{"id":"01KG8AJPBDYHE3DH4MJBPSCRYT","cid":"bafkreid4jn4sqvcglspaij7fifagglqvxb7lmciyshnsrxknzgkupnipfm","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER II. HOMEWARD BOUND.\n## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)\nThis is a chapter from the novel \"[White-Jacket](arke:01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ)\" by Herman Melville, extracted from the text file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY). The chapter was extracted on January 30, 2026, as part of the \"Melville Complete Works\" collection ([arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW]). It spans lines 250-325 of the source text.\n\n## Context - Background and provenance from related entities\nThis chapter follows \"[CHAPTER I. THE JACKET.](arke:01KG8AJPBD2Q94XN872F7H5S7A)\" and precedes \"[CHAPTER III. A GLANCE AT THE PRINCIPAL DIVISIONS, INTO WHICH A MAN-OF-WAR’S CREW IS DIVIDED.](arke:01KG8AJPBDD8KW998HV70PRFQT)\" within the novel. The text was extracted by the \"structure-extraction-lambda\" tool.\n\n## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details\nThe chapter opens with the sailors preparing to return home, filled with excitement and anticipation. It describes the scene on the ship, including the activities of the officers, midshipmen, and captain. The chapter then details the process of raising anchor and setting sail, with the crew working together. The chapter concludes with a reference to \"White-Jacket,\" the protagonist, and his role in the events.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:47.917Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER II. HOMEWARD BOUND.","end_line":325,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.667Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER II. HOMEWARD BOUND.","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":250,"text":"CHAPTER II.\r\nHOMEWARD BOUND.\r\n\r\n\r\n“All hands up anchor! Man the capstan!”\r\n\r\n“High die! my lads, we’re homeward bound!”\r\n\r\nHomeward bound!—harmonious sound! Were you _ever_ homeward\r\nbound?—No?—Quick! take the wings of the morning, or the sails of a\r\nship, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth. There, tarry a year\r\nor two; and then let the gruffest of boatswains, his lungs all\r\ngoose-skin, shout forth those magical words, and you’ll swear “the harp\r\nof Orpheus were not more enchanting.”\r\n\r\nAll was ready; boats hoisted in, stun’ sail gear rove, messenger\r\npassed, capstan-bars in their places, accommodation-ladder below; and\r\nin glorious spirits, we sat down to dinner. In the ward-room, the\r\nlieutenants were passing round their oldest port, and pledging their\r\nfriends; in the steerage, the _middies_ were busy raising loans to\r\nliquidate the demands of their laundress, or else—in the navy\r\nphrase—preparing to pay their creditors _with a flying fore-topsail_.\r\nOn the poop, the captain was looking to windward; and in his grand,\r\ninaccessible cabin, the high and mighty commodore sat silent and\r\nstately, as the statue of Jupiter in Dodona.\r\n\r\nWe were all arrayed in our best, and our bravest; like strips of blue\r\nsky, lay the pure blue collars of our frocks upon our shoulders; and\r\nour pumps were so springy and playful, that we danced up and down as we\r\ndined.\r\n\r\nIt was on the gun-deck that our dinners were spread; all along between\r\nthe guns; and there, as we cross-legged sat, you would have thought a\r\nhundred farm-yards and meadows were nigh. Such a cackling of ducks,\r\nchickens, and ganders; such a lowing of oxen, and bleating of lambkins,\r\npenned up here and there along the deck, to provide sea repasts for the\r\nofficers. More rural than naval were the sounds; continually reminding\r\neach mother’s son of the old paternal homestead in the green old clime;\r\nthe old arching elms; the hill where we gambolled; and down by the\r\nbarley banks of the stream where we bathed.\r\n\r\n“All hands up anchor!”\r\n\r\nWhen that order was given, how we sprang to the bars, and heaved round\r\nthat capstan; every man a Goliath, every tendon a hawser!—round and\r\nround—round, round it spun like a sphere, keeping time with our feet to\r\nthe time of the fifer, till the cable was straight up and down, and the\r\nship with her nose in the water.\r\n\r\n“Heave and pall! unship your bars, and make sail!”\r\n\r\nIt was done: barmen, nipper-men, tierers, veerers, idlers and all,\r\nscrambled up the ladder to the braces and halyards; while like monkeys\r\nin Palm-trees, the sail-loosers ran out on those broad boughs, our\r\nyards; and down fell the sails like white clouds from the\r\nether—topsails, top-gallants, and royals; and away we ran with the\r\nhalyards, till every sheet was distended.\r\n\r\n“Once more to the bars!”\r\n\r\n“Heave, my hearties, heave hard!”\r\n\r\nWith a jerk and a yerk, we broke ground; and up to our bows came\r\nseveral thousand pounds of old iron, in the shape of our ponderous\r\nanchor.\r\n\r\nWhere was White-Jacket then?\r\n\r\nWhite-Jacket was where he belonged. It was White-Jacket that loosed\r\nthat main-royal, so far up aloft there, it looks like a white\r\nalbatross’ wing. It was White-Jacket that was taken for an albatross\r\nhimself, as he flew out on the giddy yard-arm!\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER II. HOMEWARD BOUND."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJPBD2Q94XN872F7H5S7A","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJPBDD8KW998HV70PRFQT","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.885Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:48.240Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}