{"id":"01KG8AKSKQ57X40Z9TPEJV882M","cid":"bafkreiged7jbeqygyfnkpy5n4qc4725lx6pqkftll4chrly4ap6z3mwpeu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1197,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":1124,"text":"Round about the king’s house,\r\nAnd the small laughter?\r\nThe small, merry laughter it is\r\nOf the sons and daughters of the tattooed.”\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER IX.\r\nWE STEER TO THE WESTWARD—STATE OF AFFAIRS\r\n\r\n\r\nThe night we left Hannamanoo was bright and starry, and so warm that,\r\nwhen the watches were relieved, most of the men, instead of going\r\nbelow, flung themselves around the foremast.\r\n\r\nToward morning, finding the heat of the forecastle unpleasant, I\r\nascended to the deck where everything was noiseless. The Trades were\r\nblowing with a mild, steady strain upon the canvas, and the ship\r\nheading right out into the immense blank of the Western Pacific. The\r\nwatch were asleep. With one foot resting on the rudder, even the man at\r\nthe helm nodded, and the mate himself, with arms folded, was leaning\r\nagainst the capstan.\r\n\r\nOn such a night, and all alone, reverie was inevitable. I leaned over\r\nthe side, and could not help thinking of the strange objects we might\r\nbe sailing over.\r\n\r\nBut my meditations were soon interrupted by a gray, spectral shadow\r\ncast over the heaving billows. It was the dawn, soon followed by the\r\nfirst rays of the morning. They flashed into view at one end of the\r\narched night, like—to compare great things with small—the gleamings of\r\nGuy Fawkes’s lantern in the vaults of the Parliament House. Before\r\nlong, what seemed a live ember rested for a moment on the rim of the\r\nocean, and at last the blood-red sun stood full and round in the level\r\nEast, and the long sea-day began.\r\n\r\nBreakfast over, the first thing attended to was the formal baptism of\r\nWymontoo, who, after thinking over his affairs during the night, looked\r\ndismal enough.\r\n\r\nThere were various opinions as to a suitable appellation. Some\r\nmaintained that we ought to call him “Sunday,” that being the day we\r\ncaught him; others, “Eighteen Forty-two,” the then year of our Lord;\r\nwhile Doctor Long Ghost remarked that he ought, by all means, to retain\r\nhis original name,—Wymontoo-Hee, meaning (as he maintained), in the\r\nfigurative language of the island, something analogous to one who had\r\ngot himself into a scrape. The mate put an end to the discussion by\r\nsousing the poor fellow with a bucket of salt water, and bestowing upon\r\nhim the nautical appellation of “Luff.”\r\n\r\nThough a certain mirthfulness succeeded his first pangs at leaving\r\nhome, Wymontoo—we will call him thus—gradually relapsed into his former\r\nmood, and became very melancholy. Often I noticed him crouching apart\r\nin the forecastle, his strange eyes gleaming restlessly, and watching\r\nthe slightest movement of the men. Many a time he must have been\r\nthinking of his bamboo hut, when they were talking of Sydney and its\r\ndance-houses.\r\n\r\nWe were now fairly at sea, though to what particular cruising-ground we\r\nwere going, no one knew; and, to all appearances, few cared. The men,\r\nafter a fashion of their own, began to settle down into the routine of\r\nsea-life, as if everything was going on prosperously. Blown along over\r\na smooth sea, there was nothing to do but steer the ship, and relieve\r\nthe “look-outs” at the mast-heads. As for the sick, they had two or\r\nthree more added to their number—the air of the island having disagreed\r\nwith the constitutions of several of the runaways. To crown all, the\r\ncaptain again relapsed, and became quite ill.\r\n\r\nThe men fit for duty were divided into two small watches, headed\r\nrespectively by the mate and the Mowree; the latter by virtue of his\r\nbeing a harpooner, succeeding to the place of the second mate, who had\r\nabsconded.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJG7BF5TQY7F5YHS0Y1DK","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKSKQJNK37RVC78ATCV72","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT60CAG2KNPV8FAS1K3X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.991Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.679Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}