評論
打印
Of late years the Manilla rope has in the American fishery almost entirely superseded hemp as a material for whale-lines; for, though not so durable as hemp, it is stronger, and far more soft and elastic; and I will add (since there is an aesthetics in all things), is much more handsome and becoming to the boat, than hemp. Hemp is a dusky, dark fellow, a sort of Indian; but Manilla is as a golden-haired Circassian to behold.
近年來，在美國捕鯨業中，差不多完全以馬尼拉索代替大麻作捕鯨索的原料；馬尼拉索，雖說沒有大麻那么經久耐用，卻是比較結實，而且運比大麻柔韌，有彈力；我還得說，它遠比大麻好看（因為一切東西都得具備一種美感），更合小艇之用。大麻好比是個灰黑的黑人，有點象個印第安人；馬尼拉索卻看來就象個金發的西加塞亞人（西加塞亞人——高加索人種之一，以身高，面孔橢圓，眼睛棕黃，發帶栗色，兼有厚道和勇敢的特性見稱。）。
The whale-line is only two thirds of an inch in thickness. At first sight, you would not think it so strong as it really is. By experiment its one and fifty yarns will each suspend a weight of one hundred and twenty pounds; so that the whole rope will bear a strain nearly equal to three tons. In length, the common sperm whale-line measures something over two hundred fathoms. Towards the stern of the boat it is spirally coiled away in the tub, not like the worm-pipe of a still though, but so as to form one round, cheese-shaped mass of densely bedded "sheaves," or layers of concentric spiralizations, without any hollow but the "heart," or minute vertical tube formed at the axis of the cheese. As the least tangle or kink in the coiling would, in running out, infallibly take somebody's arm, leg, or entire body off, the utmost precaution is used in stowing the line in its tub.
若論粗細，捕鯨索只有三分之二英寸粗。乍一看來，你準不相信它果真會那么結實。但是，試驗下來，它那五十一根細股（搓繩索時，一般是把大麻搓成細股，合細股為大股，再合三股搓成繩。），卻每一股吊得起一百二十磅的重量；所以，整根索子的負荷力差不多要等于三噸。至于長度，普通一根捕抹香鯨索，量起來大約可達一千二百多英尺。人們把它旋繞在船梢的桶里，不是象蒸餾器的蛇管式那般繞，而是繞成一個圓圓的、奶酪似的一層緊疊一層的“滑車輪”，也可以說是打中間往外繞，一層一層地繞上去，繞得結結實實，只有一個“芯子”，或者象在一塊奶酪的中央有根細長的管子那樣。因為在把索子撒出去的時候，如果稍一弄亂或者扭結在一起，就必定會把人們的手足，或者整個身子都給勒走，因此，必須極其小心地把捕鯨索堆藏在索桶里。
