{"id":"01KG8AKMX6FF1A3T019D67QKM5","cid":"bafkreicpol5lfwpvglufz2raasntzeru6pkdnhde6tzrwqs3um3yvnadby","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5791,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:05.591Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 9","source_file":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","start_line":5721,"text":"“Do you strike?” again was repeated from the Serapis; whose captain,\r\njudging from the augmented confusion on board the Richard, owing to the\r\nescape of the prisoners, and also influenced by the report made to him\r\nby his late guest of the port-hole, doubted not that the enemy must\r\nneeds be about surrendering.\r\n\r\n“Do you strike?”\r\n\r\n“Aye!—I strike _back_” roared Paul, for the first time now hearing the\r\nsummons.\r\n\r\nBut judging this frantic response to come, like the others, from some\r\nunauthorized source, the English captain directed his boarders to be\r\ncalled, some of whom presently leaped on the Richard’s rail, but,\r\nthrowing out his tattooed arm at them, with a sabre at the end of it,\r\nPaul showed them how boarders repelled boarders. The English retreated,\r\nbut not before they had been thinned out again, like spring radishes,\r\nby the unfaltering fire from the Richard’s tops.\r\n\r\nAn officer of the Richard, seeing the mass of prisoners delirious with\r\nsudden liberty and fright, pricked them with his sword to the pumps,\r\nthus keeping the ship afloat by the very blunder which had promised to\r\nhave been fatal. The vessels now blazed so in the rigging that both\r\nparties desisted from hostilities to subdue the common foe.\r\n\r\nWhen some faint order was again restored upon the Richard her chances\r\nof victory increased, while those of the English, driven under cover,\r\nproportionably waned. Early in the contest, Paul, with his own hand,\r\nhad brought one of his largest guns to bear against the enemy’s\r\nmainmast. That shot had hit. The mast now plainly tottered.\r\nNevertheless, it seemed as if, in this fight, neither party could be\r\nvictor. Mutual obliteration from the face of the waters seemed the only\r\nnatural sequel to hostilities like these. It is, therefore, honor to\r\nhim as a man, and not reproach to him as an officer, that, to stay such\r\ncarnage, Captain Pearson, of the Serapis, with his own hands hauled\r\ndown his colors. But just as an officer from the Richard swung himself\r\non board the Serapis, and accosted the English captain, the first\r\nlieutenant of the Serapis came up from below inquiring whether the\r\nRichard had struck, since her fire had ceased.\r\n\r\nSo equal was the conflict that, even after the surrender, it could be,\r\nand was, a question to one of the warriors engaged (who had not\r\nhappened to see the English flag hauled down) whether the Serapis had\r\nstruck to the Richard, or the Richard to the Serapis. Nay, while the\r\nRichard’s officer was still amicably conversing with the English\r\ncaptain, a midshipman of the Richard, in act of following his superior\r\non board the surrendered vessel, was run through the thigh by a pike in\r\nthe hand of an ignorant boarder of the Serapis. While, equally\r\nignorant, the cannons below deck were still thundering away at the\r\nnominal conqueror from the batteries of the nominally conquered ship.\r\n\r\nBut though the Serapis had submitted, there were two misanthropical\r\nfoes on board the Richard which would not so easily succumb—fire and\r\nwater. All night the victors were engaged in suppressing the flames.\r\nNot until daylight were the flames got under; but though the pumps were\r\nkept continually going, the water in the hold still gained. A few hours\r\nafter sunrise the Richard was deserted for the Serapis and the other\r\nvessels of the squadron of Paul. About ten o’clock the Richard, gorged\r\nwith slaughter, wallowed heavily, gave a long roll, and blasted by\r\ntornadoes of sulphur, slowly sunk, like Gomorrah, out of sight.\r\n\r\nThe loss of life in the two ships was about equal; one-half of the\r\ntotal number of those engaged being either killed or wounded.\r\n\r\nIn view of this battle one may ask—What separates the enlightened man\r\nfrom the savage? Is civilization a thing distinct, or is it an advanced\r\nstage of barbarism?\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 9"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJJRQ4SKWG11NYNT96ERE","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1DKC9HHJRKY25JZBEXW","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKMX55NVDCVJZXG7ZARYX","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:11.174Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.236Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}