3 随您先生的便(9)

The wharves of Brooklyn, and every part of New York bordering the East River, were crowded with curiosity seekers. 布洛克林码头和东河沿岸的整个纽约地区都挤满了好奇的人们。

Departing from 500,000 throats, three cheers burst forth in succession.

从五千万人中发出的欢呼声,震动了天地。

Thousands of handkerchiefs were waving above these tightly packed masses, hailing the Abraham Lincoln until it reached the waters of the Hudson River, at the tip of the long peninsula that forms New York City.

成千上万块手帕在挤得紧紧的众头上招展,不停地向林肯号敬礼,直到船抵达赫德森河口,纽约城所在的长形半岛的尖端,人才渐渐散去。

The frigate then went along the New Jersey coast-the wonderful right bank of this river, all loaded down with country homes-and passed by the forts to salutes from their biggest cannons.

这时候,大船沿着新西州海岸行驶,河的右岸都是别墅,从炮台中间穿过时,炮台鸣礼炮向大船致敬。

The Abraham Lincoln replied by three times lowering and hoisting the American flag, whose thirty-nine stars gleamed from the gaff of the mizzen sail; then, changing speed to take the buoy-marked channel that curved into the inner bay formed by the spit of Sandy Hook, it hugged this sand-covered strip of land where thousands of spectators acclaimed us one more time.

林肯号方了向它们答礼,把美国国旗连升三次,那三+九颗星在后桅。横木上闪闪发光。后来大船改变方向,驶进设有浮标的航道。大船掠过沙洲,岸上有数千观众,对船作最后一次的欢呼。

The escort of boats and tenders still followed the frigate and only left us when we cameabreast of the lightship, whose two signal lights mark the entrance of the narrows to Upper New York Bay.

护送大船的渡轮和汽艇老是紧跟着行驶,直到灯船附近,有两道灯光标明纽约航路的出口的地方,它们才离开大船回去。

Three o'clock then sounded.

这时正是下午三点。

The harbor pilot went down into his dinghy and rejoined a little schooner waiting for him to leeward.

领港人从大船下来,上了他的小艇。

The furnaces were stoked; the propeller churned the waves more swiftly; the frigate skirted the flat, yellow coast of Long Island; and at eight o'clock in the evening, after the lights of Fire Island had vanished into the northwest, we ran at full steam onto the dark waters of the Atlantic.

驶到在下风等着他的一艘小快船那边。煤火添起来了,机轮更急地搅动水波,大船沿长岛低低的黄海岸行驶,在晚间八点的时候,西北方不见了火岛的灯光,船便开足马力,在大西洋黑沉沉的波涛上奔驰了。