{"id":"01KG8AKMX6D02R9BCXED76XA11","cid":"bafkreifdlg3wmo4hdha4vofnfws7tp65og7dwds3hcktujkwrn5j26zbii","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5665,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.591Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","start_line":5617,"text":"the Serapis, where several guns were seen surrounded by their buff\r\ncrews as by fauns and satyrs.\r\n\r\nAt the beginning of the fray, before the ships interlocked, in the\r\nintervals of smoke which swept over the ships as mist over\r\nmountain-tops, affording open rents here and there—the gun-deck of the\r\nSerapis, at certain points, showed, congealed for the instant in all\r\nattitudes of dauntlessness, a gallery of marble statues—fighting\r\ngladiators.\r\n\r\nStooping low and intent, with one braced leg thrust behind, and one arm\r\nthrust forward, curling round towards the muzzle of the gun, there was\r\nseen the _loader_, performing his allotted part; on the other side of\r\nthe carriage, in the same stooping posture, but with both hands holding\r\nhis long black pole, pike-wise, ready for instant use—stood the eager\r\n_rammer and sponger_; while at the breech, crouched the wary _captain\r\nof the gun_, his keen eye, like the watching leopard’s, burning along\r\nthe range; and behind all, tall and erect, the Egyptian symbol of\r\ndeath, stood the _matchman_, immovable for the moment, his long-handled\r\nmatch reversed. Up to their two long death-dealing batteries, the\r\ntrained men of the Serapis stood and toiled in mechanical magic of\r\ndiscipline. They tended those rows of guns, as Lowell girls the rows of\r\nlooms in a cotton factory. The Parcae were not more methodical; Atropos\r\nnot more fatal; the automaton chess-player not more irresponsible.\r\n\r\n“Look, lad; I want a grenade, now, thrown down their main hatchway. I\r\nsaw long piles of cartridges there. The powder monkeys have brought\r\nthem up faster than they can be used. Take a bucket of combustibles,\r\nand let’s hear from you presently.”\r\n\r\nThese words were spoken by Paul to Israel. Israel did as ordered. In a\r\nfew minutes, bucket in hand, begrimed with powder, sixty feet in air,\r\nhe hung like Apollyon from the extreme tip of the yard over the fated\r\nabyss of the hatchway. As he looked down between the eddies of smoke\r\ninto that slaughterous pit, it was like looking from the verge of a\r\ncataract down into the yeasty pool at its base. Watching, his chance,\r\nhe dropped one grenade with such faultless precision, that, striking\r\nits mark, an explosion rent the Serapis like a volcano. The long row of\r\nheaped cartridges was ignited. The fire ran horizontally, like an\r\nexpress on a railway. More than twenty men were instantly killed:\r\nnearly forty wounded. This blow restored the chances of battle, before\r\nin favor of the Serapis.\r\n\r\nBut the drooping spirits of the English were suddenly revived, by an\r\nevent which crowned the scene by an act on the part of one of the\r\nconsorts of the Richard, the incredible atrocity of which has induced\r\nall humane minds to impute it rather to some incomprehensible mistake\r\nthan to the malignant madness of the perpetrator.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRQ4SKWG11NYNT96ERE","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKMX6JSGG1ASW31B3A9G1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKMX55NVDCVJZXG7ZARYX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:11.174Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.027Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}