{"id":"01KG8AJQSBPN8BXRY3K8G2SQBQ","cid":"bafkreifrqkbkw5ff3qkr42vkdpr35fbxlw6vsacbh2vevjtoe2lkixxsgy","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER XXV. QUARTER-DECK FURNITURE\n\n## Overview\nThis entity is Chapter XXV, titled \"QUARTER-DECK FURNITURE,\" from the novel [Redburn: His First Voyage](arke:01KG8AJ9CVDS15WWAP46A9M4XP). It spans lines 4578 to 4650 of the source text.\n\n## Context\nThis chapter is part of [Redburn: His First Voyage](arke:01KG8AJ9CVDS15WWAP46A9M4XP), a novel by Herman Melville, which is included in the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The text for this chapter was extracted from the digital file [redburn.txt](arke:01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF). It follows [CHAPTER XXIV. HE BEGINS TO HOP ABOUT IN THE RIGGING LIKE A SAINT JAGO’S MONKEY](arke:01KG8AJQS2NQ7HM5PPY20XMP4F) and precedes [CHAPTER XXVI. A SAILOR A JACK OF ALL TRADES](arke:01KG8AJQSB2F5PTH7H10VJYZZ7).\n\n## Contents\nChapter XXV provides a detailed, descriptive account of various pieces of furniture and equipment found on a ship's quarter-deck, as observed by the narrator. Key items described include the binnacle, which houses the ship's compasses, noting its appearance and the narrator's curiosity about the compass needle. The chapter also details the ship's helm, a complex system of cogs and wheels that was a favorite of Captain Riga but disliked by the sailors due to its hazards. Other elements covered are the harness-cask, used for storing provisions and serving as the captain's smoking-seat, and the magnificent capstan, described as the \"pride and glory\" of the ship. The chapter concludes with mentions of the booby-hatch and the fife-rail.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:13.500Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER XXV. QUARTER-DECK FURNITURE","end_line":4650,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:38.127Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER XXV. QUARTER-DECK FURNITURE","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":4578,"text":"CHAPTER XXV.\r\nQUARTER-DECK FURNITURE\r\n\r\n\r\nThough, for reasons hinted at above, they would not let me steer, I\r\ncontented myself with learning the compass, a graphic facsimile of\r\nwhich I drew on a blank leaf of the _“Wealth of Nations,”_ and studied\r\nit every morning, like the multiplication table.\r\n\r\nI liked to peep in at the binnacle, and watch the needle; and I\r\nwondered how it was that it pointed north, rather than south or west;\r\nfor I do not know that any reason can be given why it points in the\r\nprecise direction it does. One would think, too, that, as since the\r\nbeginning of the world almost, the tide of emigration has been setting\r\nwest, the needle would point that way; whereas, it is forever pointing\r\nits fixed fore-finger toward the Pole, where there are few inducements\r\nto attract a sailor, unless it be plenty of ice for mint-juleps.\r\n\r\nOur binnacle, by the way, the place that holds a ship’s compasses,\r\ndeserves a word of mention. It was a little house, about the bigness of\r\na common bird-cage, with sliding panel doors, and two drawing-rooms\r\nwithin, and constantly perched upon a stand, right in front of the\r\nhelm. It had two chimney stacks to carry off the smoke of the lamp that\r\nburned in it by night.\r\n\r\nIt was painted green, and on two sides had Venetian blinds; and on one\r\nside two glazed sashes; so that it looked like a cool little summer\r\nretreat, a snug bit of an arbor at the end of a shady garden lane. Had\r\nI been the captain, I would have planted vines in boxes, and placed\r\nthem so as to overrun this binnacle; or I would have put canary-birds\r\nwithin; and so made an aviary of it. It is surprising what a different\r\nair may be imparted to the meanest thing by the dainty hand of taste.\r\nNor must I omit the helm itself, which was one of a new construction,\r\nand a particular favorite of the captain. It was a complex system of\r\ncogs and wheels and spindles, all of polished brass, and looked\r\nsomething like a printing-press, or power-loom. The sailors, however,\r\ndid not like it much, owing to the casualties that happened to their\r\nimprudent fingers, by catching in among the cogs and other intricate\r\ncontrivances. Then, sometimes in a calm, when the sudden swells would\r\nlift the ship, the helm would fetch a lurch, and send the helmsman\r\nrevolving round like Ixion, often seriously hurting him; a sort of\r\nbreaking on the wheel.\r\n\r\nThe _harness-cask,_ also, a sort of sea side-board, or rather\r\nmeat-safe, in which a week’s allowance of salt pork and beef is kept,\r\ndeserves being chronicled. It formed part of the standing furniture of\r\nthe quarter-deck. Of an oval shape, it was banded round with hoops all\r\nsilver-gilt, with gilded bands secured with gilded screws, and a gilded\r\npadlock, richly chased. This formed the captain’s smoking-seat, where\r\nhe would perch himself of an afternoon, a tasseled Chinese cap upon his\r\nhead, and a fragrant Havanna between his white and canine-looking\r\nteeth. He took much solid comfort, Captain Riga.\r\n\r\nThen the magnificent _capstan!_ The pride and glory of the whole ship’s\r\ncompany, the constant care and dandled darling of the cook, whose duty\r\nit was to keep it polished like a teapot; and it was an object of\r\ndistant admiration to the steerage passengers. Like a parlor\r\ncenter-table, it stood full in the middle of the quarter-deck, radiant\r\nwith brazen stars, and variegated with diamond-shaped veneerings of\r\nmahogany and satin wood. This was the captain’s lounge, and the chief\r\nmate’s secretary, in the bar-holes keeping paper and pencil for\r\nmemorandums.\r\n\r\nI might proceed and speak of the _booby-hatch,_ used as a sort of\r\nsettee by the officers, and the _fife-rail_ round the mainmast,\r\ninclosing a little ark of canvas, painted green, where a small white\r\ndog with a blue ribbon round his neck, belonging to the dock-master’s\r\ndaughter, used to take his morning walks, and air himself in this small\r\nedition of the New York Bowling-Green.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER XXV. QUARTER-DECK FURNITURE"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ9CVDS15WWAP46A9M4XP","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJQS2NQ7HM5PPY20XMP4F","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJQSB2F5PTH7H10VJYZZ7","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:41.355Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:14.410Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}