THE YEAR 1866 was marked by a bizarre development, an unexplained and downright inexplicable phenomenon that surely no one has forgotten. Without getting into those rumors that upset civilians in the seaports and deranged the public mind even far inland, it must be said that professional seamen were especially alarmed. Traders, shipowners, captains of vessels, skippers, and master mariners from Europe and America, naval officers from every country, and at their heels the various national governments on these two continents, were all extremely disturbed by the business.
人们一定还记得1866年海上发生的一件离奇的、神秘的、无法解释的怪事。且不说当时哄动沿海居民和世界舆论的各种传闻，这里只说一般航海人员特别激动的心情。欧美的进出口商人、船长和船主、各国的海军官佐以及这两大洲的各国政府都非常注意这件事。
In essence, over a period of time several ships had encountered "an enormous thing" at sea, a long spindle-shaped object, sometimes giving off a phosphorescent glow, infinitely bigger and faster than any whale.
这事大体是这样：不久以前，好些大船在海上碰见了一一个“庞然大物”，一个很长的物体，形状很像纺锤，有时发出磷光，它的体积比鲸鱼大得多，行动起来也比鲸鱼快得多。
The relevant data on this apparition, as recorded in various logbooks, agreed pretty closely as to the structure of the object or creature in question, its unprecedented speed of movement, its startling locomotive power, and the unique vitality with which it seemed to be gifted. If it was a cetacean, it exceeded in bulk any whale previously classified by science. No naturalist, neither Cuvier nor Lacépède, neither Professor Dumeril nor Professor de Quatrefages, would have accepted the existence of such a monster sight unseen-- specifically, unseen by their own scientific eyes.
关于这个东西的出现，许多航海日志所记下的事实（如这个东西或这个生物的形状，在它运动时的难以估计的速度，它转移的惊人力量，它那种像是天生的特殊本领等等），大致是相同的。如果这东西是鲸鱼类动物，那么它的体积：是大大超过了生物学家曾经加以分类的鲸鱼。居维埃-拉色别德①、杜梅里②、卡特法日③，这些生物学家一一除非看见过，也就是说，除非这些科学家本人的眼睛看见过——是不承认有这样一种怪物存在的。
Striking an average of observations taken at different times-- rejecting those timid estimates that gave the object a length of 200 feet, and ignoring those exaggerated views that saw it as a mile wide and three long--you could still assert that this phenomenal creature greatly exceeded the dimensions of anything then known to ichthyologists, if it existed at all.
把多次观察的结果折中一下来看——方面丢开那些过低的估计，即这个东西只有二百英尺长，同时也不接受过于夸张的言论，即它有一英里。宽三英里长，——我们可以肯定他说，这个奇怪的生物，如果真是存在的话，它的体积是大大超过鱼类学家所承认的体积的。
Now then, it did exist, this was an undeniable fact; and since the human mind dotes on objects of wonder, you can understand the worldwide excitement caused by this unearthly apparition. As for relegating it to the realm of fiction, that charge had to be dropped.
这东西既然存在，而事实本身又是不可否认的，那么，由于人类好奇的心理，我们就不难理解这个怪物的出现会在全世界引起怎样的蚤动。至于说这是荒唐无稽之谈，那是决不会有人同意的。
In essence, on July 20, 1866, the steamer Governor Higginson, from the Calcutta & Burnach Steam Navigation Co., encountered this moving mass five miles off the eastern shores of Australia.
Captain Baker at first thought he was in the presence of an unknown reef; he was even about to fix its exact position when two waterspouts shot out of this inexplicable object and sprang hissing into the air some 150 feet. So, unless this reef was subject to the intermittent eruptions of a geyser, the Governor Higginson had fair and honest dealings with some aquatic mammal, until then unknown, that could spurt from its blowholes waterspouts mixed with air and steam.
因为，1866年7月20日，加尔各答一布纳希汽船公司的喜金孙总督号，在澳大利亚海岸东边五英里，碰见了这个游动的巨大物体。巴克船长起初还以为这是没有人知道的、暗礁，他正要测定它的位置的时候，突然这个不可解释的物体喷出两道水柱，哗的一声射到空中一百五十英尺高。这么说，除非这座暗礁上边有间歇喷泉，不然的话，喜金孙总督号面前的东西，就是还没有人知道的一种海中哺侞类动物，它还从鼻孔中喷出有气泡的水柱呢。
Similar events were likewise observed in Pacific seas, on July 23 of the same year, by the Christopher Columbus from the West India & Pacific Steam Navigation Co. Consequently, this extraordinary cetacean could transfer itself from one locality to another with startling swiftness, since within an interval of just three days, the Governor Higginson and the Christopher Columbus had observed it at two positions on the charts separated by a distance of more than 700 nautical leagues.
Fifteen days later and 2,000 leagues farther, the Helvetia from the Compagnie Nationale and the Shannon from the Royal Mail line, running on opposite tacks in that part of the Atlantic lying between the United States and Europe, respectively signaled each other that the monster had been sighted in latitude 42 degrees 15' north and longitude 60 degrees 35' west of the meridian of Greenwich. From their simultaneous observations, they were able to estimate the mammal's minimum length at more than 350 English feet; this was because both the Shannon and the Helvetia were of smaller dimensions, although each measured 100 meters stem to stern. Now then, the biggest whales, those rorqual whales that frequent the waterways of the Aleutian Islands, have never exceeded a length of 56 meters--if they reach even that.
同年7月23日，西印度－太平洋汽船公司的克利斯托巴尔哥郎号，在太平洋上也碰到这样的事。喜金孙总督号看见这怪物以后三天，克利斯托巴尔哥郎号在相距七百里的地方也看见了它，由此可知，这个奇特的鲸鱼类动物能以掠人的速度从这一处转移到另一处。
十五天以后，在离上面说的地点有两千里远的地方，国营轮船公司的海尔维地亚号和皇家邮船公司的山农号，在美国和欧洲之间的大西洋海面上相遇的时候，在北纬42度15分、西经60度35分的地方，同时看到了这个大怪物。根据两船同时观察得到的结果，估计这只哺侞动物的长度至少有三百五十多英尺（约一百零六米），因为山农号和海尔维地亚号两船连起来，都还比它短，两船从头至尾只有一百米长。可是，最长的鲸鱼，像常常出役于阿留申群岛的久阑马克岛和翁居里克岛①附近海面的那些鲸鱼，也只不过是五十六米，而比这再长的，从来就没有过。
One after another, reports arrived that would profoundly affect public opinion: new observations taken by the transatlantic liner Pereire, the Inman line's Etna running afoul of the monster, an official report drawn up by officers on the French frigate Normandy, dead-earnest reckonings obtained by the general staff of Commodore Fitz-James aboard the Lord Clyde. In lighthearted countries, people joked about this phenomenon, but such serious, practical countries as England, America, and Germany were deeply concerned.
接连不断地传来的消息，横渡大西洋的贝雷尔号所做的种种观察，茵曼轮船公司的越提那号跟这个怪物的一次相碰，法国二级军舰诺曼第号军官们所写的记录，海军高级参谋弗兹一詹姆斯在克利德爵士号上所做的很精密的测算，这一切在当时的确曾经哄动一时。在民族性比较浮躁的国家里，大家都拿这件事作为谈笑资料，但在严肃和踏实的国家里，像英国、美国和德国就不同，它们对这事就非常关心。
In every big city the monster was the latest rage; they sang about it in the coffee houses, they ridiculed it in the newspapers, they dramatized it in the theaters. The tabloids found it a fine opportunity for hatching all sorts of hoaxes. In those newspapers short of copy, you saw the reappearance of every gigantic imaginary creature, from "Moby Dick," that dreadful white whale from the High Arctic regions, to the stupendous kraken whose tentacles could entwine a 500-ton craft and drag it into the ocean depths. They even reprinted reports from ancient times: the views of Aristotle and Pliny accepting the existence of such monsters, then the Norwegian stories of Bishop Pontoppidan, the narratives of Paul Egede, and finally the reports of Captain Harrington-- whose good faith is above suspicion--in which he claims he saw, while aboard the Castilian in 1857, one of those enormous serpents that, until then, had frequented only the seas of France's old extremist newspaper, The Constitutionalist.
在各大城市里，这怪物变成了家喻户晓的事件。咖啡馆里歌唱它，报刊上嘲笑它，舞台上扮演它。谣言正好有了机会，从这怪物身上捏造出各种各样的奇闻。在一些发行量不多的报刊上，出现了关于各种离奇的巨大动物的报道，从白鲸、北极海中可怕的“莫比-狄克”①一直到庞大的“克拉肯”②——这种怪鱼的触须可以缠住一只载重五百吨的船而把它拖到海底下去——都应有尽有。有些人甚至不惜引经据典，或者搬出古代的传说如亚里士多德③和蒲林尼④的见解（他们承认这类怪物的存在）：或者搬出彭土皮丹主教⑤的挪威童话，保罗-埃纪德的记述，以及哈林顿的报告；这报告是不容怀疑的，他说，1857年，他在嘉斯第兰号上看见过一种大蛇，那种蛇以前只在那立宪号到过的海面上⑤才能看见。
An interminable debate then broke out between believers and skeptics in the scholarly societies and scientific journals. The "monster question" inflamed all minds. During this memorable campaign, journalists making a profession of science battled with those making a profession of wit, spilling waves of ink and some of them even two or three drops of blood, since they went from sea serpents to the most offensive personal remarks.
于是，在学术团体里和科学报刊中产生了相信者和怀疑者，这两派人无休止地争论着。“怪物问题”激动着人们。自以为懂科学的新闻记者和一向自以为多才的文人开起火来，他们在这次值得纪念的笔战中花费了不少的墨水！甚至有几个人还流了两三滴血，因为有人把针对大海蛇的笔锋移向一些态度傲慢的家伙身上了。
For six months the war seesawed. With inexhaustible zest, the popular press took potshots at feature articles from the Geographic Institute of Brazil, the Royal Academy of Science in Berlin, the British Association, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., at discussions in The Indian Archipelago, in Cosmos published by Father Moigno, in Petermann's Mittheilungen, and at scientific chronicles in the great French and foreign newspapers. When the monster's detractors cited a saying by the botanist Linnaeus that "nature doesn't make leaps," witty writers in the popular periodicals parodied it, maintaining in essence that "nature doesn't make lunatics," and ordering their contemporaries never to give the lie to nature by believing in krakens, sea serpents, "Moby Dicks," and other all-out efforts from drunken seamen. Finally, in a much-feared satirical journal, an article by its most popular columnist finished off the monster for good, spurning it in the style of Hippolytus repulsing the amorous advances of his stepmother Phaedra, and giving the creature its quietus amid a universal burst of laughter. Wit had defeated science.
在六个月当中，争论继续着。彼此有理，各执一词。当 时流行的小报都兴致勃勃地刊登争论的文章，它们不是攻击巴西地理学院、柏林皇家科学院、不列颠学术联合会或华盛顿斯密孙学院发表的权威论文，就是驳斥印度群岛报、摩亚诺神父的宇宙杂志、皮德曼的消息报里面的讨论和法国及其他各国大报刊的科学新闻。这些多才的作家故意曲解反对派也常引证的林奈①的一句话：“大自然不制造蠢东西”；恳求大家不要相信北海的大怪鱼、大海蛇、“莫比-狄克”和疯狂的海员们臆造出来的其它怪物的存在，不要因此而否定了大自然。最后，某一著名尖刻的讽刺报有一位最受欢迎的编辑先生草草了事地发表一篇文章，处理了这个怪物；他像夷包列提②那样，在大家的笑声中，给这佳物最后一次打击、把它结果了。于是机智战胜了科学。
During the first months of the year 1867, the question seemed to be buried, and it didn't seem due for resurrection, when new facts were brought to the public's attention. But now it was no longer an issue of a scientific problem to be solved, but a quite real and serious danger to be avoided. The question took an entirely new turn. The monster again became an islet, rock, or reef, but a runaway reef, unfixed and elusive.
在1867年头几个月里，这个问题好像是人了土，不会再复洁了。但就在这个时候，人们又听说发生了一些新的事件。现在的问题并不是一个急待解决的科学问题，而是必须认真设法避免的一个危险。问题带了完全不同的面貌。这个怪物变成了小岛、岩石、暗礁，但它是会奔驰的、不可捉摸的、行动莫测的暗礁。
On March 5, 1867, the Moravian from the Montreal Ocean Co., lying during the night in latitude 27 degrees 30' and longitude 72 degrees 15', ran its starboard quarter afoul of a rock marked on no charts of these waterways. Under the combined efforts of wind and 400-horsepower steam, it was traveling at a speed of thirteen knots. Without the high quality of its hull, the Moravian would surely have split open from this collision and gone down together with those 237 passengers it was bringing back from Canada.
1867年8月5日，蒙特利奥航海公司的摩拉维安号夜间驶到北纬27度30分、西经72度15分的地方，船右舷撞上了一座岩石，可是，任何地图也没有记载过这一带海面上有这座岩石。由于风力的助航和四百匹马力的推动，船的速度达到每小时十三海里。毫无疑问，如果不是船身质地优良，特别坚固，摩拉维安号被撞以后，一定要把它从加拿大载来的二百三十六名乘客一齐带到海底去。
This accident happened around five o'clock in the morning, just as day was beginning to break. The officers on watch rushed to the craft's stern. They examined the ocean with the most scrupulous care. They saw nothing except a strong eddy breaking three cable lengths out, as if those sheets of water had been violently churned. The site's exact bearings were taken, and the Moravian continued on course apparently undamaged. Had it run afoul of an underwater rock or the wreckage of some enormous derelict ship? They were unable to say. But when they examined its undersides in the service yard, they discovered that part of its keel had been smashed.
事故发生在早晨五点左右天刚破晓的时候。船上值班的海员们立即跑到船的后部；他们十分细心地观察海面。除了有个六百多米宽的大漩涡——好像水面受过猛烈的冲击——以外，他们什么也没有看见，只把事故发生的地点确切地记了下来。摩拉维安号继续航行，似乎并没有受到什么损伤-它是撞上了暗礁呢，还是撞上了一只沉没的破船？当时没有法子知道。后来到船坞检查了船底，才发现一部分龙骨折断了。
This occurrence, extremely serious in itself, might perhaps have been forgotten like so many others, if three weeks later it hadn't been reenacted under identical conditions. Only, thanks to the nationality of the ship victimized by this new ramming, and thanks to the reputation of the company to which this ship belonged, the event caused an immense uproar.
这事实本身是十分严重的，可是，如果不是过了三个星期后，在相同的情况下又发生了相同的事件，它很可能跟许多其他的事件一样很快被人忘掉了。接着又发生的那一次撞船的事件，单单由于受害船的国籍和它所属公司的声望，就足以引起十分广泛的反响。
No one is unaware of the name of that famous English shipowner, Cunard. In 1840 this shrewd industrialist founded a postal service between Liverpool and Halifax, featuring three wooden ships with 400-horsepower paddle wheels and a burden of 1,162 metric tons. Eight years later, the company's assets were increased by four 650-horsepower ships at 1,820 metric tons, and in two more years, by two other vessels of still greater power and tonnage. In 1853 the Cunard Co., whose mail-carrying charter had just been renewed, successively added to its assets the Arabia, the Persia, the China, the Scotia, the Java, and the Russia, all ships of top speed and, after the Great Eastern, the biggest ever to plow the seas. So in 1867 this company owned twelve ships, eight with paddle wheels and four with propellers.
英国著名的船主苟纳尔的名字是没有一个人不知道伪。这位精明的企业家早在1840年就创办了一家邮船公司，开辟了从利物浦到哈利法克斯①的航线，当时只有三艘四百匹马力、载重一千一百六十二吨的明轮木船。八年以后，公司扩大了，共有四艘六百五十匹马力、载重一千八百二十吨的船。再过两年，又添了两艘马力和载重量更大的船，1853年，苟纳尔公司继续取得装运政府邮件的特权，一连添造了阿拉伯号、波斯号、中国号、斯备脱亚号、爪哇号、俄罗斯号，这些都是头等的快船，而且是最宽大的，除了大东方号外，在海上航行的船没有能跟它们相比的。到1867年，这家公司一共有十二艘船～八艘明轮的，四艘暗轮的。
If I give these highly condensed details, it is so everyone can fully understand the importance of this maritime transportation company, known the world over for its shrewd management. No transoceanic navigational undertaking has been conducted with more ability, no business dealings have been crowned with greater success. In twenty-six years Cunard ships have made 2,000 Atlantic crossings without so much as a voyage canceled, a delay recorded, a man, a craft, or even a letter lost. Accordingly, despite strong competition from France, passengers still choose the Cunard line in preference to all others, as can be seen in a recent survey of official documents. Given this, no one will be astonished at the uproar provoked by this accident involving one of its finest steamers.
我所以要把上面的情形简单地介绍一下，是要大家知道这家海运公司的重要性。它由于经营得法，是全世界都闻名的。任何航海企业，没有比这公司搞得更精明，经营得更成功的了。二十六年来，苟纳尔公司的船在大西洋上航行了两千次，没有一次航行不达目的地，没有一次发生迟误，从没有遗失过一封信，损失过一个人或一只船。，因此”尽管法国竭力要抢它的生意，但是乘客们都一致愿意搭苟纳尔公司的船，这点从近年来官方的统计文献中就可以看出来。了解这情形以后，便没有人奇怪这家公司的一只汽船遭遇到意外事件会引起那么巨大的反响。
On April 13, 1867, with a smooth sea and a moderate breeze, the Scotia lay in longitude 15 degrees 12' and latitude 45 degrees 37'. It was traveling at a speed of 13.43 knots under the thrust of its 1,000-horsepower engines. Its paddle wheels were churning the sea with perfect steadiness. It was then drawing 6.7 meters of water and displacing 6,624 cubic meters.
1867年4月13日，海很平静，风又是顺风，斯备脱亚号在西经15度12分、北纬45度37分的海面上行驶着。它在一千匹马力的发动机推动下，速度为每小时十三海里半。它的机轮在海中转动，完全正常。它当时的吃水深度是6米70厘米，排水量是6，685方米。
At 4:17 in the afternoon, during a high tea for passengers gathered in the main lounge, a collision occurred, scarcely noticeable on the whole, affecting the Scotia's hull in that quarter a little astern of its port paddle wheel.
下午四点十六分，乘客们正在大厅中吃点心的时候，在斯各脱亚号船尾、左舷机轮后面一点，似乎发生了轻微的撞击。
The Scotia hadn't run afoul of something, it had been fouled, and by a cutting or perforating instrument rather than a blunt one. This encounter seemed so minor that nobody on board would have been disturbed by it, had it not been for the shouts of crewmen in the hold, who climbed on deck yelling:
斯各脱亚号不是撞上了什么，而是被什么撞上了。憧它的不是敲击的器械而是钻凿的器械。这次冲撞是十分轻微的，要不是管船舱的人员跑到甲板上来喊：
"We're sinking! We're sinking!"
“船要沉了：船要沉了！”也许船上的人谁也不会在意。
At first the passengers were quite frightened, but Captain Anderson hastened to reassure them. In fact, there could be no immediate danger. Divided into seven compartments by watertight bulkheads, the Scotia could brave any leak with impunity.
旅客们起初十分惊慌，但船长安德生很快就使他们安稳下来。危险并不会立刻就发生。斯各脱亚号由防水板分为七大间，一点也不在乎个把漏洞。
Captain Anderson immediately made his way into the hold. He discovered that the fifth compartment had been invaded by the sea, and the speed of this invasion proved that the leak was considerable. Fortunately this compartment didn't contain the boilers, because their furnaces would have been abruptly extinguished.
安德生船长立即跑到舱底下去。他查出第五间被海水浸人了，海水浸入十分快，证明漏洞相当大。好在这间里没有蒸汽炉，不然的话，炉火就要熄灭了。
Captain Anderson called an immediate halt, and one of his sailors dived down to assess the damage. Within moments they had located a hole two meters in width on the steamer's underside. Such a leak could not be patched, and with its paddle wheels half swamped, the Scotia had no choice but to continue its voyage. By then it lay 300 miles from Cape Clear, and after three days of delay that filled Liverpool with acute anxiety, it entered the company docks.
安德生船长吩咐马上停船，并且命令一个潜水员下水检查船身的损坏情形。一会儿，他知道船底有一个长两米的大洞。这样一个裂口是没法堵住的，斯各脱亚号尽管机轮有一半浸在水里，但也必须继续行驶。当时船离克利亚峡还有三百海里，等船驶进公司的码头，已经误了三天期，在这三天里，利物浦的人都为它惶惶不安。
The engineers then proceeded to inspect the Scotia, which had been put in dry dock. They couldn't believe their eyes. Two and a half meters below its waterline, there gaped a symmetrical gash in the shape of an isosceles triangle. This breach in the sheet iron was so perfectly formed, no punch could have done a cleaner job of it. Consequently, it must have been produced by a perforating tool of uncommon toughness-- plus, after being launched with prodigious power and then piercing four centimeters of sheet iron, this tool had needed to withdraw itself by a backward motion truly inexplicable.
斯各脱亚号被架了起来，工程师们开始检查。他们眼睛所看见的情形连自己也不能相信。在船身吃水线下两米半的地方，露出一个很规则的等边三角形的缺口。铁皮上的伤痕十分整齐，、就是钻孔机也不能凿得这么准确，弄成这个裂口的锐利器械一定不是用普通的钢铁制的，因为，这家伙在以惊人的力量向前猛撞，凿穿了四厘米厚的铁皮以后、还能用一种很难做到的后退动作，使自己脱身逃走。
This was the last straw, and it resulted in arousing public passions all over again. Indeed, from this moment on, any maritime casualty without an established cause was charged to the monster's account. This outrageous animal had to shoulder responsibility for all derelict vessels, whose numbers are unfortunately considerable, since out of those 3,000 ships whose losses are recorded annually at the marine insurance bureau, the figure for steam or sailing ships supposedly lost with all hands, in the absence of any news, amounts to at least 200!
最近这次事件的经过大致就是这样。结果这又一次使舆论哄动起来。从这时候起，所有从前原因不明的航海遇难事件，现在都算在这个怪物的账上了。这只离奇古怪的动物于是负起了所有船只沉没的责任。不幸的是船沉的数目相当大，按照统计年鉴的记载，包括帆船和汽船在内，每年的损失约有三千艘左右，至于因下落不明而断定失踪：的，每年的数目也不下两百艘！
Now then, justly or unjustly, it was the "monster" who stood accused of their disappearance; and since, thanks to it, travel between the various continents had become more and more dangerous, the public spoke up and demanded straight out that, at all cost, the seas be purged of this fearsome cetacean.
不管有没有冤枉这怪物，人们都把船只失踪的原因算在它身上。由于它的存在，五大洲间的海上交通越来越危险了，大家都坚决要求不惜任何代价清除海上这条可怕盼鲸鱼怪。