BACKWORD

 The Snark was forty-three feet on the water-line and fifty-five over all, with fifteen feet beam (tumble-home sides) and seven feet eight inches draught¹.  She was ketch-rigged, carrying flying-jib, jib, fore-staysail, main-sail, mizzen, and spinnaker.  There were six feet of head-room below, and she was crown-decked and flush-decked.  There were four alleged² water-tight compartments³.  A seventy-horse power auxiliary⁴ gas-engine sporadically⁵ furnished locomotion⁶ at an approximate cost of twenty dollars per mile.  A five-horse power engine ran the pumps when it was in order, and on two occasions proved capable of furnishing juice for the search-light.  The storage batteries worked four or five times in the course of two years.  The fourteen-foot launch was rumoured⁷ to work at times, but it invariably broke down whenever I stepped on board.

 

But the Snark sailed.  It was the only way she could get anywhere.  She sailed for two years, and never touched rock, reef, nor shoal.  She had no inside ballast, her iron keel weighed five tons, but her deep draught and high freeboard made her very stiff.  Caught under full sail in tropic squalls, she buried her rail and deck many times, but stubbornly refused to turn turtle.  She steered⁸ easily, and she could run day and night, without steering⁹, close-by, full-and-by, and with the wind abeam¹⁰.  With the wind on her quarter and the sails properly trimmed, she steered herself within two points, and with the wind almost astern she required scarcely three points for self-steering.

 

The Snark was partly built in San Francisco.  The morning her iron keel was to be cast was the morning of the great earthquake.  Then came anarchy¹¹.  Six months overdue¹² in the building, I sailed the shell of her to Hawaii to be finished, the engine lashed¹³ to the bottom, building materials lashed on deck.  Had I remained in San Francisco for completion, I’d still be there.  As it was, partly built, she cost four times what she ought to have cost.

 

The Snark was born unfortunately.  She was libelled in San Francisco, had her cheques protested as fraudulent in Hawaii, and was fined for breach¹⁴ of quarantine in the Solomons.  To save themselves, the newspapers could not tell the truth about her.  When I discharged an incompetent¹⁵ captain, they said I had beaten him to a pulp¹⁶.  When one young man returned home to continue at college, it was reported that I was a regular Wolf Larsen, and that my whole crew had deserted¹⁷ because I had beaten it to a pulp.  In fact the only blow struck on the Snark was when the cook was manhandled by a captain who had shipped with me under false pretences¹⁸, and whom I discharged in Fiji.  Also, Charmian and I boxed for exercise; but neither of us was seriously maimed.

 

The voyage was our idea of a good time.  I built the Snark and paid for it, and for all expenses.  I contracted to write thirty-five thousand words descriptive of the trip for a magazine which was to pay me the same rate I received for stories written at home.  Promptly¹⁹ the magazine advertised that it was sending me especially around the world for itself.  It was a wealthy magazine.  And every man who had business dealings with the Snark charged three prices because forsooth the magazine could afford it.  Down in the uttermost South Sea isle²⁰ this myth obtained, and I paid accordingly.  To this day everybody believes that the magazine paid for everything and that I made a fortune out of the voyage.  It is hard, after such advertising²¹, to hammer it into the human understanding that the whole voyage was done for the fun of it.

 

I went to Australia to go into hospital, where I spent five weeks.  I spent five months miserably²² sick in hotels.  The mysterious malady²³ that afflicted²⁴ my hands was too much for the Australian specialists.  It was unknown in the literature of medicine.  No case like it had ever been reported.  It extended from my hands to my feet so that at times I was as helpless as a child.  On occasion my hands were twice their natural size, with seven dead and dying skins peeling off at the same time.  There were times when my toe-nails, in twenty-four hours, grew as thick as they were long.  After filing them off, inside another twenty-four hours they were as thick as before.

 

The Australian specialists agreed that the malady was non-parasitic, and that, therefore, it must be nervous.  It did not mend, and it was impossible for me to continue the voyage.  The only way I could have continued it would have been by being lashed in my bunk²⁵, for in my helpless condition, unable to clutch with my hands, I could not have moved about on a small rolling boat.  Also, I said to myself that while there were many boats and many voyages, I had but one pair of hands and one set of toe-nails.  Still further, I reasoned that in my own climate of California I had always maintained a stable nervous equilibrium²⁶.  So back I came.

 

Since my return I have completely recovered.  And I have found out what was the matter with me.  I encountered a book by Lieutenant-Colonel Charles E. Woodruff of the United States Army entitled “Effects of Tropical Light on White Men.”  Then I knew.  Later, I met Colonel Woodruff, and learned that he had been similarly afflicted.  Himself an Army surgeon, seventeen Army surgeons sat on his case in the Philippines, and, like the Australian specialists, confessed themselves beaten.  In brief, I had a strong predisposition toward the tissue-destructiveness of tropical light.  I was being torn to pieces by the ultra-violet rays just as many experimenters with the X-ray have been torn to pieces.

 

In passing, I may mention that among the other afflictions that jointly²⁷ compelled the abandonment of the voyage, was one that is variously called the healthy man’s disease, European Leprosy, and Biblical Leprosy.  Unlike True Leprosy, nothing is known of this mysterious malady.  No doctor has ever claimed a cure for a case of it, though spontaneous cures are recorded.  It comes, they know not how.  It is, they know not what.  It goes, they know not why.  Without the use of drugs, merely by living in the wholesome²⁸ California climate, my silvery skin vanished.  The only hope the doctors had held out to me was a spontaneous cure, and such a cure was mine.

 

A last word: the test of the voyage.  It is easy enough for me or any man to say that it was enjoyable.  But there is a better witness, the one woman who made it from beginning to end.  In hospital when I broke the news to Charmian that I must go back to California, the tears welled into her eyes.  For two days she was wrecked²⁹ and broken by the knowledge that the happy, happy voyage was abandoned.

 

Glen Ellen, California,

      April 7, 1911.

1 draught   

n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计

参考例句：

• He emptied his glass at one draught.他将杯中物一饮而尽。
• It's a pity the room has no north window and you don't get a draught.可惜这房间没北窗，没有过堂风。

2 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

3 compartments   

n.间隔( compartment的名词复数 )；（列车车厢的）隔间；（家具或设备等的）分隔间；隔层

参考例句：

• Your pencil box has several compartments. 你的铅笔盒有好几个格。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The first-class compartments are in front. 头等车室在前头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 auxiliary   

adj.辅助的，备用的

参考例句：

• I work in an auxiliary unit.我在一家附属单位工作。
• The hospital has an auxiliary power system in case of blackout.这家医院装有备用发电系统以防灯火管制。

5 sporadically   

adv.偶发地，零星地

参考例句：

• There are some trees sporadically around his house. 他的房子周围零星地有点树木。 来自辞典例句
• As for other aspects, we will sporadically hand out questionnaires. 在其他方面，我们会偶尔发送调查问卷。 来自互联网

6 locomotion   

n.运动，移动

参考例句：

• By land,air or sea,birds are masters of locomotion.无论是通过陆地，飞越空中还是穿过海洋，鸟应算是运动能手了。
• Food sources also elicit oriented locomotion and recognition behavior patterns in most insects.食物源也引诱大多数昆虫定向迁移和识别行为。

7 rumoured   

adj.谣传的；传说的；风

参考例句：

• It has been so rumoured here. 此间已有传闻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. 有人传说陪审团要退场很久。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

8 steered   

v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• He steered the boat into the harbour. 他把船开进港。
• The freighter steered out of Santiago Bay that evening. 那天晚上货轮驶出了圣地亚哥湾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 steering   

n.操舵装置

参考例句：

• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration. 他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。
• Steering according to the wind, he also framed his words more amicably. 他真会看风使舵，口吻也马上变得温和了。

10 abeam   

adj.正横着(的)

参考例句：

• The ship yawed as the heavy wave struck abeam.当巨浪向船舷撞击时，船暂时地偏离了航道。
• The lighthouse was abeam of the ship.灯塔在船的正横方向。

11 anarchy   

n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• There would be anarchy if we had no police.要是没有警察，社会就会无法无天。
• The country was thrown into a state of anarchy.这国家那时一下子陷入无政府状态。

12 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

13 lashed   

adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥

参考例句：

• The rain lashed at the windows. 雨点猛烈地打在窗户上。
• The cleverly designed speech lashed the audience into a frenzy. 这篇精心设计的演说煽动听众使他们发狂。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 breach   

n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破

参考例句：

• We won't have any breach of discipline.我们不允许任何破坏纪律的现象。
• He was sued for breach of contract.他因不履行合同而被起诉。

15 incompetent   

adj.无能力的，不能胜任的

参考例句：

• He is utterly incompetent at his job.他完全不能胜任他的工作。
• He is incompetent at working with his hands.他动手能力不行。

16 pulp   

n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆

参考例句：

• The pulp of this watermelon is too spongy.这西瓜瓤儿太肉了。
• The company manufactures pulp and paper products.这个公司制造纸浆和纸产品。

17 deserted   

adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的

参考例句：

• The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
• The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。

18 pretences   

n.假装( pretence的名词复数 )；作假；自命；自称

参考例句：

• You've brought your old friends out here under false pretences. 你用虚假的名义把你的那些狐朋狗党带到这里来。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• There are no pretences about him. 他一点不虚伪。 来自辞典例句

19 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

20 isle   

n.小岛，岛

参考例句：

• He is from the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea.他来自爱尔兰海的马恩岛。
• The boat left for the paradise isle of Bali.小船驶向天堂一般的巴厘岛。

21 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

22 miserably   

adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地

参考例句：

• The little girl was wailing miserably. 那小女孩难过得号啕大哭。
• It was drizzling, and miserably cold and damp. 外面下着毛毛细雨，天气又冷又湿，令人难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 malady   

n.病，疾病(通常做比喻)

参考例句：

• There is no specific remedy for the malady.没有医治这种病的特效药。
• They are managing to control the malady into a small range.他们设法将疾病控制在小范围之内。

24 afflicted   

使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• About 40% of the country's population is afflicted with the disease. 全国40%左右的人口患有这种疾病。
• A terrible restlessness that was like to hunger afflicted Martin Eden. 一阵可怕的、跟饥饿差不多的不安情绪折磨着马丁·伊登。

25 bunk   

n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话

参考例句：

• He left his bunk and went up on deck again.他离开自己的铺位再次走到甲板上。
• Most economists think his theories are sheer bunk.大多数经济学家认为他的理论纯属胡说。

26 equilibrium   

n.平衡，均衡，相称，均势，平静

参考例句：

• Change in the world around us disturbs our inner equilibrium.我们周围世界的变化扰乱了我们内心的平静。
• This is best expressed in the form of an equilibrium constant.这最好用平衡常数的形式来表示。

27 jointly   

ad.联合地，共同地

参考例句：

• Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
• She owns the house jointly with her husband. 她和丈夫共同拥有这所房子。

28 wholesome   

adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的

参考例句：

• In actual fact the things I like doing are mostly wholesome.实际上我喜欢做的事大都是有助于增进身体健康的。
• It is not wholesome to eat without washing your hands.不洗手吃饭是不卫生的。

29 wrecked   

adj.失事的，遇难的

参考例句：

• the hulk of a wrecked ship 遇难轮船的残骸
• the salvage of the wrecked tanker 对失事油轮的打捞