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.
这一个庆幸生还的代价真便宜,只损失了魁魁格的一顶帽子,当时,他正站在艇头戳那些亡命的鲸,紧靠在他旁边一对阔大的裂尾突然一甩,象一阵旋风似的把他头上那顶帽子给卷去了。
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.
现在尽管象是一片大乱,闹腾腾,乱哄哄,但不一会,又变得好象秩序井然了;因为,它们终于挤成紧密一团,重新以加倍的速度飞快向前奔驰,再追也没有用了。不过,小艇还荡漾在它们后边,捡起那些可能被"得拉格"扣住了的、落在后面的鲸,同时,把那条被弗拉斯克打死了的鲸缚住,加上浮标。这根浮标是一根细长的棍子,每只小艇都随身带着两三根这样的东西;一碰到近旁有不止一只猎物时,就把那东西直插进那漂来荡去的死鲸身上,一方面用来在海上做个记号,另一方面也作为拥有优先所有权的标志,万一有其它任何船只的小艇驶拢来的时候,就不至于弄错了。
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.
这一次放下小艇的收获,似乎可用捕鱼业中那种聪明说法来作说明,——大鲸越多,捉得越少。在所有被"得拉格"扣住了的鲸中,只捉到了一条。其余那些暂时逃脱的鲸,如果以后给发现了,也只好听"裴廓德号"以外的其它一些船只去捉了。