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His age sat lightly enough on him; and of his ruin he was not ashamed. He had not been alone to believe in the stability of the Banking Corporation. Men whose judgment in matters of finance was as expert as his seamanship had commended the prudence of his investments, and had themselves lost much money in the great failure. The only difference between him and them was that he had lost his all. And yet not his all. There had remained to him from his lost fortune a very pretty little bark, Fair Maid, which he had bought to occupy his leisure of a retired sailor— "to play with, " as he expressed it himself.
看不出来他有那么大年纪；而且他不为自己的破产感到羞愧。并非只有他一个人相信银行的可靠性。有些人在金融方面的判断同他的航海技术一样老练，还称赞过他投资谨慎，可他们也在那次大倒闭中损失了很多钱。他和他们唯一的区别在于他损失了全部财产。然而，也算不上全部。从他失去的财产中，他留下了一艘十分漂亮的三桅帆船 “美人号” ，买这艘船是因为想用它来消磨退休后的空闲时间，像他自己说的那样，就是 “玩玩” 。
He had formally declared himself tired of the sea the year preceding his daughter's marriage. But after the young couple had gone to settle in Melbourne he found out that he could not make himself happy on shore. He was too much of a merchant sea—captain for mere yachting to satisfy him. He wanted the illusion of affairs; and his acquisition of the Fair Maid preserved the continuity of his life. He introduced her to his acquaintances in various ports as "my last command. " When he grew too old to be trusted with a ship, he would lay her up and go ashore to be buried, leaving directions in his will to have the bark towed out and scuttled decently in deep water on the day of the funeral. His daughter would not grudge him the satisfaction of knowing that no stranger would handle his last command after him. With the fortune he was able to leave her, the value of a 500—ton bark was neither here nor there. All this would be said with a jocular twinkle in his eye: the vigorous old man had too much vitality for the sentimentalism of regret; and a little wistfully withal, because he was at home in life, taking a genuine pleasure in its feelings and its possessions; in the dignity of his reputation and his wealth, in his love for his daughter, and in his satisfaction with the ship—the plaything of his lonely leisure.
他女儿结婚的前一年，他正式宣布自己对海洋感到厌倦了。但是在那对年轻的夫妇去墨尔本定居以后，他发现他无法在陆地上开心地生活。他是一个十足的远洋贸易船的船长，仅坐游艇是无法令他满足的。他需要一点继续忙碌下去的幻觉；得到了美人号，仿佛他就能维持生活的连续性。他把美人号介绍给不同港口的熟人，说是 “我指挥的最后一艘船” 。当他老到不能再驾驶一艘船的时候，他就会把美人号搁置起来，回到陆地，直到入土为安。他还会留下遗嘱，指示在举行葬礼的那天把那艘三桅帆船拖出来，让它在深海体面地沉没。他知道，女儿不会不满足他这个愿望的，在他死后，不会有陌生人染指他驾驶的最后这艘船。与他能留给她的财产比起来，一艘五百吨的三桅帆船的价值就无关紧要了。他会用一种开玩笑的态度说出这一切，眼里闪着光。这个精力充沛的老人充满了活力，不会染上什么后悔的伤感主义，反而会带着一点渴望什么的心情，因为他很会生活，能够从生活给予他的感情和福祉中，从声望和财富带来的尊严中，从他对女儿的爱中，从他对那艘船的满足中得到真实的快乐——即使那艘船只是他打发孤独闲暇的玩物。
He had the cabin arranged in accordance with his simple ideal of comfort at sea. A big bookcase (he was a great reader) occupied one side of his stateroom; the portrait of his late wife, a flat bituminous oil—painting representing the profile and one long black ringlet of a young woman, faced his bed—place. Three chronometers ticked him to sleep and greeted him on waking with the tiny competition of their beats. He rose at five every day. The officer of the morning watch, drinking his early cup of coffee aft by the wheel, would hear through the wide orifice of the copper ventilators all the splashings, blowings, and splutterings of his captain's toilet. These noises would be followed by a sustained deep murmur of the Lord's Prayer recited in a loud earnest voice. Five minutes afterwards the head and shoulders of Captain Whalley emerged out of the companion—hatchway. Invariably he paused for a while on the stairs, looking all round at the horizon; upwards at the trim of the sails; inhaling deep draughts of the fresh air. Only then he would step out on the poop, acknowledging the hand raised to the peak of the cap with a majestic and benign "Good morning to you. " He walked the deck till eight scrupulously. Sometimes, not above twice a year, he had to use a thick cudgel—like stick on account of a stiffness in the hip—a slight touch of rheumatism, he supposed. Otherwise he knew nothing of the ills of the flesh. At the ringing of the breakfast bell he went below to feed his canaries, wind up the chronometers, and take the head of the table. From there he had before his eyes the big carbon photographs of his daughter, her husband, and two fat—legged babies —his grandchildren—set in black frames into the maplewood bulkheads of the cuddy. After breakfast he dusted the glass over these portraits himself with a cloth, and brushed the oil painting of his wife with a plumate kept suspended from a small brass hook by the side of the heavy gold frame. Then with the door of his stateroom shut, he would sit down on the couch under the portrait to read a chapter out of a thick pocket Bible—her Bible. But on some days he only sat there for half an hour with his finger between the leaves and the closed book resting on his knees. Perhaps he had remembered suddenly how fond of boat—sailing she used to be.
他按照自己简单的理想来布置船舱，以使他的海上生活舒适。一个大书柜占去了他卧舱的一面（他是个博览群书的人）；正对着床位的是他已故妻子的肖像画，那是一幅无景深的沥青油画，画上是个长着黑色卷发的年轻女人的侧面像。三个航行表滴答滴答地走着，像比赛似的用微小而有节奏的声音催他入睡，又迎接他醒来。他每天五点钟起床。值早班的高级船员在船尾舵轮旁喝早咖啡的时候，会从很大的铜通风孔里听到船长在盥洗室发出的泼水声、擤鼻子声、清嗓子声。这些响声之后，接着传来的是用响亮而热切的嗓音背诵祈祷词的持续而低沉的声音。五分钟后，惠利船长的头和肩膀就从升降口的扶梯上出现了。他总是在扶梯上停留片刻，看看周围的地平线，向上看看风帆的情况，然后深深地吸几口新鲜空气。直到那时，他才会登上船尾楼，向那个一只手举起在帽檐旁的船员庄严而和蔼地打招呼说： “早上好。” 他在甲板上认真负责地巡视到八点钟。有时候，一年不超过两次，由于髋关节僵硬，他不得不使用一根粗手杖走路——他认为是轻微的风湿病。此外，他不知道他的身体还有什么毛病。早餐钟一响，他就下去喂他的金丝雀，给航行表上紧发条，然后坐上餐桌的首位。从那里看去，他眼前是一些装在黑边玻璃框里的碳纸印的大照片，他女儿和女婿的，还有两个腿胖嘟嘟的孩子的——他的外孙——相框镶嵌在小船室的槭木舱壁上。早餐后，他用一块布亲自拂去覆盖着肖像的相框玻璃上的灰尘，接着从那个沉重的金色画框旁一个小铜钩上，取下挂在那上面的羽毛掸子，刷他妻子的肖像油画。然后他会关上卧舱门，坐在肖像画下面的沙发上，拿起那本厚厚的袖珍版《圣经》——她的《圣经》，读上一章。但有些日子，他只是在那里坐上半个小时，手指夹在书页中间，书合着摆在膝头上。也许他突然想起了妻子过去是多么喜欢航行。
She had been a real shipmate and a true woman too. It was like an article of faith with him that there never had been, and never could be, a brighter, cheerier home anywhere afloat or ashore than his home under the poop—deck of the Condor, with the big main cabin all white and gold, garlanded as if for a perpetual festival with an unfading wreath. She had decorated the center of every panel with a cluster of home flowers. It took her a twelvemonth to go round the cuddy with this labor of love. To him it had remained a marvel of painting, the highest achievement of taste and skill; and as to old Swinburne, his mate, every time he came down to his meals he stood transfixed with admiration before the progress of the work. You could almost smell these roses, he declared, sniffing the faint flavor of turpentine which at that time pervaded the saloon, and (as he confessed afterwards) made him somewhat less hearty than usual in tackling his food. But there was nothing of the sort to interfere with his enjoyment of her singing. "Mrs. Whalley is a regular out—and—out nightingale, sir, " he would pronounce with a judicial air after listening profoundly over the skylight to the very end of the piece. In fine weather, in the second dog—watch, the two men could hear her trills and roulades going on to the accompaniment of the piano in the cabin. On the very day they got engaged he had written to London for the instrument; but they had been married for over a year before it reached them, coming out round the Cape. The big case made part of the first direct general cargo landed in Hong—kong harbor—an event that to the men who walked the busy quays of to—day seemed as hazily remote as the dark ages of history. But Captain Whalley could in a half hour of solitude live again all his life, with its romance, its idyl, and its sorrow. He had to close her eyes himself. She went away from under the ensign like a sailor's wife, a sailor herself at heart. He had read the service over her, out of her own prayer—book, without a break in his voice. When he raised his eyes he could see old Swinburne facing him with his cap pressed to his breast, and his rugged, weather—beaten, impassive face streaming with drops of water like a lump of chipped red granite in a shower. It was all very well for that old sea—dog to cry. He had to read on to the end; but after the splash he did not remember much of what happened for the next few days. An elderly sailor of the crew, deft at needlework, put together a mourning frock for the child out of one of her black skirts.
她确实是一个航行的好伴侣，也是一个真正的女人。犹如一个信条，他坚信无论是在海上还是在陆地上，没有哪里能比他神鹰号船尾楼甲板下面那个家美满、愉快，那个宽大的主舱主色调是白色和金色，好像永远在欢度节日一样，装饰着永不凋谢的花环。她在每一块嵌板中央都画了一束故乡的鲜花。为了这项爱的工程，她整整用了十二个月的时间才画遍了整个舱房。对他而言，这些画始终是一个奇迹，无论是品味还是技巧，都达到了最高成就；对他的大副老斯温伯恩而言，他每次走下来吃饭，看到这项工作的进展的时候，总会充满赞赏，发呆般地站在那里。他说，那段时间，嗅着那股弥漫在餐室里的微弱的松节油味，你几乎能闻到玫瑰的香味，（他后来承认）这使他吃东西的时候胃口比平时差一点。但是没有什么能妨碍他对她歌唱的享受。每当他通过天窗投入地听她一曲唱罢以后，会带着品评般的口气说： “惠利太太是只真正的夜莺，先生。” 在晴好的天气里，值黄昏六点到八点那一班的时候，两个人就能听到从船舱里传来的、在钢琴伴奏下的她的颤音和华彩。钢琴是他们订婚的那天他写信到伦敦去买的；但是在他们结婚一年多之后，货才绕过好望角运达。那个大箱子是第一批到达香港的直运货物的中的一件——这件事对那些现今在繁忙的码头上奔走的人来说，似乎同历史上的中世纪那样遥远而模糊。但是惠利船长能够在半个小时的独处中重温他一生的悲欢离合。他不得不亲手合上了她的眼睛。她像一个海员的妻子那样在商船旗下离世；在内心，她自己就是个海员。他用她自己的祈祷书为她念祈祷词，声音一次也没有停顿。当他抬起眼睛的时候，看到老斯温伯恩正面对着他，帽子紧贴胸口，泪水从他那皱纹密布、饱经风霜、毫无表情的脸上不断地流下来，好像淋在雨中的一块历经刀斫斧凿的红色花岗石一般。那个老水手还不如放声哭出来好受。他不得不把祈祷词念完；但是把她的遗体扑通一声扔进水里以后，接下来的几天里，他都不记得发生了什么。船上有位精通针线活的老水手，用她的一条黑裙子为孩子做了一件丧服。
He was not likely to forget; but you cannot dam up life like a sluggish stream. It will break out and flow over a man's troubles, it will close upon a sorrow like the sea upon a dead body, no matter how much love has gone to the bottom. And the world is not bad. People had been very kind to him; especially Mrs. Gardner, the wife of the senior partner in Gardner, Patteson, &Co., the owners of the Condor. It was she who volunteered to look after the little one, and in due course took her to England (something of a journey in those days, even by the overland mail route) with her own girls to finish her education. It was ten years before he saw her again.
他不可能忘记；不过你无法把像缓慢的溪流一样的生活，用坝拦住。生活会冲破缺口，淹没人的烦恼；生活会遮蔽悲伤，就像海洋遮蔽一具尸体一样，而不管有多少爱沉入海底。但是这个世界还不算坏。人们对他很友好；特别是加德纳太太，加德纳—佩特逊公司的大股东的妻子，这个公司就是神鹰号的所有者。就是她自愿照顾那个小女孩的，而且在适当的时候把她带到了英国（在那些日子里，就算按照横穿大陆的邮路走，也算得上长途跋涉了），同她自己的几个女儿一同完成学业。过了十年，他才再次见到她。
As a little child she had never been frightened of bad weather; she would beg to be taken up on deck in the bosom of his oilskin coat to watch the big seas hurling themselves upon the Condor. The swirl and crash of the waves seemed to fill her small soul with a breathless delight. "A good boy spoiled, " he used to say of her in joke. He had named her Ivy because of the sound of the word, and obscurely fascinated by a vague association of ideas. She had twined herself tightly round his heart, and he intended her to cling close to her father as to a tower of strength; forgetting, while she was little, that in the nature of things she would probably elect to cling to someone else. But he loved life well enough for even that event to give him a certain satisfaction, apart from his more intimate feeling of loss.
当她还是个小孩子的时候，就从没有怕过坏天气；她会央求他把她抱在他穿着油衣的怀里，带到甲板上去，看着巨浪拍打神鹰号。波浪的涌起和破碎，看起来使她那幼小的心灵充满了几乎喘不过气来的兴奋。 “一个宠坏了的假小子，” 他过去常这样开玩笑地说她。他给她取名艾薇，因为喜欢这个名字的发音，同时，他被一个模糊不清的联想暗暗地迷住了。她紧紧地缠绕在他的心头，而他也愿意她紧紧地缠着她的父亲，犹如缠着一根坚固的支柱；他忘了，按照事物的常理，年幼的她也有可能选择紧紧地缠住其他人。但是他那么地热爱生活，那件事除了让他有种切身的怅然若失的感觉之外，也给他带来了某种满足。
After he had purchased the Fair Maid to occupy his loneliness, he hastened to accept a rather unprofitable freight to Australia simply for the opportunity of seeing his daughter in her own home. What made him dissatisfied there was not to see that she clung now to somebody else, but that the prop she had selected seemed on closer examination "a rather poor stick" —even in the matter of health. He disliked his son—in—law's studied civility perhaps more than his method of handling the sum of money he had given Ivy at her marriage. But of his apprehensions he said nothing. Only on the day of his departure, with the hall—door open already, holding her hands and looking steadily into her eyes, he had said, "You know, my dear, all I have is for you and the chicks. Mind you write to me openly. " She had answered him by an almost imperceptible movement of her head. She resembled her mother in the color of her eyes, and in character—and also in this, that she understood him without many words.
他买下美人号来排遣孤独以后，就迫不及待地接受了一次到澳大利亚去的、几乎是无利可图的货运买卖，仅仅是为了趁着这个机会去看望在那里安家的女儿。在那里让他感到不满意的，倒不是看到她现在紧紧地缠着另一个人，而是她挑中的支柱，在他认真审视之下，似乎是 “一根相当差劲的木棍” ——即使就健康状况而论，也是如此。他不喜欢他女婿的装模作样的礼貌，可能超过了不喜欢那个人对待艾薇结婚时他给她的那笔钱的处理方法。但是他丝毫没有透露他的忧虑。仅仅在他离开的那天，门厅的门打开的时候，他握住她的手，盯着她的眼睛说： “你知道，亲爱的，我的一切都是你和孩子的。别忘了写信给我，不要隐瞒任何事情。” 她只是几乎难以察觉地点了下头，算作对他的回答。她眼睛的颜色，还有她的性格，都像她母亲——这一点也像， 说话不多，却理解他。
Sure enough she had to write; and some of these letters made Captain Whalley lift his white eye—brows. For the rest he considered he was reaping the true reward of his life by being thus able to produce on demand whatever was needed. He had not enjoyed himself so much in a way since his wife had died. Characteristically enough his son—in—law's punctuality in failure caused him at a distance to feel a sort of kindness towards the man. The fellow was so perpetually being jammed on a lee shore that to charge it all to his reckless navigation would be manifestly unfair. No, no! He knew well what that meant. It was bad luck. His own had been simply marvelous, but he had seen in his life too many good men—seamen and others—go under with the sheer weight of bad luck not to recognize the fatal signs. For all that, he was cogitating on the best way of tying up very strictly every penny he had to leave, when, with a preliminary rumble of rumors (whose first sound reached him in Shanghai as it happened), the shock of the big failure came; and, after passing through the phases of stupor, of incredulity, of indignation, he had to accept the fact that he had nothing to speak of to leave.
她当然会写信，而有些信会使惠利船长竖起他白色的眉毛。至于其余的信，他能够做到有求必应，他认为这是在收获他生命中真正意义上的报酬。自从他妻子去世以来，他还从来没有这么高兴过。他女婿的不断失败反而使他对远方那个人感到了某种亲切，这很符合他女婿的性格。这个家伙一直被踩压在困境之中，但把这一切统统归咎于他那粗心大意的航海术，显然是不公平的。不，不！他很清楚这是怎么回事。是女婿运气不好。而他自己只是运气好罢了，但是他在生活中看到太多的好人——海员和其他人——在厄运的不可抗拒的压力下，认不出那些致命的迹象，导致了破产。紧接着开始了沸沸扬扬的传言（他第一次是碰巧在上海听到风声的），大倒闭来了，尽管如此，他还是考虑要用最好的办法牢牢握住他必须留给女儿的每一分钱。他先是目瞪口呆，接着是难以置信，然后是愤怒，最终不得不接受事实：他没有留下什么值得一提的财产。
Upon that, as if he had only waited for this catastrophe, the unlucky man, away there in Melbourne, gave up his unprofitable game, and sat down—in an invalid's bath—chair at that too. "He will never walk again, " wrote the wife. For the first time in his life Captain Whalley was a bit staggered.
接着，好像他正在等待那场灾祸似的，远在墨尔本的那个不幸的人放弃了他无利可图的买卖，坐了下来，而且是坐在了残废者的轮椅上。 “他再也不能走路了。” 他的妻子在信上写道。惠利船长有生以来第一次被震惊了。
The Fair Maid had to go to work in bitter earnest now. It was no longer a matter of preserving alive the memory of Dare—devil Harry Whalley in the Eastern Seas, or of keeping an old man in pocket—money and clothes, with, perhaps, a bill for a few hundred first—class cigars thrown in at the end of the year. He would have to buckle—to, and keep her going hard on a scant allowance of gilt for the ginger—bread scrolls at her stem and stern.
现在美人号不得不去卖力地工作了。原来它是用来给天不怕地不怕的哈里•惠利保持他在东方海洋上的记忆的，或者是用来给一个老人挣零花钱和衣服钱的，也许是用来给他在年底新添的几百支一流雪茄买单的，而如今不再是那样的情况了。他不得不全力以赴，而且因为要靠微薄的收入来维持从船头到船尾那些华而不实的装饰，他不得不使它不断辛苦地奔波。
This necessity opened his eyes to the fundamental changes of the world. Of his past only the familiar names remained, here and there, but the things and the men, as he had known them, were gone. The name of Gardner, Patteson, &Co. was still displayed on the walls of warehouses by the waterside, on the brass plates and window—panes in the business quarters of more than one Eastern port, but there was no longer a Gardner or a Patteson in the firm. There was no longer for Captain Whalley an arm—chair and a welcome in the private office, with a bit of business ready to be put in the way of an old friend, for the sake of bygone services. The husbands of the Gardner girls sat behind the desks in that room where, long after he had left the employ, he had kept his right of entrance in the old man's time. Their ships now had yellow funnels with black tops, and a time—table of appointed routes like a confounded service of tramways. The winds of December and June were all one to them; their captains (excellent young men he doubted not) were, to be sure, familiar with Whalley Island, because of late years the Government had established a white fixed light on the north end (with a red danger sector over the Condor Reef), but most of them would have been extremely surprised to hear that a flesh—and—blood Whalley still existed—an old man going about the world trying to pick up a cargo here and there for his little bark.
拮据的生活使他睁开了眼睛，看到世界已经发生了根本变化。到处都只剩下他过去熟悉的那些名字，可是他熟悉的那些事情和人已不复存在。加德纳—佩特逊公司的名字仍然呈现在水边仓库的墙上，在不止一个东方海港的商业区的铜牌上和窗玻璃上，但是公司里不再有一个姓加德纳或佩特逊的人了。不再有人欢迎惠利船长到那间私人办公室去，请他坐在扶手椅上；由于他过去在这家公司干过，所以公司随时都准备提供给老朋友一点生意。加德纳老人在世的时候，惠利离职很久以后还一直保持着进入那间办公室的权利，加德纳的那几个女婿坐在那个房间的办公桌后面。这家公司的船现在都是加了黑色盖子的黄烟囱，而且跟那令人讨厌的电车一样，都有一张指定路线的时刻表。对那些船来说，十二月的风和六月的风是一样的；那些船长（他并不怀疑他们是优秀的的年轻人）的确是对惠利岛很熟悉，因为近年来，政府在岛的北头装了一盏白色的固定灯（标出神鹰礁是红色的危险区），但是他们大多数人听到惠利还好端端地活着的时候，都非常惊讶——一个在世界各地奔走，设法为他那小小的三桅帆船到处兜揽货物运输的老人。
And everywhere it was the same. Departed the men who would have nodded appreciatively at the mention of his name, and would have thought themselves bound in honor to do something for Dare—devil Harry Whalley. Departed the opportunities which he would have known how to seize; and gone with them the white—winged flock of clippers that lived in the boisterous uncertain life of the winds, skimming big fortunes out of the foam of the sea. In a world that pared down the profits to an irreducible minimum, in a world that was able to count its disengaged tonnage twice over every day, and in which lean charters were snapped up by cable three months in advance, there were no chances of fortune for an individual wandering haphazard with a little bark—hardly indeed any room to exist.
到处都是一样的。那些听见别人提起他的名字就会赞赏地点头的人，那些认为出于纪念应该为天不怕地不怕的哈里•惠利做些事情的人都去世了。那些他知道如何去抓住的机会都过去了；那些生活在汹涌澎湃、反复无常的风浪中，从海洋中汲取了大量财富，成群结队鼓着白色风帆的快速帆船，也跟那些机会一起消失了。在这个利润被减少到最低限度的世界上，在这个每天能计算出两次空闲吨位的世界上，在这个三个月前就被人用电报抢走那少的可怜的租船契约的世界上，一个驾着一艘三桅帆船漫无目地漂在海上的人，是没有什么发财机会的——说真的，几乎没有任何生存空间。
He found it more difficult from year to year. He suffered greatly from the smallness of remittances he was able to send his daughter. Meantime he had given up good cigars, and even in the matter of inferior cheroots limited himself to six a day. He never told her of his difficulties, and she never enlarged upon her struggle to live. Their confidence in each other needed no explanations, and their perfect understanding endured without protestations of gratitude or regret. He would have been shocked if she had taken it into her head to thank him in so many words, but he found it perfectly natural that she should tell him she needed two hundred pounds.
他发现生活一年比一年艰难。他只能寄给女儿数额很小的汇款，心里非常痛苦。与此同时，他已经放弃了抽高级雪茄，就算是下等的方头雪茄，他一天也只限抽六只。他从未告诉女儿他的困难，而她也从未详说过她生活的艰辛。他们彼此信任，无需任何解释，他们互相非常了解，从来不需要什么感激或者抱歉的声明。如果她心血来潮，说出很多感谢他的话，他倒会感到震惊，但是她要是对他说她需要二百镑的话，他会觉得这是完全正常的事情。
He had come in with the Fair Maid in ballast to look for a freight in the Sofala's port of registry, and her letter met him there. Its tenor was that it was no use mincing matters. Her only resource was in opening a boarding—house, for which the prospects, she judged, were good. Good enough, at any rate, to make her tell him frankly that with two hundred pounds she could make a start. He had torn the envelope open, hastily, on deck, where it was handed to him by the ship—chandler's runner, who had brought his mail at the moment of anchoring. For the second time in his life he was appalled, and remained stock—still at the cabin door with the paper trembling between his fingers. Open a boarding—house! Two hundred pounds for a start! The only resource! And he did not know where to lay his hands on two hundred pence.
他驾着只装了一些压舱货的美人号，来到苏法拉号的船籍港找货运生意，在那里他接到了女儿的来信。信的大意是，说话遮遮掩掩是没有用的。她唯一的办法就是开个膳宿公寓，她判断干这一行是有前途的。无论如何，她是觉得有前途，才坦白地告诉他的，只要有二百镑，她的生意就可以起步了。这封信是一个船用杂货商的佣人亲手交给他的，船一抛锚，那个人就把信送来了。他在甲板上匆忙地把信封拆开。他有生以来第二次被震惊了，他一动不动地站在船舱门口，拿着信笺的手指直发抖。开一家膳宿公寓！二百镑的开办费! 唯一的办法！但是他连去什么地方弄二百便士都不知道。
All that night Captain Whalley walked the poop of his anchored ship, as though he had been about to close with the land in thick weather, and uncertain of his position after a run of many gray days without a sight of sun, moon, or stars. The black night twinkled with the guiding lights of seamen and the steady straight lines of lights on shore; and all around the Fair Maid the riding lights of ships cast trembling trails upon the water of the roadstead. Captain Whalley saw not a gleam anywhere till the dawn broke and he found out that his clothing was soaked through with the heavy dew.
惠利船长在那艘抛了锚的船的船尾楼上转悠了整整一夜，好像在海上航行了许多天，一直看不到太阳、月亮或者星星，在阴霾的天气中即将靠近陆地，可又不确定他的方位似的。黑夜里闪烁着海员们指路的灯光和岸上固定而笔直的灯光；停在美人号周围的所有船上的锚灯把一道道颤抖的灯光投射在锚地的水面上。而不管在哪里，惠利船长都看不到一丝微光，直到黎明，他发现自己的衣服完全被厚重的露水打湿了。
His ship was awake. He stopped short, stroked his wet beard, and descended the poop ladder backwards, with tired feet. At the sight of him the chief officer, lounging about sleepily on the quarterdeck, remained open—mouthed in the middle of a great early—morning yawn.
他的船醒了。他突然站住脚，摸摸他潮湿的胡须，双脚疲惫地倒退着走下了船尾楼的扶梯。那个大副睡眼惺忪地在后甲板上闲逛，大清早张大了嘴打哈欠，一看到他，嘴张着合不拢了。
"Good morning to you, " pronounced Captain Whalley solemnly, passing into the cabin. But he checked himself in the doorway, and without looking back, "By the bye, " he said, "there should be an empty wooden case put away in the lazarette. It has not been broken up—has it? "
“早上好。” 惠利船长边严肃地说着，边走进了船舱。但是他在门口站住了，没有回头看。 “顺便问一下，” 他说， “在贮藏室里应该放着一个空木箱。它还没有坏掉——是吗？”
The mate shut his mouth, and then asked as if dazed, "What empty case, sir? "
大副闭上嘴，然后好像有些茫然的问道： “什么空箱子，先生？”
"A big flat packing—case belonging to that painting in my room. Let it be taken up on deck and tell the carpenter to look it over. I may want to use it before long. "
“一个大的扁扁的包装箱，原来是用它存放我房间里那张画的。找人把箱子拿到甲板上来，告诉木工仔细检查一下。我也许不久以后就要用它。”
The chief officer did not stir a limb till he had heard the door of the captain's state—room slam within the cuddy. Then he beckoned aft the second mate with his forefinger to tell him that there was something "in the wind. "
大副站着，纹丝不动，直到他听见船室里船长的睡舱门砰的一声关上。接着他在船尾用食指示意二副，告诉他有什么事 “快要发生了” 。
When the bell rang Captain Whalley's authoritative voice boomed out through a closed door, "Sit down and don't wait for me. " And his impressed officers took their places, exchanging looks and whispers across the table. What! No breakfast? And after apparently knocking about all night on deck, too! Clearly, there was something in the wind. In the skylight above their heads, bowed earnestly over the plates, three wire cages rocked and rattled to the restless jumping of the hungry canaries; and they could detect the sounds of their "old man's" deliberate movements within his state—room. Captain Whalley was methodically winding up the chronometers, dusting the portrait of his late wife, getting a clean white shirt out of the drawers, making himself ready in his punctilious unhurried manner to go ashore. He could not have swallowed a single mouthful of food that morning. He had made up his mind to sell the Fair Maid.
当早饭钟响的时候，惠利船长那威严的声音透过关着的房门洪亮地传出来： “入座吧，不要等我。” 这使他的那些高级船员颇感意外，他们坐到自己的位置上，隔着桌子交换眼神，窃窃私语。什么！不吃早饭？而且显然还在甲板上转悠了整整一夜！无疑，有什么事情快要发生了。他们低着头认真地对着盘子吃饭，头上的那扇天窗里，三只饥饿的金丝雀焦躁不安地跳着，使那三个金属丝鸟笼摇摇晃晃，咯咯作响，而他们能够听到睡舱里传来 “老头子的” 从容不迫的动作所发出的声音。惠利船长有条不紊地给那三个航行表上紧发条，掸去他亡妻肖像画上的灰尘，从橱柜里取出一件干净的白衬衫，穿戴好，显出一副一丝不苟、不慌不忙的模样，上了岸。那天早晨，他一口东西也吃不下。他已经下定决心，要卖掉美人号了。