1 飞走的暗礁(7)
Without the high quality of its hull, 毫无疑问，如果不是船身质地优良，特别坚固，
the Mora一vian would surely ha一ve split open from this collision and gone down together with those 237 passengers it was bringing back from Canada.
摩拉维安号被撞以后，一定要把它从加拿大载来的二百三十六名乘客一齐带到海底去。
This accident happened around five o'clock in the morning, just as day was beginning to break.
事故发生在早晨五点左右天刚破晓的时候。
The officers on watch rushed to the craft's stern. They examined the ocean with the mostscrupulous care.
船上值班的海员们立即跑到船的后部;他们十分细心地观察海面。
They saw nothing except a strong eddy breaking three cable lengths out, as if those sheets of water had been violently churned.
除了有个六百多米宽的大漩涡—好像水面受过猛烈的冲击—以外，他们什么也没有看见，只把事故发生的地点确切地记了下来。
The site's exact bearings were taken, and the Mora一vian continued on course apparentlyundamaged.
摩拉维安号继续航行，似乎并没有受到什么损伤。
Had it run afoul of an underwater rock or the wreckage of some enormous derelict ship? They were unable to say.
它是撞上了暗礁呢，还是撞上了一只沉没的破船?
But when they examined its undersides in the service yard, they discovered that part of its keel had been smashed.
当时没有法子知道。后来到船坞检查了船底，才发现一部分龙骨折断了。
This occurrence, extremely serious in itself, might perhaps ha一ve been forgotten like so many others,
这事实本身是十分严重的，
if three weeks later it hadn't been reenacted under identical conditions.
可是，如果不是过了三个星期后，在相同的情况下又发生了相同的事件，
Only, thanks to the nationality of the ship victimized by this new ramming, and thanks to the reputation of the company to which this ship belonged,
它很可能跟许多其他的事件一样很快被人忘掉了。接着又发生的那一次撞船的事件，单单由于受害船的国籍和它所属公司的声望，
the event caused an immense uproar.
就足以引起十分广泛的反响。