This lucky salvation was cheaply purchased by the loss of Queequeg's hat, who, while standing in the bows to prick the fugitive whales, had his hat taken clean from his head by the air-eddy made by the sudden tossing of a pair of broad flukes close by.
這一個(gè)慶幸生還的代價(jià)真便宜,只損失了魁魁格的一頂帽子,當(dāng)時(shí),他正站在艇頭戳那些亡命的鯨,緊靠在他旁邊一對闊大的裂尾突然一甩,象一陣旋風(fēng)似的把他頭上那頂帽子給卷去了。
Riotous and disordered as the universal commotion now was, it soon resolved itself into what seemed a systematic movement; for having clumped together at last in one dense body, they then renewed their onward flight with augmented fleetness. Further pursuit was useless; but the boats still lingered in their wake to pick up what drugged whales might be dropped astern, and likewise to secure one which Flask had killed and waited. The waif is a pennoned pole, two or three of which are carried by every boat; and which, when additional game is at hand, are inserted upright into the floating body of a dead whale, both to mark its place on the sea, and also as token of prior possession, should the boats of any other ship draw near.
現(xiàn)在盡管象是一片大亂,鬧騰騰,亂哄哄,但不一會(huì),又變得好象秩序井然了;因?yàn)?,它們終于擠成緊密一團(tuán),重新以加倍的速度飛快向前奔馳,再追也沒有用了。不過,小艇還蕩漾在它們后邊,撿起那些可能被"得拉格"扣住了的、落在后面的鯨,同時(shí),把那條被弗拉斯克打死了的鯨縛住,加上浮標(biāo)。這根浮標(biāo)是一根細(xì)長的棍子,每只小艇都隨身帶著兩三根這樣的東西;一碰到近旁有不止一只獵物時(shí),就把那東西直插進(jìn)那漂來蕩去的死鯨身上,一方面用來在海上做個(gè)記號(hào),另一方面也作為擁有優(yōu)先所有權(quán)的標(biāo)志,萬一有其它任何船只的小艇駛攏來的時(shí)候,就不至于弄錯(cuò)了。
The result of this lowering was somewhat illustrative of that sagacious saying in the Fishery,—the more whales the less fish. Of all the drugged whales only one was captured. The rest contrived to escape for the time, but only to be taken, as will hereafter be seen, by some other craft than the Pequod.
這一次放下小艇的收獲,似乎可用捕魚業(yè)中那種聰明說法來作說明,——大鯨越多,捉得越少。在所有被"得拉格"扣住了的鯨中,只捉到了一條。其余那些暫時(shí)逃脫的鯨,如果以后給發(fā)現(xiàn)了,也只好聽"裴廓德號(hào)"以外的其它一些船只去捉了。