{"id":"01KG8AKKFRKMMKG5ERT70SKJF0","cid":"bafkreieuc374berxpcewfdpywjahtyhg7kj25jr2nv2j47qkauhpslsn2i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4194,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.591Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","start_line":4138,"text":"CHAPTER XV.\r\nTHEY SAIL AS FAR AS THE CRAG OF AILSA.\r\n\r\n\r\nNext morning Israel was appointed quartermaster—a subaltern selected\r\nfrom the common seamen, and whose duty mostly stations him in the stern\r\nof the ship, where the captain walks. His business is to carry the\r\nglass on the look-out for sails; hoist or lower the colors; and keep an\r\neye on the helmsman. Picked out from the crew for their superior\r\nrespectability and intelligence, as well as for their excellent\r\nseamanship, it is not unusual to find the quartermasters of an armed\r\nship on peculiarly easy terms with the commissioned officers and\r\ncaptain. This birth, therefore, placed Israel in official contiguity to\r\nPaul, and without subjecting either to animadversion, made their public\r\nintercourse on deck almost as familiar as their unrestrained converse\r\nin the cabin.\r\n\r\nIt was a fine cool day in the beginning of April. They were now off the\r\ncoast of Wales, whose lofty mountains, crested with snow, presented a\r\nNorwegian aspect. The wind was fair, and blew with a strange,\r\nbestirring power. The ship—running between Ireland and England,\r\nnorthwards, towards the Irish Sea, the inmost heart of the British\r\nwaters—seemed, as she snortingly shook the spray from her bow, to be\r\nconscious of the dare-devil defiance of the soul which conducted her on\r\nthis anomalous cruise. Sailing alone from out a naval port of France,\r\ncrowded with ships-of-the-line, Paul Jones, in his small craft, went\r\nforth in single-armed championship against the English host. Armed with\r\nbut the sling-stones in his one shot-locker, like young David of old,\r\nPaul bearded the British giant of Gath. It is not easy, at the present\r\nday, to conceive the hardihood of this enterprise. It was a marching up\r\nto the muzzle; the act of one who made no compromise with the\r\ncannonadings of danger or death; such a scheme as only could have\r\ninspired a heart which held at nothing all the prescribed prudence of\r\nwar, and every obligation of peace; combining in one breast the\r\nvengeful indignation and bitter ambition of an outraged hero, with the\r\nuncompunctuous desperation of a renegade. In one view, the Coriolanus\r\nof the sea; in another, a cross between the gentleman and the wolf.\r\n\r\nAs Paul stood on the elevated part of the quarter-deck, with none but\r\nhis confidential quartermaster near him, he yielded to Israel’s natural\r\ncuriosity to learn something concerning the sailing of the expedition.\r\nPaul stood lightly, swaying his body over the sea, by holding on to the\r\nmizzen-shrouds, an attitude not inexpressive of his easy audacity;\r\nwhile near by, pacing a few steps to and fro, his long spy-glass now\r\nunder his arm, and now presented at his eye, Israel, looking the very\r\nimage of vigilant prudence, listened to the warrior’s story. It\r\nappeared that on the night of the visit of the Duke de Chartres and\r\nCount D’Estaing to Doctor Franklin in Paris—the same night that Captain\r\nPaul and Israel were joint occupants of the neighboring chamber—the\r\nfinal sanction of the French king to the sailing of an American\r\narmament against England, under the direction of the Colonial\r\nCommissioner, was made known to the latter functionary. It was a very\r\nticklish affair. Though swaying on the brink of avowed hostilities with\r\nEngland, no verbal declaration had as yet been made by France.\r\nUndoubtedly, this enigmatic position of things was highly advantageous\r\nto such an enterprise as Paul’s.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJ2BS6J4A9ZFCQ5A5GJ8","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKKFP2KH64S7K34W25XAQ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:09.720Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.066Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}