"Certain. I've lowered for whales from a leaking ship in a gale off Cape Horn."
“当然是，在合恩角海面上，我就曾经在大风里，打一只漏船上放下小艇去捕大鲸。”
"Mr. Flask," said I, turning to little King-Post, who was standing close by; "you are experienced in these things, and I am not. Will you tell me whether it is an unalterable law in this fishery, Mr. Flask, for an oarsman to break his own back pulling himself back-foremost into death's jaws?"
“弗拉斯克先生，”我又转过头问这个小中柱，他正好站在我旁边；“你对这些事情经验多，我可没有经验。你可不可以告诉我，这究竟是不是捕鲸业的不变的法律，弗拉斯克先生，竟要一个桨手拚着性命、偷偷摸摸地把自己划到鬼门关里去呢？”
"Can't you twist that smaller?" said Flask. "Yes, that's the law. I should like to see a boat's crew backing water up to a whale face foremost. Ha, ha! the whale would give them squint for squint, mind that!"
“你不能少乱扯些吗？”弗拉斯克说。“不错，这就是法律。我倒真想看到整只小艇的水手都把他们自己划到大鲸面前去。哈，哈！那么，大鲸就会对他们另眼相看了，一定是这样的！”
Here then, from three impartial witnesses, I had a deliberate statement of the entire case. Considering,therefore, that squalls and capsizings in the water and consequent bivouacks on the deep, were matters of common occurrence in this kind of life; considering that at the superlatively critical instant of going on to the whale I must resign my life into the hands of him who steered the boat-- oftentimes a fellowwho at that very moment is in his impetuousness upon the point of scuttling the craft with his own frantic stampings; considering that the particular disaster to our own particular boat was chiefly to be imputed to Starbuck's driving on to his whale almost in the teeth of a squall, and considering that Starbuck, notwithstanding, was famous for his great heedfulness in the fishery;
那么，从这三个不偏不倚的证人的话里，我对全盘事件已经获得一个慎重的说明了。因此，鉴于在海里会碰上刮狂风和翻船以及结果还得在海上露宿的这种生活，都不过是家常便饭；鉴于在捕鲸的最紧要关头，我必须把我的生命交在那个指挥小艇的人的手里——而这家伙在这种千钧一发的时分，往往都是脾气很急躁，狂跺着脚拚命催逼船只向前；鉴于我们这条小艇的不幸，主要得归之于斯达巴克那种几乎是不顾狂风而猛追大鲸的行动，又鉴于斯达巴克，不管怎样，却是在捕鱼界中以极其小心谨慎见称的；