From the seventeenth-century empire of Sweden, the story of a galleon that sank at the start of her maiden voyage in 1628 must be one of the strangest tales of the sea. For nearly three and a half centuries she lay at the bottom of Stockholm harbour until her discovery in 1956. This was the Vasa, royal flagship of the great imperial fleet.

King Gustavus Adolphus, 'The Northern Hurricane', then at the height of his military success in the Thirty Years' War, had dictated her measure-ments and armament. Triple gun-decks mounted sixty-four bronze cannon. She was intended to play a leading role in the growing might of Sweden.

As she was prepared for her maiden voyage on August 10, 1628, Stockholm was in a ferment. From the Skeppsbron and surrounding islands the people watched this thing of beauty begin to spread her sails and catch the wind. They had laboured for three years to produce this floating work of art; she was more richly carved and ornamented than any previous ship. The high stern castle was a riot of carved gods, demons, knights, kings, warriors, mermaids, cherubs; and zoomorphic animal shapes ablaze with red and gold and blue, symbols of courage, power, and cruelty, were portrayed to stir the imaginations of the superstitious sailors of the day.

Then the cannons of the anchored warships thundered a salute to which the Vasa fired in reply. As she emerged from her drifting cloud of gun smoke with the water churned to foam beneath her bow, her flags flying, pennants waving, sails filling in the breeze, and the red and gold of her superstructure ablaze with colour, she presented a more majestic spectacle than Stockholmers had ever seen before. All gun-ports were open and the muzzles peeped wickedly from them.

As the wind freshened there came a sudden squall and the ship made a strange movement, listing to port. The Ordnance Officer ordered all the port cannon to be heaved to starboard to counteract the list, but the steepening angle of the decks increased. Then the sound of rumbling thunder reached the watchers on the shore, as cargo, ballast, ammunition and 400 people went sliding and crashing down to the port side of the steeply listing ship. The lower gun-ports were now below water and the inrush sealed the ship's fate. In that first glorious hour, the mighty Vasa, which was intended to rule the Baltic, sank with all flags flying — in the harbour of her birth.

瓦萨的建造

此文原载于英国BBC广播公司的周刊 The Listener, 后被收入《新概念英语》第四册作为第33课。

Vasa（瓦萨）是瑞典17世纪，更确切地说，是1628年一艘皇家大帆船的名字。这艘耗时三年建成的帆船工艺精细、装饰雄伟华丽，是一艘规模空前的战舰，它象征着17世纪上半叶以瑞典为代表的北欧新教势力与中欧波兰天主教势力之间的多年战乱结束时，瑞典的军事力量已达到鼎盛时期。

战船首航即将驶出港湾之际，一阵暴风以其不可抵挡的凶猛之势将战船无情地送入海底。“瓦萨”号在斯德哥尔摩港湾水底躺了三个半世纪之后才被发现并托出水面。

Vasa[#va:z2]这一船名来自瑞典王朝Vasa一世(1496—1560) 及二世 (1611—32)的称号。那些年间瑞典新教势力与波兰天主教势力之间的纷争及王室之间联姻带来的积怨使战争时断时续。古斯塔夫斯（Gustavus）二世接替王位后（1594—1632），瑞典雄踞上风，准备再一次出海远征，Vasa（瓦萨）战舰就是为出征建造的。

本文描写了“瓦萨”号出航前的雄风英姿及刹那间船体倾斜，货物、装备及船上400人顷刻葬身海底的海难悲剧。

第一段中maiden voyage的意思是“初次出航”，也可以译作“处女航”。如飞机初次航行就是maiden flight。

galleon是一个非常用词，词义是“大型帆船”。此词朗文95年版的释义为：a sailing ship used mainly by the Spanish from the 15th to 17th century。而Webster's New World Dictionary of American Language（57年版，不但释义详细得多，而且有图示）的释义是：a large, heavy Spanish ship of the 15th and 16th centuries, with three or four decks at the stern (船尾） and one or more at the bow （船首）. It was used both as a warship and a trader.

下面有一个关于所有格代词的语言点值得注意，即 ...until her discovery in 1956. 其中her discovery不能说成是她的发现，而是她被发现，就是物主代词与后面的名词所包含的动作主语与宾语之间的关系，不是主动而是被动的。

下一段中的 military success 明显是指古斯塔夫斯 二世（1594—1632）远征波兰之举的胜利。

下面在had dictated her measurements and armament中， 看到dictate我们也许首先会想到dictation“听写”，那就是一个人念或说，另一个人写下来，但这只是dictate的第一个意思，例：dictated a memo to her secretary。词典上通常有四个释义，其第二个释义是：to command with great authority; order forcefully。也就是上面命令必须这样做。你也可从上下文推断出是瑞典国王亲自定下了这艘船的大小及应在上面配备什么武器。下面一句是告诉我们这些武器包括64个青铜炮，这些炮是架设在三层发炮甲板上的，大家也许已注意到cannon前面虽然是64，但后面并没因此而加-s，这是一个值得注意的语法问题，但你也同样会见到这个词因是复数而加-s的，即两种情况都有。下一句中to be intended to是我们难得见到的。因为我们通常见到的是to intend to（某人想做）……即用主动形式，这里句子以物而非人来开始，用的是被动形式， 意思上稍稍绕了一下，中文就只能是：目的是想让这一战舰在 ……中起重要作用。

下一段里以this thing of beauty来指这艘船，以此赋予了thing这一最普通的词难得而特殊的分量。它与下一行的 this floating work of art 遥相呼应。下面的比较级句子着重点与其说是比较，不如说是一种强有力的修辞手段，这种情况英语中也较常见。

在《兰登书屋韦氏美语学习词典》（Random House Webster's Dictionary of American English）中thing的释义多达19个，this thing of beauty 中的 thing 在这里的释义应为第７条：an achievement, deed or accomplishment, 其中所给的例子是：I expect great things from our production team.

下一句的 labour一词的选用旨在说明工程之浩大。a riot of 又是什么意思呢？在一般情况下riot是“暴乱，躁动”的意思。这里 a riot of用此义似乎说不通，Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 及兰登词典都有这样的释义：a wild of mix confusion， 举的例子是：a riot of colors，从上下文来看，这里a riot of carved gods， ... of the day.指的是许许多多、各种各样的浮雕。zoomorphic 的意思是“动物形”或“兽形”的。

下一段的 muzzles peeped wickedly 中，用wickedly这个词是否预示着这次航行的厄运呢？是 否与上一句中的a majestic spectacle及the red and gold of her superstructure 形成一种强烈的反差？读者可以考虑。

本文第四段以细腻的笔触描述了战船启程前庄重的仪式及驶出海口那瞬间的壮观及水面上、天空中难得一见的激动人心的景象。这里句子关键部分she presented ... had ever seen before. 之前一串独立结构生动地展现了一场眼花缭乱的景象，令人称羡不已。

描写得再生动也只是悲剧的铺垫，最终的结局是船身向左倾斜，无论用什么方法也没有人能止住这种倾斜，船最终下沉没顶，从此躺在波罗的海海底300余年之久。

这篇文章结构清晰，先是介绍背景，进入第三段后由背景转入1628年８月10日战船启航前的雄姿。第四、五两段很紧凑地叙述了启航那一刻的热闹场面及它突然倾斜下沉的悲剧，可作为我们学习英文写作的范文。