{"id":"01KG8AKS6EY3JB76YZW4Z36A0A","cid":"bafkreifkacod27tvbcw7xlxfjppgyveuth7agdgm6a3s2ai57vwxtphkwq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1297,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":1229,"text":"and “slush down the main-top mast.”\r\n\r\nThis was all Greek to me, and after receiving the order, I stood\r\nstaring about me, wondering what it was that was to be done. But the\r\nmate had turned on his heel, and made no explanations. At length I\r\nfollowed after him, and asked what I must do.\r\n\r\n“Didn’t I tell you to slush down the main-top mast?” he shouted.\r\n\r\n“You did,” said I, “but I don’t know what that means.”\r\n\r\n“Green as grass! a regular cabbage-head!” he exclaimed to himself. “A\r\nfine time I’ll have with such a greenhorn aboard. Look you, youngster.\r\nLook up to that long pole there—d’ye see it? that piece of a tree\r\nthere, you timber-head—well—take this bucket here, and go up the\r\nrigging—that rope-ladder there—do you understand?—and dab this slush\r\nall over the mast, and look out for your head if one drop falls on\r\ndeck. Be off now, Buttons.”\r\n\r\nThe eventful hour had arrived; for the first time in my life I was to\r\nascend a ship’s mast. Had I been well and hearty, perhaps I should have\r\nfelt a little shaky at the thought; but as I was then, weak and faint,\r\nthe bare thought appalled me.\r\n\r\nBut there was no hanging back; it would look like cowardice, and I\r\ncould not bring myself to confess that I was suffering for want of\r\nfood; so rallying again, I took up the bucket.\r\n\r\nIt was a heavy bucket, with strong iron hoops, and might have held\r\nperhaps two gallons. But it was only half full now of a sort of thick\r\nlobbered gravy, which I afterward learned was boiled out of the salt\r\nbeef used by the sailors. Upon getting into the rigging, I found it was\r\nno easy job to carry this heavy bucket up with me. The rope handle of\r\nit was so slippery with grease, that although I twisted it several\r\ntimes about my wrist, it would be still twirling round and round, and\r\nslipping off. Spite of this, however, I managed to mount as far as the\r\n“top,” the clumsy bucket half the time straddling and swinging about\r\nbetween my legs, and in momentary danger of capsizing. Arrived at the\r\n“top,” I came to a dead halt, and looked up. How to surmount that\r\noverhanging impediment completely posed me for the time. But at last,\r\nwith much straining, I contrived to place my bucket in the “top;” and\r\nthen, trusting to Providence, swung myself up after it. The rest of the\r\nroad was comparatively easy; though whenever I incautiously looked down\r\ntoward the deck, my head spun round so from weakness, that I was\r\nobliged to shut my eyes to recover myself. I do not remember much more.\r\nI only recollect my safe return to the deck.\r\n\r\nIn a short time the bustle of the ship increased; the trunks of cabin\r\npassengers arrived, and the chests and boxes of the steerage\r\npassengers, besides baskets of wine and fruit for the captain.\r\n\r\nAt last we cast loose, and swinging out into the stream, came to\r\nanchor, and hoisted the signal for sailing. Every thing, it seemed, was\r\non board but the crew; who in a few hours after, came off, one by one,\r\nin Whitehall boats, their chests in the bow, and themselves lying back\r\nin the stem like lords; and showing very plainly the complacency they\r\nfelt in keeping the whole ship waiting for their lordships.\r\n\r\n“Ay, ay,” muttered the chief mate, as they rolled out of then-boats and\r\nswaggered on deck, “it’s your turn now, but it will be mine before\r\nlong. Yaw about while you may, my hearties, I’ll do the yawing after\r\nthe anchor’s up.”\r\n\r\nSeveral of the sailors were very drunk, and one of them was lifted on\r\nboard insensible by his landlord, who carried him down below and dumped\r\nhim into a bunk. And two other sailors, as soon as they made their\r\nappearance, immediately went below to sleep off the fumes of their\r\ndrink.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJNGCYWZY24VXK8QHSV64","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKS6ET025GK1BSNSSQHCS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSV0EQHV383K8DMC6TQP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.566Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.509Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}