BY THE NEXT MORNING, November 18, I was fully recovered from my exhaustion of the day before, and I climbed onto the platform just as the Nautilus's chief officer was pronouncing his daily phrase. It then occurred to me that these words either referred to the state of the sea, or that they meant: "There's nothing in sight."
第二天，11月18日，昨日的疲勞，完全歇過來了，我走到平合上，諾第留斯號的船副正在這個時候說出他每日必說的那句話。於是我心中想，這句話是跟海面的情形有關係，它的意思或者是：“我們什麼都望不見。”
And in truth, the ocean was deserted. Not a sail on the horizon. The tips of Crespo Island had disappeared during the night. The sea, absorbing every color of the prism except its blue rays, reflected the latter in every direction and sported a wonderful indigo tint. The undulating waves regularly took on the appearance of watered silk with wide stripes.
這時洋面上空無一物。天邊一隻船也沒有。克利斯波島的高地在夜間走過不見了。海洋把三稜鏡分出的其他顏色都吸收了，只把藍色向四面八方反射出去，帶上一種十分好看的靛藍色。好像一幅條紋寬闊的天光藍毛布，在層疊的波濤上很規律地攤開。
I was marveling at this magnificent ocean view when Captain Nemo appeared. He didn't seem to notice my presence and began a series of astronomical observations. Then, his operations finished, he went and leaned his elbows on the beacon housing, his eyes straying over the surface of the ocean.
我正欣賞海洋的美麗景色，尼摩船長出來了。好像他沒有看見我在乎台上，開始做他的一連串天文觀察。一會兒，做完觀察，他時靠着探照燈籠間，他的眼光注視着洋面。
Meanwhile some twenty of the Nautilus's sailors--all energetic, well-built fellows--climbed onto the platform. They had come to pull up the nets left in our wake during the night. These seamen obviously belonged to different nationalities, although indications of European physical traits could be seen in them all. If I'm not mistaken, I recognized some Irishmen, some Frenchmen, a few Slavs, and a native of either Greece or Crete. Even so, these men were frugal of speech and used among themselves only that bizarre dialect whose origin I couldn't even guess. So I had to give up any notions of questioning them.
同時又有二十名左右的諾第留斯號的水手，走到平台上來，他們都是身強力壯的大漢，他們來收昨天晚上撒在船後的魚網。這些水手雖然看來全都是歐洲人的體型，但顯然是屬於不同的國籍。我想我不至弄錯，我認出其中有愛爾蘭人、法國人、好幾個斯拉夫人、一個希臘人或克里特島人。不過，這些人都不愛說話，他們彼此間使用的譜言，使我甚至於無從猜想它的源流。所以我沒有法子去問他們，跟他們交談。
The nets were hauled on board. They were a breed of trawl resembling those used off the Normandy coast, huge pouches held half open by a floating pole and a chain laced through the lower meshes. Trailing in this way from these iron glove makers, the resulting receptacles scoured the ocean floor and collected every marine exhibit in their path. That day they gathered up some unusual specimens from these fish-filled waterways: anglerfish whose comical movements qualify them for the epithet "clowns," black Commerson anglers equipped with their antennas, undulating triggerfish encircled by little red bands, bloated puffers whose venom is extremely insidious, some olive-hued lampreys, snipefish covered with silver scales, cutlass fish whose electrocuting power equals that of the electric eel and the electric ray, scaly featherbacks with brown crosswise bands, greenish codfish, several varieties of goby, etc.; finally, some fish of larger proportions: a one-meter jack with a prominent head, several fine bonito from the genus Scomber decked out in the colors blue and silver, and three magnificent tuna whose high speeds couldn't save them from our trawl.
魚網被拉上船來。網是袋形的，跟諾曼底沿海使用的很相似，這網是闊大的口袋，用一根浮在水上的橫木和一條串起下層網眼的鏈索把網口在水中支開。這些口袋似的網掛在鐵框上，拉在船後面，像苕帚在海底掃刷一般，一路上，經過的魚無一倖免，全被打撈上來。這一天打到了許多新奇類型的魚，比如：海蛙魚，這魚的動作很滑稽可笑，所以被稱為丑角魚。黑色的噪噗魚帶有許多觸鬚。帶波紋的彎箭魚有紅色花紋圍起來。彎月形馥魚，這魚有極端厲害的毒汁。好幾條橄攬色的八目鰻。海豹魚，這魚身上滿是銀白的鱗。旋毛魚，這魚發電的力量相等於電鰻和電魚。多鱗的紋翅魚，這魚身上有古銅色橫斜的帶紋。淡青色的鱉魚。好幾種蝦虎魚等。最後是些身材較長大的魚，一條頭部隆起的加郎魚，好幾條一米長的美麗的鯉魚，身上帶天藍和銀白相間的顏色，三條華麗的金槍魚。不管它們行動得多快，可也沒能躲過袋網，脫不了身。
I estimate that this cast of the net brought in more than 1,000 pounds of fish. It was a fine catch but not surprising. In essence, these nets stayed in our wake for several hours, incarcerating an entire aquatic world in prisons made of thread. So we were never lacking in provisions of the highest quality, which the Nautilus's speed and the allure of its electric light could continually replenish.
我估計一下，這一回袋網所獲得的魚超過一千斤。是一次很好的成績，但並不特別出奇。因為網在船後拖拉著有好幾個鐘頭，各種水產動物當然裝到這羅網裡面來。因此，我們並不至缺乏質量優良的食品，諾第留斯號的快速度，和它的電光的吸引力，可以不斷地捕捉到魚類。
These various exhibits from the sea were immediately lowered down the hatch in the direction of the storage lockers, some to be eaten fresh, others to be preserved.
這些種類不同的海產動物立即從放開的嵌板送到下面的食物儲藏室，有些要趁新鮮食用，有些要保存起來。
After its fishing was finished and its air supply renewed, I thought the Nautilus would resume its underwater excursion, and I was getting ready to return to my stateroom, when Captain Nemo turned to me and said without further preamble:
魚捕完了，空氣調換了，我想諾第留斯號又要作海底旅行了；當我正準備回房的時候，尼摩船長向我迴轉身來，沒有什麼客套，直截了當地對我說：
"Look at this ocean, professor! Doesn't it have the actual gift of life? Doesn't it experience both anger and affection? Last evening it went to sleep just as we did, and there it is, waking up after a peaceful night!"
“您看這海洋，教授，它不是賦有真實的生命嗎？它不是具有憤怒和溫情嗎？昨天，它跟我們一般安靜地睡着，現在，過了平安的一夜，它又動起來了。”
No hellos or good mornings for this gent! You would have thought this eccentric individual was simply continuing a conversation we'd already started!
不說早安，不說晚安！誰也要認為這個奇怪的人物現在只不過是把已經開了頭的談話繼續說下去。
"See!" he went on. "It's waking up under the sun's caresses! It's going to relive its daily existence! What a fascinating field of study lies in watching the play of its organism. It owns a pulse and arteries, it has spasms, and I side with the scholarly Commander Maury, who discovered that it has a circulation as real as the circulation of blood in animals."
“請看，”他又說，“它在太陽的撫摩下甦醒了！它又要過它的日間生活了！觀察它有機生活的變化作用，實在是很有興趣的學術研究呢。它有脈搏、有血管、有起伏，我覺得科學家莫利是對的，他發現海洋跟動物身上的血液循環一樣，有真正的循環作用。”
I'm sure that Captain Nemo expected no replies from me, and it seemed pointless to pitch in with "Ah yes," "Exactly," or "How right you are!" Rather, he was simply talking to himself, with long pauses between sentences. He was meditating out loud.
當然尼摩船長並不等待我的答話，我覺得跟他說許多“當然”、“一定”和“您對”，沒有什麼用處。他說話，與其說是對著我，不如說是對著他自己，他說完每一句後，中間停頓相當長的時間。這實在是一種特殊形式的沉思。
"Yes," he said, "the ocean owns a genuine circulation, and to start it going, the Creator of All Things has only to increase its heat, salt, and microscopic animal life. In essence, heat creates the different densities that lead to currents and countercurrents. Evaporation, which is nil in the High Arctic regions and very active in equatorial zones, brings about a constant interchange of tropical and polar waters. What's more, I've detected those falling and rising currents that make up the ocean's true breathing. I've seen a molecule of salt water heat up at the surface, sink into the depths, reach maximum density at -2 degrees centigrade, then cool off, grow lighter, and rise again. At the poles you'll see the consequences of this phenomenon, and through this law of farseeing nature, you'll understand why water can freeze only at the surface!"
“是的，”他說，“海洋有真正的循環作用，要引起這作用，單由造物者在海中增加熱、鹽和微生動物就成了。正是，熱力造成海水的不同密度，使海中發生許多順流和逆流。水氣蒸發，在北極區域完全沒有，在赤道地帶就很為活動，造成熱帶海水和極圈海水間永遠不停的交流。此外，我又注意過那些由上而下和由下而上的水流，．形成真正的海洋呼吸作用。我看見了海水的分子，在水面上受到熱力，沉人根深的地方，至零下二度的時候，密度到了最大，然後，溫度再降低，它的重量減輕，又浮上來了。您將在極圈地方看到這種現象所產生的結果，您將瞭解到，冰凍作用之所以只在水面上才發生，就是由於有遠見的大自然的這個規律。”
As the captain was finishing his sentence, I said to myself: "The pole! Is this brazen individual claiming he'll take us even to that location?"
當尼摩船長說完了他這句話的時候，我自己心中說：“極圈嗎！這個大膽的人一直要把我們帶到極圈中去嗎！
Meanwhile the captain fell silent and stared at the element he had studied so thoroughly and unceasingly. Then, going on:
不過船長這時不作聲，他全神注視他時刻不停地細心研究的海洋。一會兒他又說起話來：
"Salts," he said, "fill the sea in considerable quantities, professor, and if you removed all its dissolved saline content, you'd create a mass measuring 4,500,000 cubic leagues, which if it were spread all over the globe, would form a layer more than ten meters high. And don't think that the presence of these salts is due merely to some whim of nature. No. They make ocean water less open to evaporation and prevent winds from carrying off excessive amounts of steam, which, when condensing, would submerge the temperate zones. Salts play a leading role, the role of stabilizer for the general ecology of the globe!"
“教授，海水中鹽的份量是多到了不得的，如果您把溶解在海中的鹽提出來，您可以造成一個四百五十萬立方裡的體積的鹽堆，在地球上全面灘開來；可以鋪成十來高的一層表皮。您不要以為海中有這些鹽是大自然無意識的任性行為！不是的。鹽質使海永不容易蒸發，使海風不能將份量過多的水氣帶走，不然的話，水氣重化為水，簡直就要把溫帶地方完全淹沒了。這真是巨大得了不得的作用，是調節全地球的力量，使其保持平衡的偉大作用！”
Captain Nemo stopped, straightened up, took a few steps along the platform, and returned to me:
尼摩船長不作聲了，站起來，在乎台上走了幾步，又向我走回來。他說：
"As for those billions of tiny animals," he went on, "those infusoria that live by the millions in one droplet of water, 800,000 of which are needed to weigh one milligram, their role is no less important. They absorb the marine salts, they assimilate the solid elements in the water, and since they create coral and madrepores, they're the true builders of limestone continents! And so, after they've finished depriving our water drop of its mineral nutrients, the droplet gets lighter, rises to the surface, there absorbs more salts left behind through evaporation, gets heavier, sinks again, and brings those tiny animals new elements to absorb. The outcome: a double current, rising and falling, constant movement, constant life! More intense than on land, more abundant, more infinite, such life blooms in every part of this ocean, an element fatal to man, they say, but vital to myriads of animals--and to me!"
“至于那些原生秒水蟲，那些一滴水中便有億千萬的不可計數的微生動物，它們在一毫克的水量中便有八十萬個，它們的作用也是一樣重要。它們吸收了海中的鹽，消化了水中的固體物質，它們是真正石灰質陸地的造成者，因為它們製造了珊瑚和水熄啊！這滴水，當它的礦物質被吸去了的時候，變輕了，又浮到水面上來，在水面吸收了由於蒸發作用而拋棄在那裡的鹽質，又變重了，沉下去，重新給那些微生動物帶來了可吸收的新物質。因此而發生上下循環不已的潮流，永遠是不停的運動，永遠是不斷的生命。生命力，比在陸地上更強大的生命力，在海洋的所有部分更豐富地，更無窮地儘量發展。人們說，海洋是人類致命的地方，但對無數的動物——和對我，它是真正生命的所在！”
When Captain Nemo spoke in this way, he was transfigured, and he filled me with extraordinary excitement.
當尼摩船長這樣說話的時候，他的容貌完全改變了，使哉產生一種特殊的心情。他又說：
"There," he added, "out there lies true existence! And I can imagine the founding of nautical towns, clusters of underwater households that, like the Nautilus, would return to the surface of the sea to breathe each morning, free towns if ever there were, independent cities! Then again, who knows whether some tyrant . . ."
‘所以，海洋中才有真正的生活！我打算建設水中的城市，集體的海底住宅，像諾第留斯號一般，每天早晨浮上水面來呼吸。如果成功的話，那一定是自由自在的城市，獨立自主的城市！不過，又有誰知道，不會有些專制魔王……、
Captain Nemo finished his sentence with a vehement gesture. Then, addressing me directly, as if to drive away an ugly thought:
尼摩船長做個激烈的手勢結束了他這句話。一會兒。他直接來問我，好像要把一些不祥的思想驅逐出去似的，他問：
"Professor Aronnax," he asked me, "do you know the depth of the ocean floor?"
“阿龍納斯先生，您知道海洋有多深嗎？”
"At least, captain, I know what the major soundings tell us."
“船長，我至少知道一些主要的探測海深所得的結果。”
"Could you quote them to me, so I can double-check them as the need arises?"
“您可以給我舉出來，讓我必要時加以檢查嗎？“
"Here," I replied, "are a few of them that stick in my memory. If I'm not mistaken, an average depth of 8,200 meters was found in the north Atlantic, and 2,500 meters in the Mediterranean. The most remarkable soundings were taken in the south Atlantic near the 35th parallel, and they gave 12,000 meters, 14,091 meters, and 15,149 meters. All in all, it's estimated that if the sea bottom were made level, its average depth would be about seven kilometers."
“下面是我從記憶中可以說出來的一些數字。”我答，“如果我沒有記錯，北大西洋的平均深度為八千二百米，地中海為二千五百米。在南大西洋，南緯35度的地方，做了成績優良的探測，結果有的是一萬二千米，有的是一萬四千零九十一米，有的又是一萬五千一百四十九米，總起來說，照一般的估計，如果把海底平均起來，它的平均深度可能是七千米左右。”
"Well, professor," Captain Nemo replied, "we'll show you better than that, I hope. As for the average depth of this part of the Pacific, I'll inform you that it's a mere 4,000 meters."
“好，教授，，尼摩船長答，“我希望，我們可以給您說些更確切的數字。就是我們目前所在的太平洋這一部分的平均深度僅僅為四千米。”
This said, Captain Nemo headed to the hatch and disappeared down the ladder. I followed him and went back to the main lounge. The propeller was instantly set in motion, and the log gave our speed as twenty miles per hour.
說了這話後，尼摩船長向嵌板走去，從鐵梯下去不見了。我跟着他下來，我回到客廳中。推進器立即發動起來，測程器指的是每小時二十海里的速度。
Over the ensuing days and weeks, Captain Nemo was very frugal with his visits. I saw him only at rare intervals. His chief officer regularly fixed the positions I found reported on the chart, and in such a way that I could exactly plot the Nautilus's course.
好些日子，好幾周過去了，尼摩船長根少過來訪問。我也只是在十分少有的機會才看見他。他的副手按時來作航線記錄，一一記在圖上，所以我可以很正確地瞭解諾第留斯號所走的路線。
Conseil and Land spent the long hours with me. Conseil had told his friend about the wonders of our undersea stroll, and the Canadian was sorry he hadn't gone along. But I hoped an opportunity would arise for a visit to the forests of Oceania.
康塞爾和尼德-蘭跟我一起、談了很長的時間。康塞爾把我們在海底散步的時候所見到的新奇事物告訴了他的朋友，加拿大人很後悔他沒有跟我們一道去。但我希望以後還會有遊歷海底森林的機會。
Almost every day the panels in the lounge were open for some hours, and our eyes never tired of probing the mysteries of the underwater world.
客廳的嵌板差不多每天都有好幾個鐘頭要打開來，我們的眼睛盡情地觀察海底世界的秘密，總看不厭。
The Nautilus's general heading was southeast, and it stayed at a depth between 100 and 150 meters. However, from lord-knows-what whim, one day it did a diagonal dive by means of its slanting fins, reaching strata located 2,000 meters underwater. The thermometer indicated a temperature of 4.25 degrees centigrade, which at this depth seemed to be a temperature common to all latitudes.
諾第留斯號所走的大方向是東南方，它所在的深度總是保持在一百米和一百五十米之間。但有一天，我不知道因為什麼理由，它使用那兩塊縱斜機板，沿著縱斜線潛下去，一直到二千米的深度。溫度表正指攝氏4．25度，好像在這樣深度的水裡，不管在什麼地帶，溫度都是共同一律的。
On November 26, at three o'clock in the morning, the Nautilus cleared the Tropic of Cancer at longitude 172 degrees. On the 27th it passed in sight of the Hawaiian Islands, where the famous Captain Cook met his death on February 14, 1779. By then we had fared 4,860 leagues from our starting point. When I arrived on the platform that morning, I saw the Island of Hawaii two miles to leeward, the largest of the seven islands making up this group. I could clearly distinguish the tilled soil on its outskirts, the various mountain chains running parallel with its coastline, and its volcanoes, crowned by Mauna Kea, whose elevation is 5,000 meters above sea level. Among other specimens from these waterways, our nets brought up some peacock-tailed flabellarian coral, polyps flattened into stylish shapes and unique to this part of the ocean.
月26日早晨三點，諾第留斯號在西經172度上越過了北回歸線。27H，它遠遠可以望見夏威夷群島，這是1779年2日14日有名的航海家庫克被殺死的地方。我們自出發以來到現在，已經走了四千八百六十里了。這天早晨，我上平台望見在下鳳兩里左右的夏威夷島，它是形成這群島的七個島中最大的一個。我清楚地看到它的已經開發地帶的邊緣，跟海岸綫平行的各支山脈和拔海立千米的火山群；高聳在它上面的，是摩那羅亞火山：在這一帶海中偽其它品種中間，魚網還打到了孔雀扇形珊瑚，那是外形美觀的扁平水螅類，是這一部分太平洋的特產動物。”
The Nautilus kept to its southeasterly heading. On December 1 it cut the equator at longitude 142 degrees, and on the 4th of the same month, after a quick crossing marked by no incident, we raised the Marquesas Islands. Three miles off, in latitude 8 degrees 57' south and longitude 139 degrees 32' west, I spotted Martin Point on Nuku Hiva, chief member of this island group that belongs to France. I could make out only its wooded mountains on the horizon, because Captain Nemo hated to hug shore. There our nets brought up some fine fish samples: dolphinfish with azure fins, gold tails, and flesh that's unrivaled in the entire world, wrasse from the genus Hologymnosus that were nearly denuded of scales but exquisite in flavor, knifejaws with bony beaks, yellowish albacore that were as tasty as bonito, all fish worth classifying in the ship's pantry.
諾第留斯號的方向仍是向着東南方。12月1月，它在西經142度上越過赤道綫；4日，經過順利的迅速行駛後，我們望見了馬貴斯群島。相距三海里遠，在南緯8度57分，西經139度32分，我看見奴加衣瓦島的馬丁尖呻，這是法屬馬貴斯群島中的最重要的一個島。我只看到天邊滿是叢林密佈的山嶺，因為尼摩船長不喜歡接近陸地，所以我沒看見別的。在這一帶海面上，魚網打得了好些美麗的魚類。比如哥利芬魚，天藍色的鰭，金黃色的尾巴，肉味鮮美無比。赤裸魚，差不多沒有鱗甲，但也很好吃；帶骨腮的骨眶魚，黑黃的塔查魚，比鯉魚還好吃；所有這些魚都值得放到船上餐廳中供人食用。
After leaving these delightful islands to the protection of the French flag, the Nautilus covered about 2,000 miles from December 4 to the 11th. Its navigating was marked by an encounter with an immense school of squid, unusual mollusks that are near neighbors of the cuttlefish. French fishermen give them the name "cuckoldfish," and they belong to the class Cephalopoda, family Dibranchiata, consisting of themselves together with cuttlefish and argonauts. The naturalists of antiquity made a special study of them, and these animals furnished many ribald figures of speech for soapbox orators in the Greek marketplace, as well as excellent dishes for the tables of rich citizens, if we're to believe Athenaeus, a Greek physician predating Galen.
離開了由法國國旗保護的這些使人神往的美麗海島後，從12月4日至11日，諾第留斯號共走了四千里左右。這次航行碰見了一大群搶烏賊，這是很奇異的軟體動物，跟墨魚很相像。法國漁人稱它們為水黃蜂，它們屬於頭足綱。雙鰓目，其中包括肛魚和墨魚。這類魚，古代生物學家特別加以研究，它們給古代希臘公眾會場的演說家提供了好些譬喻語，根據生於嘉利安之前的希臘醫生阿典尼所說的話，這類魚在希臘的有錢公民的食桌上，也是一盤很美味的菜。
It was during the night of December 9-10 that the Nautilus encountered this army of distinctly nocturnal mollusks. They numbered in the millions. They were migrating from the temperate zones toward zones still warmer, following the itineraries of herring and sardines. We stared at them through our thick glass windows: they swam backward with tremendous speed, moving by means of their locomotive tubes, chasing fish and mollusks, eating the little ones, eaten by the big ones, and tossing in indescribable confusion the ten feet that nature has rooted in their heads like a hairpiece of pneumatic snakes. Despite its speed, the Nautilus navigated for several hours in the midst of this school of animals, and its nets brought up an incalculable number, among which I recognized all nine species that Professor Orbigny has classified as native to the Pacific Ocean.
就是在12月9日和10日夜間，諾第留斯號碰見一大群喜歡夜出的軟體動物。估計起來，它們的數目不止數千百萬。它們遵循着槽白魚和沙丁魚所走的路線，從溫帶地方轉移到較暖的水域去。我們通過很厚的透亮玻璃，看見它們向後倒退，極端迅速地游泳，運用它們的運動卿管轉動，追趕魚類和軟體動物，吃小魚，或被大魚吃掉。它們把天生就的頭上十隻腿腳在難以形容地胡亂抓爬，好像小孩玩的蛇形吹氣管子。諾第留斯號，不管它走得多麼快，但在這大群動物中間也走了好幾個鐘頭，魚網打到了無數的這種搶烏賊，其中我看到了被奧賓尼分類的九種太平洋品種。
During this crossing, the sea continually lavished us with the most marvelous sights. Its variety was infinite. It changed its setting and decor for the mere pleasure of our eyes, and we were called upon not simply to contemplate the works of our Creator in the midst of the liquid element, but also to probe the ocean's most daunting mysteries.
人們看到，在這次航行中，海洋把所有的各種奇妙景象不斷地擺出來，它時時更換佈景和場面，使我們的眼睛看來十分愉快，我們不單被吸引，要在海水裡面觀察造物者的作品，並且還要來理解海洋底下最驚人的秘密。
During the day of December 11, I was busy reading in the main lounge. Ned Land and Conseil were observing the luminous waters through the gaping panels. The Nautilus was motionless. Its ballast tanks full, it was sitting at a depth of 1,000 meters in a comparatively unpopulated region of the ocean where only larger fish put in occasional appearances.
12月11日，我整天都在客廳中看書。尼德-蘭和康塞爾通過打開的嵌板，注視那明亮的海水。諾第留斯號停住不動了。它的儲水池滿裝着水。它在水深一千米的地方，這是海洋中很少有生物居留的區域，只有大魚偶然在這裡出現。
Just then I was studying a delightful book by Jean Macé, The Servants of the Stomach, and savoring its ingenious teachings, when Conseil interrupted my reading.
我這時正讀讓-馬西著的一本很有趣味的書——胃的調理者，我正津津有味地讀着書中美妙的教導的時候，被康塞爾的說話聲打斷。
"Would master kindly come here for an instant?" he said to me in an odd voice.
“請先生來一下行嗎？”他帶著很驚異的聲音對我說。
"What is it, Conseil?"
“有什麼事，康塞爾？，
"It's something that master should see."
“先生請來看吧。”
I stood up, went, leaned on my elbows before the window, and I saw it.
我站起來，我時靠着玻璃，我看著。
In the broad electric daylight, an enormous black mass, quite motionless, hung suspended in the midst of the waters. I observed it carefully, trying to find out the nature of this gigantic cetacean. Then a sudden thought crossed my mind.
在電光照耀中，我看見一團巨大的黑東西，靜止不動，懸在海水中間。我很注意地觀察它，想法辨認這條巨大晾魚類動物的性質。但心中忽然醒悟，喊道：
"A ship!" I exclaimed.
“一隻船！”
"Yes," the Canadian replied, "a disabled craft that's sinking straight down!"
“是的，”加拿大人回答，”一隻撞在暗礁上沉了的船！”
Ned Land was not mistaken. We were in the presence of a ship whose severed shrouds still hung from their clasps. Its hull looked in good condition, and it must have gone under only a few hours before. The stumps of three masts, chopped off two feet above the deck, indicated a flooding ship that had been forced to sacrifice its masting. But it had heeled sideways, filling completely, and it was listing to port even yet. A sorry sight, this carcass lost under the waves, but sorrier still was the sight on its deck, where, lashed with ropes to prevent their being washed overboard, some human corpses still lay! I counted four of them--four men, one still standing at the helm-- then a woman, halfway out of a skylight on the afterdeck, holding a child in her arms. This woman was young. Under the brilliant lighting of the Nautilus's rays, I could make out her features, which the water hadn't yet decomposed. With a supreme effort, she had lifted her child above her head, and the poor little creature's arms were still twined around its mother's neck! The postures of the four seamen seemed ghastly to me, twisted from convulsive movements, as if making a last effort to break loose from the ropes that bound them to their ship. And the helmsman, standing alone, calmer, his face smooth and serious, his grizzled hair plastered to his brow, his hands clutching the wheel, seemed even yet to be guiding his wrecked three-master through the ocean depths!
尼德-蘭並沒有弄錯。我們面前是一隻船，上面弄斷了的護桅索仍然掛在鏈上二船殻看來還很好，船沉下來至多不過是幾小時以前的事。三根斷桅從甲板上兩英呎高的地方砍下來，表明這只遇難的船不得不把桅牆犧牲了。但船是側躺着，內部裝得很滿，是向左舷傾斜的。這種落在波濤中的殘骸的景象，看來實在是淒慘；更為淒慘的，是看見甲板上還有躺着掛在繩索上的屍體！我看見有四具屍體——四個男子，其中一人站在舵邊一還有一個婦人手中抱著一個小孩，在船尾眺板格子上站着。這婦人還年輕。有諾第留斯號的電光的照亮，我可以看出她那還沒有被海水所腐蝕的面容。她作最後絶望的努力，把小孩舉在她頭上，這可憐的小生命正把兩隻小手抱著媽媽的脖子呢！四個水手的姿態我覺得非常伯人，因為他們身軀怞搐得不成樣子，他們作最後的努力，擺脫那把他們纏在船上的繩索，然後才死去。唯有那個看航路的舵手，比較鎮定，面貌很清楚、很嚴肅，灰白的頭髮貼在前額，痙攣的手放在舵輪上，他好像是還在深深的海底駕駛着他那只遇難的三桅船！
What a scene! We stood dumbstruck, hearts pounding, before this shipwreck caught in the act, as if it had been photographed in its final moments, so to speak! And already I could see enormous sharks moving in, eyes ablaze, drawn by the lure of human flesh!
多麼伯人的場面！我們沉默不能作聲，在這真實的沉船事故面前，可以說在這最後一刻掇下來的沉船景象面前，我們的心跳動得厲害！我又看見了一些巨大的鮫魚，眼睛冒火。被這人肉的餌物所引動，已經向前游來了！
Meanwhile, turning, the Nautilus made a circle around the sinking ship, and for an instant I could read the board on its stern:
這時，諾第留斯號向前行駛，繞過沉沒的船，我因此可以看見寫在船尾牌子上的船名：
The Florida
Sunderland, England
佛羅利達號，山德蘭港。