海底两万里

怪物

The Monster

1866年对大海来说是很奇怪的一年。每个大洋里的船都看到水里有个很大的东西。它很长，游得很快，晚上有时候还发着微弱的光。没有人能说出那是什么。

The year 1866 was a strange year for the sea. Ships in every ocean saw something very big in the water. It was long, it moved fast, and at night it sometimes shone with a pale light. Nobody could say what it was.

在7月20日，轮船 希金森总督号 在澳大利亚附近遇到了它。贝克船长看到一个灰色的长条形状，心想：“那是一座沙洲。”他想知道它的确切位置。这时，从那个形状里喷出了两道很高的水柱，发出很大的嘘嘘声。现在船长知道真相了。沙洲不会这样做。那是一只动物。

On the 20th of July, the steamer Governor Higginson met it near Australia. Captain Baker saw a long grey shape and thought, “That is a sandbank.” He wanted to know its exact place. Then two high columns of water shot up from the shape, with a loud hiss. Now the captain knew the truth. A sandbank does not do that. It was an animal.

三天以后， 哥伦布号 在太平洋里看到了同一只动物。那里离之前的地方有大约两千英里远。它游得比所有的船都快。

Three days later, the Columbus saw the same animal in the Pacific Ocean. That was about two thousand miles away. It moved faster than any ship.

两个星期后，两条船在大西洋里遇到了它，船长们用信号讨论了这件事。他们按自己的船猜了它的大小。他们说：“它比三百五十英尺还要长。”那两条船都是三百英尺长。人们知道的最大的鲸鱼，比它小得多。

Two weeks later, two ships met it in the Atlantic Ocean, and the captains talked about it by signal. They guessed its size from their own ships. “It is longer than three hundred and fifty feet,” they said. Both ships were three hundred feet long. The biggest whale that people knew was much smaller.

更多的消息传来了，一个接一个。一艘法国战舰看到了它。一位英国军官写了一份很长很认真的报告。英国、美国和德国的学者们都开始谈论它了。

More news came, one report after another. A French warship saw it. An English officer wrote a long and careful report. Serious people in England, America and Germany began to talk about it.

在城市里，每个人都在谈论这只怪物。人们在咖啡馆里唱歌唱到它。报纸给它画了搞笑的画。在有些画里，它是老水手故事里的白鲸。在别的画里，它是一只长着长手臂的大动物，能抓住一条船，把它拉到海底。有些男人想起了古代的旧书。他们说：“这样的怪物是真的。”

In the cities, everybody talked about the monster. People sang about it in the cafés. The newspapers drew funny pictures of it. In some pictures it was the white whale of the old sailors’ stories. In others it was a giant animal with long arms that could take a ship and pull it down to the sea floor. Some men remembered old books from ancient times. “Such monsters are real,” they said.

接着，相信的人和不相信的人打起了笔战。作家们在报纸上写了六个月。教授们写了很长的文章。两边的人都很生气。最后，一家搞笑报纸里的一位聪明作家让大家都嘲笑了这只怪物，大家就不再谈论了。

Then the fight began between the people who believed and the people who did not. Writers filled the newspapers for six months. Professors wrote long articles. Both sides were angry. In the end, a clever writer in a funny newspaper made everybody laugh at the monster, and the talk stopped.

在1867年开始的时候，几乎没有人谈论这只怪物了。后来有了新的事实，这件事就不再好笑了。它现在成了一个危险。人们说：“那是一块大石头。”“那是一座每天都在移动的礁石。”

At the start of 1867, almost nobody talked about the monster. Then new facts came, and the matter was not funny any more. It was now a danger. “It is a rock,” people said. “It is a reef that moves from one day to the next.”

在1867年3月5日，轮船 莫拉维亚号 在夜里航行，船上有二百三十七位乘客。早上五点的时候，船被重重地撞了一下。没有人看到岩石。海面上很平静，只有一个很大的漩涡标出了那个地方。 莫拉维亚号 很幸运。这艘船很坚固，没有沉下去。后来，在一个港口里，工人们发现船底有一块地方破了。

On the 5th of March, 1867, the steamer Moravian was sailing at night with two hundred and thirty-seven passengers. At five in the morning, there was a hard blow against the ship. Nobody saw a rock. The sea was quiet, and only a strong whirl of water showed the place. The Moravian was lucky. The ship was strong, and it did not sink. Later, in a harbour, workmen found a piece of the ship’s bottom broken.

五个星期后，同样的事情又发生了，这一次的船更大、更出名。 斯科舍号 属于一家很好的英国公司。在4月13日，海面很平静，风很好，船以每小时十三英里的速度前进。下午四点十七分，乘客们正一起坐在大餐厅里。突然，船轻轻地震动了一下。

Five weeks later, the same thing happened again, and this time the ship was bigger and famous. The Scotia belonged to a very good English company. On the 13th of April, the sea was calm, the wind was good, and the ship went at thirteen miles an hour. At seventeen minutes past four in the afternoon, the passengers were sitting together in the big dining room. Suddenly the ship shook a little.

并不是 斯科舍号 撞到了什么东西。而是有东西撞了 斯科舍号 。而且那个东西很尖，不是圆的。震动很小，所以乘客们没有担心。这时，船上的一个船员跑上甲板大喊：“我们要沉了！我们要沉了！”

The Scotia did not hit something. Something hit the Scotia . And the thing was sharp, not round. The shock was so small that the passengers did not worry. Then a man from the ship’s crew ran up on deck and shouted, “We are sinking! We are sinking!”

起初乘客们都很害怕。但是安德森船长很冷静。他告诉他们：“船里面有坚固的隔墙。水能流进一个地方，但流不到别的地方。”他下去看了看。海水正在快速流进船的一部分。但是发动机在另一部分，所以它们还在继续工作。安德森船长让船停了一会儿，派了一个人下去找那个破洞。

At first the passengers were very afraid. But Captain Anderson stayed calm. “The ship has strong walls inside,” he told them. “Water can come into one place, and it cannot go to the others.” He went down to look. Sea water was running into one part of the ship, fast. But the engines were in another part, and so they kept working. Captain Anderson stopped the ship for a short time and sent a man down to look for the hole.

那个人找到了它。那是船底的一个大洞，有六英尺宽。没有人能把它堵上。所以 斯科舍号 带着一侧的海水慢慢地往前开，它晚了三天到达利物浦。船东们非常担心。

The man found it. It was a big hole, six feet wide, in the bottom of the ship. Nobody could close it. So the Scotia went on slowly with the sea in its side, and it came to Liverpool three days late. The owners were very worried.