超級遊艇放大億萬富翁的最惡品性
A few days ago, I sailed past Sir Philip Green’s new superyacht Lionheart: nearly 3,000 tonnes of floating bombast at anchor off the Greek island of Skiathos.
前一陣子，我乘船經過菲利普•格林爵士(Sir Philip Green)新的超級遊艇Lionheart：重達近3000噸的龐然大物，停泊在希臘斯基亞索斯島海邊。
It reminded me of the only time I boarded such a boat — belonging to another tycoon with pension troubles, Robert Maxwell.
這讓我想起我唯一一次登上這類遊艇的經歷，船主是另一位遭遇養老金麻煩的大亨羅伯特•馬克斯韋爾(Robert Maxwell)。
In 1988, he flew me and other journalists to Corsica to join him on the Lady Ghislaine so he could explain his latest publishing deal over lunch.
1988年，他用飛機把我和其他記者載到科西嘉島，與他一起登上他的遊艇Lady Ghislaine，這樣他就能在午餐時分跟我們解釋他的最新出版交易了。
Three years later, the media mogul disappeared from the same yacht, thus dodging the personal consequences of his looting of the Mirror media group pension funds.
3年後，這位媒體大亨從這座遊艇上失蹤（後被確認死亡），從而逃避了他竊取媒體集團鏡報集團(Mirror)養老金所需接受的責罰。
Unlike Maxwell in 1988, Sir Philip, recently lambasted by MPs for his poor stewardship of retail chain BHS, was not in a forthcoming mood. (He is not accused of any illegality in relation to the underfunding of pensions at BHS, which he sold last year).
與1988年的馬克斯韋爾不同，最近因管理零售連鎖BHS不善而受到議會議員抨擊的菲利普爵士並不怎麼願意與媒體交流（他並未因BHS養老金虧空而被控犯有任何違法行爲，他去年出售了這家公司）。
The retailer did not respond to my text offering to buy him a drink and he declined other reporters’ attempts to interview him.
我向這位零售大亨提出一起喝點東西，但他沒有回覆；他還拒絕了其他記者的採訪要求。
But seeing Lionheart — which, at 90m, is 35m longer than Maxwell’s vessel — made me realise how superyachts sum up the flaws and contradictions of business success.
但看到Lionheart（長90米，比馬克斯韋爾的遊艇長35米）讓我意識到，超級遊艇概括了商業成功的缺憾和矛盾。
Vastly wealthy men (and a few wealthy women) seem to feel they are the only places they can enjoy undisturbed leisure, living out the fantasy portrayed by Jules Verne in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
擁有鉅額財富的男性（以及少數富有女性）似乎認爲，遊艇是他們能享受不受打擾的休閒時光的唯一場所，領略朱爾•凡爾納(Jules Verne)在《海底兩萬裏》(20,000 Leagues Under the Sea)中描寫的那種幻境。
Its anti-hero Captain Nemo is able to circle the globe in near-total secrecy in a giant submarine, Nautilus, complete with the latest technology, luxurious decor, haute cuisine and a library with books on science, ethics and literature . . . [but not] a single work on economics.
書中的反面人物內莫船長(Captain Nemo)可以駕駛巨型潛水艇鸚鵡螺號(Nautilus)在幾乎完全隱祕的情況下環遊世界，這艘潛水艇配備最新科技，裝飾奢華，提供高級菜餚，還設有一個圖書館，裏面有各種書籍——科技、倫理和文學……但沒有一本關於經濟的書。
Unlike Nautilus, though, superyachts are hard to hide.
與鸚鵡螺號不同，超級遊艇很難隱身。
When moored in Monaco alongside others, the billionaires and oligarchs may as well be living in an overlooked suburban semi-detached, albeit one with its own spa, jet skis and, occasionally, small submersible.
在摩納哥與其他遊艇停泊在一起時，這些億萬富翁和寡頭們還不如生活在不被人注意的郊區別墅裏，那些別墅即便是半獨立式，但也有自己的水療中心、摩托艇，有時還有小型潛水器。
Paradoxically, being seen is often part of the attraction of owning such an oversized vessel.
矛盾的是，被人看到往往是擁有如此超大規模遊艇的吸引力的一部分。
Large yachts are meant to enhance the reputation of their owners with ultra-rich peers.
大型遊艇旨在提高所有者在其他超級富豪中的聲譽。
But when things go wrong, they undermine their image.
但當情況變糟時，它們會破壞所有者的形象。
When I tweeted a picture of Lionheart, a number of people pointed out that Sir Philip’s sundeck was within range of a well-aimed rotten tomato.
當我在Twitter上貼出Lionheart的照片時，很多人指出，如果瞄的準的話，一個爛番茄可以砸中菲利普爵士的日光甲板。
In The New New Thing, Michael Lewis chronicles Jim Clark’s obsession with Hyperion, his computer-controlled yacht, as the dotcom bubble inflated in the late 1990s.
在《新新事物》(The New New Thing)一書中，邁克爾•劉易斯(Michael Lewis)記錄了在上世紀90年代末，網絡泡沫膨脹時，吉姆•克拉克(Jim Clark)對他由電腦控制的遊艇Hyperion的癡迷。
At one point, Netscape’s co-founder learns someone is building a bigger boat: One minute he could say, ‘Who cares which rich guy has the tallest mast?’ — and actually believe every word of it.
這位網景(Netscape)聯合創始人得知有人在建造一艘更大的遊艇：他這一分鐘可能會說：‘誰在乎哪個富人的桅杆最高？’說的時候是出於真心。
The next minute he would be standing [with] the mast jutting out from him like an enormous black phallus and booming ‘Mine’s sixty metres.
下一分鐘就站在船上，桅杆像巨大的黑色陰莖一樣伸出去，並炫耀着‘我的是六十米。
How long is yours?’.
你的有多長？’
Lewis witnessed intelligence and testosterone . . . wrestling for hegemony.
劉易斯見證的是理智與睾丸素……在交戰，爭奪控制權。
It is easy to see how such a wrestling match could transfer from the bridge to the boardroom, where corporate leaders already love to picture themselves as masters of ships tossed by unpredictable storms.
很容易看到這種較量可能會從船上的駕駛臺轉移到董事會，在董事會，企業領袖已然喜歡把自己描述爲船長，爲在不可預測的風暴中顛簸前行的船隻掌舵。
There is a good reason why Nemo banned economics books from his on-board library: the economics of building and running such vessels are terrifying.
內莫船長禁止他船上的圖書館裏出現經濟方面的書籍有一個很好的理由：建造和管理這種超級遊艇極度划不來。
Sir Philip (or possibly his wife, who owns the retail empire) reportedly paid $150m for Lionheart; the world’s biggest superyacht, the 180m Azzam, cost the sheikh who probably owns it well over twice that.
據報道，菲利普爵士（或者可能是擁有這個零售王國的他妻子）爲Lionheart支付了1.50億美元；全球最大遊艇——180米長的Azzam，讓那位可能擁有它的阿拉伯酋長支付的價格遠不止前者的兩倍。
Towergate Insurance, which last year compiled a list of the true costs of such showboats, says cover alone could run to $240,000 annually.
Towergate Insurance去年編制了一份超級遊艇真實成本的列表，該公司表示，僅每年的保險就可能高達24萬美元。
Operating costs amount to at least 10 per cent of the purchase price.
運行成本至少爲購買價的10%。
No wonder most owners hang on to their boats for only three years and that J Pierpont Morgan supposedly uttered the line if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it to warn a contact against following him into yacht ownership.
因此多數所有者只保留3年就毫不奇怪了，據說，JP•摩根(J. Pierpont Morgan)曾說出這樣的話來警告一位希望像他那樣購買遊艇的朋友：如果你非要問價格，你是買不起的。
I can see only two advantages to owning large boats.
我認爲擁有大型遊艇只有兩個好處。
One is to indulge at scale a childhood hobby, as dedicated sailor Sir Charles Dunstone, the Carphone Warehouse founder, does.
第一是極大地滿足兒時的愛好，就像酷愛航海的手機零售商卡馮-維爾豪斯集團（Carphone Warehouse Group)創始人查爾斯•鄧斯通爵士(Sir Charles Dunstone)所做的那樣。
Another is making beautiful boats seaworthy again, as household gadget grandee Sir James Dyson has done by restoring Nahlin, a 1930s steam yacht, seems a worthy allocation of funds.
另一個原因是，花錢讓美麗的遊艇能夠再次出海（就像家用電器巨擘詹姆斯•戴森爵士(Sir James Dyson)翻修上世紀30年代的蒸汽遊艇Nahlin那樣）似乎是值得的。
In general, though, while nothing stops magnates spending honestly earned billions with as little taste and as much extravagance as they can afford, most superyacht purchases reflect all their worst traits: hubris, personal greed, an over-aggressive need to compete and a disregard for public opinion.
總之，儘管什麼都不能阻止大亨們在可承受的範圍內，以極低的品味和極大的浮誇花掉他們誠實賺來的錢財，但多數超級遊艇的購置反映出他們最惡的品性：自大、個人貪婪、過於好勝以及對公衆意見的漠視。
Worse, superyachts allow their owners to indulge a Nemo-like illusion that they can cast off from the real world, where, as Maxwell discovered and Sir Philip may yet, judgment can be harsh, retribution painful and nemesis as hard to avoid as an uncharted reef.
更糟的是，超級遊艇讓它們的所有者沉浸在內莫船長那樣的錯覺中，以爲自己可以擺脫真實的世界，在真實世界裏，如馬克斯韋爾曾經發現、菲利普爵士也可能將要發現的那樣，審判可能是殘酷的，懲罰可能是痛苦的，報應可能就像未知的礁石那樣難以避免。
