英語聽書《白鯨記》第776期

Likewise a fish is technically fast when it bears a waif, or any other recognized symbol of possession; so long as the party wailing it plainly evince their ability at any time to take it alongside, as well as their intention so to do.

同樣地，顧名思義，就是一條鯨被拴住后，身上還插有浮標(biāo)，或者任何其它可以識別所有權(quán)的標(biāo)記，只要有一方插上了浮標(biāo)，表明他們能夠隨時來把它拖走，以及他們打算這樣做就行。

These are scientific commentaries; but the commentaries of the whalemen themselves sometimes consist in hard words and harder knocks— the Coke-upon-Littleton of the fist. True, among the more upright and honorable whalemen allowances are always made for peculiar cases, where it would be an outrageous moral injustice for one party to claim possession of a whale previously chased or killed by another party. But others are by no means so scrupulous.

這些都是有科學(xué)根據(jù)的史話；不過，在捕魚人自己的史話中有時不免有一些難斷難分的爭論和更其惱人的沖突——動手動腳，大打出手等記載。不錯，在一些比較正直老實的捕鯨人中，往往都會考慮到一些特殊情況，如果有一方硬將另一方先前所追擊捕殺的鯨據(jù)為己有，那準(zhǔn)是一種令人憤慨的不義行為。不過，并不是其他的捕鯨人都會這么謹(jǐn)嚴(yán)。

Some fifty years ago there was a curious case of whale-trover litigated in England, wherein the plaintiffs set forth that after a hard chase of a whale in the Northern seas; and when indeed they (the plaintiffs) had succeeded in harpooning the fish; they were at last, through peril of their lives, obliged to forsake not only their lines, but their boat itself. Ultimately the defendants (the crew of another ship) came up with the whale, struck, killed, seized, and finally appropriated it before the very eyes of the plaintiffs.

大約五十年前，英國就發(fā)生過一件為追索侵占大鯨而打官司的奇案。在那個案件中，原告說，他們在北海上千辛萬苦的追擊后，他們（原告）確實用標(biāo)槍刺中了一條鯨，不過，最后，由于有生命的危險，他們不得不把他們的繩索，甚至連同小艇都拋棄了。可是，后來，不料這些被告（指另一艘船的水手們）趕上了這條鯨，把它打了，弄死，捆縛起來，結(jié)果還直當(dāng)著原告的面，把它占為己有。

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