{"id":"01KG8AKS802EDD2216MFPMVNR6","cid":"bafkreifruq5zftcuktrjicbyou7rfpsxeemgrxkw6vhwl45gawndh4twbu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":6744,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.842Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":6672,"text":"CHAPTER XXXIV.\r\nTHE IRRAWADDY\r\n\r\n\r\nAmong the various ships lying in Prince’s Dock, none interested me more\r\nthan the Irrawaddy, of Bombay, a _“country ship,”_ which is the name\r\nbestowed by Europeans upon the large native vessels of India. Forty\r\nyears ago, these merchantmen were nearly the largest in the world; and\r\nthey still exceed the generality. They are built of the celebrated teak\r\nwood, the oak of the East, or in Eastern phrase, _“the King of the\r\nOaks.”_ The Irrawaddy had just arrived from Hindostan, with a cargo of\r\ncotton. She was manned by forty or fifty Lascars, the native seamen of\r\nIndia, who seemed to be immediately governed by a countryman of theirs\r\nof a higher caste. While his inferiors went about in strips of white\r\nlinen, this dignitary was arrayed in a red army-coat, brilliant with\r\ngold lace, a cocked hat, and drawn sword. But the general effect was\r\nquite spoiled by his bare feet.\r\n\r\nIn discharging the cargo, his business seemed to consist in\r\nflagellating the crew with the flat of his saber, an exercise in which\r\nlong practice had made him exceedingly expert. The poor fellows jumped\r\naway with the tackle-rope, elastic as cats.\r\n\r\nOne Sunday, I went aboard of the Irrawaddy, when this oriental usher\r\naccosted me at the gangway, with his sword at my throat. I gently\r\npushed it aside, making a sign expressive of the pacific character of\r\nmy motives in paying a visit to the ship. Whereupon he very\r\nconsiderately let me pass.\r\n\r\nI thought I was in Pegu, so strangely woody was the smell of the\r\ndark-colored timbers, whose odor was heightened by the rigging of\r\n_kayar,_ or cocoa-nut fiber.\r\n\r\nThe Lascars were on the forecastle-deck. Among them were Malays,\r\nMahrattas, Burmese, Siamese, and Cingalese. They were seated round\r\n“kids” full of rice, from which, according to their invariable custom,\r\nthey helped themselves with one hand, the other being reserved for\r\nquite another purpose. They were chattering like magpies in\r\nHindostanee, but I found that several of them could also speak very\r\ngood English. They were a small-limbed, wiry, tawny set; and I was\r\ninformed made excellent seamen, though ill adapted to stand the\r\nhardships of northern voyaging.\r\n\r\nThey told me that seven of their number had died on the passage from\r\nBombay; two or three after crossing the Tropic of Cancer, and the rest\r\nmet their fate in the Channel, where the ship had been tost about in\r\nviolent seas, attended with cold rains, peculiar to that vicinity. Two\r\nmore had been lost overboard from the flying-jib-boom.\r\n\r\nI was condoling with a young English cabin-boy on board, upon the loss\r\nof these poor fellows, when he said it was their own fault; they would\r\nnever wear monkey-jackets, but clung to their thin India robes, even in\r\nthe bitterest weather. He talked about them much as a farmer would\r\nabout the loss of so many sheep by the murrain.\r\n\r\nThe captain of the vessel was an Englishman, as were also the three\r\nmates, master and boatswain. These officers lived astern in the cabin,\r\nwhere every Sunday they read the Church of England’s prayers, while the\r\nheathen at the other end of the ship were left to their false gods and\r\nidols. And thus, with Christianity on the quarter-deck, and paganism on\r\nthe forecastle, the Irrawaddy ploughed the sea.\r\n\r\nAs if to symbolize this state of things, the _“fancy piece”_ astern\r\ncomprised, among numerous other carved decorations, a cross and a\r\nmiter; while forward, on the bows, was a sort of devil for a\r\nfigure-head—a dragon-shaped creature, with a fiery red mouth, and a\r\nswitchy-looking tail.\r\n\r\nAfter her cargo was discharged, which was done “to the sound of flutes\r\nand soft recorders”—something as work is done in the navy to the music\r\nof the boatswain’s pipe—the Lascars were set to _“stripping the ship”_\r\nthat is, to sending down all her spars and ropes.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJRKNBM8ACW2DR0GKXD88","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT5VSWK4YV7ZNG93NYF4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.616Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.427Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}