{"id":"01KG6GMMTP8PE0HBFETMKH7HD4","cid":"bafkreiggt5jwykmtzelz4f5yjzv3jfvkigckssjemzagaw3trl7mcsdllm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2798,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:03.879Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 27","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":2733,"text":"troubles. What shame to us such a conjecture on their part, and how\r\ndeadly to discipline. You see then whither, prompted by duty and the\r\nlaw, I steadfastly drive. But I beseech you, my friends, do not take me\r\namiss. I feel as you do for this unfortunate boy. But did he know our\r\nhearts, I take him to be of that generous nature that he would feel even\r\nfor us on whom in this military necessity so heavy a compulsion is\r\nlaid.’\r\n\r\nWith that, crossing the deck, he resumed his place by the sashed\r\nport-hole, tacitly leaving the three to come to a decision. On the\r\ncabin’s opposite side the troubled court sat silent. Loyal lieges, plain\r\nand practical, though at bottom they dissented from some points Captain\r\nVere had put to them, they were without the faculty, hardly had the\r\ninclination to gainsay one whom they felt to be an earnest man, one,\r\ntoo, not less their superior in mind than in naval rank. But it is not\r\nimprobable that even such of his words as were not without influence\r\nover them, came home to them less than his closing appeal to their\r\ninstinct as sea-officers. He forecasted the practical consequences to\r\ndiscipline (considering the unconfirmed tone of the fleet at the time),\r\nif violent killing at sea by a man-of-war’s man of a superior in grade\r\nwere allowed to pass for aught else than a capital crime, and one\r\ndemanding prompt infliction of the penalty.\r\n\r\nNot unlikely they were brought to something more or less akin to that\r\nharassed frame of mind which in the year 1842 actuated the commander of\r\nthe U.S. brig-of-war _Somers_ to resolve, under the so-called Articles\r\nof War, Articles modelled upon the English Mutiny Act, to resolve upon\r\nthe execution at sea of a midshipman and two petty officers as mutineers\r\ndesigning the seizure of the brig. Which resolution was carried out\r\nthough in a time of peace and within not many days’ sail of home. An act\r\nvindicated by a naval court of inquiry subsequently convened ashore.\r\nHistory, and here cited without comment. True, the circumstances on\r\nboard the _Somers_ were different from those on board the _Indomitable_.\r\nBut the urgency felt, well warranted or otherwise, was much the same.\r\n\r\nSays a writer whom few know, ‘Forty years after a battle it is easy for\r\na non-combatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is\r\nanother thing personally and under fire to direct the fighting while\r\ninvolved in the obscuring smoke of it. Much so with respect to other\r\nemergencies involving considerations both practical and moral, and when\r\nit is imperative promptly to act. The greater the fog the more it\r\nimperils the steamer, and speed is put on though at the hazard of\r\nrunning somebody down. Little ween the snug card-players in the cabin of\r\nthe responsibilities of the sleepless man on the bridge.’\r\n\r\nIn brief, Billy Budd was formally convicted and sentenced to be hung at\r\nthe yard-arm in the early morning-watch, it being now night. Otherwise,\r\nas is customary in such cases, the sentence would forthwith have been\r\ncarried out. In war-time on the field or in the fleet, a mortal\r\npunishment decreed by a drum-head court--on the field sometimes decreed\r\nby but a nod from the general--follows without delay on the heel of\r\nconviction without appeal.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n                                  XIX\r\n\r\n\r\nIt was Captain Vere himself who of his own motion communicated the\r\nfinding of the court to the prisoner; for that purpose going to the\r\ncompartment where he was in custody, and bidding the marine there to\r\nwithdraw for the time.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 27"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6GK8EG5N9JTTBYRRP0CTKZ","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6GMMTMZGTTEBY07N8ESZMZ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6GMMTSXV3YTNBVRCQQG1MP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:55:06.454Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:55:15.108Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}