{"id":"01KG8AKRN18S4QVZ16C0Z9KNWQ","cid":"bafkreiaiwib7xhg4k5rhgjbg2irttsiez5shjinf2nxzwgnbkgnrdgnzxm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":11790,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.846Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":11722,"text":"threw himself back with a violent strain upon the bridle in his hand.\r\nBut the wild words were hardly out of his mouth, when his hands dropped\r\nto his side, and the bellying sail was spattered with a torrent of\r\nblood from his lungs.\r\n\r\nAs the man next him stretched out his arm to save, Jackson fell\r\nheadlong from the yard, and with a long seethe, plunged like a diver\r\ninto the sea.\r\n\r\nIt was when the ship had rolled to windward, which, with the long\r\nprojection of the yard-arm over the side, made him strike far out upon\r\nthe water. His fall was seen by the whole upward-gazing crowd on deck,\r\nsome of whom were spotted with the blood that trickled from the sail,\r\nwhile they raised a spontaneous cry, so shrill and wild, that a blind\r\nman might have known something deadly had happened.\r\n\r\nClutching our reef-points, we hung over the stick, and gazed down to\r\nthe one white, bubbling spot, which had closed over the head of our\r\nshipmate; but the next minute it was brewed into the common yeast of\r\nthe waves, and Jackson never arose. We waited a few minutes, expecting\r\nan order to descend, haul back the fore-yard, and man the boat; but\r\ninstead of that, the next sound that greeted us was, “Bear a hand, and\r\nreef away, men!” from the mate.\r\n\r\nIndeed, upon reflection, it would have been idle to attempt to save\r\nJackson; for besides that he must have been dead, ere he struck the\r\nsea—and if he had not been dead then, the first immersion must have\r\ndriven his soul from his lacerated lungs—our jolly-boat would have\r\ntaken full fifteen minutes to launch into the waves.\r\n\r\nAnd here it should be said, that the thoughtless security in which too\r\nmany sea-captains indulge, would, in case of some sudden disaster\r\nbefalling the Highlander, have let us all drop into our graves.\r\n\r\nLike most merchant ships, we had but two boats: the longboat and the\r\njolly-boat. The long boat, by far the largest and stoutest of the two,\r\nwas permanently bolted down to the deck, by iron bars attached to its\r\nsides. It was almost as much of a fixture as the vessel’s keel. It was\r\nfilled with pigs, fowls, firewood, and coals. Over this the jolly-boat\r\nwas capsized without a _thole-pin_ in the gunwales; its bottom\r\nbleaching and cracking in the sun.\r\n\r\nJudge, then, what promise of salvation for us, had we shipwrecked; yet\r\nin this state, one merchant ship out of three, keeps its boats. To be\r\nsure, no vessel full of emigrants, by any possible precautions, could\r\nin case of a fatal disaster at sea, hope to save the tenth part of the\r\nsouls on board; yet provision should certainly be made for a handful of\r\nsurvivors, to carry home the tidings of her loss; for even in the worst\r\nof the calamities that befell patient Job, some _one_ at least of his\r\nservants escaped to report it.\r\n\r\nIn a way that I never could fully account for, the sailors, in my\r\nhearing at least, and Harry’s, never made the slightest allusion to the\r\ndeparted Jackson. One and all they seemed tacitly to unite in hushing\r\nup his memory among them. Whether it was, that the severity of the\r\nbondage under which this man held every one of them, did really corrode\r\nin their secret hearts, that they thought to repress the recollection\r\nof a thing so degrading, I can not determine; but certain it was, that\r\n_his_ death was _their_ deliverance; which they celebrated by an\r\nelevation of spirits, unknown before. Doubtless, this was to be in part\r\nimputed, however, to their now drawing near to their port.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER LX.\r\nHOME AT LAST\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJT5SRPW14S6DGTHHTCCW","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKRMZDN69VKNT29JY0BCV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.009Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:35.105Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}