Ahab well knew that although his friends at home would think little of his entering a boat in certain comparatively harmless vicissitudes of the chase, 亚哈心里很清楚，在一种情况比较稳妥的追击中，

　　for the sake of being near the scene of action and giving his orders in person, 他为了接近现场，便于亲自指挥而下小艇，他家乡的亲友们是不会把它当做一回事的，

　　yet for Captain Ahab to have a boat actually apportioned to him as a regular headsman in the hunt-- 不过，让亚哈船长有一只实际上为他作经常指挥猎击之用的小艇——

　　above all for Captain Ahab to be supplied with five extra men, 尤其是另外配备五个水手给亚哈船长，

　　as that same boat's crew, he well knew that such generous conceits never entered the heads of the owners of the Pequod. 象现在这只小艇的五个水手那样，那他心里也很清楚，这样慷慨的想法，却是“裴廓德号”的老板们从来想都没有想到的。

　　Therefore he had not solicited a boat's crew from them, nor had he in any way hinted his desires on that head. 因此，他并没有向他们要求过增加五个水手，也没有以任何方式在这方面暗示过他的要求。

　　Nevertheless he had taken private measures of his own touching all that matter. 然而，他却私自把这些事情都料理好了。

　　Until Cabaco's published discovery, the sailors had little foreseen it, 在卡巴科把他的发现公开出来之前，水手们事先简直没有人料到会有这一着，

　　though to be sure when, after being a little while out of port, 虽然事实上，在船只离开了港埠不久，

　　all hands had concluded the customary business of fitting the whaleboats for service; 大家都把装备小艇的例常工作弄停当后，

　　when some time after this Ahab was now and then found bestirring himself in the matter of making thole-pins with his own hands for what was thought to be one of the spare boats, 隔不多久，人们就不时看到这个亚哈忙着为那只被认为是备用艇的小艇做桨脚，

　　and even solicitously cutting the small wooden skewers, which when the line is running out are pinned over the groove in the bow: 甚至还热心地砍着木头小扣针(这是在把捕鲸索撒出去后，用它来把捕鲸索扣在船头的槽沟里的)。

　　when all this was observed in him, and particularly his solicitude in having an extra coat of sheathing in the bottom of the boat, 大家都看到他在这样忙着，尤其是看到他急于要另搞一副放在艇肚的船底包板，