But though, to landsmen in general, the native inhabitants of the seas have ever been regarded with emotions unspeakably unsocial and repelling; though we know the sea to be an everlasting terra incognita, so that Columbus sailed over numberless unknown worlds to discover his one superficial western one; though, by vast odds, the most terrific of all mortal disasters have immemorially and indiscriminately befallen tens and hundreds of thousands of those who have gone upon the waters; though but a moment's consideration will teach that, however baby man may brag of his science and skill, and however much, in a flattering future, that science and skill may augment; yet for ever and for ever, to the crack of doom, the sea will insult and murder him, and pulverize the stateliest, stiffest frigate he can make; nevertheless, by the continual repetition of these very impressions, man has lost that sense of the full awfulness of the sea which aboriginally belongs to it.
不过，虽则一般陆地人始终以一种说不出的不友好和厌恶的情感来看待海里的众生；虽则我们知道海洋永远是个未知的领域，所以哥伦布为了要发现他那立论浅薄的西方，才航遍了无数的未知的世界；虽则人类一切最可怖的灾难，早就毫无差别地、非常厉害地降临在成千百万从事海上生活的人身上；虽则只消考虑一下，就会知道：不管幼稚的人类会怎样夸耀他的科学和技术，不管在那似乎有希望的将来中，科学和技术会多么提高；然而，海洋却是直到世界末日的霹雳声，都一直要侮辱和谋杀人类，把人类所能制造出来的最雄壮最牢靠的快速舰给弄得粉碎。尽管如此，这种结果还是不断的一再重现，人类已经忘记了本来就应该对海洋作出的充分的畏敬。
The first boat we read of, floated on an ocean, that with Portuguese vengeance had whelmed a whole world without leaving so much as a widow.
我们从书本上知道，第一艘漂泛在海洋上的小船，满怀着葡萄牙人的报复之心，航行了全世界，却没有造成多少寡妇。