{"id":"01KG8AJP4H5RN2CKJMW2WVVSKP","cid":"bafkreifdfhkhr6dicsxvomra4qowkhh5rrr7yhfjvsxvnnxiugc3dqrvwe","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER VII. A Pause\n## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)\nThis is a chapter from the novel *Mardi: And a Voyage Thither*, extracted from the text file `mardi_vol1.txt`. The chapter, labeled \"CHAPTER VII. A Pause\", was extracted on January 30, 2026, and contains text from lines 958 to 1003 of the source file. It is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection.\n\n## Context - Background and provenance from related entities\nThis chapter is part of the novel [Mardi: And a Voyage Thither](arke:01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA), which is contained within the file [mardi_vol1.txt](arke:01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK). The novel and chapter were extracted by the \"structure-extraction-lambda\" tool. This chapter follows [CHAPTER VI. Eight Bells](arke:01KG8AJP4H75ZZ83V0ZADEW8B8) and precedes [CHAPTER VIII. They Push Off, Velis Et Remis](arke:01KG8AJQ6BH6MH34DBJR6WAAM1).\n\n## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details\nThe chapter opens with a reflection on the ship Arcturion, and the narrator's departure from it. The narrator contemplates the ship's fate, wondering if it sank or met another end. He then expresses relief at having avoided a sailor's grave, and a sense of guilt for surviving.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:05.892Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER VII. A Pause","end_line":1003,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.468Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER VII. A Pause","source_file":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","start_line":958,"text":"CHAPTER VII.\r\nA Pause\r\n\r\n\r\nGood old Arcturion! Maternal craft; that rocked me so often in thy\r\nheart of oak, I grieve to tell how I deserted thee on the broad deep.\r\nSo far from home, with such a motley crew, so many islanders, whose\r\nheathen babble echoing through thy Christian hull, must have grated\r\nharshly on every carline.\r\n\r\nOld ship! where sails thy lone ghost now? For of the stout Arcturion no\r\nword was ever heard, from the dark hour we pushed from her fated\r\nplanks. In what time of tempest, to what seagull’s scream, the drowning\r\neddies did their work, knows no mortal man. Sunk she silently,\r\nhelplessly, into the calm depths of that summer sea, assassinated by\r\nthe ruthless blade of the swordfish? Such things have been. Or was hers\r\na better fate? Stricken down while gallantly battling with the blast;\r\nher storm-sails set; helm manned; and every sailor at his post; as sunk\r\nthe Hornet, her men at quarters, in some distant gale.\r\n\r\nBut surmises are idle. A very old craft, she may have foundered; or\r\nlaid her bones upon some treacherous reef; but as with many a far\r\nrover, her fate is a mystery.\r\n\r\nPray Heaven, the spirit of that lost vessel roaming abroad through the\r\ntroubled mists of midnight gales—as old mariners believe of missing\r\nships—may never haunt my future path upon the waves. Peacefully may she\r\nrest at the bottom of the sea; and sweetly sleep my shipmates in the\r\nlowest watery zone, where prowling sharks come not, nor billows roll.\r\n\r\nBy quitting the Arcturion when we did, Jarl and I unconsciously eluded\r\na sailor’s grave. We hear of providential deliverances. Was this one?\r\nBut life is sweet to all, death comes as hard. And for myself I am\r\nalmost tempted to hang my head, that I escaped the fate of my\r\nshipmates; something like him who blushed to have escaped the fell\r\ncarnage at Thermopylae.\r\n\r\nThough I can not repress a shudder when I think of that old ship’s end,\r\nit is impossible for me so much as to imagine, that our deserting her\r\ncould have been in any way instrumental in her loss. Nevertheless, I\r\nwould to heaven the Arcturion still floated; that it was given me once\r\nmore to tread her familiar decks.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER VII. A Pause"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJA6157W2830190N652KA","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1HYC04JWXEK48P07WPK","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJP4H75ZZ83V0ZADEW8B8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJQ6BH6MH34DBJR6WAAM1","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.665Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:06.845Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}