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Complete book: Sailing Alone Around the World, Sailing Alone Around the World: CHAPTER I

Sailing Alone Around the World: CHAPTER I

CHAPTER I

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities—Youthful fondness for the sea—Master of the ship Northern Light—Loss of the Aquidneck—Return home from Brazil in the canoe Liberdade—The gift of a "ship"—The rebuilding of the Spray-Conundrums in regard to finance and calking—The launching of the Spray. In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge called North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and the fertile Annapolis valley on the other.

On the northern slope of the range grows the hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for ship-timbers, of which many vessels of all classes have been built. The people of this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in the world's commerce, and it is nothing against the master mariner if the birthplace mentioned on his certificate be Nova Scotia. I was born in a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a cold February 20, though I am a citizen of the United States—a naturalized Yankee, if it may be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in the truest sense of the word. On both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocum should be found not seafaring, he will show at least an inclination to whittle models of boats and contemplate voyages. My father was the sort of man who, if wrecked on a desolate island, would find his way home, if he had a jack-knife and could find a tree. He was a good judge of a boat, but the old clay farm which some calamity made his was an anchor to him. He was not afraid of a capful of wind, and he never took a back seat at a camp-meeting or a good, old-fashioned revival.

As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me from the first. At the age of eight I had already been afloat along with other boys on the bay, with chances greatly in favor of being drowned. When a lad I filled the important post of cook on a fishing-schooner; but I was not long in the galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance of my first duff, and "chucked me out" before I had a chance to shine as a culinary artist. The next step toward the goal of happiness found me before the mast in a full-rigged ship bound on a foreign voyage. Thus I came "over the bows," and not in through the cabin windows, to the command of a ship. My best command was that of the magnificent ship Northern Light, of which I was part-owner. I had a right to be proud of her, for at that time—in the eighties—she was the finest American sailing-vessel afloat. Afterward I owned and sailed the Aquidneck, a little bark which of all man's handiwork seemed to me the nearest to perfection of beauty, and which in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors of steamers, I had been nearly twenty years a shipmaster when I quit her deck on the coast of Brazil, where she was wrecked. My home voyage to New York with my family was made in the canoe Liberdade, without accident.

My voyages were all foreign. I sailed as freighter and trader principally to China, Australia, and Japan, and among the Spice Islands. Mine was not the sort of life to make one long to coil up one's ropes on land, the customs and ways of which I had finally almost forgotten. And so when times for freighters got bad, as at last they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was there for an old sailor to do? I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else. Next in attractiveness, after seafaring, came ship-building. I longed to be master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I accomplished my desire. From the decks of stout ships in the worst gales I had made calculations as to the size and sort of ship safest for all weather and all seas. Thus the voyage which I am now to narrate was a natural outcome not only of my love of adventure, but of my lifelong experience.

One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, where I had been cast up from old ocean, so to speak, a year or two before, I was cogitating whether I should apply for a command, and again eat my bread and butter on the sea, or go to work at the shipyard, when I met an old acquaintance, a whaling-captain, who said: "Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a ship. But," he added, "she wants some repairs." The captain's terms, when fully explained, were more than satisfactory to me. They included all the assistance I would require to fit the craft for sea. I was only too glad to accept, for I had already found that I could not obtain work in the shipyard without first paying fifty dollars to a society, and as for a ship to command—there were not enough ships to go round. Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut down for coal-barges, and were being ignominiously towed by the nose from port to port, while many worthy captains addressed themselves to Sailors' Snug Harbor. The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite New Bedford, and found that my friend had something of a joke on me. For seven years the joke had been on him. The "ship" proved to be a very antiquated sloop called the Spray, which the neighbors declared had been built in the year 1. She was affectionately propped up in a field, some distance from salt water, and was covered with canvas. The people of Fairhaven, I hardly need say, are thrifty and observant. For seven years they had asked, "I wonder what Captain Eben Pierce is going to do with the old Spray?" The day I appeared there was a buzz at the gossip exchange: at last some one had come and was actually at work on the old Spray. "Breaking her up, I s'pose?" "No; going to rebuild her." Great was the amazement. "Will it pay?" was the question which for a year or more I answered by declaring that I would make it pay.

My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farmer Howard, for a small sum of money, hauled in this and enough timbers for the frame of the new vessel. I rigged a steam-box and a pot for a boiler. The timbers for ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, where they were secured till set. Something tangible appeared every day to show for my labor, and the neighbors made the work sociable. It was a great day in the Spray shipyard when her new stem was set up and fastened to the new keel. Whaling-captains came from far to survey it. With one voice they pronounced it "A 1," and in their opinion "fit to smash ice." The oldest captain shook my hand warmly when the breast-hooks were put in, declaring that he could see no reason why the Spray should not "cut in bow-head" yet off the coast of Greenland. The much-esteemed stem-piece was from the butt of the smartest kind of a pasture oak. It afterward split a coral patch in two at the Keeling Islands, and did not receive a blemish. Better timber for a ship than pasture white oak never grew. The breast-hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this wood, and were steamed and bent into shape as required. It was hard upon March when I began work in earnest; the weather was cold; still, there were plenty of inspectors to back me with advice. When a whaling-captain hove in sight I just rested on my adz awhile and "gammed" with him. New Bedford, the home of whaling-captains, is connected with Fairhaven by a bridge, and the walking is good. They never "worked along up" to the shipyard too often for me. It was the charming tales about arctic whaling that inspired me to put a double set of breast-hooks in the Spray, that she might shunt ice.

The seasons came quickly while I worked. Hardly were the ribs of the sloop up before apple-trees were in bloom. Then the daisies and the cherries came soon after. Close by the place where the old Spray had now dissolved rested the ashes of John Cook, a revered Pilgrim father. So the new Spray rose from hallowed ground. From the deck of the new craft I could put out my hand and pick cherries that grew over the little grave. The planks for the new vessel, which I soon came to put on, were of Georgia pine an inch and a half thick. The operation of putting them on was tedious, but, when on, the calking was easy. The outward edges stood slightly open to receive the calking, but the inner edges were so close that I could not see daylight between them. All the butts were fastened by through bolts, with screw-nuts tightening them to the timbers, so that there would be no complaint from them. Many bolts with screw-nuts were used in other parts of the construction, in all about a thousand. It was my purpose to make my vessel stout and strong.

Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the Jane repaired all out of the old until she is entirely new is still the Jane. The Spray changed her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old died or the new took birth, and it was no matter. The bulwarks I built up of white-oak stanchions fourteen inches high, and covered with seven-eighth-inch white pine. These stanchions, mortised through a two-inch covering-board, I calked with thin cedar wedges. They have remained perfectly tight ever since. The deck I made of one-and-a-half-inch by three-inch white pine spiked to beams, six by six inches, of yellow or Georgia pine, placed three feet apart. The deck-inclosures were one over the aperture of the main hatch, six feet by six, for a cooking-galley, and a trunk farther aft, about ten feet by twelve, for a cabin. Both of these rose about three feet above the deck, and were sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford head-room. In the spaces along the sides of the cabin, under the deck, I arranged a berth to sleep in, and shelves for small storage, not forgetting a place for the medicine-chest. In the midship hold, that is, the space between cabin and galley, under the deck, was room for provision of water, salt beef, etc., ample for many months.

The hull of my vessel being now put together as strongly as wood and iron could make her, and the various rooms partitioned off, I set about "calking ship." Grave fears were entertained by some that at this point I should fail. I myself gave some thought to the advisability of a "professional calker." The very first blow I struck on the cotton with the calking-iron, which I thought was right, many others thought wrong. "It'll crawl!" cried a man from Marion, passing with a basket of clams on his back. "It'll crawl!" cried another from West Island, when he saw me driving cotton into the seams. Bruno simply wagged his tail. Even Mr. Ben J——, a noted authority on whaling-ships, whose mind, however, was said to totter, asked rather confidently if I did not think "it would crawl." "How fast will it crawl?" cried my old captain friend, who had been towed by many a lively sperm-whale. "Tell us how fast," cried he, "that we may get into port in time. " However, I drove a thread of oakum on top of the cotton, as from the first I had intended to do. And Bruno again wagged his tail. The cotton never "crawled." When the calking was finished, two coats of copper paint were slapped on the bottom, two of white lead on the topsides and bulwarks. The rudder was then shipped and painted, and on the following day the Spray was launched. As she rode at her ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water like a swan.

The Spray's dimensions were, when finished, thirty-six feet nine inches long, over all, fourteen feet two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine tons net and twelve and seventy-one hundredths tons gross. Then the mast, a smart New Hampshire spruce, was fitted, and likewise all the small appurtenances necessary for a short cruise. Sails were bent, and away she flew with my friend Captain Pierce and me, across Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip—all right. The only thing that now worried my friends along the beach was, "Will she pay?" The cost of my new vessel was $553.62 for materials, and thirteen months of my own labor. I was several months more than that at Fairhaven, for I got work now and then on an occasional whale-ship fitting farther down the harbor, and that kept me the overtime.

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Sailing Alone Around the World: CHAPTER I vitorlázás|||||| الإبحار وحده حول العالم: الفصل الأول Allein um die Welt segeln: KAPITEL I Sailing Alone Around the World: CHAPTER I La vuelta al mundo en solitario: CAPÍTULO I Le tour du monde à la voile en solitaire : CHAPITRE I Il giro del mondo in barca a vela da soli: CAPITOLO I Plaukimas vienas aplink pasaulį: I SKYRIUS Żeglując samotnie dookoła świata: ROZDZIAŁ I Navegar sozinho à volta do mundo: CAPÍTULO I Кругосветное плавание в одиночку: ГЛАВА I Dünyanın Etrafında Tek Başına Yelken Açmak: BÖLÜM I 独自环游世界:第一章 独自环游世界:第一章

CHAPTER I CHAPITRE I| CHAPITRE I

A blue-nose ancestry with Yankee proclivities—Youthful fondness for the sea—Master of the ship Northern Light—Loss of the Aquidneck—Return home from Brazil in the canoe Liberdade—The gift of a "ship"—The rebuilding of the Spray-Conundrums in regard to finance and calking—The launching of the Spray. |bleu-nose|nez puritain|ascendance familiale||Yankee|penchants Yankees||affection pour la mer||||Capitaine|||navire|Nordique|Lumière du Nord|Perte|||Aquidneck|Retour|||Brésil|||canoë|Liberdade||cadeau|||||reconstruction||||Problèmes épineux||concernant||financement||calfeutrage||Le lancement||| |||Abstammung|||Neigungen||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ||||||tendencias yankees||afecto juvenil|||||||||||||Aquidneck|||||||||||||||||||enigma||||||calafateo||||| |kék|orr|||Yankee|hajlamai|ifjú||||||||||||||Aquidneck||||Brazíliából|||kanoe|Szabadság|||||||újraépítés|||Spray|rejtvények||szempont||pénzügy||calking||indítás|||Spray Eine Blue-Nose-Abstammung mit Yankee-Vorlieben – Jugendliche Vorliebe für das Meer – Kapitän des Schiffes Northern Light – Verlust der Aquidneck – Heimkehr aus Brasilien im Kanu Liberdade – Das Geschenk eines „Schiffs“ – Der Wiederaufbau der Spray- Rätsel in Bezug auf Finanzen und Kalkulation – Der Start des Sprays. Une lignée nez bleu avec des penchants yankees - Affection juvénile pour la mer - Maître du navire Northern Light - Perte de l'Aquidneck - Retour à la maison du Brésil dans la pirogue Liberdade - Le don d'un "navire" - La reconstruction du Spray - Énigmes concernant les finances et le calfatage - Le lancement du Spray. Синеносые предки с наклонностями янки — Юношеское пристрастие к морю — Капитан корабля «Северное сияние» — Потеря «Аквиднека» — Возвращение домой из Бразилии на каноэ «Либердаде» — Подарок «корабль» — Восстановление Спрей- Загадки в отношении финансов и чеканки - запуск спрея. Tổ tiên mũi xanh với thiên hướng Yankee — Tuổi trẻ thích biển cả — Chủ nhân của con tàu Ánh sáng phương Bắc — Mất tích của Aquidneck — Trở về nhà từ Brazil trên chiếc ca nô Liberdade — Món quà của một “con tàu” — Việc xây dựng lại Spray- Các câu hỏi hóc búa liên quan đến tài chính và thu hút — Sự ra mắt của Spray. 蓝鼻子的后裔,有洋基队的嗜好——年轻时对大海的热爱——北极光号船的主人——失去了Aquidneck——乘坐Liberdade独木舟从巴西回家——一艘“船”的礼物——喷水号的重建——关于财务和堵缝的难题——Spray 的推出。 In the fair land of Nova Scotia, a maritime province, there is a ridge called North Mountain, overlooking the Bay of Fundy on one side and the fertile Annapolis valley on the other. |||||Nouvelle-Écosse|Nouvelle-Écosse||maritime|province||||crête|appelée|Nord|Montagne du Nord|surplombant||Baie de Fundy||Baie de Fundy|||côté|||fertile|vallée d'Annapolis|vallée d'Annapolis||| |||||||||||||cordillera||||||||||||||||||| |||||Nova|Skócia||tengeri|||||||||||||Fundy|||||||Annapolis|völgy||| Im schönen Land von Nova Scotia, einer Meeresprovinz, gibt es einen Bergrücken namens North Mountain, der auf der einen Seite die Bay of Fundy und auf der anderen das fruchtbare Tal von Annapolis überblickt. Dans la belle contrée de la Nouvelle-Écosse, une province maritime, se trouve une crête appelée North Mountain, surplombant la baie de Fundy d'un côté et la fertile vallée d'Annapolis de l'autre. Trong vùng đất công bằng của Nova Scotia, một tỉnh hàng hải, có một sườn núi gọi là Núi Bắc, một bên nhìn ra Vịnh Fundy và một bên là thung lũng Annapolis màu mỡ.

On the northern slope of the range grows the hardy spruce-tree, well adapted for ship-timbers, of which many vessels of all classes have been built. |||pente nord|||chaîne de montagnes|pousse||résistant|épicéa robuste|sapin robuste||adapté|||bois de construction||||navires|||catégories||ont été|construits ||||||||||Fichte|||||||||||||||| ||||||||||pícea||||||maderas para barcos||||embarcaciones|||||| Am Nordhang der Gebirgskette wächst die widerstandsfähige Fichte, die sich gut für die Herstellung von Schiffshölzern eignet, aus denen viele Schiffe aller Klassen gebaut wurden. Ở sườn phía bắc của dãy núi mọc lên cây vân sam cứng cáp, thích nghi tốt với các loại gỗ đóng tàu, trong đó có nhiều tàu thuộc mọi lớp đã được đóng. The people of this coast, hardy, robust, and strong, are disposed to compete in the world's commerce, and it is nothing against the master mariner if the birthplace mentioned on his certificate be Nova Scotia. ||||côte||robustes||forts||enclins à||concourir|||du monde|commerce mondial||||aucun désavantage|à l'encontre|||marin navigateur|||lieu de naissance|mentionné|||certificat||| ||||||||||||||||||||||||Seefahrer|||||||||| ||||costa|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| Người dân của bờ biển này, cứng rắn, cường tráng và mạnh mẽ, được định sẵn để cạnh tranh trong thương mại của thế giới, và sẽ không có gì chống lại người thủy thủ bậc thầy nếu nơi sinh được đề cập trong giấy chứng nhận của anh ta là Nova Scotia. I was born in a cold spot, on coldest North Mountain, on a cold February 20, though I am a citizen of the United States—a naturalized Yankee, if it may be said that Nova Scotians are not Yankees in the truest sense of the word. ||né|||froid|endroit froid||la plus froide||||||février froid|bien que||||citoyen des États-Unis|||États-Unis|États-Unis||naturalisé||||peut-être||qu'on dise|||Néo-Écossais|||Américain du Nord|||le plus vrai|sens du terme|||Je suis né Tôi sinh ra ở một nơi lạnh giá, trên ngọn núi lạnh nhất phía Bắc, vào một ngày 20 tháng 2 lạnh giá, mặc dù tôi là công dân của Hoa Kỳ - một người Yankee nhập tịch, nếu có thể nói rằng người dân Nova Scotians không phải là người Yankee theo nghĩa chân thật nhất của từ. On both sides my family were sailors; and if any Slocum should be found not seafaring, he will show at least an inclination to whittle models of boats and contemplate voyages. Des||côtés|||étaient|marins||||Slocum|||||navigateur||va|montrer||au moins|un Slocum|inclination||tailler|maquettes de bateaux||bateaux||envisager des voyages| Hai bên gia đình tôi đều là thủy thủ; và nếu phát hiện ra bất kỳ Slocum nào không đi biển, ít nhất anh ta sẽ thể hiện xu hướng điều khiển các mô hình tàu thuyền và suy ngẫm về các chuyến đi. My father was the sort of man who, if wrecked on a desolate island, would find his way home, if he had a jack-knife and could find a tree. |père|||genre d'homme||homme|||naufragé|||désolée|île déserte|trouverait|trouverait||chemin||||||couteau de poche|couteau de poche||||| He was a good judge of a boat, but the old clay farm which some calamity made his was an anchor to him. |||bon|juge expert|||||||terre glaise|ferme de terre|||calamité|rendit||||boulet|| Il était un bon juge d'un bateau, mais l'ancienne ferme d'argile qui est devenue sienne à cause d'une calamité était pour lui un ancrage. He was not afraid of a capful of wind, and he never took a back seat at a camp-meeting or a good, old-fashioned revival. |||n'avait pas peur|||un coup de vent||vent||||pris||arrière-plan|place assise|||réunion religieuse|réunion de camp|||||à l'ancienne|réveil religieux Er hatte keine Angst vor einer Windmütze und trat bei einem Lagertreffen oder einer guten, altmodischen Wiederbelebung nie in den Hintergrund. Il n'avait pas peur d'un coup de vent, et il ne se mettait jamais en retrait lors d'une réunion en plein air ou d'un bon vieux réveil religieux.

As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me from the first. ||moi-même||merveilleuse||m'a enchanté||||dès le début Quant à moi, la mer merveilleuse m'a charmé dès le début. At the age of eight I had already been afloat along with other boys on the bay, with chances greatly in favor of being drowned. ||âge de huit ans|||||déjà||à flot||||garçons|||||risques élevés|grandement||en faveur||d'être|noyé(e) Im Alter von acht Jahren war ich bereits zusammen mit anderen Jungen in der Bucht über Wasser gewesen, mit großen Chancen, ertrunken zu sein. À l'âge de huit ans, j'avais déjà navigué avec d'autres garçons sur la baie, avec de fortes chances de se noyer. When a lad I filled the important post of cook on a fishing-schooner; but I was not long in the galley, for the crew mutinied at the appearance of my first duff, and "chucked me out" before I had a chance to shine as a culinary artist. ||jeune garçon||occupais||important|poste|||||pêche|goélette de pêche|||||longtemps|||cuisine du bord|||équipage|se sont mutinés|||apparition||||pudding au suif||m'ont jeté||mis dehors|||||occasion de briller||briller|||culinaire|artiste culinaire Quand j'étais jeune, j'ai rempli le poste important de cuisinier sur un chalutier; mais je ne suis pas resté longtemps à la cuisine, car l'équipage s'est mutiné à la vue de mon premier pudding, et m'a jeté dehors avant que j'aie une chance de briller en tant qu'artiste culinaire. The next step toward the goal of happiness found me before the mast in a full-rigged ship bound on a foreign voyage. |prochaine|étape|vers||objectif||bonheur|||||mât|||completement équipé|gréé complet||en route vers|||étranger| Le pas suivant vers le but du bonheur m'a amené devant le mât dans un navire à voiles entièrement gréé en partance pour un voyage à l'étranger. Thus I came "over the bows," and not in through the cabin windows, to the command of a ship. Ainsi|||||l'avant du navire||||par||cabine|fenêtres de cabine|||||| So kam ich "über den Bug" und nicht durch die Kajütenfenster zum Kommando über ein Schiff. My best command was that of the magnificent ship Northern Light, of which I was part-owner. Mon|meilleur|commandement|||||magnifique||||||||propriétaire en partie|propriétaire partiel I had a right to be proud of her, for at that time—in the eighties—she was the finest American sailing-vessel afloat. ||||||fier|||||||||années quatre-vingt|||||||| Ich hatte das Recht, stolz auf sie zu sein, denn zu dieser Zeit - in den achtziger Jahren - war sie das beste amerikanische Segelschiff auf dem Wasser. Afterward I owned and sailed the Aquidneck, a little bark which of all man's handiwork seemed to me the nearest to perfection of beauty, and which in speed, when the wind blew, asked no favors of steamers, I had been nearly twenty years a shipmaster when I quit her deck on the coast of Brazil, where she was wrecked. Danach besaß und segelte ich die Aquidneck, eine kleine Rinde, die mir von aller Handarbeit der Perfektion der Schönheit am nächsten kam und die in der Geschwindigkeit, als der Wind wehte, keine Gunst der Dampfer verlangte, ich war fast zwanzig Jahre lang Schiffsführer gewesen als ich ihr Deck an der Küste Brasiliens verließ, wo sie zerstört wurde. My home voyage to New York with my family was made in the canoe Liberdade, without accident.

My voyages were all foreign. I sailed as freighter and trader principally to China, Australia, and Japan, and among the Spice Islands. Ich segelte als Frachter und Händler hauptsächlich nach China, Australien und Japan sowie zwischen die Gewürzinseln. Mine was not the sort of life to make one long to coil up one's ropes on land, the customs and ways of which I had finally almost forgotten. ||||||||||||s'enrouler||ses propres|cordages||||coutumes et habitudes||usages||||||presque|oubliées And so when times for freighters got bad, as at last they did, and I tried to quit the sea, what was there for an old sailor to do? |||temps difficiles||cargos|sont devenus|mauvais|||enfin|ils|ont fait|||essayé de quitter|||||||||||marin|| I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men have studied it, neglecting all else. |||dans||les brises||||étudié||||peut-être|peu|hommes||||négligeant tout le reste||tout le reste Next in attractiveness, after seafaring, came ship-building. ||attrait|après|||| I longed to be master in both professions, and in a small way, in time, I accomplished my desire. |aspirais||||||professions||||petite mesure|||||réalisé||désir Ich sehnte mich danach, Meister in beiden Berufen zu sein, und auf eine kleine Weise erfüllte ich mit der Zeit meinen Wunsch. From the decks of stout ships in the worst gales I had made calculations as to the size and sort of ship safest for all weather and all seas. ||ponts||solides|navires|||pires tempêtes|tempêtes violentes||||calculs||||taille|||||le plus sûr|||toutes les météos|||mers Thus the voyage which I am now to narrate was a natural outcome not only of my love of adventure, but of my lifelong experience. ||||||||raconter|||naturel|résultat naturel||seulement|||||||||expérience de toute une vie|

One midwinter day of 1892, in Boston, where I had been cast up from old ocean, so to speak, a year or two before, I was cogitating whether I should apply for a command, and again eat my bread and butter on the sea, or go to work at the shipyard, when I met an old acquaintance, a whaling-captain, who said: "Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a ship. |un jour d'hiver||||Boston|||||échoué|||||||||un an||||||réfléchissant à savoir||||postuler pour|||||à nouveau|manger||pain et beurre||pain et beurre||||||||||chantier naval|||ai rencontré|||vieille connaissance||chasse à la baleine|capitaine de baleinier|||Viens à Fairhaven||Fairhaven||je vais|donnerai un navire||| But," he added, "she wants some repairs." ||ajouta||||réparations The captain's terms, when fully explained, were more than satisfactory to me. |du capitaine|conditions du capitaine||pleinement|expliqués||||satisfaisants|| They included all the assistance I would require to fit the craft for sea. |ont inclus|||aide nécessaire|||nécessiterais||équiper||embarcation|| Sie enthielten alle Unterstützung, die ich benötigen würde, um das Schiff für die See auszurüsten. I was only too glad to accept, for I had already found that I could not obtain work in the shipyard without first paying fifty dollars to a society, and as for a ship to command—there were not enough ships to go round. ||||||accepter||||||||||obtenir|||||||payant|cinquante dollars|dollars|||société|||||||||||suffisamment||||suffire à tous Nearly all our tall vessels had been cut down for coal-barges, and were being ignominiously towed by the nose from port to port, while many worthy captains addressed themselves to Sailors' Snug Harbor. |||||||réduits en|abattus||charbon|péniches à charbon||||honteusement|remorqués|||||port à port|||||dignes|capitaines dignes|se rendaient à|s'adressaient eux-mêmes|||Havre paisible| The next day I landed at Fairhaven, opposite New Bedford, and found that my friend had something of a joke on me. ||||ai débarqué|||en face de||New Bedford|||||ami||un tour|||blague|| For seven years the joke had been on him. The "ship" proved to be a very antiquated sloop called the Spray, which the neighbors declared had been built in the year 1. ||s'est avéré|||||désuet|sloop antique||||||voisins|déclaré|||||| She was affectionately propped up in a field, some distance from salt water, and was covered with canvas. ||affectueusement|soutenue||||champ||à une certaine distance||eau salée||||recouverte||toile de bâche The people of Fairhaven, I hardly need say, are thrifty and observant. |||||à peine||||économes||attentifs For seven years they had asked, "I wonder what Captain Eben Pierce is going to do with the old Spray?" ||||||||||Capitaine Eben|Capitaine Pierce|||||||| The day I appeared there was a buzz at the gossip exchange: at last some one had come and was actually at work on the old Spray. |||suis apparu||||effervescence|||commérages|bourse des potins|||||||||réellement|||||| "Breaking her up, I s'pose?" La briser||||je suppose "No; going to rebuild her." |||reconstruire| Great was the amazement. Grand fut l'étonnement.|||Grande fut la stupéfaction. "Will it pay?" ||rapporter de l'argent was the question which for a year or more I answered by declaring that I would make it pay. ||||||||||||déclarant||||||

My ax felled a stout oak-tree near by for a keel, and Farmer Howard, for a small sum of money, hauled in this and enough timbers for the frame of the new vessel. |ma hache|abattu|||chêne robuste||à proximité||||quille||Fermier Howard|fermier Howard||||petite somme|||transporta||||||||charpente|||| Meine Axt fällte eine dicke Eiche in der Nähe, um einen Kiel zu bekommen, und Bauer Howard holte für eine kleine Geldsumme diese und genügend Holz für den Rahmen des neuen Schiffes. I rigged a steam-box and a pot for a boiler. |||vapeur|boîte à vapeur|||marmite|||chaudière Ich baute eine Dampfbox und einen Topf für einen Kessel auf. The timbers for ribs, being straight saplings, were dressed and steamed till supple, and then bent over a log, where they were secured till set. |||côtes de bois||droits|jeunes arbres||taillés||cuites à la vapeur|jusqu'à ce que|souple|||pliés|||bûche||||fixés|| Something tangible appeared every day to show for my labor, and the neighbors made the work sociable. |concret apparaissait||||||||travail|||||||convivial Jeden Tag erschien etwas Greifbares für meine Arbeit, und die Nachbarn machten die Arbeit gesellig. It was a great day in the Spray shipyard when her new stem was set up and fastened to the new keel. ||||||||||||étrave|||||fixée|||| Whaling-captains came from far to survey it. ||||loin||examiner| With one voice they pronounced it "A 1," and in their opinion "fit to smash ice." ||voix||ont déclaré||||||avis|||casser|glace The oldest captain shook my hand warmly when the breast-hooks were put in, declaring that he could see no reason why the Spray should not "cut in bow-head" yet off the coast of Greenland. |||serra||main|chaleureusement|||crochets de proue|crochets de proue||mis en place||||||voir||||||||||proue|tête de proue|encore|||||Groenland Der älteste Kapitän schüttelte mir herzlich die Hand, als die Brusthaken eingehängt wurden, und erklärte, er sehe keinen Grund, warum die Spray nicht schon vor der Küste Grönlands "in Bugspitze" schneiden sollte. The much-esteemed stem-piece was from the butt of the smartest kind of a pasture oak. ||très estimé||pièce maîtresse||||base|||plus intelligent|meilleure qualité|||pâturage| It afterward split a coral patch in two at the Keeling Islands, and did not receive a blemish. ||divisé||récif corallien|récif de corail|||||Keeling|||||subir||imperfection Better timber for a ship than pasture white oak never grew. Meilleur|bois de construction||||||chêne blanc||| The breast-hooks, as well as all the ribs, were of this wood, and were steamed and bent into shape as required. ||||||||||||bois|||||||forme||nécessaire It was hard upon March when I began work in earnest; the weather was cold; still, there were plenty of inspectors to back me with advice. ||difficile|à l'approche de|mars|||commencé|||sérieusement|||||néanmoins|||beaucoup||inspecteurs|||||conseils Es war im März, als ich mit der Arbeit begann; das Wetter war kalt, aber es gab viele Inspektoren, die mir mit Rat zur Seite standen. When a whaling-captain hove in sight I just rested on my adz awhile and "gammed" with him. ||||est apparu||en vue|||me suis reposé|||hache de charpentier|un moment||bavardé|| New Bedford, the home of whaling-captains, is connected with Fairhaven by a bridge, and the walking is good. ||||||||reliée à|||||pont|||marche à pied|| They never "worked along up" to the shipyard too often for me. ||travaillaient|||||||trop souvent|| It was the charming tales about arctic whaling that inspired me to put a double set of breast-hooks in the Spray, that she might shunt ice. |||envoûtantes|histoires charmantes||arctique|||inspiré|m'ont inspiré||||double||||||||||puisse|détourner| Es waren die charmanten Geschichten über den arktischen Walfang, die mich dazu inspirierten, einen doppelten Satz Brusthaken in die Spray einzubauen, damit sie Eis rangieren kann. Ce sont les charmants récits sur la chasse à la baleine dans l'Arctique qui m'ont inspiré à installer un double jeu de crochets de poitrine sur le Spray, pour qu'elle puisse éviter la glace.

The seasons came quickly while I worked. |||rapidement||| Les saisons passaient rapidement pendant que je travaillais. Hardly were the ribs of the sloop up before apple-trees were in bloom. |||||||||pommiers en fleurs|||| À peine les côtes du sloop étaient-elles en place que les pommiers étaient en fleurs. Then the daisies and the cherries came soon after. |||||cerises||| Ensuite vinrent bientôt les marguerites et les cerises. Close by the place where the old Spray had now dissolved rested the ashes of John Cook, a revered Pilgrim father. Près de|||||||||||||||||||Père pèlerin| Tout près de l'endroit où l'ancien Spray s'était maintenant dissous, reposaient les cendres de John Cook, un père pèlerin vénéré. So the new Spray rose from hallowed ground. ||||s'éleva||| Ainsi le nouveau Spray s'éleva de la terre consacrée. From the deck of the new craft I could put out my hand and pick cherries that grew over the little grave. ||||||||||||||cueillir|||||||tombe Du pont du nouvel esquif, je pouvais tendre la main et cueillir des cerises qui poussaient au-dessus de la petite tombe. The planks for the new vessel, which I soon came to put on, were of Georgia pine an inch and a half thick. ||||||||||||||||pin de Géorgie||||||d'épaisseur Les planches pour le nouveau navire, que j'ai bientôt commencé à mettre, étaient en pin de Géorgie épais d'un pouce et demi. The operation of putting them on was tedious, but, when on, the calking was easy. |||mettre||||||||||| La mise en place était fastidieuse, mais une fois fait, le calfatage était facile. The outward edges stood slightly open to receive the calking, but the inner edges were so close that I could not see daylight between them. ||||légèrement||||||||intérieures||||||||||lumière du jour|| Les bords extérieurs étaient légèrement ouverts pour recevoir le calfatage, mais les bords intérieurs étaient si proches que je ne pouvais pas voir la lumière du jour entre eux. All the butts were fastened by through bolts, with screw-nuts tightening them to the timbers, so that there would be no complaint from them. |||||||boulons traversants||||serrant fermement||||||||||||| Tous les abouts étaient fixés par des boulons traversants, avec des écrous de serrage les fixant aux membrures, de sorte qu'il n'y aurait aucune plainte de leur part. Many bolts with screw-nuts were used in other parts of the construction, in all about a thousand. De nombreux boulons avec des écrous de serrage ont été utilisés dans d'autres parties de la construction, soit environ mille au total. It was my purpose to make my vessel stout and strong.

Now, it is a law in Lloyd's that the Jane repaired all out of the old until she is entirely new is still the Jane. Nun ist es ein Gesetz bei Lloyd's, dass die Jane, die ganz aus dem Alten repariert wurde, bis sie ganz neu ist, immer noch die Jane ist. The Spray changed her being so gradually that it was hard to say at what point the old died or the new took birth, and it was no matter. The bulwarks I built up of white-oak stanchions fourteen inches high, and covered with seven-eighth-inch white pine. These stanchions, mortised through a two-inch covering-board, I calked with thin cedar wedges. They have remained perfectly tight ever since. The deck I made of one-and-a-half-inch by three-inch white pine spiked to beams, six by six inches, of yellow or Georgia pine, placed three feet apart. The deck-inclosures were one over the aperture of the main hatch, six feet by six, for a cooking-galley, and a trunk farther aft, about ten feet by twelve, for a cabin. Both of these rose about three feet above the deck, and were sunk sufficiently into the hold to afford head-room. Beide erhoben sich etwa einen Meter über Deck und waren so weit im Laderaum versenkt, dass sie Kopffreiheit hatten. In the spaces along the sides of the cabin, under the deck, I arranged a berth to sleep in, and shelves for small storage, not forgetting a place for the medicine-chest. In the midship hold, that is, the space between cabin and galley, under the deck, was room for provision of water, salt beef, etc., ample for many months.

The hull of my vessel being now put together as strongly as wood and iron could make her, and the various rooms partitioned off, I set about "calking ship." Da der Rumpf meines Schiffes nun so stark zusammengebaut war, wie es Holz und Eisen zuließen, und die verschiedenen Räume abgetrennt waren, machte ich mich daran, das Schiff zu "kalken". Grave fears were entertained by some that at this point I should fail. Einige befürchteten ernsthafte Befürchtungen, dass ich an diesem Punkt scheitern sollte. I myself gave some thought to the advisability of a "professional calker." The very first blow I struck on the cotton with the calking-iron, which I thought was right, many others thought wrong. "It'll crawl!" "Es wird krabbeln!" cried a man from Marion, passing with a basket of clams on his back. "It'll crawl!" cried another from West Island, when he saw me driving cotton into the seams. Bruno simply wagged his tail. Even Mr. Ben J——, a noted authority on whaling-ships, whose mind, however, was said to totter, asked rather confidently if I did not think "it would crawl." "How fast will it crawl?" cried my old captain friend, who had been towed by many a lively sperm-whale. "Tell us how fast," cried he, "that we may get into port in time. " However, I drove a thread of oakum on top of the cotton, as from the first I had intended to do. And Bruno again wagged his tail. The cotton never "crawled." When the calking was finished, two coats of copper paint were slapped on the bottom, two of white lead on the topsides and bulwarks. The rudder was then shipped and painted, and on the following day the Spray was launched. As she rode at her ancient, rust-eaten anchor, she sat on the water like a swan.

The Spray's dimensions were, when finished, thirty-six feet nine inches long, over all, fourteen feet two inches wide, and four feet two inches deep in the hold, her tonnage being nine tons net and twelve and seventy-one hundredths tons gross. Then the mast, a smart New Hampshire spruce, was fitted, and likewise all the small appurtenances necessary for a short cruise. Sails were bent, and away she flew with my friend Captain Pierce and me, across Buzzard's Bay on a trial-trip—all right. The only thing that now worried my friends along the beach was, "Will she pay?" The cost of my new vessel was $553.62 for materials, and thirteen months of my own labor. I was several months more than that at Fairhaven, for I got work now and then on an occasional whale-ship fitting farther down the harbor, and that kept me the overtime. Ich war noch einige Monate länger in Fairhaven, weil ich ab und zu Arbeit auf einem Walfangschiff bekam, das weiter unten im Hafen anlegte, und das hielt mich über die Zeit.