to start a town in, he thought. There was too much mud, Mr. Jerry considered. He calculated that when the water was out there was a full mile and three-quarters of slime. Oh yes, whilst the slime was still slimy it reflected the sky just the same as if it had been water, and it took a noble blood-red countenance28 of a hot sunset evening, when the sea was a pink gleaming streak29 just under the horizon, and it was very pleasing in that sort of way. But what were the doctors going to say about all that mud, and what[26] opportunities would a waste of slush, extending one and three-quarter miles at ebb2 tide, provide the local historian with when he came to write a guide-book and invent Roman and Early English names for the immediate30 district, and deal with the salubriousness of the climate, and give an analysis of the drinking water? And what about the bathing? There was none. And what length of pier31 would be wanted if the seaward end of it was to be permanently32 water-washed?
The reclaimed ground was divided into lots for building; but nobody built. The soil continued to be cultivated, nevertheless. Two market-gardeners did very well out of it. A butcher rented thirty acres of the pasture land; the remainder was variously dealt with in small ways for growing purposes.
Now, that stretch of land had been reclaimed some fifteen years, when a certain master mariner33, whom I will call Captain Carey, arrived at the adjacent village with the intention of taking a view of the Brokers’ Bay foreshore. News that good land was cheap hereabouts had reached him up at Blyth. He had unexpectedly come into a little fortune, had Captain Carey. For years he had followed the coasting trade, working his way out through the forescuttle into the captain’s cabin, and after thirty years of seafaring, rendered more and more uncomfortable by gloomy anticipations34 of the workhouse in his old age, he had been enriched by the will of an Australian aunt, the amount being something between £9000 and £10,000.
[27]
Captain Carey had sprung from a West Country stock; his wife was a West Country woman, and when they came into the Australian aunt’s legacy35 they determined36 to break up their little home at Blyth and settle somewhere on Western soil. So Captain Carey came to Brokers’ Bay, and with him travelled his giant son, a youth of prodigious37 muscle, but of weak intellect. A second Titan son was at this time at sea, working his way towards the quarter-deck aboard an East Indiaman.
Captain Carey’s survey of the Brokers’ foreshore determined him on purchasing a plot of land right amidships of the fine curve of reclaimed soil. He bought four acres at a very low figure indeed, and then ordered a small house to be built in the midst of his little estate. His wife and her niece joined him and the giant half-witted son at the adjacent village, and there the family dwelt at the sign of the Seven Bells whilst the house was building.
It was quickly put together, and was then gay with a green balcony, and it had motherly lubberly bay windows that made you think of a whaler’s boats dangling38 at cranes, and the entrance was embellished39 with a singular porch after the design of the retired40 master mariner, who had recollected41 seeing something of the sort at Lisbon when he had gone as a boy on a voyage to Portugal.
Captain Carey loved seclusion42. Like most retired mariners43, he hated to be overlooked. This fondness[28] for privacy, which grows out of a habit of it, may be owing to there being no streets at sea, and no over-the-way. The master of a vessel44 lives in a cabin all alone by himself—the Crusoe of the after part of the ship. He measures his quarter-deck in lonely walks; no eyes glittering above the bulwark45 rail watch his movements; his behaviour as a man, his judgment46 as a seaman47, but not his mode of life as a private individual, are criticized by his crew. Hence, when a man steps ashore48 after a long period of command at sea, he carries with him a strong love of privacy, and much resolution of retirement49. A great number of little cottages by the ocean are occupied by solitary50 seamen51, who pass their time in looking through a telescope at the horizon, in arguing with lonesome men of their own cloth, in smoking pipes at the Lugger Inn or at the sign of the Lord Nelson, and turning in at night and turning out in the morning.
To provide against being overlooked in case others should build hard by, Captain Carey walled his little estate of four acres with a regular bulkhead of a fence, handsomely spiked52 on top, and too tall even for his giant son to peer over on tiptoe. In a few months the house was built, papered, and in all ways completed; it was then furnished and the ground fenced. Captain Carey and his family now took possession of their new home. There was, first of all, Captain Carey, then Mrs. Carey, next the giant young Carey (who had been known up in Blyth by the name of Mother Carey’s chicken),[29] and last, Mrs. Carey’s niece, a stout53, active girl of twenty, who helped Mrs. Carey in cooking and looking after the house; for Carey, having been robbed, whilst absent on a coasting voyage, of a new coat, a soft hat, a meerschaum pipe, and a few other trifles by a maid-of-all-work, had sworn in hideous54 forecastle language never again to keep another servant.
This happy family of Careys were very well pleased with their new home. Old Carey was never weary of stepping out of doors to look at his house. He seemed to find something fresh to admire every time he cast his eyes over the little building. He and his son planted potatoes, onions, cabbages, and other homely55 vegetables, and dug out and cultivated a very considerable area of kitchen garden. They had not above three miles to walk to attend divine worship. There were several convenient shops in the adjacent village, not more than two miles and a half distant. There was no roadway to speak of to Carey’s house, but in a very few weeks the feet of the family and the tread of the tradespeople tramped out a thin path over the reclaimed land to the village roadway, where it fell with the sweep of the cliff to the level of the reclaimed soil. And the view, on the whole, from Carey’s windows was fairly picturesque56 and pleasing, even when the water was out and the scene was a sweeping57 flat of mud. Afar on the dark blue edge of the sea hovered58 the feather-white canvas of ships, easily resolved into denominationable fabrics60 by Carey’s powerful telescope. The western sun[30] glowed in the briny61 ooze62 till the whole stretch of the stuff resembled a vast surface of molten gold. Here and there, confronting Carey’s house, stood some scores of fangs63 of rock, and when there was a flood-tide and a fresh in-shore gale64 the sea snapped and beat and burst upon the beach with as much uproar65 as though it were all fathomless66 ocean, instead of a dirty stretch of water with an eighteen-foot rise of tide, and foam67 so dark and thick with dirt that, after it had blown upon you and dried, it was as though you had ridden through some dozen miles of muddy lanes.
The family had been settled about three months when the eldest68 son arrived home from the long voyage he had made to China and the East Indies. He was a tall, powerfully-built young man; but his education in his youth had been neglected. Captain Carey, indeed, had not in those days possessed69 the means to put him to school. Now, however, that the skipper had come into a little fortune of, call it, £10,000, he resolved to qualify his son for a position on the quarter-deck.
“Navigation I can teach him,” he said to his wife, “and if he was a master-rigger he couldn’t know more about a ship. What he wants is the sort of larning which you and me’s deficient70 in: the being able to talk and write good English, with some sort of knowledge of history and the likes of that; so that, should he ever get command of a passenger ship, why, then, sitting at the head of the cabin table, he won’t be ashamed of addressing the ladies and joining in the general conversation.”
[31]
So when this son arrived from China and the East Indies, the father, instead of sending him to sea again, put him to read and study with a clergyman who lived in the adjacent village, a gentleman who could not obtain a living and who disdained71 a curacy.
Thus it came to pass that Captain Carey lived at home with his two sons and wife and wife’s niece.
He stood in a bay window one day, and it entered his head to dig out a pond and place a fountain in the middle of it.
“It’ll improve the property,” said Captain Carey, turning to his wife and sons, who were lingering at the breakfast-table. “We’ll fix a pedestal amidships of the pond and put a female statue upon it—one of them white figures who keep their right hands aloft for the holding of a whirligig fountain. There’s nothing prettier than a revolving72 fountain a-sparkling and a-showering down over a noode statue.”
“You’ll be striking salt water, father, if you fall a-digging,” said the sailor son named Tom.
“And what then?” exclaimed Captain Carey. “Ain’t brine as bright to the eye as fresh water? And it’s not going to choke the fountain either. Blessed if I don’t think the fountain might be set a-playing by the rise and fall of the tide.”
When breakfast was ended, the father and the two sons stepped out of doors to decide upon a spot in which to dig the pond for the fountain. After much discussion they agreed to dig in front of the house, about a[32] hundred paces distant, within a stone’s throw of the wash of the water when the tide was at its height.
The Captain’s grounds lay open to the sea, though they were jealously fenced, as has been already said, at the back and on either hand. There could be no intrusion on the sea-fronting portion of the grounds. The mud came to the embankment, and the embankment was the ocean-limit of Carey’s little estate. There was no path, and no right of way if there had been. Selkirk and his goats could scarcely have enjoyed greater seclusion than did Carey and his family. The father and sons proposed to dig out the pond to the shape, depth, and area decided73 upon, and then bring in a mason to finish it. They went to work next day; it was something to do—something to kill the time which, perhaps, now and again lay a little heavy upon this isolated74 family. The old skipper dug with vehemence75 and enjoyment76. He had been bred to a life of hard work, and was never happier than when toiling77. His giant half-witted son laboured with the energy of steam. The sailor son stepped in when he had done with his parson and his studies for the day, and drove his spade into the reclaimed soil with enthusiasm. This went on for several days, and something that resembled the idea of a pond without any water in it began to suggest itself to the eye.
It was on a Friday afternoon in the month of April, as the Captain whom I am calling Carey himself informed me, that this retired skipper, who had not felt[33] well enough that day to dig, was seated in his parlour reading a newspaper and smoking a pipe. Suddenly the door was flung open, and the giant half-witted youth whose name was Jack79 walked in.
“Father,” said he, “ain’t gold found in the earth?”
“Nowhere else, sonny,” answered the Captain, looking at the giant over the top of the newspaper.
“There’s gold in the pond, father,” said Jack.
“Gold in your eye!” exclaimed the Captain, putting down his pipe and his newspaper. “What sort of gold?” said he, smiling.
“Shiny gold, like the half-sovereign you wance gave me for behavin’ myself when you was away.”
On this, Captain Carey, without another word, put on his hat and walked with his son to the diggings, which were by this time a pretty considerable trench80.
“There,” said Jack, pointing, “my spade drove upon him, and I’ve scraped that much clear.”
The Captain looked, and perceived what resembled a fragment of a shaft81 of metal, dull and yellow, with lines of brightness where Jack’s spade had scraped the surface. He at once jumped into the trench and bade Jack fetch his spade. They then dug together, and in about a quarter of an hour succeeded in laying bare a small brass82 cannon83 of very antique pattern and manufacture. It was pivoted84. They dug a little longer and deeper, and exposed a portion of woodwork. The scantling was extraordinarily85 thick, and the gun was pivoted to it. The Captain’s face was red with excitement.
[34]
“Run and see if Tom’s in,” he cried, “and if he ain’t leave word that he’s to join us with his spade as soon as he arrives, and then come you back, Jack. By the great anchor, if here ain’t a foundered86 ship call me a guffy!”
The sailor son, armed with a spade, appeared on the scene within twenty minutes.
“It’s an old brass swivel, father,” he shouted.
“Jump in,” cried the Skipper, “and len’s a hand to clear away more of this muck.”
The three plied87 their spades with might and main, and before sundown they had laid bare some eight feet of ship’s deck, with about five feet breadth of bulwark, measuring four feet high from the plank88. Mrs. Carey and the niece came to the edge of the pit to look. The three diggers, covered with sweat and hot as fire, climbed out, threw down their spades, and the family stood gazing.
“Whatever is it?” cried Mrs. Carey.
“A foundered ship,” answered her husband.
“A whole ship, uncle?” exclaimed the niece.
“A three-hundred-ton ship,” answered the Skipper. “D’ye want to know if she’s all here? I can’t tell you that; but if there ain’t solidness enough for a Ryle Jarge running fore15 and aft in this unearthed89 piece, I’m no sailor man.”
“What sort of ship will she be?” said the half-witted Jack.
“Something two hundred year old, if the whole job[35] hain’t some antiquarian roose like to the burying of Roman baths for the digging of ’em up again as an advertisement for the place. Who was a-reigning two hundred year ago?”
Here every eye was directed at the sailor son, who, after rubbing his nose and looking hard at the horizon, answered, “Crummell.”
“Then it’s a ship of Crummell’s time,” cried the Captain, to whom the name of Crummell did not seem familiar, “and if so be she’s all here and intact, bloomed if she won’t be a fortune to us as a show.”
That night, both at and after supper, all the talk of the family was about the foundered ship in the garden. The giant lad’s excitement was such that even the mother owned to herself he had never been more fluent and imbecile.
“D’ye think it’s a whole ship, father?” said Tom the sailor.
“More’n likely. That there brass cannon ought to give us her age. Haven’t I heered tell of a Spanish invasion of this country in bygone years, when the Dons was blowed to the nor’rad, and a score of their galleons90 cast away upon the British coasts? At a time like this a man feels not being a scholard. Tom, fetch down your history book, and see if there’s a piece wrote in it about that there Spanish job.”
The sailor brought a history of England to the lamp, and with fingers square-ended as broken carrots, and with palms dark with dragging upon tarry ropes, groped[36] patiently through the pages till he came to a part of the story that told of the Spanish Armada. This was read aloud, and the family listened with attention.
“Well, she may prove to be one of them Spanish galleons after all,” said Captain Carey. “She’ll not be the first ship that’s been dug up out of land which the sea’s flowed over in its day. There was Jimmy Perkins of Sunderland——” And here he spun91 them a yarn92.
“What’ll be inside the ship, I wonder?” exclaimed the niece.
“Ah!” said the young giant Jack, opening his mouth.
“Them galleons went pretty richly freighted, I’ve heered,” said the Skipper. “When I was a boy they used to tell of their going afloat with a store of dollars in their holds, their bottoms flush to the hatches with the choicest goods, gold and silver candlesticks and crucifixes in the cabins for the captains and mates to say their prayers afore.”
“Jacky thought the cannon gold,” said Mrs. Carey. “He may be right, Thomas, though a little quick in finding out. There may be gold deeper down.”
“Well, now,” cried the Skipper. “I’ll tell you what I’ve made up my mind to do. We’ll keep this here find a secret. Tom, you, me, and Jack’ll go to work day arter day until we see what lies buried. There’s no call for any of us to say a word about this discovery. We’re pretty well out of sight, the fence stands high, and if so be as any visitor or tradesman should catch a view of[37] the trench they’ll not be able to see what’s inside without drawing close to the brink93, which, of course, won’t be permitted. If that foundered craft,” he cried, with great excitement, pointing towards the window, “is intact, as I before observed, then let her hold contain what it may, all mud or all dollars, all slush or all silk, as a show she ought to be worth a matter of a thousand pound to us. But not a word to anybody till we’ve looked inside of her. If there’s treasure, why, it’s to be ourn. There’s to be no dividing of it with the authorities, and so I says plainly, let the law be what it will. Here’s this house and grounds to be paid for, Tom to be eddicated and sent to sea in a ship he holds a share in, Jack to be made independent of me, and Eliza to be provided for; and we’ll see,” he shouted, hitting the table a blow with his clenched94 fist, “if that there foundered ship ain’t a-going to work out this traverse the same as if she was chock-a-block with bullion95.”
Thus was the procedure settled, and next morning early the father and two sons went to work with their spades.
It was to prove a long, laborious96 job; they knew that, but were determined all the same to keep the strange business in the family, and to solve the secret of the buried craft as darkly and mysteriously as though they were bent97 upon perpetrating some deed of horror. The quantity of soil they threw up formed an embankment which concealed98 the trench and their own labouring figures as they progressed. Tom went away to his[38] studies for two or three hours in the day; saving this and the interruption of meal-times their toil78 was unintermittent. In three weeks they had disclosed enough of the poop-royal, poop, and quarter-deck of the strangely-shaped craft to satisfy them that, at all events, a very large portion of the after part of the vessel lay solid in its centuries-old grave of mud.
In this time they had exhumed99 and scraped the whole breadth or beam of her upper decks to a distance of about twenty-two feet forward from the taffrail. Their notion was to clear her from end to end betwixt the lines of her bulwarks100, only to satisfy themselves that she was a whole ship. Day after day they laboured in their secret fashion, and the people of the district never for an instant imagined that they were at work on anything more than an entrenchment101 of extraordinary size, depth, and length, for some purpose known only to themselves.
It took them to the middle of July to expose the upper decks of the vessel; and then there lay, a truly marvellous and even beautiful sight, buried some ten feet below the level of the soil, the complete and quite perfect fabric59 of a little antique ship of war, about one hundred feet long and thirty feet broad, with two after decks or poops descending102 like steps to the quarter-deck, and the bows shelving downwards103 like the slope of a beach into what promised to prove a complicated curling of headboards and some nightmare device of figure-head. Four little brass cannons104 were pivoted on[39] the poop rails, and on her main deck she mounted eight guns of that ancient sort called sakers. The wood of her was as hard as iron, and black as old oak with the saturation105 of soil and brine and time’s secret hardening process. The masts were clean gone from the deck, and there was no sign of a bowsprit. Never was there a more wonderful picture than that ancient ship as she lay in her grave with her grin of old-world artillery106 running the fat squab length of her, the whole structure, flat still in the soil to the level of the bulwark rails, affecting the eye as some marvellous illusion of nature; as some wild, romantic vegetable or mineral caprice of the drained but sodden107 soil.
Our little family of diggers, having disentombed the decks and bulwarks to the whole length of the giant Jack’s extraordinary discovery, next proceeded, all as secretly as though they were preparing for some hideous crime, to uproot108 the covers of the main-hatch, which were as hard-fixed as though they had been of Portland stone cemented into a pier. With much hammering, however—and they were three powerful men—they succeeded in splitting the cover, and the stubborn, wonderful old piece of timber-frame was picked out of the yawn of the hatch in splinters. And now they looked down into a black well, from which Captain Carey speedily withdrew his head, sniffing109 and spitting.
“Run for a candle, Jack,” said he.
A candle was lighted and lowered, and when it had[40] sunk half a dozen feet the flame went out as though the wick had been suddenly pinched by the fingers of a spirit. So that a current of air should sweeten the hold, they went aft with their hatchets110 and hammers, and, after prodigious labour, splintered and cleared away the cover of a little booby hatch just under the break of the lower poop. They next got open the small fore hatch, and at the end of two days, when they lowered a lighted candle, the flame burnt freely.
Now, what did they find inside this buried ship? Carey had counted upon mud to the hatchways, and scores of curios and amazing relics111 of Crummell’s or another’s period to be dug out of the solid mass. Instead, the interior was as dry as a nut whose kernel112 has rotted into dust. This was as extraordinary as any other feature of the discovery. The three men, each bearing a lighted lantern, descended113 the ladder they had lowered through the hatch, and gained the bottom of the ship, where they walked upon what had undoubtedly114 been cargo115 in its time, though it might now have passed for a sort of dunnage of lava116, dry, harsh, and gritty, and powdering under the tread. A basket was loaded with the stuff, and hoisted117 into the daylight and examined, but the family could make nothing of it. As far as could be gathered, the original freight of the ship had been bale goods, skins, fine wool, and the like, East India or Spice Island commodities, which some sort of chemical action had transformed into a heap of indistinguishable stuff, as slender in comparison with its[41] radical118 bulk as the cinders119 of a rag to the rag that is burnt.
“Nothing to make our fortunes with here,” said Captain Carey, as he stood in the bottom of this wonderful old ship’s hold with his two sons, the three of them holding up their lanterns and glancing with gleaming eyes and marvelling120 minds around. “What’s abaft121 that bulkhead? We’ll see to it arter dinner.”
They went to dinner, and then returned to the ship, and applied122 themselves to hacking123 at the bulkhead so as to effect an entry. This bulkhead, which partitioned the after from the main and fore holds, was of the hardness of steel. They let fly at it in vain. The hollow hold reverberated124 the blows of axe125 and chopper with the clangour of an iron ship-building yard.
“We must enter by an after-hatch if it’s to be done,” said Captain Carey.
With infinite labour, which expended126 the day and ran into the whole of the following morning, they contrived127 to break their way through the front of the lower poop. Here the air was as foul128 as ever it had been in the hold. They could do nothing for many hours. When at last the atmosphere was sweet enough to breathe they entered, and found themselves in a cabin that was unusually lofty owing to the superstructure of the poop-royal. The interior was as dry as the hold had been. So effectually had accident or contrivance, or the secret processes of the ship’s grave,[42] sealed every aperture129 that, standing130 in this now wind-swept cabin, you might have supposed the little fabric had never shipped a bucketful of water from the hour of her launch. Several human skeletons lay upon the deck. The Captain and his sons held the lanterns to the bones, and handled the rags which had been their raiment, but the colourless stuff went to pieces. It mouldered131 in the grasp as dry sand streams from the clenched fist.
Five cabins were bulkheaded off this black, long-buried interior. The Captain and his sons searched them, but everything that was not of timber appeared to have undergone the same transformation132 that was visible in what had doubtless been the cargo in the hold. They found chairs of a venerable pattern, cresset-like lamps, such as Milton describes, bunk133 bedsteads, upon which were faintly distinguishable the tracings of what might have been paintings and gilt-work.
“What d’ye think of this, boys, for a show?” cried Captain Carey, whose voice was tremulous with excitement and astonishment134. “If there ain’t two thousand pound in the job as a sight-going consarn, tell me we’re all a-dreaming, and that the whole boiling’s a lie. And now to see what’s under hatches here.”
A small square of hatchway was visible just abaft the black oblong table that centred the interior. They opened this hatch without much labour. The cementing process of the ship’s grave had not apparently135 worked[43] very actively136 in this cabin, yet the foul air of the after-hold forced them once more upon no less than three days of inactivity; for to sweeten the place they were obliged to construct a windsail, whose breezy heel rendered the atmosphere fit for human respiration137 in a few hours.
On descending they found just such another accumulation of lava-like remains138 of freight as they had met with in the main-hold. But they also noticed a bulkhead ten feet abaft the sternpost. They chopped their way through it, and stood for awhile peering around them under the lanterns which they held above their heads. The gleams illuminated139 a quantity of ancient furniture—sofas and chairs and little tables, and framed squares and ovals of obliterated140 paintings. Captain Carey put his hand upon a couch, and drew away his fist full of pale and rotted upholstery.
“Are those things cases yonder?” said the sailor son, and the three of them made their way to a corner of the hold and stood looking for a moment or two at four square chests heavily clamped with iron.
“What’s here?” said Captain Carey.
The giant Jack stooped and strove to stir one of the boxes.
“Stand aside!” roared the Skipper, and with half a dozen strokes of his axe, he split open the lid of one of the chests.
The three faces came together in a huddle, and[44] the light shone upon lines of linked and minted metal.
“Pick out one of ’em, Tom,” said Captain Carey, in a faint voice; “my hands are a-trembling too much to do it.”
They were Spanish silver coins, subsequently ascertained141 to have been minted in times which proved the age of this sunken and recovered ship contemporaneous with the early years of the reign24 of our Second Charles. Captain Carey told me that he realized £6400 on them.
But this lucky family did better yet with their incredible discovery; for after the Captain had secreted142 the money in his house, he called in workmen, who dug away the soil from the buried ship until she was exposed to the bilge on which she rested. This done, he carried out his resolution to make a show of her by erecting143 a shed for the fabric, stationing a door-keeper at the entrance, and charging sixpence for admission. Many hundreds, indeed many thousands, came from all parts to view the wonderful ship, that was ascertained, by what is called an “expert” in naval144 affairs, to have been the Sancte Ineas, captured by the privateer Amazon, and lost whilst proceeding145 in charge of a prize crew to an English port. It was further discovered that her lading had consisted of coffee, cochineal, indigo146, hides in the hair, bales of fine wool and fur. But down to this hour it was never known that Captain Carey had found hidden, and, in[45] course of time, cleverly turned into good English money, four chests of Spanish silver, worth, at all events to this happy family of Brokers’ Bay, £6400. For my own part, I have honourably147 kept my worthy148 friend’s secret.
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situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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ebb
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| vi.衰退，减退；n.处于低潮，处于衰退状态 | |
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ebbing
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的现在分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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galleon
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hempen
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fathoms
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spire
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darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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huddle
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dwarf
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reclaim
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regularity
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receding
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| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
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14
subscribed
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| v.捐助( subscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；签署，题词；订阅；同意 | |
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15
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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16
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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17
perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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18
dab
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| v.轻触，轻拍，轻涂；n.(颜料等的)轻涂 | |
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19
crab
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| n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气 | |
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20
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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21
patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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22
latitude
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| n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区 | |
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23
longitude
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| n.经线，经度 | |
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24
reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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25
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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26
reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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27
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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28
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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29
streak
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| 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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30
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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31
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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32
permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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33
mariner
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| n.水手号不载人航天探测器，海员，航海者 | |
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34
anticipations
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| 预期( anticipation的名词复数 )； 预测； （信托财产收益的）预支； 预期的事物 | |
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35
legacy
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| n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西 | |
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36
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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37
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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38
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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39
embellished
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| v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 )；装饰；修饰；润色 | |
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40
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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41
recollected
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|
| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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43
mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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44
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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45
bulwark
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| n.堡垒，保障，防御 | |
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46
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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47
seaman
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| n.海员，水手，水兵 | |
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48
ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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49
retirement
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| n.退休，退职 | |
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50
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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51
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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52
spiked
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| adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的 | |
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54
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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55
homely
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| adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的 | |
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56
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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57
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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58
hovered
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| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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59
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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60
fabrics
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| 织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地 | |
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61
briny
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| adj.盐水的；很咸的；n.海洋 | |
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62
ooze
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| n.软泥，渗出物；vi.渗出，泄漏；vt.慢慢渗出，流露 | |
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63
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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64
gale
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| n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等） | |
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65
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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66
fathomless
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| a.深不可测的 | |
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67
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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68
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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69
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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70
deficient
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| adj.不足的，不充份的，有缺陷的 | |
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71
disdained
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|
| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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72
revolving
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|
| adj.旋转的，轮转式的；循环的v.（使）旋转( revolve的现在分词 )；细想 | |
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73
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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74
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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75
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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76
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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77
toiling
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| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
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78
toil
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| vi.辛劳工作，艰难地行动；n.苦工，难事 | |
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79
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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80
trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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81
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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82
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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83
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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84
pivoted
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|
| adj.转动的，回转的，装在枢轴上的v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的过去式和过去分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开 | |
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85
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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86
foundered
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|
| v.创始人( founder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87
plied
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| v.使用（工具）( ply的过去式和过去分词 )；经常供应（食物、饮料）；固定往来；经营生意 | |
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88
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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89
unearthed
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| 出土的（考古） | |
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90
galleons
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|
| n.大型帆船( galleon的名词复数 ) | |
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91
spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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92
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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93
brink
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| n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘，边沿 | |
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94
clenched
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| v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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95
bullion
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| n.金条，银条 | |
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96
laborious
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|
| adj.吃力的，努力的，不流畅 | |
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97
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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98
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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99
exhumed
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| v.挖出，发掘出( exhume的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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100
bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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101
entrenchment
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| n.壕沟，防御设施 | |
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102
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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103
downwards
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| adj./adv.向下的（地），下行的（地） | |
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104
cannons
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| n.加农炮，大炮，火炮( cannon的名词复数 ) | |
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105
saturation
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| n.饱和(状态)；浸透 | |
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106
artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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107
sodden
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| adj.浑身湿透的；v.使浸透；使呆头呆脑 | |
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108
uproot
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| v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开 | |
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109
sniffing
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| n.探查法v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的现在分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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110
hatchets
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| n.短柄小斧( hatchet的名词复数 )；恶毒攻击；诽谤；休战 | |
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111
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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112
kernel
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| n.(果实的)核，仁；(问题)的中心，核心 | |
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113
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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114
undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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115
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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116
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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117
hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
radical
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| n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的 | |
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119
cinders
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| n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 )；炭渣；煤渣路；煤渣跑道 | |
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120
marvelling
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| v.惊奇，对…感到惊奇( marvel的现在分词 ) | |
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121
abaft
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| prep.在…之后；adv.在船尾，向船尾 | |
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122
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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123
hacking
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| n.非法访问计算机系统和数据库的活动 | |
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124
reverberated
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| 回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射 | |
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125
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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126
expended
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| 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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127
contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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128
foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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129
aperture
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| n.孔，隙，窄的缺口 | |
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130
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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131
mouldered
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| v.腐朽( moulder的过去式和过去分词 )；腐烂，崩塌 | |
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132
transformation
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| n.变化；改造；转变 | |
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133
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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134
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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135
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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136
actively
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| adv.积极地，勤奋地 | |
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137
respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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138
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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139
illuminated
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| adj.被照明的；受启迪的 | |
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140
obliterated
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| v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 )；涂去；擦掉；彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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141
ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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142
secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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143
erecting
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| v.使直立，竖起( erect的现在分词 )；建立 | |
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144
naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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145
proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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146
indigo
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| n.靛青，靛蓝 | |
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147
honourably
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| adv.可尊敬地，光荣地，体面地 | |
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148
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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