It was thought that our passage would be a smart one, as good a run as any on record, for though, to be sure, we had been detained a bit off the Horn by the frequent heaving to of the ship, yet we had traversed the long stretch of the South Pacific very briskly, whilst for a long eight days now there blew a strong, steady beam wind that drove us through it at an average of two hundred[228] and fifty miles in the twenty-four hours. With less weight in the breeze we should have done better still. We could never show more than a maintopgallant sail to it, and the high seas were by no means helpful to the heels of the ship. Yet Cape5 Horn was speedily a long way astern of us; the horrible weather of it was forgotten as pain is. Every night, stars which had become familiar to us were sinking in the south, and new constellations6 soaring out of the horizon over the bows. It was delightful7 to handle the ropes, and find them supple8 as coir instead of stiff as iron bars, to pick up the sails, and feel them soft again to the touch instead of that hardness of sheets of steel which they gathered to them in the frosty parallels. The sun shone with a warmth that was every day increasing in ardency9; the dry decks sparkled crisply like the white firm sand of the sea-beach. The live-stock grew gay and hearty10 with the Atlantic temperature: the cocks crew cheerily, the hens cackled with vigour11, the sheep bleated12 with voices which filled our salted, weather-toughened heads with visions of green meadows, of fields enamelled with daisies, of hedges full of nosegays, and of twinkling green branches melodious13 with birds.
We slipped into the south-east trade wind, and bore away for the equator under fore14-topmast studding-sail.One moonlight night a fancy to view the ship from the bowsprit entered my mind. I went on to the forecastle and crawled out on to the jibboom,[231] and there sat riding a-cock-horse of it, holding by the outer jib-stay. The moon shone brightly over the maintopsail yard-arm; all sail was on the ship, and she was leaning over from the fresh breeze like a yacht in a racing15 match. The moonlight made her decks resemble ivory, and stars of silver glory sparkled fitfully along them in the glass and brass16 work. The whole figure of the noble fabric17 seemed to be rushing at me; the foam18 poured like steam from her stem that was smoking and sheering through the ocean surge. Over my head soared the great jibs, like the wings of some mighty19 spirit. My heart leapt up in me to the rise and fall of the spar that I jockeyed. It was like sitting at one end of a leviathan see-saw, and every upheaval20 was as exhilarating as a flight through the air. Ah, thought I, as I leisurely21 made my way inboards, if sailoring were always as pleasant as this, I believe I should wish to continue at sea all my life.
It was two days afterwards, at about half-past six in the morning watch, that a fellow in the foretop hailed the deck and reported a black object on the lee-bow which, he said, didn’t look like a ship, though it was a deal too big for a long-boat. I was staring wistfully in the direction the man[232] had indicated. Mr. Johnson noticed this, and said, with a kind smile (I seemed to be a favourite of his, maybe because I was but a little chap to be at sea, otherwise I do not know what particularly entitled me to his kindness)—
“Here, Rockafellar, take my glass into the foretop, and see what you can make of the object.”
I was very proud of this commission, and not a little pleased to escape even for a short spell the grimy, prosaic22 business of scrubbing the poop. The telescope was a handsome instrument in a case, the strap23 of which I threw over my shoulder; and, slipping on a pair of shoes (for I never could endure the pressure of the ratlines against the soles of my naked feet), I got into the shrouds24 and arrived in the foretop.
“Where is it?” said I to a man who stood peering seawards, with a hairy tar-stained hand protecting his eyes.
I levelled the glass, and in an instant beheld26 the black hull27 of a ship lying deep in the water, rolling heavily, yet very sluggishly28. All three masts were gone, and a few splinters forking out between her knight-heads were all that remained of her bowsprit.
The sailor asked leave to look, and putting his eye to the telescope, exclaimed—
“Here’s a bad job, I lay. She’s a settling down[233] too. She’ll be out of sight under water afore we’re abreast29, or I’m a Kanaka,” by which he meant a South Sea Islander.
“HE POINTED.”
I made my way to the deck, and reported what I had seen to the chief mate. It was not twenty[234] minutes after this when a loud cry arose from the forecastle, followed by a rush of men to the rail, to see what the fellow who had called out was pointing at. We of the poop, forgetting the ship’s discipline in the excitement raised by the shout and headlong hurry of men forward, ran to the side to look also, and we saw close against the lee-bow of the ship, fast sliding along past the side, the figure of a man in a lifebuoy. He was naked to the waist; his arms overhung the circle, but his form, leaning forward, had so tilted31 the buoy30 that his head lay under water. He rose and fell upon the seas, which sometimes threw him a little way out and then submerged him again, with his long hair streaming like grass at the bottom of a shallow running stream.
The sailors along the waist and on the forecastle were looking aft, as though they expected that the mate would back the topsail yard and send a boat; but the man that had gone past was dead as dead can be: even my young eyes could have told that, though his head had been above water all the time.
“It is a recent wreck32, I expect, sir,” I heard Mr. Johnson say to the captain, who stepped on deck at that moment. “The poor fellow didn’t look to have been in the water long.”
“There was no doubt he was a corpse33?” inquired the captain, to whose sight the form of the drowned man was invisible, so rapidly had it veered34 astern[235] into the troubled and concealing35 foam of our wake.
“Oh yes, sir,” answered Mr. Johnson. “His face only lifted now and again.”
At eight bells the wreck was in sight from the poop, but at a long distance. I went below to get some breakfast, and then returned, too much interested in the object that had hove into view to stay in the cabin, though I had been on deck since four o’clock, and had scarcely slept more than two hours during the middle watch.
Our ship’s helm had been slightly shifted, so that we might pass the wreck close. As we advanced, fragments of the torn and mutilated fabric passed us; portions of yards, of broken masts with the attached gear snaking out from it, casks, hatch-covers, and so forth36. It was easy to guess, by the look of these things, that they had been wrenched37 from the hull by a hurricane. I noticed a length of sail-cloth attached to a yard, with a knot in it so tied that I did not need to have been at sea many months to guess that nothing could have done it but some furious ocean blast.
We all stood looking with eagerness towards the wreck—the ladies with opera-glasses to their eyes, the gentlemen with telescopes; the captain aft was constantly viewing her through his glass, and the second mate, who had charge of the deck, watched her through the shrouds of the main rigging with[236] the intentness of a pirate whose eyes are upon a chase.
The fact was, it was impossible to tell whether there might be human beings aboard of her, let alone the sort of pathetic interest one found in the sight of the lonely object rolling out yonder in a drowning way amidst the sparkling morning waters of the blue immensity of the deep. Only a little while ago, I thought to myself as I surveyed her, she was a noble ship; her white sails soared, she sat like a large summer cloud upon the water, the foam sparkled at her fore-foot; like ourselves, she might have been homeward bound—and now see her! Hearts which were lately beating in full life, are silent—stilled for ever in those cold depths upon whose surface she is heaving.
There is no object in life, I think, that appeals more solemnly to the mind than a wreck fallen in with far out at sea. She is an image of death, and the thought of the eternity38 that follows upon death is symbolized39 by the secret green profound in whose depths she will shortly be swallowed up.
The hull lay so deep in the water that the name under her counter was buried, and not to be read. A flash of light broke from her wet black side each time she rolled from the sun, and the brilliant glare was so much like the crimson40 gleam of a gun, that again and again I would catch myself listening for the noise of the explosion, as though forsooth there were people firing signals to us aboard her.
[237]
“An eight hundred ton ship at least,” the captain told the ladies, “and a very fine model. Oh yes! She’s been hammered to pieces by a storm of wind. She has no boats, you see, so let us hope her people managed to get away in safety, and that they are by this time on board a ship.”
“I daresay,” said a young fellow, one of the cuddy passengers, “that her hold is full of valuable goods. Pity we couldn’t take her in tow and carry her home with us. Why shouldn’t the cargo41 of such a vessel42 as that be worth—call it twenty thousand pounds if you will? There’s just money enough in that figure to make me tolerably comfortable for the rest of my life. Confounded nonsense to have a fortune under your nose, and be obliged to watch it sink!”
“Well, Mr. Graham,” said the captain, laughing, “there’s the hulk, sir. If you have a mind to take charge of her, I’ll put you on board. Nothing venture nothing have, you know. That’s particularly the case at sea.”
“Too late! too late!” growled43 out the bass44 voice of an old major who had been making the tour of the world for his health. “See there!” and he pointed a long, skinny, trembling forefinger45 at the wreck.
She was sinking as he spoke46! It was as wild a sight in its way as you could conceive; she put her bow under and lifted her stern, and made her last[238] dive as though she were something living. She disappeared swiftly; indeed the ocean was rolling clear to the horizon before you could realise that the substantial object, which a moment or two before was floating firm to your sight, was gone.
It was an hour after this that one of the midshipmen came into our berth48, and said that a ship’s boat had been made out right ahead. Nothing living in her had as yet been distinguished49.
“The notion of course is,” said he, “that she belonged to the wreck that we passed this morning.”
I was reading in my bunk50, but on hearing this, I immediately hopped51 out and went on deck. There was more excitement now than before. A crowd of the passengers were staring from the poop, with knots of steerage folks and a huddle52 of the ship’s idlers on the forecastle, craning their necks under the bowsprit and past the jibs to get a view. Indeed, whilst the midshipmen had been telling us about this boat below, a glimpse had been caught of something moving over the low gunwale of her—some said it was a cap that had been waved; but whatever it was it had not shown again. However, everybody was now sure that there was something alive in the boat, and we all seemed to hold our breath whilst we waited. It was an ordinary ship’s quarter-boat painted white.
“There again!” shouted somebody. “Did you see it? A man’s head it looked like.”
“Ay,” said the second mate, who had his telescope bearing on the boat at the moment: “a head, and no mistake; but of what kind, though? More like a cocoa-nut, to my fancy, than a man’s nob.”
“There he is! there’s the poor creature!” cried a lady in a sort of shriek53, with an opera-glass at her eyes. “He’s standing54 up—he has fallen backwards55—ah! he’s up again. But, oh dear me!—can it be a man?”
“With a tail!” said the second mate, who continued to ogle56 the boat through his telescope. “Bless my heart!—why—why—captain, I believe it’s a great monkey!”
In a few minutes the boat was under the bow, and a strange roar of mingled57 wonder and laughter came floating aft to us from the crowd on the forecastle. It was a monkey, as the second mate had said—a big ape, with strong white whiskers, which ringed the lower part of his face like wool. He had evidently been some crew’s pet; a small velvet58 cap with a yellow tassel59, like a smoking cap, was secured to his head; he also wore a pair of large spectacles apparently60 cut out of thin white wood. His body was clothed in a short jacket of some faded reddish material, with a slit61 behind for the convenience of his tail, the end of which was raw, as though he had been lately breakfasting off it.[240] His legs were cased in their native hair, which was long, something like a goat’s.
One could see that the poor beast was terribly weak. He would climb up on a thwart62, then fall backwards, and, as his boat slipped past, he lay on his side looking up at us through his spectacles with the most woebegone, piteous, grinning face of appeal that ever monkey in this world assumed.
There was a sudden explosion of laughter from amongst us; no man could help himself. Indeed, the first sight of the boat had put some fancies of horrors to be disclosed into our heads, and the change, from our notion of beholding63 dead or dying human beings, into this apparition64 of a huge monkey in a smoking cap and spectacles, was so violent and ridiculous a surprise that it proved too much for the gravest amongst the crowd aft.
“Hands to the topsail braces65!” bawled66 the captain; “lay the maintopsail to the mast. We must pick the poor brute67 up.”
The Lady Violet was brought to a stand. Five men in charge of the second mate sprang into a lee-quarter boat; the tackles were slacked away, and in a few minutes our boat was alongside the other, with two of the fellows handing out the monkey, that lay as quiet as a baby in their arms.
Everybody crowded on to the main-deck to get a view of the poor beast when the boat had brought him alongside. He had the look of an old man; and though you saw that the unhappy animal was suffering, his grimaces68 were so ugly, the appeal of his bloodshot eyes through his spectacles so ludicrously human-like, that he made you laugh the louder at him somehow or other for the very pity that he excited in you.
“Get him water and food, lads, some of you,” cried the second mate from the poop; “treat him as though he were mortal like yourselves. He’ll take all ye’ll give him and more than he ought to have; and we haven’t saved him to perish of a bust-up.”
He was carried to the forecastle followed by a crowd of sailors and steerage people, and I lost sight of him, though I hung about, boy-like, for a bit, hoping they would bring him forth presently. However, it seemed that after the seamen69 had given him a drink of water and a couple of biscuits to eat, they took off his cap and spectacles and put him into a hammock with a blanket up to his throat, where he lay like a human being, rolling a languishing70 eye round upon those who looked at him, until he fell asleep.
The name Dolphin, Boston, was painted in the stern-sheets of the boat in which the monkey was, and of course it was supposed, fore and aft, that that was the name of the wreck we had fallen in with. But I afterwards heard—when I had been home some months—that the hull we had seen founder71 was a large English barque called the Elijah Gorman, whilst the boat from which we had taken the monkey had belonged to the Yankee craft whose name was on her. How the boat happened to have been adrift, and how her sole occupant should have been a monkey, I never could get to hear, though my father made many inquiries72, being much interested in my story of this little affair. The crew of the Elijah Gorman had been taken off by a steamer bound to England from a South American port; so full particulars concerning her loss had been published in the newspapers some time before we arrived in the Thames.
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1
meridian
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| adj.子午线的；全盛期的 | |
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2
sapphire
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| n.青玉，蓝宝石；adj.天蓝色的 | |
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3
countenances
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| n.面容( countenance的名词复数 )；表情；镇静；道义支持 | |
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4
northward
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| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
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5
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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6
constellations
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| n.星座( constellation的名词复数 )；一群杰出人物；一系列（相关的想法、事物）；一群（相关的人） | |
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7
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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8
supple
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| adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺 | |
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9
ardency
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| n.热心，热烈 | |
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hearty
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| adj.热情友好的；衷心的；尽情的，纵情的 | |
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11
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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12
bleated
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| v.（羊，小牛）叫( bleat的过去式和过去分词 )；哭诉；发出羊叫似的声音；轻声诉说 | |
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13
melodious
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| adj.旋律美妙的，调子优美的，音乐性的 | |
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14
fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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15
racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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16
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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17
fabric
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| n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织 | |
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18
foam
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| v./n.泡沫，起泡沫 | |
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19
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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20
upheaval
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| n.胀起，(地壳)的隆起；剧变，动乱 | |
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21
leisurely
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| adj.悠闲的；从容的，慢慢的 | |
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prosaic
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| adj.单调的，无趣的 | |
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23
strap
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| n.皮带，带子；v.用带扣住，束牢；用绷带包扎 | |
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24
shrouds
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| 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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25
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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26
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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27
hull
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| n.船身；(果、实等的)外壳；vt.去(谷物等)壳 | |
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28
sluggishly
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| adv.懒惰地；缓慢地 | |
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29
abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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30
buoy
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| n.浮标；救生圈；v.支持，鼓励 | |
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tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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32
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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33
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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34
veered
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| v.（尤指交通工具）改变方向或路线( veer的过去式和过去分词 )；（指谈话内容、人的行为或观点）突然改变；（指风） （在北半球按顺时针方向、在南半球按逆时针方向）逐渐转向；风向顺时针转 | |
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concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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36
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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37
wrenched
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| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
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38
eternity
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| n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷 | |
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39
symbolized
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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41
cargo
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| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
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42
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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43
growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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44
bass
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| n.男低音(歌手)；低音乐器；低音大提琴 | |
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45
forefinger
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| n.食指 | |
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46
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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47
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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48
berth
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| n.卧铺，停泊地，锚位；v.使停泊 | |
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49
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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50
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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51
hopped
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| 跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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52
huddle
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| vi.挤作一团；蜷缩；vt.聚集；n.挤在一起的人 | |
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53
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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54
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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55
backwards
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| adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地 | |
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56
ogle
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| v.看；送秋波；n.秋波，媚眼 | |
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57
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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58
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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59
tassel
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| n.流苏，穗；v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须 | |
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60
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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61
slit
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| n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂 | |
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62
thwart
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| v.阻挠，妨碍，反对；adj.横(断的) | |
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beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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64
apparition
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| n.幽灵，神奇的现象 | |
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65
braces
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| n.吊带，背带；托架( brace的名词复数 )；箍子；括弧；（儿童）牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来 | |
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66
bawled
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的过去式和过去分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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67
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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68
grimaces
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| n.（表蔑视、厌恶等）面部扭曲，鬼脸( grimace的名词复数 )v.扮鬼相，做鬼脸( grimace的第三人称单数 ) | |
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69
seamen
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| n.海员 | |
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70
languishing
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| a. 衰弱下去的 | |
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71
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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