登陆注册
37371300000047

第47章

The view of ships lying moored in some of the older docks of London has always suggested to my mind the image of a flock of swans kept in the flooded backyard of grim tenement houses.The flatness of the walls surrounding the dark pool on which they float brings out wonderfully the flowing grace of the lines on which a ship's hull is built.The lightness of these forms, devised to meet the winds and the seas, makes, by contrast with the great piles of bricks, the chains and cables of their moorings appear very necessary, as if nothing less could prevent them from soaring upwards and over the roofs.The least puff of wind stealing round the corners of the dock buildings stirs these captives fettered to rigid shores.

It is as if the soul of a ship were impatient of confinement.

Those masted hulls, relieved of their cargo, become restless at the slightest hint of the wind's *******.However tightly moored, they range a little at their berths, swaying imperceptibly the spire-like assemblages of cordage and spars.You can detect their impatience by watching the sway of the mastheads against the motionless, the soulless gravity of mortar and stones.As you pass alongside each hopeless prisoner chained to the quay, the slight grinding noise of the wooden fenders makes a sound of angry muttering.But, after all, it may be good for ships to go through a period of restraint and repose, as the restraint and self-communion of inactivity may be good for an unruly soul - not, indeed, that I mean to say that ships are unruly; on the contrary, they are faithful creatures, as so many men can testify.And faithfulness is a great restraint, the strongest bond laid upon the self-will of men and ships on this globe of land and sea.

This interval of bondage in the docks rounds each period of a ship's life with the sense of accomplished duty, of an effectively played part in the work of the world.The dock is the scene of what the world would think the most serious part in the light, bounding, swaying life of a ship.But there are docks and docks.

The ugliness of some docks is appalling.Wild horses would not drag from me the name of a certain river in the north whose narrow estuary is inhospitable and dangerous, and whose docks are like a nightmare of dreariness and misery.Their dismal shores are studded thickly with scaffold-like, enormous timber structures, whose lofty heads are veiled periodically by the infernal gritty night of a cloud of coal-dust.The most important ingredient for getting the world's work along is distributed there under the circumstances of the greatest cruelty meted out to helpless ships.

Shut up in the desolate circuit of these basins, you would think a free ship would droop and die like a wild bird put into a dirty cage.But a ship, perhaps because of her faithfulness to men, will endure an extraordinary lot of ill-usage.Still, I have seen ships issue from certain docks like half-dead prisoners from a dungeon, bedraggled, overcome, wholly disguised in dirt, and with their men rolling white eyeballs in black and worried faces raised to a heaven which, in its smoky and soiled aspect, seemed to reflect the sordidness of the earth below.One thing, however, may be said for the docks of the Port of London on both sides of the river: for all the complaints of their insufficient equipment, of their obsolete rules, of failure (they say) in the matter of quick despatch, no ship need ever issue from their gates in a half-fainting condition.London is a general cargo port, as is only proper for the greatest capital of the world to be.General cargo ports belong to the aristocracy of the earth's trading places, and in that aristocracy London, as it is its way, has a unique physiognomy.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 萌宝来袭:爹地追妻宠上天

    萌宝来袭:爹地追妻宠上天

    被迫流产,她一无所有,孤单惨死。重生到五年前,她扔下离婚协议,怀着孩子出国深造。虐渣毫不留情,上辈子欠她的要他们百倍偿还。再次见面,她冷漠离开,他却紧追不舍。
  • 萌宝助攻:妈咪别怕,有我在

    萌宝助攻:妈咪别怕,有我在

    一场陷害,她被他流放无人小岛,自生自灭。再见面,已过五年,她带娃回归,却失忆了。“陪我三年,签了这份协议。”乔牧原语气冷漠,态度坚决。“请你自重!”顾相思咬着牙,愤懑不平。乔牧原,你真是个不要脸的大坏蛋…
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 一回一念

    一回一念

    祸乱桂国边疆二十年的琼周国突然向桂示好,要求建立邦交。桂国主战派一反常态顺应琼周国意愿说服国主接受邦交。国主廉安老迈,浮昱宫腥风血雨暗流涌动,皇嗣只剩嫡公主修元与皇子承思,皇子看似稳坐龙椅却迟迟未得储君之位,引起大臣之间猜疑不断。琼周建交,边门大开,国与国的命运不知要走向何处,民间亦动乱不堪,不明势力蠢蠢欲动。身为桂都商贾之首赵丰城独子的赵之念自小便被赶出家门,长大后,他一心想要断绝与本家的连系,带老家奴离开桂国寻一个清新自在处安身立命,却因琼周入桂而被迫卷入纷争中心,意外揭开关于自己的惊天身份之谜……
  • 不完全命运观测报告

    不完全命运观测报告

    当她睁开眼的时候,一切都非自己所知,迷途的少女踏上怪奇之旅,与一见如故的另一位少女和一位总是有些慵懒的少年开始寻找世界的延续。本书QQ群号:901854615
  • 相思骨

    相思骨

    洞房花烛夜,老公在床上暴毙,婆婆骂我扫把星,克夫命。公公婆婆为了让他们儿子下辈子投胎做人,瞒着我招魂破身,却没想到招来恶鬼,从此纠缠不清。谱我一曲相思骨。
  • 部长大人请别走

    部长大人请别走

    他的离开使她丧失爱人的能力。五年后,她鼓起勇气接受追求者的邀约时,却阴差阳错被送到了他的床上。看着她媚态尽显的躺在他床上,他一步步走近……“没想到你会如此堕落”,他吻向她的嫣红。当一切真相大白,她知道了他另一重身份。当准备表白和他在一起时,发现他爱上了别人并即将结婚。面对失踪多年的他,面对藏在心底多年的他,她该何去何从?顾晓清说:“干脆我们直接抢婚。”梅梅说:“将生米煮成熟饭,还怕他不要你。”可可说:“要不你睡了他就走吧。”她……
  • 道天一决

    道天一决

    一场与天对决的争斗从混沌虚无的寰宇里纪元前出现的那些强者为何一一消失道、源、法、鬼、占为何又有道器碎落永恒大陆,阵道法术主宰的乾坤圣都,掌管人类的裁境,鬼域,虚无之巅……异界外来者又为何频繁入侵主大陆?无尽星域,万千宇宙。与天对决,为我永恒!让主人公楚左带领我们进入这次疯狂的旅行吧。
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 余生是你的

    余生是你的

    “想成为你的小太阳。”余生第一次见到沈目时就这样想,她怎么也没有想到,在遇到他之前,她就已经是他的小太阳了,只是,遇到他之后,他也成为了她的太阳。