捕鲸业对现代人来说不仅是一项陌生的行当，在人们的记忆里，还带着残忍的标签。素以爱好“非暴力”著称的绿色和平，也数十年如一日孜孜不倦地在各种媒体上发布其攻击挪威及日本捕鲸船的短片，还在评论处不厌其烦地强调自己的道德立场，更衬托出捕鲸业仿佛与生俱来的道德缺陷。然而，拨开今人的偏见，也放下围绕于其周边似是而非的争执，捕鲸业曾造就了美国新英格兰地区的繁荣，更给处于工业革命中的人类文明送上了必须的润滑剂、蜡烛、化妆品甚至食物。关于捕鲸这行当的书，最著名的莫过于美国人麦尔维尔（Herman Melville）于1851年出版的《白鲸》（Moby-Dick）。这本书以大杂烩的口吻和诗史一般的恢弘气魄气魄描绘了19世纪中叶传统捕鲸业的生态。然而随着石油的大规模发掘与利用，捕鲸业也在余下的半个世纪里渐渐式微；而大蒸汽船和先进工具的制造使得鲸鱼的处理方式得到极大的改进，整个行业的生态也与《白鲸》里描述的颇有不同。去年初在Champaign的一家旧书店里发现了一本书，其对20世纪初捕鲸业的丰富描述极大地填补了本人的知识空白，于是在这里给大家分享。
这本书叫Whaling in the Frozen South（这里权且译作《冰南寻鲸》），作者是Alan J. Villiers, 于1931年由The Bobbs-Merrill Company出版，共302页。本书讲述了1923年作者以随船记者的身份登上一艘当时世界上最大的捕鲸作业船Sir James Clark Ross号，从澳大利亚的塔斯马尼亚出发，驶向南极的罗斯海（Ross Sea）展开逾时五个月的捕鲸之旅。此次出行具有重大的历史意义，因为这是人类第一次在罗斯海进行具规模的商业捕鲸。历史上曾经有探索队路经这片海域，在海面上目睹了成群的鲸鱼，还给其中一个海湾起名叫“鲸湾”（Bay of Whales）。然而他们都不是专业的捕鲸队；直至1923年这片海域到底有多少鲸鱼、这些鲸鱼具体属哪几种，人们还是不清楚的。所以这次出行说不定会给几近饱和的捕鲸业提供新的增长机会。
上世纪初捕鲸的目的，和现今的还在海面上游弋的挪威人、日本人捕鲸的目的有本质的不同：前者是为了鲸鱼的油，后者为了鲸鱼的肉。所以Sir James Clark Ross号功能上是一艘巨大的鲸油提炼工厂，实际上负责捕杀鲸鱼的是紧随其后的5艘小而灵活的蒸汽船。在鲸鱼丰饶的海域，Sir James Clark Ross号会找一处安静的海面抛锚，然后5搜小船分头向四周捕杀鲸鱼，随后小船将鲸鱼拖曳到大船边宰割，剃取其皮层脂肪和油脂含量高的组织后，割下小部分肉（beef）存以船上食用，将剩下的鲸肉全弃于大海。这样一天就能处理3-4条鲸鱼，船上的空间也大部分的用以存放经济价值高的鲸油。
本书详细地记载了航行在海上的点点滴滴。每次化险为夷的经过都是跟死神搏斗的结果。比如说两次捕鲸小船的失踪与营救，刺激的破冰脱围和暴风雨里寒冷的袭击。书里精彩的文笔也给第一头鲸的死亡卯足了戏剧的张力：
At length, not a quarter of a mile from the mothership, a big hull rose to blow less than twenty yards away, directly in front of the waiting Star II’s deadly gun... at last his forefinger twitched ever so slightly, and with a boom and a roar, a deluge of flying, twisted pads, a reek of explosive, the great shell-pointed steel harpoon flew out, and in a flurry of boiling foam the stricken leviathan sounded deep into the depths, in a terrible effort to rid himself of the burning steel. But his doom was sealed. Despite the explosion in his body of the soft iron shell with which the harpoon is tipped, the great monster refused to die. As long as he could he remained below, struggling madly to free himself, but at length he was forced to the surface again for air. As he rose the powerful winch on Star II quickly hove in the harpoon line, and as his great back broke the surface of the sea the gun was loaded again and captain Iversen, standing like a waiting matador, was ready to administer the death thrust. As the sorely wounded whale lay wallowing and struggling in the bloodstained foam the captain carefully trained his gun at the heaving target, and just as the bull turned in a vain effort to dive again, lifting half of his great bulk out of the water, the gun spoke once more and a second harpoon flew into the mountain of blubber and flesh. Instantly he sounded, the harpoon line running furiously over the bow-wheel. But not for long, the second shot had told, and scarcely tow minutes late the great whale lay, a mountain of death, suspended on the harpoon lien fathoms below the gently rippling surface. And thus the first whale died.
当然，一箩筐的趣事也提供了效力持久的笑料。比如为给船上的博物学家提供样本水手们与矫健的帝企鹅展开了搏斗：
After a long chase some five or six of us cornered a magnificent big penguin standing about four feet, six inches high and as strong as a powerful man (though we did not know that, then). One of the lads grappled with the burly Emperor, but beat a hasty and undignified retreat when the bird dealt him a blow with its strong flapper which all but knocked him out. We were more wary after that. Two of us tried to wrestle with the bird in the endeavor to throw it to the ice so that we could tie its feet together, but a snap of its iron jaws came perilously near a portion of one’s anatomy and we got out of the way in a hurry. There was nothing for it but to throw a coal-sack over the bird’s beautiful head. We were sorry we had to take such a step in the interests of science, but it had to be done.
每个没有出过海的人，都有自己对海洋的想象——电视镜头里晃动的船首和飞跃的鱼鸟，激动人心的画面此起披伏，令人应接不暇。然而航行在海上，并不是视频短片里精彩的几个镜头，仿佛天天都水清沙幼，或雷雨交加；在孤独的咸水潮浮里，时间和空间都会被稀释成薄薄的一个概念，而每天12小时在逼仄的空间来回于震耳的蒸汽机和恢弘的巨兽间，对生活的细琐会少些，对生命的思考会多些。这样的情怀，恐怕也只能在书里觅寻了。
四月份南极的冬季到来，船队也不得不撤退回新西兰港口。此次出行一共捕杀了221头鲸鱼，收获了17300桶鲸油，比行前预计的40000桶要少。原本以为会捕到大量的座头鲸，谁知绝大部分是巨型的蓝鲸。而最后发现被命名为“鲸湾”的海域里一条鲸鱼的痕迹都没有。不过这一趟航行开创了先河，随后的10年里接近一万头鲸鱼在这片海域被捕杀，150万桶鲸油被输送到世界各地。此后罗斯海复归平静，一切又和史前一样。
junwen
2015年1月2日 于Urbana