{"id":"01KG8AJSTQKK8J84ZGGR8J2PMD","cid":"bafkreicts64xgjwidalnrpodicr6uszwujldh7n77ucppfvby3xvsv4s4q","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER LX.\nA MAN-OF-WAR’S-MAN SHOT AT.\n\n## Overview\nThis is a chapter from the novel [White-Jacket](arke:01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ) by Herman Melville. It recounts an incident where a seaman, attempting to desert the ship, is shot by a sentry. The chapter details the immediate aftermath, including the medical examination and initial treatment of the wounded man. It is chapter 60 in the novel, located between [CHAPTER LIX.\nA MAN-OF-WAR BUTTON DIVIDES TWO BROTHERS.](arke:01KG8AJSV1XVDP1YY6T1B1709H) and [CHAPTER LXI.\nTHE SURGEON OF THE FLEET.](arke:01KG8AJTJS4FN5MFKBD96AVPYJ).\n\n## Context\nThe chapter is part of the larger work, [White-Jacket](arke:01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ), which is included in the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The text was extracted from the file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY).\n\n## Contents\nThe chapter describes an event where a seaman, forbidden from going ashore, attempts to swim to a nearby canoe to desert. A sentry spots him and, after issuing a warning, shoots the man. The narrative focuses on the details of the wound, the initial medical assessment, and the decision to delay extracting the bullet due to the man's weakened state. The chapter concludes by introducing Cadwallader Cuticle, the ship's surgeon, setting the stage for the subsequent chapter.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:52.637Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER LX.","end_line":9475,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:39.667Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER LX.\nA MAN-OF-WAR’S-MAN SHOT AT.","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":9408,"text":"CHAPTER LX.\r\nA MAN-OF-WAR’S-MAN SHOT AT.\r\n\r\n\r\nThere was a seaman belonging to the fore-top—a mess-mate, though not a\r\ntop-mate of mine, and no favourite of the Captain’s,—who, for certain\r\nvenial transgressions, had been prohibited from going ashore on liberty\r\nwhen the ship’s company went. Enraged at the deprivation—for he had not\r\ntouched earth in upward of a year—he, some nights after, lowered\r\nhimself overboard, with the view of gaining a canoe, attached by a rope\r\nto a Dutch galiot some cables’-lengths distant. In this canoe he\r\nproposed paddling himself ashore. Not being a very expert swimmer, the\r\ncommotion he made in the water attracted the ear of the sentry on that\r\nside of the ship, who, turning about in his walk, perceived the faint\r\nwhite spot where the fugitive was swimming in the frigate’s shadow. He\r\nhailed it; but no reply.\r\n\r\n“Give the word, or I fire!”\r\n\r\nNot a word was heard.\r\n\r\nThe next instant there was a red flash, and, before it had completely\r\nceased illuminating the night the white spot was changed into crimson.\r\nSome of the officers, returning from a party at the Beach of the\r\nFlamingoes, happened to be drawing near the ship in one of her cutters.\r\nThey saw the flash, and the bounding body it revealed. In a moment the\r\ntopman was dragged into the boat, a handkerchief was used for a\r\ntourniquet, and the wounded fugitive was soon on board the frigate,\r\nwhen, the surgeon being called, the necessary attentions were rendered.\r\n\r\nNow, it appeared, that at the moment the sentry fired, the top-man—in\r\norder to elude discovery, by manifesting the completest quietude—was\r\nfloating on the water, straight and horizontal, as if reposing on a\r\nbed. As he was not far from the ship at the time, and the sentry was\r\nconsiderably elevated above him—pacing his platform, on a level with\r\nthe upper part of the hammock-nettings—the ball struck with great\r\nforce, with a downward obliquity, entering the right thigh just above\r\nthe knee, and, penetrating some inches, glanced upward along the bone,\r\nburying itself somewhere, so that it could not be felt by outward\r\nmanipulation. There was no dusky discoloration to mark its internal\r\ntrack, as in the case when a partly-spent ball—obliquely hitting—after\r\nentering the skin, courses on, just beneath the surface, without\r\npenetrating further. Nor was there any mark on the opposite part of the\r\nthigh to denote its place, as when a ball forces itself straight\r\nthrough a limb, and lodges, perhaps, close to the skin on the other\r\nside. Nothing was visible but a small, ragged puncture, bluish about\r\nthe edges, as if the rough point of a tenpenny nail had been forced\r\ninto the flesh, and withdrawn. It seemed almost impossible, that\r\nthrough so small an aperture, a musket-bullet could have penetrated.\r\n\r\nThe extreme misery and general prostration of the man, caused by the\r\ngreat effusion of blood—though, strange to say, at first he said he\r\nfelt no pain from the wound itself—induced the Surgeon, very\r\nreluctantly, to forego an immediate search for the ball, to extract it,\r\nas that would have involved the dilating of the wound by the knife; an\r\noperation which, at that juncture, would have been almost certainly\r\nattended with fatal results. A day or two, therefore, was permitted to\r\npass, while simple dressings were applied.\r\n\r\nThe Surgeon of the other American ships of war in harbour occasionally\r\nvisited the Neversink, to examine the patient, and incidentally to\r\nlisten to the expositions of our own Surgeon, their senior in rank. But\r\nCadwallader Cuticle, who, as yet, has been but incidentally alluded to,\r\nnow deserves a chapter by himself.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER LX.\nA MAN-OF-WAR’S-MAN SHOT AT."},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ89Z18FKVJV5H0488ZAZ","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJSV1XVDP1YY6T1B1709H","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJTJS4FN5MFKBD96AVPYJ","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:43.447Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:52.898Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}