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While we were aloft, the sail had been got out, bent to the yard, reefed, and ready for hoisting.
桅頂還在我們頭頂上時，帆已經伸出去了，彎向甲板，卷起縮帆部后準備升起。
Waiting for a good opportunity, the halyards were manned and the yard hoisted fairly up to the block;
需要一個最適合的時機才行，船員操縱升降索，帆桁正好升到阻塞物處；
but when the mate came to shake the cat's paw out of the downhaul,
可是當大副開始將貓爪棒從收帆索抖出來時，
and we began to boom end the sail, it shook the ship to her center.
我們一窩蜂地開始收帆，而帆將船搖到了中央位置。
The boom buckled up and bent like a whipstock, and we looked every moment to see something go;
帆桁向上扣緊，像鞭子那樣彎曲，我們時時刻刻都能看到有東西從眼前經過；
but, being of the short, tough upland spruce, it bent like whalebone, and nothing could break it.
但是，短而堅硬的高地云杉，彎起來就像鯨須一樣，任什么也沒法將其折斷。
The carpenter said it was the best stick he had ever seen.
木匠說那是他見過最上乘的木材。
The strength of all hands soon brought the tack to the boom end, and the sheet was trimmed down,
大家一起動手，很快就把帆桁放平，帆腳索也變細了。
and the preventer and the weather brace hauled taut to take off the strain.
輔助索和氣象儀托架拉緊，以便充滿張力。
Every rope-yarn seemed stretched to the utmost, and every thread of canvas;
每根繩索似乎都延伸到了極限，每根綁帆布的繩線也是一樣。
and with this sail added to her, the ship sprang through the water like a thing possessed.
借助船帆，這條船像有了主心骨一樣在水面上劈波斬浪。
The sail being nearly all forward, it lifted her out of the water, and she seemed actually to jump from sea to sea.
船帆幾乎都沖著前方，把船托著離開了水面，似乎真的從一片汪洋跳到另一片汪洋。
From the time her keel was laid, she had never been so driven;
從龍骨被放倒開始，她從未如此橫沖直闖過；
and had it been life or death with everyone of us, she could not have borne another stitch of canvas.
不論我們每個人未來命運怎樣，這艘船都不可能承擔得了帆布另一次被撕扯壞了的后果。
