Though, in overseeing the pursuit of this whale, Captain Ahab had evinced his customary activity, to call it so; yet now that the creature was dead, some vague dissatisfaction, or impatience, or despair, seemed working in him; as if the sight of that dead body reminded him that Moby Dick was yet to be slain; and though a thousand other whales were brought to his ship, all that would not one jot advance his grand, monomaniac object. Very soon you would have thought from the sound on the Pequod's decks, that all hands were preparing to cast anchor in the deep; for heavy chains are being dragged along the deck, and thrust rattling out of the port-holes. But by those clanking links, the vast corpse itself, not the ship, is to be moored. Tied by the head to the stern, and by the tail to the bows, the whale now lies with its black hull close to the vessel's, and seen through the darkness of the night, which obscured the spars and rigging aloft, the two—ship and whale, seemed yoked together like colossal bullocks, whereof one reclines while the other remains standing. A little item may as well be related here. The strongest and most reliable hold which the ship has upon the whale when moored alongside, is by the flukes or tail; and as from its greater density that part is relatively heavier than any other (excepting the side-fins), its flexibility even in death, causes it to sink low beneath the surface;
虽然亚哈船长可以说还是象往常一样，在监督着追捕这条大鲸；然而，现在看到这只生物已经死了，他心里却似乎激起了一种隐约的不快和不耐烦，甚至可说是绝望来；仿佛一看到这架死尸，就教他想起那只还有待于捕杀的莫比－迪克，因而尽管把千百条其它的大鲸拖到船边来，对于他那伟大的、偏热症的目标说来，却还是毫无助益。从"裴廓德号"的甲板上所发出来的声响中，你也许立刻会认为，大家又在准备把锚抛到海里了；因为沉重的铁链已经在甲板上拖拽着，铛铛作响地朝舷窗外面抛出去。可是，这些铛铛作响的索链所要拴住的可不是船，而是那架大尸体。人们把这条鲸的头缚在船尾，尾巴缚在船头，现在它那黑黝黝的身体就紧靠着船身，停在那里。透过漆黑的夜空望去，由于夜幕遮住了船上高处的圆木和索具，使得这两件东西——船和鲸，似乎象是用轭具连在一起的两只大牯牛，一条躺着，一条仍是站着（原注：不妨在这里把一些细节说一说，船跟鲸拴在一起的时候，最得力而可靠的办法就是拴住鲸尾巴；不过由于尾巴体积很大，尾巴也相对地比任何一部分（除了两边的鳍）重，而且死鲸总是软绵绵的，这就使得鲸仍然沉在水下；