紐時賞析／抹去「美利堅邦聯」痕跡 美海軍2船艦更名

2 Navy Ships Will Receive New Names

抹去「美利堅邦聯」痕跡 美海軍2船艦更名

One night in 1862, as the Civil War raged, an enslaved mariner named Robert Smalls seized an opportunity.

1862年的一個夜晚，正值美國南北戰爭如火如荼之際，名叫羅伯特．史莫爾斯的奴隸水手把握了一個良機。

When the enlisted crew of a Confederate steamer disembarked for a night of carousing in Charleston, South Carolina, Smalls, the ship’s pilot, gathered his family and the other enslaved sailors and their families. He then steered the ship for a dramatic escape past heavy fortifications to Union-controlled waters and freedom.

當一艘「美利堅邦聯」汽船上被徵召入伍的船員，在南卡羅來納州查爾斯頓靠岸一晚飲酒作樂時，駕駛該船的史莫爾斯，召集了他家人和其他遭奴役水手及其家人。然後他駕著該船戲劇性躲過重兵布防，抵達由「聯邦」控制的水域，奔向自由。

Disguised in a top hat and a Confederate captain’s long overcoat, Smalls gave the passcodes at each of five Confederate forts and, once past the reach of cannon fire, hoisted a white flag of sewn-together bedsheets that his wife, Hannah, had made — delivering the ship to Union forces.

史莫爾斯以一頂高禮帽與一件邦聯船長的長大衣為偽裝，在五座邦聯要塞都交出通行密碼，一駛離大砲射程，就豎起一面由其妻漢娜將幾張床單縫在一起製成的白旗，將船交給聯邦部隊。

Smalls and the crew had lined the bottom of the boat with dynamite to detonate rather than be recaptured and face execution.

史莫爾斯和船員在船底鋪設炸藥，準備引爆，以免被抓面臨處決。

Now, Smalls will be immortalized on a U.S. Navy warship named after him, as will Marie Tharp, a pioneering ocean geologist. Both are receiving broader recognition under a Pentagon program to rid military installations and other property of Confederate ties.

如今，史莫爾斯將名垂千古，一艘美國海軍軍艦將以他為名，還有一艘以海洋地質先驅瑪莉．瑟普命名。兩人都在五角大廈一項計畫中獲得更廣泛的認可，該計畫將清除軍事設施及其他資產與邦聯的聯繫。

The Naming Commission, a committee created by Congress in response to a public backlash against Confederate memorials in the wake of the 2020 murder of George Floyd, identified two ships to be rechristened in the Navy’s fleet.

2020年喬治．佛洛伊德謀殺案後，民眾對紀念邦聯物件強烈反彈，美國國會因此創設「命名委員會」回應。該會確認海軍艦隊中兩艘船艦要重新命名。

One, a warship deployed in the waters off Japan, called the USS Chancellorsville after the Confederate Civil War victory in Virginia, will be renamed the USS Robert Smalls.

其中一艘戰艦部署在日本外海，以邦聯於美國內戰期間在維吉尼亞州獲勝戰役命名的「昌塞勒斯維號」，將更名為「羅伯特．史莫爾斯號」。

The other, a Pathfinder-class oceanographic survey ship called the USNS Maury, was named after Matthew Fontaine Maury, a U.S. Navy commander who resigned in 1861 to join the Confederate Navy during the Civil War and is known as “Pathfinder of the Seas” for his work charting the global paths of ocean currents. It will be rechristened the USNS Marie Tharp, after the ocean cartographer who helped document the phenomenon of continental drift.

另一艘名為「莫瑞號」的探路者級海洋調查船，是以1861年南北戰爭時離職加入邦聯海軍的美國海軍中校馬修．方登．莫瑞命名，他被譽為「海洋探路者」，以致力繪製全球洋流路徑圖而聞名。莫瑞號將更名為「瑪莉．瑟普號」，以這位協助記錄大陸漂移現象的海洋製圖員為名。

When the Naming Commission informed the Navy that it would have four assets to rename — two buildings at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, and two ships — dozens of suggestions flooded Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro’s office, said Tralene Hunston, a civilian employee in the public affairs office.

公共事務辦公室文職雇員特拉琳恩．洪斯頓說，當命名委員會通知海軍將有四件資產要重新命名，包括位於馬里蘭州安納波利斯的美國海軍官校兩棟建築物和兩艘船艦時，建言如雪片般飛至海軍部長戴杜羅的辦公室。

The Navy is planning namesake ceremonies that do not disrupt operations of either ship, Hunston said.

洪斯頓還說，海軍正計畫舉行不打亂這兩艘船艦活動的命名儀式。

文／Emily Schmall　譯／茅毅