{"id":"01KG6G84A5SHNF5FXFTC2TGYYV","cid":"bafkreierkcgndtyonq3mlsmqqhqdt4xpd7lio4jqzslrrhojpgftlnzjwq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":338,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.150Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":288,"text":"A superb figure, tossed up as by the horns of Taurus against the\r\nthunderous sky, cheerily ballooning to the strenuous file along the\r\nspar.\r\n\r\nThe moral nature was seldom out of keeping with the physical make.\r\nIndeed, except as toned by the former, the comeliness and power, always\r\nattractive in masculine conjunction, hardly could have drawn the sort of\r\nhomage the Handsome Sailor in some examples received from his less\r\ngifted associates.\r\n\r\nSuch a cynosure, at least in aspect, and something such too in nature,\r\nthough with important variations made apparent as the story proceeds,\r\nwas welkin-eyed Billy Budd, or Baby Budd, as more familiarly, under\r\ncircumstances hereafter to be given, he at last came to be called, aged\r\ntwenty-one, a foretopman of the fleet toward the close of the last\r\ndecade of the eighteenth century. It was not very long prior to the time\r\nof the narration that follows that he had entered the King’s Service,\r\nhaving been impressed on the Narrow Seas from a homeward-bound English\r\nmerchantman into a seventy-four outward-bound, H.M.S. _Indomitable_;\r\nwhich ship, as was not unusual in those hurried days, had been obliged\r\nto put to sea short of her proper complement of men. Plump upon Billy at\r\nfirst sight in the gangway the boarding-officer, Lieutenant Ratcliffe,\r\npounced, even before the merchantman’s crew formally was mustered on the\r\nquarter-deck for his deliberate inspection. And him only he selected.\r\nFor whether it was because the other men when ranged before him showed\r\nto ill advantage after Billy, or whether he had some scruples in view of\r\nthe merchantman being rather short-handed; however it might be, the\r\nofficer contented himself with his first spontaneous choice. To the\r\nsurprise of the ship’s company, though much to the Lieutenant’s\r\nsatisfaction, Billy made no demur. But indeed any demur would have been\r\nas idle as the protest of a goldfinch popped into a cage.\r\n\r\nNoting this uncomplaining acquiescence, all but cheerful one might say,\r\nthe shipmates turned a surprised glance of silent reproach at the\r\nsailor. The shipmaster was one of those worthy mortals found in every\r\nvocation, even the humbler ones--the sort of person whom everybody\r\nagrees in calling ‘a respectable man.’ And--nor so strange to report as\r\nit may appear to be--though a ploughman of the troubled waters,\r\nlife-long contending with the intractable elements, there was nothing\r\nthis honest soul at heart loved better than simple peace and quiet. For\r\nthe rest, he was fifty or thereabouts, a little inclined to corpulence,\r\na prepossessing face, unwhiskered, and of an agreeable colour, a rather\r\nfull face, humanely intelligent in expression. On a fair day with a fair\r\nwind and all going well, a certain musical chime in his voice seemed to\r\nbe the veritable unobstructed outcome of the innermost man. He had much\r\nprudence, much conscientiousness, and there were occasions when these\r\nvirtues were the cause of overmuch disquietude in him. On a passage, so\r\nlong as his craft was in any proximity to land, no sleep for Captain\r\nGraveling. He took to heart those serious responsibilities not so\r\nheavily borne by some shipmasters.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G6NC36SJG9DRK08Y7Z03F","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G84A1V62BVNJZSPJKR0TY","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G849Z0W6VGATGMFKWZW1A","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:48:16.325Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:48:23.808Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}