and the headsman, the chief officer of the little craft, takes his proper station in the bows of the boat. 那个指挥员，就是这只小艇的大副，应该站到他那船头的本位上去。

　　Now, I care not who maintains the contrary, but all this is both foolish and unnecessary.  那么，我不管谁会对我的看法表示异议，我还是认为这是又愚蠢又不必要的办法。

　　The headsman should stay in the bows from first to last;  指挥者本来就该从头到底留在船头上；

　　he should both dart the harpoon and the lance,  他本来就该既投标枪兼投鱼枪，

　　and no rowing whatever should be expected of him, except under circumstances obvious to any fisherman.  随便怎样都不必叫他划船，除非是情况真正到了大家都心里明白的时候。

　　I know that this would sometimes involve a slight loss of speed in the chase;  我知道，这往往是会使追击的速度稍微遭到损失；

　　but long experience in various whalemen of more than one nation has convinced me that in the vast majority of failures in the fishery,  而且，根据各国各种捕鲸人的经验，也教我认为，在捕鱼业的大部分损失中，

　　it has not by any means been so much the speed of the whale as the before described exhaustion of the harpooneer that has caused them. 决不是由于大鲸的快速，而大都是由于上述的标枪手精力疲惫所致。

　　To insure the greatest efficiency in the dart, the harpooneers of this world must start to their feet from out of idleness, and not from out of toil. 为了保证投枪收到最大效果，这世界的标枪手就必须从安逸中，而不是从辛苦中一跃而起。

　　Chapter 63 The Crotch 第六十三章 叉柱

　　Out of the trunk, the branches grow; out of them, the twigs.  树干长出枝桠；枝桠又长出小枝。

　　So, in productive subjects, grow the chapters. 同样的，从许多题材中，就产生出了各种故事来。

　　The crotch alluded to on a previous page deserves independent mention.  上一章所提到的叉柱，值得在这里单独提一提。

　　It is a notched stick of a peculiar form, some two feet in length,   那是一种形式特殊的桠杈，约有两英尺长，

　　which is perpendicularly inserted into the starboard gunwale near the bow, for the purpose of furnishing a rest for the wooden extremity of the harpoons,  垂直地插在靠近艇头的右舷边上，用来搁放标枪木柄。

　　whose other naked, barbed end slopingly projects from the prow.  标枪那闪亮的倒钩头，就斜斜地突出在船头上。