{"id":"01KG8AKT60YTG3F02FPAX3V8WW","cid":"bafkreifplzeabb5pb4jwvkz43veeqs75szowh2bi2xgttvfhgtz3u6mumi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1433,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":1365,"text":"water fairly poured down in sheets like a cascade, swashing about, and\r\nafterward spirting up between the chests like the jets of a fountain.\r\n\r\nSuch were our accommodations aboard of the Julia; but bad as they were,\r\nwe had not the undisputed possession of them. Myriads of cockroaches,\r\nand regiments of rats disputed the place with us. A greater calamity\r\nthan this can scarcely befall a vessel in the South Seas.\r\n\r\nSo warm is the climate that it is almost impossible to get rid of them.\r\nYou may seal up every hatchway, and fumigate the hull till the smoke\r\nforces itself out at the seams, and enough will survive to repeople the\r\nship in an incredibly short period. In some vessels, the crews of which\r\nafter a hard fight have given themselves up, as it were, for lost, the\r\nvermin seem to take actual possession, the sailors being mere tenants\r\nby sufferance. With Sperm Whalemen, hanging about the Line, as many of\r\nthem do for a couple of years on a stretch, it is infinitely worse than\r\nwith other vessels.\r\n\r\nAs for the Julia, these creatures never had such free and easy times as\r\nthey did in her crazy old hull; every chink and cranny swarmed with\r\nthem; they did not live among you, but you among them. So true was\r\nthis, that the business of eating and drinking was better done in the\r\ndark than in the light of day.\r\n\r\nConcerning the cockroaches, there was an extraordinary phenomenon, for\r\nwhich none of us could ever account.\r\n\r\nEvery night they had a jubilee. The first symptom was an unusual\r\nclustering and humming among the swarms lining the beams overhead, and\r\nthe inside of the sleeping-places. This was succeeded by a prodigious\r\ncoming and going on the part of those living out of sight Presently\r\nthey all came forth; the larger sort racing over the chests and planks;\r\nwinged monsters darting to and fro in the air; and the small fry\r\nbuzzing in heaps almost in a state of fusion.\r\n\r\nOn the first alarm, all who were able darted on deck; while some of the\r\nsick who were too feeble, lay perfectly quiet—the distracted vermin\r\nrunning over them at pleasure. The performance lasted some ten minutes,\r\nduring which no hive ever hummed louder. Often it was lamented by us\r\nthat the time of the visitation could never be predicted; it was liable\r\nto come upon us at any hour of the night, and what a relief it was,\r\nwhen it happened to fall in the early part of the evening.\r\n\r\nNor must I forget the rats: they did not forget me. Tame as Trenck’s\r\nmouse, they stood in their holes peering at you like old grandfathers\r\nin a doorway. Often they darted in upon us at meal-times, and nibbled\r\nour food. The first time they approached Wymontoo, he was actually\r\nfrightened; but becoming accustomed to it, he soon got along with them\r\nmuch better than the rest. With curious dexterity he seized the animals\r\nby their legs, and flung them up the scuttle to find a watery grave.\r\n\r\nBut I have a story of my own to tell about these rats. One day the\r\ncabin steward made me a present of some molasses, which I was so choice\r\nof that I kept it hid away in a tin can in the farthest corner of my\r\nbunk.. Faring as we did, this molasses dropped upon a biscuit was a\r\npositive luxury, which I shared with none but the doctor, and then only\r\nin private. And sweet as the treacle was, how could bread thus prepared\r\nand eaten in secret be otherwise than pleasant?\r\n\r\nOne night our precious can ran low, and in canting it over in the dark,\r\nsomething beside the molasses slipped out. How long it had been there,\r\nkind Providence never revealed; nor were we over anxious to know; for\r\nwe hushed up the bare thought as quickly as possible. The creature\r\ncertainly died a luscious death, quite equal to Clarence’s in the butt\r\nof Malmsey.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJH00M73XMD7B267R274T","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT60M212FJ6K6F37AGTA","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.576Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:24.112Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}