{"id":"01KG8AKT6009X9MH373BFH0PJS","cid":"bafkreif47wvu3aat4wursgk6lmb3kv5l4dffl6ujup3pairs4nwtxjdoju","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1690,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":1623,"text":"Stories like these were related as gospel truths, by those who declared\r\nthemselves eye-witnesses.\r\n\r\nIt is a circumstance not generally known, perhaps, that among ignorant\r\nseamen, Philanders, or Finns, as they are more commonly called, are\r\nregarded with peculiar superstition. For some reason or other, which I\r\nnever could get at, they are supposed to possess the gift of second\r\nsight, and the power to wreak supernatural vengeance upon those who\r\noffend them. On this account they have great influence among sailors,\r\nand two or three with whom I have sailed at different times were\r\npersons well calculated to produce this sort of impression, at least\r\nupon minds disposed to believe in such things.\r\n\r\nNow, we had one of these sea-prophets aboard; an old, yellow-haired\r\nfellow, who always wore a rude seal-skin cap of his own make, and\r\ncarried his tobacco in a large pouch made of the same stuff. Van, as we\r\ncalled him, was a quiet, inoffensive man, to look at, and, among such a\r\nset, his occasional peculiarities had hitherto passed for nothing. At\r\nthis time, however, he came out with a prediction, which was none the\r\nless remarkable from its absolute fulfilment, though not exactly in the\r\nspirit in which it was given out.\r\n\r\nThe night of the burial he laid his hand on the old horseshoe nailed as\r\na charm to the foremast, and solemnly told us that, in less than three\r\nweeks, not one quarter of our number would remain aboard the ship—by\r\nthat time they would have left her for ever.\r\n\r\nSome laughed; Flash Jack called him an old fool; but among the men\r\ngenerally it produced a marked effect. For several days a degree of\r\nquiet reigned among us, and allusions of such a kind were made to\r\nrecent events, as could be attributed to no other cause than the Finn’s\r\nomen.\r\n\r\nFor my own part, what had lately come to pass was not without its\r\ninfluence. It forcibly brought to mind our really critical condition.\r\nDoctor Long Ghost, too, frequently revealed his apprehensions, and once\r\nassured me that he would give much to be safely landed upon any island\r\naround us.\r\n\r\nWhere we were, exactly, no one but the mate seemed to know, nor whither\r\nwe were going. The captain—a mere cipher—was an invalid in his cabin;\r\nto say nothing more of so many of his men languishing in the\r\nforecastle.\r\n\r\nOur keeping the sea under these circumstances, a matter strange enough\r\nat first, now seemed wholly unwarranted; and added to all was the\r\nthought that our fate was absolutely in the hand of the reckless\r\nJermin. Were anything to happen to him, we would be left without a\r\nnavigator, for, according to Jermin himself, he had, from the\r\ncommencement of the voyage, always kept the ship’s reckoning, the\r\ncaptain’s nautical knowledge being insufficient.\r\n\r\nBut considerations like these, strange as it may seem, seldom or never\r\noccurred to the crew. They were alive only to superstitious fears; and\r\nwhen, in apparent contradiction to the Finn’s prophecy, the sick men\r\nrallied a little, they began to recover their former spirits, and the\r\nrecollection of what had occurred insensibly faded from their minds. In\r\na week’s time, the unworthiness of Little Jule as a sea vessel, always\r\na subject of jest, now became more so than ever. In the forecastle,\r\nFlash Jack, with his knife, often dug into the dank, rotten planks\r\nribbed between us and death, and flung away the splinters with some sea\r\njoke.\r\n\r\nAs to the remaining invalids, they were hardly ill enough to occasion\r\nany serious apprehension, at least for the present, in the breasts of\r\nsuch thoughtless beings as themselves. And even those who suffered the\r\nmost, studiously refrained from any expression of pain.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJH07MQM35VETZATZ3R3G","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT6027EHP0VV0N6DSX39","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.576Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.485Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}