{"id":"01KG8AJRBSRE4B2S5T0N05HSWK","cid":"bafkreidchzkw2rso7s7twqpunnqqnxn6a7huyb5giskmyyvc3a5lxybagm","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER XL. SOME OF THE CEREMONIES IN A MAN-OF-WAR UNNECESSARY AND INJURIOUS.\n\n## Overview\nThis chapter, titled \"CHAPTER XL. SOME OF THE CEREMONIES IN A MAN-OF-WAR UNNECESSARY AND INJURIOUS,\" is the fortieth chapter of the novel [White-Jacket](arke:01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ). It spans lines 6433 to 6500 of its source text.\n\n## Context\nThis chapter is part of [White-Jacket](arke:01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ), 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 file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY). It follows [CHAPTER XXXIX. THE FRIGATE IN HARBOUR.—THE BOATS.—GRAND STATE RECEPTION OF THE COMMODORE.](arke:01KG8AJRBSW74J1CDMY5QE20AV) and precedes [CHAPTER XLI. A MAN-OF-WAR LIBRARY.](arke:01KG8AJS32H2J9X8WMRT4J4EQ2).\n\n## Contents\nThe chapter discusses the narrator's reading habits aboard the _Neversink_. It describes the limited and often unreadable books available in the ship's official library, contrasting them with the \"few choice old authors\" the narrator discovered among the inferior officers. These include \"Morgan’s History of Algiers,\" \"Knox’s Captivity in Ceylon, 1681,\" Walpole’s Letters, and various old plays by authors like Marlow, Jonson, Beaumont, and Fletcher. The narrator also mentions borrowing \"Moore’s _Loves of the Angels_\" and a Negro Song-book. The chapter concludes with a reflection on the value of books discovered by chance over those found in imposing public libraries.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:48.831Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER XL. SOME OF THE CEREMONIES IN A MAN-OF-WAR UNNECESSARY AND INJURIOUS.","end_line":6500,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.667Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER XL. SOME OF THE CEREMONIES IN A MAN-OF-WAR UNNECESSARY AND INJURIOUS.","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":6433,"text":"beautiful style, but then, in a sailor’s estimation, not to be\r\nmentioned with the _Lives of the Admirals_; and Blair’s Lectures,\r\nUniversity Edition—a fine treatise on rhetoric, but having nothing to\r\nsay about nautical phrases, such as “_splicing the main-brace_,”\r\n“_passing a gammoning_,” “_puddinging the dolphin_,” and “_making a\r\nCarrick-bend_;” besides numerous invaluable but unreadable tomes, that\r\nmight have been purchased cheap at the auction of some\r\ncollege-professor’s library.\r\n\r\nBut I found ample entertainment in a few choice old authors, whom I\r\nstumbled upon in various parts of the ship, among the inferior\r\nofficers. One was “_Morgan’s History of Algiers_,” a famous old quarto,\r\nabounding in picturesque narratives of corsairs, captives, dungeons,\r\nand sea-fights; and making mention of a cruel old Dey, who, toward the\r\nlatter part of his life, was so filled with remorse for his cruelties\r\nand crimes that he could not stay in bed after four o’clock in the\r\nmorning, but had to rise in great trepidation and walk off his bad\r\nfeelings till breakfast time. And another venerable octavo, containing\r\na certificate from Sir Christopher Wren to its authenticity, entitled\r\n“_Knox’s Captivity in Ceylon, 1681_”—abounding in stories about the\r\nDevil, who was superstitiously supposed to tyrannise over that\r\nunfortunate land: to mollify him, the priests offered up buttermilk,\r\nred cocks, and sausages; and the Devil ran roaring about in the woods,\r\nfrightening travellers out of their wits; insomuch that the Islanders\r\nbitterly lamented to Knox that their country was full of devils, and\r\nconsequently, there was no hope for their eventual well-being. Knox\r\nswears that he himself heard the Devil roar, though he did not see his\r\nhorns; it was a terrible noise, he says, like the baying of a hungry\r\nmastiff.\r\n\r\nThen there was Walpole’s Letters—very witty, pert, and polite—and some\r\nodd volumes of plays, each of which was a precious casket of jewels of\r\ngood things, shaming the trash nowadays passed off for dramas,\r\ncontaining “The Jew of Malta,” “Old Fortunatus,” “The City Madam.”\r\n“Volpone,” “The Alchymist,” and other glorious old dramas of the age of\r\nMarlow and Jonson, and that literary Damon and Pythias, the\r\nmagnificent, mellow old Beaumont and Fletcher, who have sent the long\r\nshadow of their reputation, side by side with Shakspeare’s, far down\r\nthe endless vale of posterity. And may that shadow never be less! but\r\nas for St. Shakspeare may his never be more, lest the commentators\r\narise, and settling upon his sacred text like unto locusts, devour it\r\nclean up, leaving never a dot over an I.\r\n\r\nI diversified this reading of mine, by borrowing Moore’s “_Loves of the\r\nAngels_” from Rose-water, who recommended it as “_de charmingest of\r\nvolumes;_” and a Negro Song-book, containing _Sittin’ on a Rail_,\r\n_Gumbo Squash_, and _Jim along Josey_, from Broadbit, a\r\nsheet-anchor-man. The sad taste of this old tar, in admiring such\r\nvulgar stuff, was much denounced by Rose-water, whose own predilections\r\nwere of a more elegant nature, as evinced by his exalted opinion of the\r\nliterary merits of the “_Loves of the Angels_.”\r\n\r\nI was by no means the only reader of books on board the Neversink.\r\nSeveral other sailors were diligent readers, though their studies did\r\nnot lie in the way of belles-lettres. Their favourite authors were such\r\nas you may find at the book-stalls around Fulton Market; they were\r\nslightly physiological in their nature. My book experiences on board of\r\nthe frigate proved an example of a fact which every book-lover must\r\nhave experienced before me, namely, that though public libraries have\r\nan imposing air, and doubtless contain invaluable volumes, yet,\r\nsomehow, the books that prove most agreeable, grateful, and\r\ncompanionable, are those we pick up by chance here and there; those\r\nwhich seem put into our hands by Providence; those which pretend to\r\nlittle, but abound in much.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER XL. SOME OF THE CEREMONIES IN A MAN-OF-WAR UNNECESSARY AND INJURIOUS."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJRBSW74J1CDMY5QE20AV","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJS32H2J9X8WMRT4J4EQ2","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:41.945Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:49.055Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}