海底兩萬里 第238期 第18章 太平洋下四千里(10)

I stood up, went, leaned on my elbows before the window, and I saw it.

我站起來，我時靠著玻璃，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(zhì)。但心中忽然醒悟，喊道：

"A ship!" I exclaimed.

“一只船!”

"Yes," the Canadian replied, "a disabled craft that's sinking straight down!"

“是的，”加拿大人回答，”一只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·蘭并沒有弄錯。我們面前是一只船，上面弄斷了的護桅索仍然掛在鏈上二船殼看來還很好，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尺高的地方砍下來，表明這只遇難的船不得不把桅墻犧牲了。但船是側(cè)躺著，內(nèi)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，看來實在是凄慘;更為凄慘的，是看見甲板上還有躺著掛在繩索上的尸體!我看見有四具尸體——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著。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。她作最后絕望的努力，把小孩舉在她頭上，這可憐的小生命正把兩只小手抱著媽媽的脖子呢!四個水手的姿態(tài)我覺得非常伯人，因為他們身軀抽搐得不成樣子，他們作最后的努力，擺脫那把他們纏在船上的繩索，然后才死去。唯有那個看航路的舵手，比較鎮(zhèn)定，面貌很清楚、很嚴(yán)肅，灰白的頭發(fā)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著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!

多么伯人的場面!我們沉默不能作聲，在這真實的沉船事故面前，可以說在這最后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(jīng)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。