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  3. After years of painstaking research and sophisticated surveys, Jaco Boshoff

After years of painstaking research and sophisticated surveys, Jaco Boshoff

游客2023-12-28  62
问题     After years of painstaking research and sophisticated surveys, Jaco Boshoff may be on the verge of a nearly unheard-of discovery: the wreck of a Dutch slave ship that broke apart 239 years ago on this forbidding, windswept coast after a violent revolt by the slaves.
    Boshoff, 39, a marine archaeologist with the government-run Iziko Museums, will not find out until he starts digging on this deserted beach on Africa’s southernmost point, probably later this year.
    After three years of surveys with sensitive magnetometers, he knows, at least, where to look: at a cluster of magnetic abnormalities, three beneath the beach and one beneath the surf, near the mouth of the Heuningries River, where the 450-ton slave ship, the Meermin, ran aground in 1766.
    If he is right, it will be a find for the history books — especially if he recovers shackles, spears and iron guns that shed light on how 147 Malagasy slaves seized their captors’ vessel, only to be recaptured. Although European countries shipped millions of slaves from Africa over four centuries, archaeologists estimate that fewer than 10 slave shipwrecks have been found worldwide. If he is wrong, Boshoff said in an interview, "I will have a lot of explaining to do."
    He will, however, have an excuse. Historical records indicate that at least 30 ships have run aground in the treacherous waters off Struis Bay, the earliest of them in 1673. Although Boshoff says he believes beyond doubt that the remains of a ship are buried on this beach — the jagged timbers of a wreck are sometimes uncovered during September’s spring tide — there is always the prospect that his surveys have found the wrong one.
    "Finding shipwrecks is just so difficult in the first place," said Madeleine Burnside, the author of Spirits of the Passage, a book on the slave trade, and executive director of the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society in Key West, Florida. "Usually — not always — they are located by accident."
    Other slave-ship finds have produced compelling evidence of both the brutality and the lucrative nature of the slave trade.
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答案     多年的潜心研究和详尽调查也许即将会给雅戈.博肖夫带来一个世人几乎前所未闻的发现：一艘荷兰贩奴船的残骸。在239年前，在这一带风险浪急的恶劣海岸，这条船在经历了一场激烈的奴隶暴动后，断裂沉没。
    博肖夫，现年39岁，海洋考古学家，在政府经营的伊泽科博物馆任职。他准备今年晚些时候在非洲最南端这一带荒凉的海滩开始发掘，在此之前不会有任何结果。
    利用灵敏的地磁测量仪，经过三年努力，他弄清楚了该从哪儿着手——几处地磁异常现象集中的地方：三处在沙滩下面，一处在浪线以下，地点靠近霍宁格里斯河口，这就是450吨的贩奴船——米尔明号——1766年搁浅的地方。
    如果他成功了，这一发现将载入史册。如果他找到镣铐、梭标和铁炮，从中可推断出那147名来自马尔加什的奴隶怎样夺取人贩子的船，后来又被制服的经过，那就更要大书特书了。虽然欧洲国家在400年中从非洲贩运了数百万奴隶，考古学家估计，全世界迄今找到的贩奴船残骸不到10艘。如果他不成功，博肖夫在接受采访时说，“我就要作大量的解释工作。”
    不过他还可以有另一个理由。据历史记载，在斯特鲁斯湾附近的险恶海域至少曾有三十艘船搁浅，最早的一宗发生在1673年。虽然博肖夫说他毫不怀疑这片海滩里埋着一条船的残骸，残骸那散乱的木头有时会在九月涌潮的冲刷下显露出来，不过另一种可能总是存在的：他经调查所发现的是另外一条船。
     “寻找船只的残骸本来就是件非常困难的事，”马德林.伯恩赛德说。伯恩赛德是美国佛罗里达州基韦斯特市梅尔.费希尔海事遗产学会执行会长，著有《海上孤魂》，这是一部有关贩奴的书。他还说：“船只的残骸，虽不尽然，往往都是偶然发现的。”
    其它贩奴船的发现令人信服地证明当年贩卖奴隶是多么残酷，利润又是多么丰厚。
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