英语听书《白鲸记》第776期

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　　同样地，顾名思义，就是一条鲸被拴住后，身上还插有浮标，或者任何其它可以识别所有权的标记，只要有一方插上了浮标，表明他们能够随时来把它拖走，以及他们打算这样做就行。

　　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 peculiar³ cases, where it would be an outrageous⁴ moral injustice⁵ for one party to claim possession of a whale previously⁶ chased or killed by another party. But others are by no means so scrupulous⁷.

　　这些都是有科学根据的史话；不过，在捕鱼人自己的史话中有时不免有一些难断难分的争论和更其恼人的冲突——动手动脚，大打出手等记载。不错，在一些比较正直老实的捕鲸人中，往往都会考虑到一些特殊情况，如果有一方硬将另一方先前所追击捕杀的鲸据为己有，那准是一种令人愤慨的不义行为。不过，并不是其他的捕鲸人都会这么谨严。

　　Some fifty years ago there was a curious case of whale-trover litigated in England, wherein the plaintiffs set forth⁸ that after a hard chase of a whale in the Northern seas; and when indeed they (the plaintiffs) had succeeded in harpooning⁹ the fish; they were at last, through peril¹⁰ of their lives, obliged to forsake¹¹ not only their lines, but their boat itself. Ultimately the defendants¹² (the crew of another ship) came up with the whale, struck, killed, seized, and finally appropriated it before the very eyes of the plaintiffs.

　　大约五十年前，英国就发生过一件为追索侵占大鲸而打官司的奇案。在那个案件中，原告说，他们在北海上千辛万苦的追击后，他们（原告）确实用标枪刺中了一条鲸，不过，最后，由于有生命的危险，他们不得不把他们的绳索，甚至连同小艇都抛弃了。可是，后来，不料这些被告（指另一艘船的水手们）赶上了这条鲸，把它打了，弄死，捆缚起来，结果还直当着原告的面，把它占为己有。

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