I left Conseil to the proper stowing of our luggage and climbed on deck to watch the preparations for getting under way.

我留下康塞尔安顿我们的箱子，独自一个人上了甲板，观看准备开船的操作。

Just then Commander Farragut was giving orders to cast off the last moorings holding the Abraham Lincoln to its Brooklyn pier.

这时候，法拉古舰长正要人解开布洛克林码头缆柱上拴住林肯号的最后几根铁索。

And so if I'd been delayed by a quarter of an hour or even less, the frigate would have gone without me,

看来如果我迟到一刻钟，半刻钟，船就会开走，

and I would have missed out on this unearthly, extraordinary, and inconceivable expedition, whose true story might well meet with some skepticism.

我也就不能参加这次出奇的、神秘的、难以相信的远征了。

But Commander Farragut didn't want to waste a single day, or even a single hour, in making for those seas where the animal had just been sighted.

这次远征的经过，虽然是真实记录，将来可能还会有人怀疑的。法拉古舰长不愿意耽搁一天甚至一小时，他要赶快把船开到那个动物所在的海中。

He summoned his engineer.

他把船上的工程师叫来了。

"Are we up to pressure?" he asked the man.

“蒸汽烧足了吗？”舰长问他。

"Aye, sir," the engineer replied.

“烧足了，舰长。”工程师答。

"Go ahead, then!" Commander Farragut called.

“开船！”法拉古舰长喊。

At this order, which was relayed to the engine by means of a compressed-air device, the mechanics activated the start-up wheel.

开船的命令通过话筒传到机器房，轮机人员接到命令，立即让机轮转动起来。

Steam rushed whistling into the gaping valves. Long horizontal pistons groaned and pushed the tie rods of the drive shaft.

蒸汽涌入半开的机关中；发出呼呼的啸声。一排排横列的活塞发出格格的声响，推动机轴的杠杆。

The blades of the propeller churned the waves with increasing speed, and the Abraham Lincoln moved out majestically amid a spectator-laden escort of some 100 ferries and tenders.

推进器的轮翼不断加大速率，搅动海水，于是林肯号在上百只满载观众前来送别的渡轮和汽艇的行列中，庄严地向前行驶着。