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.
人們一定還記得1866年海上發生的一件離奇的、神秘的、無法解釋的怪事。且不說當時鬨動沿海居民和世界輿論的各種傳聞，這裡只說一般航海人員特別激動的心情。歐美的進出口商人、船長和船主、各國的海軍官佐以及這兩大洲的各國政府都非常注意這件事。
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.
這事大體是這樣：不久以前，好些大船在海上碰見了一一個“龐然大物”，一個很長的物體，形狀很像紡錘，有時發出磷光，它的體積比鯨魚大得多，行動起來也比鯨魚快得多。
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.
關於這個東西的出現，許多航海日誌所記下的事實（如這個東西或這個生物的形狀，在它運動時的難以估計的速度，它轉移的驚人力量，它那種像是天生的特殊本領等等），大致是相同的。如果這東西是鯨魚類動物，那麼它的體積：是大大超過了生物學家曾經加以分類的鯨魚。居維埃-拉色別德①、杜梅裡②、卡特法日③，這些生物學家一一除非看見過，也就是說，除非這些科學家本人的眼睛看見過——是不承認有這樣一種怪物存在的。
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.
把多次觀察的結果折中一下來看——方面丟開那些過低的估計，即這個東西只有二百英呎長，同時也不接受過于誇張的言論，即它有一英里。寬三英里長，——我們可以肯定他說，這個奇怪的生物，如果真是存在的話，它的體積是大大超過魚類學家所承認的體積的。
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.
這東西既然存在，而事實本身又是不可否認的，那麼，由於人類好奇的心理，我們就不難理解這個怪物的出現會在全世界引起怎樣的蚤動。至于說這是荒唐無稽之談，那是決不會有人同意的。
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.
因為，1866年7月20日，加爾各答一布納希汽船公司的喜金孫總督號，在澳大利亞海岸東邊五英里，碰見了這個游動的巨大物體。巴克船長起初還以為這是沒有人知道的、暗礁，他正要測定它的位置的時候，突然這個不可解釋的物體噴出兩道水柱，嘩的一聲射到空中一百五十英呎高。這麼說，除非這座暗礁上邊有間歇噴泉，不然的話，喜金孫總督號面前的東西，就是還沒有人知道的一種海中哺侞類動物，它還從鼻孔中噴出有氣泡的水柱呢。
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爾哥郎號，在太平洋上也碰到這樣的事。喜金孫總督號看見這怪物以後三天，克利斯托巴爾哥郎號在相距七百里的地方也看見了它，由此可知，這個奇特的鯨魚類動物能以掠人的速度從這一處轉移到另一處。
十五天以後，在離上面說的地點有兩千里遠的地方，國營輪船公司的海爾維地亞號和皇家郵船公司的山農號，在美國和歐洲之間的大西洋海面上相遇的時候，在北緯42度15分、西經60度35分的地方，同時看到了這個大怪物。根據兩船同時觀察得到的結果，估計這只哺侞動物的長度至少有三百五十多英呎（約一百零六米），因為山農號和海爾維地亞號兩船連起來，都還比它短，兩船從頭至尾只有一百米長。可是，最長的鯨魚，像常常出役于阿留申群島的久闌馬克島和翁居里克島①附近海面的那些鯨魚，也只不過是五十六米，而比這再長的，從來就沒有過。
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.
接連不斷地傳來的消息，橫渡大西洋的貝雷爾號所做的種種觀察，茵曼輪船公司的越提那號跟這個怪物的一次相碰，法國二級軍艦諾曼第號軍官們所寫的記錄，海軍高級參謀弗茲一詹姆斯在克利德爵士號上所做的很精密的測算，這一切在當時的確曾經鬨動一時。在民族性比較浮躁的國家裡，大家都拿這件事作為談笑資料，但在嚴肅和踏實的國家裡，像英國、美國和德國就不同，它們對這事就非常關心。
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.
在各大城市裡，這怪物變成了家喻戶曉的事件。咖啡館裡歌唱它，報刊上嘲笑它，舞台上扮演它。謡言正好有了機會，從這怪物身上捏造出各種各樣的奇聞。在一些發行量不多的報刊上，出現了關於各種離奇的巨大動物的報道，從白鯨、北極海中可怕的“莫比-狄克”①一直到龐大的“克拉肯”②——這種怪魚的觸鬚可以纏住一隻載重五百噸的船而把它拖到海底下去——都應有盡有。有些人甚至不惜引經據典，或者搬出古代的傳說如亞里士多德③和蒲林尼④的見解（他們承認這類怪物的存在）：或者搬出彭土皮丹主教⑤的挪威童話，保羅-埃紀德的記述，以及哈林頓的報告；這報告是不容懷疑的，他說，1857年，他在嘉斯第蘭號上看見過一種大蛇，那種蛇以前只在那立憲號到過的海面上⑤才能看見。
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.
於是，在學術團體裡和科學報刊中產生了相信者和懷疑者，這兩派人無休止地爭論着。“怪物問題”激動着人們。自以為懂科學的新聞記者和一向自以為多才的文人開起火來，他們在這次值得紀念的筆戰中花費了不少的墨水！甚至有幾個人還流了兩三滴血，因為有人把針對大海蛇的筆鋒移向一些態度傲慢的傢伙身上了。
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.
在六個月當中，爭論繼續着。彼此有理，各執一詞。當 時流行的小報都興緻勃勃地刊登爭論的文章，它們不是攻擊巴西地理學院、柏林皇家科學院、不列顛學術聯合會或華盛頓斯密孫學院發表的權威論文，就是駁斥印度群島報、摩亞諾神父的宇宙雜誌、皮德曼的消息報裡面的討論和法國及其他各國大報刊的科學新聞。這些多才的作家故意曲解反對派也常引證的林奈①的一句話：“大自然不製造蠢東西”；懇求大家不要相信北海的大怪魚、大海蛇、“莫比-狄克”和瘋狂的海員們臆造出來的其它怪物的存在，不要因此而否定了大自然。最後，某一著名尖刻的諷刺報有一位最受歡迎的編輯先生草草了事地發表一篇文章，處理了這個怪物；他像夷包列提②那樣，在大家的笑聲中，給這佳物最後一次打擊、把它結果了。於是機智戰勝了科學。
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年頭幾個月裡，這個問題好像是人了土，不會再復潔了。但就在這個時候，人們又聽說發生了一些新的事件。現在的問題並不是一個急待解決的科學問題，而是必須認真設法避免的一個危險。問題帶了完全不同的面貌。這個怪物變成了小島、岩石、暗礁，但它是會奔馳的、不可捉摸的、行動莫測的暗礁。
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，蒙特利奧航海公司的摩拉維安號夜間駛到北緯27度30分、西經72度15分的地方，船右舷撞上了一座岩石，可是，任何地圖也沒有記載過這一帶海面上有這座岩石。由於風力的助航和四百匹馬力的推動，船的速度達到每小時十三海里。毫無疑問，如果不是船身質地優良，特別堅固，摩拉維安號被撞以後，一定要把它從加拿大載來的二百三十六名乘客一齊帶到海底去。
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.
事故發生在早晨五點左右天剛破曉的時候。船上值班的海員們立即跑到船的後部；他們十分細心地觀察海面。除了有個六百多米寬的大漩渦——好像水面受過猛烈的衝擊——以外，他們什麼也沒有看見，只把事故發生的地點確切地記了下來。摩拉維安號繼續航行，似乎並沒有受到什麼損傷-它是撞上了暗礁呢，還是撞上了一隻沉沒的破船？當時沒有法子知道。後來到船塢檢查了船底，才發現一部分龍骨折斷了。
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.
這事實本身是十分嚴重的，可是，如果不是過了三個星期後，在相同的情況下又發生了相同的事件，它很可能跟許多其他的事件一樣很快被人忘掉了。接着又發生的那一次撞船的事件，單單由於受害船的國籍和它所屬公司的聲望，就足以引起十分廣泛的反響。
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.
英國著名的船主苟納爾的名字是沒有一個人不知道偽。這位精明的企業家早在1840年就創辦了一家郵船公司，開闢了從利物浦到哈利法克斯①的航線，當時只有三艘四百匹馬力、載重一千一百六十二噸的明輪木船。八年以後，公司擴大了，共有四艘六百五十匹馬力、載重一千八百二十噸的船。再過兩年，又添了兩艘馬力和載重量更大的船，1853年，苟納爾公司繼續取得裝運政府郵件的特權，一連添造了阿拉伯號、波斯號、中國號、斯備脫亞號、爪哇號、俄羅斯號，這些都是頭等的快船，而且是最寬大的，除了大東方號外，在海上航行的船沒有能跟它們相比的。到1867年，這家公司一共有十二艘船～八艘明輪的，四艘暗輪的。
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簡單地介紹一下，是要大家知道這家海運公司的重要性。它由於經營得法，是全世界都聞名的。任何航海企業，沒有比這公司搞得更精明，經營得更成功的了。二十六年來，苟納爾公司的船在大西洋上航行了兩千次，沒有一次航行不達目的地，沒有一次發生遲誤，從沒有遺失過一封信，損失過一個人或一隻船。，因此”儘管法國竭力要搶它的生意，但是乘客們都一致願意搭苟納爾公司的船，這點從近年來官方的統計文獻中就可以看出來。瞭解這情形以後，便沒有人奇怪這家公司的一隻汽船遭遇到意外事件會引起那麼巨大的反響。
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，海很平靜，風又是順風，斯備脫亞號在西經15度12分、北緯45度37分的海面上行駛着。它在一千匹馬力的發動機推動下，速度為每小時十三海里半。它的機輪在海中轉動，完全正常。它當時的吃水深度是6米70釐米，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.
下午四點十六分，乘客們正在大廳中吃點心的時候，在斯各脫亞號船尾、左舷機輪後面一點，似乎發生了輕微的撞擊。
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:
斯各脫亞號不是撞上了什麼，而是被什麼撞上了。憧它的不是敲擊的器械而是鑽鑿的器械。這次衝撞是十分輕微的，要不是管船艙的人員跑到甲板上來喊：
"We're sinking! We're sinking!"
“船要沉了：船要沉了！”也許船上的人誰也不會在意。
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.
旅客們起初十分驚慌，但船長安德生很快就使他們安穩下來。危險並不會立刻就發生。斯各脫亞號由防水板分為七大間，一點也不在乎個把漏洞。
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.
安德生船長立即跑到艙底下去。他查出第五間被海水浸人了，海水浸入十分快，證明漏洞相當大。好在這間裡沒有蒸汽爐，不然的話，爐火就要熄滅了。
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.
安德生船長吩咐馬上停船，並且命令一個潛水員下水檢查船身的損壞情形。一會兒，他知道船底有一個長兩米的大洞。這樣一個裂口是沒法堵住的，斯各脫亞號儘管機輪有一半浸在水裡，但也必須繼續行駛。當時船離克利亞峽還有三百海里，等船駛進公司的碼頭，已經誤了三天期，在這三天裡，利物浦的人都為它惶惶不安。
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.
斯各脫亞號被架了起來，工程師們開始檢查。他們眼睛所看見的情形連自己也不能相信。在船身吃水綫下兩米半的地方，露出一個很規則的等邊三角形的缺口。鐵皮上的傷痕十分整齊，、就是鑽孔機也不能鑿得這麼準確，弄成這個裂口的鋭利器械一定不是用普通的鋼鐵製的，因為，這傢伙在以驚人的力量向前猛撞，鑿穿了四釐米厚的鐵皮以後、還能用一種很難做到的後退動作，使自己脫身逃走。
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!
最近這次事件的經過大致就是這樣。結果這又一次使輿論鬨動起來。從這時候起，所有從前原因不明的航海遇難事件，現在都算在這個怪物的賬上了。這只離奇古怪的動物於是負起了所有船隻沉沒的責任。不幸的是船沉的數目相當大，按照統計年鑒的記載，包括帆船和汽船在內，每年的損失約有三千艘左右，至于因下落不明而斷定失蹤：的，每年的數目也不下兩百艘！
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.
不管有沒有冤枉這怪物，人們都把船隻失蹤的原因算在它身上。由於它的存在，五大洲間的海上交通越來越危險了，大家都堅決要求不惜任何代價清除海上這條可怕盼鯨魚怪。