{"id":"01KG8AJT563R612J0Z4BASRHYZ","cid":"bafkreie4mx6lbnly2whkuham3ltnodmdofg6i2c35675db2xa6cml5bcbu","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER LVII. ALMOST A FAMINE\n\n## Overview - What this is (type, form, dates, scope)\n\nChapter LVII of the novel \"[Redburn: His First Voyage](arke:01KG8AJ9CVDS15WWAP46A9M4XP)\" by Herman Melville, extracted from the text file \"[redburn.txt](arke:01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF)\". This chapter, part of the \"[Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW)\" collection, focuses on the hardships faced by passengers during a voyage, specifically detailing the scarcity of food and the resulting desperation. The chapter's text spans lines 11185 to 11266 of the source file.\n\n## Context - Background and provenance from related entities\n\nThis chapter is situated within Melville's novel, which is part of a larger collection of his works. The text was extracted from a plain text file. The chapter follows \"[CHAPTER LVI. UNDER THE LEE OF THE LONG-BOAT, REDBURN AND HARRY HOLD CONFIDENTIAL COMMUNION](arke:01KG8AJT5SDHGB7VJ4ZTE6NX8P)\" and precedes \"[CHAPTER LVIII.\\nTHOUGH THE HIGHLANDER PUTS INTO NO HARBOR AS YET; SHE HERE AND THERE\\nLEAVES MANY OF HER PASSENGERS BEHIND](arke:01KG8AJT5SAHKG6V354KE5GRJR)\".\n\n## Contents - What it contains, key subjects and details\n\nThe chapter describes the onset of near-famine conditions among the steerage passengers aboard a ship. Due to a lack of provisions, passengers resort to desperate measures, including stealing food from the crew and each other. The captain's response is to issue rations and later, to punish theft by a humiliating public display. The chapter highlights the stark contrast between the passengers' suffering and the sailors' relative comfort, and provides a glimpse into the social dynamics and hardships of a sea voyage.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:11.380Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"CHAPTER LVII. ALMOST A FAMINE","end_line":11266,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:38.127Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER LVII.\nALMOST A FAMINE","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":11185,"text":"CHAPTER LVII.\r\nALMOST A FAMINE\r\n\r\n\r\n“Mammy! mammy! come and see the sailors eating out of little troughs,\r\njust like our pigs at home.” Thus exclaimed one of the steerage\r\nchildren, who at dinner-time was peeping down into the forecastle,\r\nwhere the crew were assembled, helping themselves from the “kids,”\r\nwhich, indeed, resemble hog-troughs not a little.\r\n\r\n“Pigs, is it?” coughed Jackson, from his bunk, where he sat presiding\r\nover the banquet, but not partaking, like a devil who had lost his\r\nappetite by chewing sulphur.—“Pigs, is it?—and the day is close by, ye\r\nspalpeens, when you’ll want to be after taking a sup at our troughs!”\r\n\r\nThis malicious prophecy proved true.\r\n\r\nAs day followed day without glimpse of shore or reef, and head winds\r\ndrove the ship back, as hounds a deer; the improvidence and\r\nshortsightedness of the passengers in the steerage, with regard to\r\ntheir outfits for the voyage, began to be followed by the inevitable\r\nresults.\r\n\r\nMany of them at last went aft to the mate, saying that they had nothing\r\nto eat, their provisions were expended, and they must be supplied from\r\nthe ship’s stores, or starve.\r\n\r\nThis was told to the captain, who was obliged to issue a ukase from the\r\ncabin, that every steerage passenger, whose destitution was\r\ndemonstrable, should be given one sea-biscuit and two potatoes a day; a\r\nsort of substitute for a muffin and a brace of poached eggs.\r\n\r\nBut this scanty ration was quite insufficient to satisfy their hunger:\r\nhardly enough to satisfy the necessities of a healthy adult. The\r\nconsequence was, that all day long, and all through the night, scores\r\nof the emigrants went about the decks, seeking what they might devour.\r\nThey plundered the chicken-coop; and disguising the fowls, cooked them\r\nat the public galley. They made inroads upon the pig-pen in the boat,\r\nand carried off a promising young shoat: _him_ they devoured raw, not\r\nventuring to make an incognito of his carcass; they prowled about the\r\ncook’s caboose, till he threatened them with a ladle of scalding water;\r\nthey waylaid the steward on his regular excursions from the cook to the\r\ncabin; they hung round the forecastle, to rob the bread-barge; they\r\nbeset the sailors, like beggars in the streets, craving a mouthful in\r\nthe name of the Church.\r\n\r\nAt length, to such excesses were they driven, that the Grand Russian,\r\nCaptain Riga, issued another ukase, and to this effect: Whatsoever\r\nemigrant is found guilty of stealing, the same shall be tied into the\r\nrigging and flogged.\r\n\r\nUpon this, there were secret movements in the steerage, which almost\r\nalarmed me for the safety of the ship; but nothing serious took place,\r\nafter all; and they even acquiesced in, or did not resent, a singular\r\npunishment which the captain caused to be inflicted upon a culprit of\r\ntheir clan, as a substitute for a flogging. For no doubt he thought\r\nthat such rigorous discipline as _that_ might exasperate five hundred\r\nemigrants into an insurrection.\r\n\r\nA head was fitted to one of the large deck-tubs—the half of a cask; and\r\ninto this head a hole was cut; also, two smaller holes in the bottom of\r\nthe tub. The head—divided in the middle, across the diameter of the\r\norifice—was now fitted round the culprit’s neck; and he was forthwith\r\ncoopered up into the tub, which rested on his shoulders, while his legs\r\nprotruded through the holes in the bottom.\r\n\r\nIt was a burden to carry; but the man could walk with it; and so\r\nridiculous was his appearance, that spite of the indignity, he himself\r\nlaughed with the rest at the figure he cut.\r\n\r\n“Now, Pat, my boy,” said the mate, “fill that big wooden belly of\r\nyours, if you can.”\r\n\r\nCompassionating his situation, our old “doctor” used to give him alms\r\nof food, placing it upon the cask-head before him; till at last, when\r\nthe time for deliverance came, Pat protested against mercy, and would\r\nfain have continued playing Diogenes in the tub for the rest of this\r\nstarving voyage.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER LVII.\nALMOST A FAMINE"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJ9CVDS15WWAP46A9M4XP","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AJT5SDHGB7VJ4ZTE6NX8P","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AJT5SAHKG6V354KE5GRJR","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:43.782Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:12.489Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}