In The Heart Of The Sea： Preface _ Part4

He soon realized that it was a whaleboat—double-ended and about twenty-five feet long—but a whaleboat unlike any he had ever seen. The boat’s sides had been built up by about half a foot. Two makeshift masts had been rigged, transforming the rowing vessel into a rudimentary schooner. The sails—stiff with salt and bleached by the sun—had clearly pulled the boat along for many, many miles. Coffin could see no one at the steering oar. He turned to the man at the Dauphin’s wheel and ordered, “Hard up the helm.”

double-ended n. 兩端
makeshift adj. 湊合的
masts n. 桅杆( 支撐觀測台等的高的柱桿 )
rigged adj. 非法操作的
the rowing vessel n. 划動式船隻
rudimentary adj. 基礎的
schooner n. 帆船
sails n. 帆
stiff adj. 僵硬的
bleached v 漂白
had clearly 顯然的
pulled the boat
along for...
Coffin n. 摳夫因 ( 意思：棺材；不等於 Caffeine 咖啡因 )
steering oar n. 舵槳
hard up ph. 硬起來
helm n. 舵

In The Heart Of The Sea： Preface _ Part3

Source

For more than a century, the headquarters of this global oil business had been a little island called Nantucket, twenty-four miles off the coast of southern New England. One of the defining paradoxes of Nantucket’s whalemen was that many of them were Quakers, a religious sect stoically dedicated to pacifism, at least when it came to the human race. Combining rigid self-control with an almost holy sense of mission, these were what Herman Melville would call “Quakers with a vengeance.”

headquarters n. 總部
Nantucket n. 南塔克特
miles n. 英里 ( 1mi= 1.609344km )
off prep. (距)離
Quakers n. 貴格會 ( 基督教的一個教派 )
the defining paradoxes n. 決定性的悖論( 矛盾理論 )
sect n. 教派
stoically adv. 堅忍
stoic n. 斯多葛主義
dedicated to ph. 致力於
pacifism n. 和平主義
race n, 種族
the human race ph. 人族
rigid adj. 嚴格的
self-control ph. 自制力
holy adj. 神聖的
sense of mission ph. 使命感
Herman Melville n. 赫爾曼.梅爾維爾 ( 作者 )
vengeance n, 復仇

It was a Nantucket whaleship, the Dauphin, just a few months into what would be a three-year voyage, that was making her way up the Chilean coast. And on that February morning in 1821, the lookout saw something unusual—a boat, impossibly small for the open sea, bobbing on the swells. The ship’s captain, the thirty-seven-year-old Zimri Coffin, trained his spyglass on the mysterious craft with keen curiosity.

Dauphin n. 多分(人名)voyage n. 航程
way up ph. 一路攀升
lookout ph. 抬頭
the open sea n. 大海
bobbing v. 漂泊
swells n. 浪頭
spyglass n. 望遠鏡
craft n. 船隻
keen adj. 敏銳的

In The Heart Of The Sea： Preface _ Part2

Source

Then came the prodigious task of transforming a dead whale into oil: ripping off its blubber, chopping it up, and boiling it into the high-grade oil that lit the streets and lubricated the machines of the Industrial Age. That all of this was conducted on the limitless Pacific Ocean meant that the whalemen of the early nineteenth century were not merely seagoing hunters and factory workers but also explorers, pushing out farther and farther into a scarcely charted wilderness larger than all the earth’s landmasses combined.

Prodigious adj. 異常的
rip off ph. 剝去
blubber n. 鯨油 v. 大聲哭
chop verb. 砍
chop up ph. 砍了
high-grade n. 優質
lit v. 點燃
lubricated v. 潤滑
industrial adj. 工業的
conduct v. 組織 / 引領
limitless adj.無限制的
sea-going n. 遠洋的
scarcely adv. 幾乎沒有
chart n. 航海 ( 線 ) 圖
wilderness n. 荒野
landmasses n. 陸地

In The Heart Of The Sea： Preface _ Part1

Source
http://nathanielphilbrick.com/books/in-the-heart-of-the-sea/preface/

February 23, 1821

Like a giant bird of prey, the whaleship moved lazily up the western coast of South America, zigging and zagging across a living sea of oil. For that was the Pacific Ocean in 1821, a vast field of warm-blooded oil deposits known as sperm whales.

Harvesting sperm whales—the largest toothed whales in existence—was no easy matter. Six men would set out from the ship in a small boat, row up to their quarry, harpoon it, then attempt to stab it to death with a lance. The sixty-ton creature could destroy the whaleboat with a flick of its tail, throwing the men into the cold ocean water, often miles from the ship.

whaleship n. 捕鯨船
lazily up ph. 懶洋洋地起來
coast n. 海岸
zigging and zagging n. 曲曲折折 像Z一樣
a living sea of oil n. 有生命的石油海
the Pacific Ocean n. 太平洋 ( Pacific ~= Peace )
sperm whales n. 抹香鯨
sperm n. 精蟲
whales n. 鯨魚
a vast field of warm-blooded oil deposits known as sperm whales.
一個廣闊領域之溫血石油存量被稱為抹香鯨。

Harvesting n. 捕獲 / 收穫 / 收成
the largest toothed whales n. 最大的齒鯨在現存裡
set out v. 啟程
row (up) v.開始划船
quarry n. 獵物 / 採石場
harpoon n. 魚叉
harpoon it ph. 叉它
stab v. 刺
lance n. 槊, 長矛
a flick n. 拍動
tail n. 尾巴
miles n. 英里 ~= 1.6 kilometer