{"id":"01KG8AKT6AYQEDA848RJQ07HE5","cid":"bafkreib3uhqpeoudcr72n56esny453dbdkwsmnzprgqld232qccidld2u4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1887,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":1815,"text":"The night after the holding of the council, I happened to go on deck in\r\nthe middle watch, and found the yards braced sharp up on the larboard\r\ntack, with the South East Trades strong on our bow. The captain was no\r\nbetter; and we were off for Tahiti.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCHAPTER XIV.\r\nROPE YARN\r\n\r\n\r\nWhile gliding along on our way, I cannot well omit some account of a\r\npoor devil we had among us, who went by the name of Rope Yarn, or\r\nRopey.\r\n\r\nHe was a nondescript who had joined the ship as a landsman. Being so\r\nexcessively timid and awkward, it was thought useless to try and make a\r\nsailor of him; so he was translated into the cabin as steward; the man\r\npreviously filling that post, a good seaman, going among the crew and\r\ntaking his place. But poor Ropey proved quite as clumsy among the\r\ncrockery as in the rigging; and one day when the ship was pitching,\r\nhaving stumbled into the cabin with a wooden tureen of soup, he scalded\r\nthe officers so that they didn’t get over it in a week. Upon which, he\r\nwas dismissed, and returned to the forecastle.\r\n\r\nNow, nobody is so heartily despised as a pusillanimous, lazy,\r\ngood-for-nothing land-lubber; a sailor has no bowels of compassion for\r\nhim. Yet, useless as such a character may be in many respects, a ship’s\r\ncompany is by no means disposed to let him reap any benefit from his\r\ndeficiencies. Regarded in the light of a mechanical power, whenever\r\nthere is any plain, hard work to be done, he is put to it like a lever;\r\neveryone giving him a pry.\r\n\r\nThen, again, he is set about all the vilest work. Is there a heavy job\r\nat tarring to be done, he is pitched neck and shoulders into a\r\ntar-barrel, and set to work at it. Moreover, he is made to fetch and\r\ncarry like a dog. Like as not, if the mate sends him after his\r\nquadrant, on the way he is met by the captain, who orders him to pick\r\nsome oakum; and while he is hunting up a bit of rope, a sailor comes\r\nalong and wants to know what the deuce he’s after, and bids him be off\r\nto the forecastle.\r\n\r\n“Obey the last order,” is a precept inviolable at sea. So the\r\nland-lubber, afraid to refuse to do anything, rushes about distracted,\r\nand does nothing: in the end receiving a shower of kicks and cuffs from\r\nall quarters.\r\n\r\nAdded to his other hardships, he is seldom permitted to open his mouth\r\nunless spoken to; and then, he might better keep silent. Alas for him!\r\nif he should happen to be anything of a droll; for in an evil hour\r\nshould he perpetrate a joke, he would never know the last of it.\r\n\r\nThe witticisms of others, however, upon himself, must be received in\r\nthe greatest good-humour.\r\n\r\nWoe be unto him, if at meal-times he so much as look sideways at the\r\nbeef-kid before the rest are helped.\r\n\r\nThen he is obliged to plead guilty to every piece of mischief which the\r\nreal perpetrator refuses to acknowledge; thus taking the place of that\r\nsneaking rascal nobody, ashore. In short, there is no end to his\r\ntribulations.\r\n\r\nThe land-lubber’s spirits often sink, and the first result of his being\r\nmoody and miserable is naturally enough an utter neglect of his toilet.\r\n\r\nThe sailors perhaps ought to make allowances; but heartless as they\r\nare, they do not. No sooner is his cleanliness questioned than they\r\nrise upon him like a mob of the Middle Ages upon a Jew; drag him into\r\nthe lee-scuppers, and strip him to the buff. In vain he bawls for\r\nmercy; in vain calls upon the captain to save him.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJH07MQM35VETZATZ3R3G","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKT6AXGVTBMFEZ3WNFY8Y","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTW6XYW06TSAAJYRS76X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.586Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:23.642Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}