An interminable debate then broke out between believers and skeptics in the scholarly societies and scientific journals. 于是，在学术团体里和科学报刊中产生了相信者和怀疑者，这两派人无休止地争论着。
The monster question inflamed all minds.
怪物问题激动着人们。
During this memorable campaign, journalists making a profession of science battled with those making a profession of wit,
自以为懂科学的新闻记者和一向自以为多才的文人开起火来，他们在这次值得纪念的笔战中花费了不少的墨水!
spilling waves of ink and some of them even two or three drops of blood, since they went from sea serpents to the most offensive personal remarks.
甚至有几个人还流了两三滴血，因为有人把针对大海蛇的笔锋移向一些态度傲慢的家伙身上了。
For six months the war seesawed.
在六个月当中，争论继续着。
With inexhaustible zest, the popular press took potshots at feature articles from theGeographic Institute of Brazil,
彼此有理，各执一词。当时流行的小报都兴致勃勃地刊登争论的文章，它们不是攻击巴西地理学院、
the Royal Academy of Science in Berlin, the British Association, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., at discussions in The Indian Archipelago,
柏林皇家科学院、不列颠学术联合会或华盛顿斯密孙学院发表的权威论文，就是驳斥印度群岛报、
in Cosmos published by Father Moigno, in Petermann's Mittheilungen,and at scientific chronicles in the great French and foreign newspapers.
摩亚诺神父的宇宙杂志、皮德曼的消息报里面的讨论和法国及其他各国大报刊的科学新闻。
When the monster's detractors cited a saying by the botanist Linnaeus that nature doesn't make leaps, witty writers in the popular periodicals parodied it,
这些多才的作家故意曲解反对派也常引证的林奈的一句话：
maintaining in essence that nature doesn't make lunatics, and ordering their contemporaries never to give the lie to nature by believing in krakens,
大自然不制造蠢东西;恳求大家不要相信北海的大怪鱼、
sea serpents, Moby Dicks, and other all-out efforts from drunken seamen.
大海蛇、莫比·狄克和疯狂的海员们臆造出来的其它怪物的存在，不要因此而否定了大自然。
Finally, in a much-feared satirical journal, an article by its most popular columnistfinished off the monster for good, 最后，某一著名尖刻的讽刺报有一位最受欢迎的编辑先生草草了事地发表一篇文章，处理了这个怪物;
spurning it in the style of Hippolytus repulsing the amorous advances of his stepmother Phaedra,
他像夷包列提那样，在大家的笑声中，给这佳物最后一次打击、
and giving the creature its quietus amid a universal burst of laughter. Wit had defeated science.
把它结果了。于是机智战胜了科学。
During the first months of the year 1867, the question seemed to be buried, and it didn't seem due for resurrection,
在1867年头几个月里，这个问题好像是人了土，不会再复洁了。
when new facts were brought to the public's attention.
但就在这个时候，人们又听说发生了一些新的事件。
But now it was no longer an issue of a scientific problem to be solved, but a quite real and serious danger to be avoided.
现在的问题并不是一个急待解决的科学问题，而是必须认真设法避免的一个危险。
The question took an entirely new turn. The monster again became an islet, rock, or reef, but a runaway reef, unfixed and elusive.
问题带了完全不同的面貌。这个怪物变成了小岛、岩石、暗礁，但它是会奔驰的、不可捉摸的、行动莫测的暗礁。
On March 5, 1867, the Moravian from the Montreal Ocean Co.,
1867年8月5日，蒙特利奥航海公司的摩拉维安号
lying during the night in latitude 27 degrees 30' and longitude 72 degrees 15', ran its starboard quarter afoul of a rock marked on no charts of these waterways.
夜间驶到北纬27度30分、西经72度15分的地方，船右舷撞上了一座岩石，
Under the combined efforts of wind and 400-horsepower steam, it was traveling at a speed of thirteen knots.
可是，任何地图也没有记载过这一带海面上有这座岩石。由于风力的助航和四百匹马力的推动，船的速度达到每小时十三海里。
Without the high quality of its hull, 毫无疑问，如果不是船身质地优良，特别坚固，
the Moravian would surely have split open from this collision and gone down together with those 237 passengers it was bringing back from Canada.
摩拉维安号被撞以后，一定要把它从加拿大载来的二百三十六名乘客一齐带到海底去。
This accident happened around five o'clock in the morning, just as day was beginning to break.
事故发生在早晨五点左右天刚破晓的时候。
The officers on watch rushed to the craft's stern. They examined the ocean with the mostscrupulous care.
船上值班的海员们立即跑到船的后部;他们十分细心地观察海面。
They saw nothing except a strong eddy breaking three cable lengths out, as if those sheets of water had been violently churned.
除了有个六百多米宽的大漩涡—好像水面受过猛烈的冲击—以外，他们什么也没有看见，只把事故发生的地点确切地记了下来。
The site's exact bearings were taken, and the Moravian continued on course apparentlyundamaged.
摩拉维安号继续航行，似乎并没有受到什么损伤。
Had it run afoul of an underwater rock or the wreckage of some enormous derelict ship? They were unable to say.
它是撞上了暗礁呢，还是撞上了一只沉没的破船?
But when they examined its undersides in the service yard, they discovered that part of its keel had been smashed.
当时没有法子知道。后来到船坞检查了船底，才发现一部分龙骨折断了。
This occurrence, extremely serious in itself, might perhaps have been forgotten like so many others,
这事实本身是十分严重的，
if three weeks later it hadn't been reenacted under identical conditions.
可是，如果不是过了三个星期后，在相同的情况下又发生了相同的事件，
Only, thanks to the nationality of the ship victimized by this new ramming, and thanks to the reputation of the company to which this ship belonged,
它很可能跟许多其他的事件一样很快被人忘掉了。接着又发生的那一次撞船的事件，单单由于受害船的国籍和它所属公司的声望，
the event caused an immense uproar.
就足以引起十分广泛的反响。
No one is unaware of the name of that famous English shipowner, Cunard.
英国著名的船主苟纳尔的名字是没有一个人不知道。
In 1840 this shrewd industrialist founded a postal service between Liverpool and Halifax,
这位精明的企业家早在1840年就创办了一家邮船公司，开辟了从利物浦到哈利法克斯的航线，
featuring three wooden ships with 400-horsepower paddle wheels and a burden of 1,162 metric tons.
当时只有三艘四百匹马力、载重一千一百六十二吨的明轮木船。
Eight years later, the company's assets were increased by four 650-horsepower ships at 1,820 metric tons,
八年以后，公司扩大了，共有四艘六百五十匹马力、载重一千八百二十吨的船。
and in two more years, by two other vessels of still greater power and tonnage.
再过两年，又添了两艘马力和载重量更大的船，
In 1853 the Cunard Co., whose mail-carrying charter had just been renewed,
1853年，苟纳尔公司继续取得装运政府邮件的特权，
successively added to its assets the Arabia, the Persia, the China, the Scotia, the Java, and the Russia,
一连添造了阿拉伯号、波斯号、中国号、斯备脱亚号、爪哇号、俄罗斯号，
all ships of top speed and, after the Great Eastern, the biggest ever to plow the seas.
这些都是头等的快船，而且是最宽大的，除了大东方号外，在海上航行的船没有能跟它们相比的。
So in 1867 this company owned twelve ships, eight with paddle wheels and four withpropellers.
到1867年，这家公司一共有十二艘船～八艘明轮的，四艘暗轮的。
If I give these highly condensed details,
我所以要把上面的情形简单地介绍一下，
it is so everyone can fully understand the importance of this maritime transportation company, known the world over for its shrewd management.
是要大家知道这家海运公司的重要性。它由于经营得法，是全世界都闻名的。
No transoceanic navigational undertaking has been conducted with more ability, no business dealings have been crowned with greater success.
任何航海企业，没有比这公司搞得更精明，经营得更成功的了。
