{"id":"01KG6YHAXACWRVJEFJ786YY61C","cid":"bafkreie3ei67pvc2jgy4emzjgsmqncawb4h5n2vt25khadm6byvxz52yza","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2372,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:55.409Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","start_line":2317,"text":"their number, more especially the Spaniards. Off Cape Horn they had\r\nnarrowly escaped shipwreck; then, for days together, they had lain\r\ntranced without wind; their provisions were low; their water next to\r\nnone; their lips that moment were baked.\r\n\r\nWhile Captain Delano was thus made the mark of all eager tongues, his\r\none eager glance took in all faces, with every other object about him.\r\n\r\nAlways upon first boarding a large and populous ship at sea, especially\r\na foreign one, with a nondescript crew such as Lascars or Manilla men,\r\nthe impression varies in a peculiar way from that produced by first\r\nentering a strange house with strange inmates in a strange land. Both\r\nhouse and ship—the one by its walls and blinds, the other by its high\r\nbulwarks like ramparts—hoard from view their interiors till the last\r\nmoment: but in the case of the ship there is this addition; that the\r\nliving spectacle it contains, upon its sudden and complete disclosure,\r\nhas, in contrast with the blank ocean which zones it, something of the\r\neffect of enchantment. The ship seems unreal; these strange costumes,\r\ngestures, and faces, but a shadowy tableau just emerged from the deep,\r\nwhich directly must receive back what it gave.\r\n\r\nPerhaps it was some such influence, as above is attempted to be\r\ndescribed, which, in Captain Delano’s mind, heightened whatever, upon a\r\nstaid scrutiny, might have seemed unusual; especially the conspicuous\r\nfigures of four elderly grizzled negroes, their heads like black,\r\ndoddered willow tops, who, in venerable contrast to the tumult below\r\nthem, were couched, sphynx-like, one on the starboard cat-head, another\r\non the larboard, and the remaining pair face to face on the opposite\r\nbulwarks above the main-chains. They each had bits of unstranded old\r\njunk in their hands, and, with a sort of stoical self-content, were\r\npicking the junk into oakum, a small heap of which lay by their sides.\r\nThey accompanied the task with a continuous, low, monotonous, chant;\r\ndroning and drilling away like so many gray-headed bag-pipers playing a\r\nfuneral march.\r\n\r\nThe quarter-deck rose into an ample elevated poop, upon the forward\r\nverge of which, lifted, like the oakum-pickers, some eight feet above\r\nthe general throng, sat along in a row, separated by regular spaces,\r\nthe cross-legged figures of six other blacks; each with a rusty hatchet\r\nin his hand, which, with a bit of brick and a rag, he was engaged like\r\na scullion in scouring; while between each two was a small stack of\r\nhatchets, their rusted edges turned forward awaiting a like operation.\r\nThough occasionally the four oakum-pickers would briefly address some\r\nperson or persons in the crowd below, yet the six hatchet-polishers\r\nneither spoke to others, nor breathed a whisper among themselves, but\r\nsat intent upon their task, except at intervals, when, with the\r\npeculiar love in negroes of uniting industry with pastime, two and two\r\nthey sideways clashed their hatchets together, like cymbals, with a\r\nbarbarous din. All six, unlike the generality, had the raw aspect of\r\nunsophisticated Africans.\r\n\r\nBut that first comprehensive glance which took in those ten figures,\r\nwith scores less conspicuous, rested but an instant upon them, as,\r\nimpatient of the hubbub of voices, the visitor turned in quest of\r\nwhomsoever it might be that commanded the ship.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6YGB7Z3K8B6BYJGR83VQN5","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6YDDF6PTWG4P7JTS5THSTD","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG6YCG626JN4FCG8QK17CQCF","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6YHA8MCD4WMYEEASJM0S5C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6YHAXATCNDTHPQ49MRQRHB","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T07:57:58.058Z","ts":"2026-01-30T07:58:03.566Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}