{"id":"01KG8AKTGA4VX7AG8CWDZ2DDZN","cid":"bafkreigi7yp4rulck5lfcoscpj7mip5senfv76pw4j7stngjycyyytgpdu","type":"section","properties":{"description":"# The Ward-room Officers\n## Overview\nThis is a section titled \"The Ward-room Officers\" from the novel *White-Jacket* by Herman Melville. It describes the social dynamics and composition of the ward-room officers on a frigate. The section appears in Chapter VI, \"THE QUARTER-DECK OFFICERS, WARRANT OFFICERS, AND BERTH-DECK UNDERLINGS OF A MAN-OF-WAR; WHERE THEY LIVE IN THE SHIP; HOW THEY LIVE; THEIR SOCIAL STANDING ON SHIP-BOARD; AND WHAT SORT OF GENTLEMEN THEY ARE.\"\n\n## Context\nThis section is extracted from the text file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY), and is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. It is located within [Chapter VI](arke:01KG8AJPBQJ0Q2SB2WPXFS2KHD) of the novel. It follows the section titled [The First or Senior Lieutenant](arke:01KG8AKTGRQ8VWD72NXD2YKXCK) and precedes the section titled [Warrant or Forward officers](arke:01KG8AKTGRBP5XZRV4PAC0A4FT).\n\n## Contents\nThe section describes the ward-room officers' table and the composition of the ward-room itself, which resembles a long corridor in a hotel with doors leading to private apartments. The author recalls seeing the Chaplain playing chess with the Lieutenant of Marines in the ward-room. The ward-room officers include the junior lieutenants, Sailing-master, Purser, Chaplain, Surgeon, Marine officers, and Midshipmen’s Schoolmaster. The author characterizes them as an agreeable club, with diverse characters who engage in discussions about sea-fights, storming fortresses, mathematics, classical literature, surgery, and pious counsel. The section concludes by noting that these gentlemen associate on a footing of perfect social equality.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:49.985Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"The Ward-room Officers","end_line":1029,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.646Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"The Ward-room Officers","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1000,"text":"He presides at the head of the Ward-room officers’ table, who are so\r\ncalled from their messing together in a part of the ship thus\r\ndesignated. In a frigate it comprises the after part of the berth-deck.\r\nSometimes it goes by the name of the Gun-room, but oftener is called\r\nthe Ward-room. Within, this Ward-room much resembles a long, wide\r\ncorridor in a large hotel; numerous doors opening on both hands to the\r\nprivate apartments of the officers. I never had a good interior look at\r\nit but once; and then the Chaplain was seated at the table in the\r\ncentre, playing chess with the Lieutenant of Marines. It was mid-day,\r\nbut the place was lighted by lamps.\r\n\r\nBesides the First Lieutenant, the Ward-room officers include the junior\r\nlieutenants, in a frigate six or seven in number, the Sailing-master,\r\nPurser, Chaplain, Surgeon, Marine officers, and Midshipmen’s\r\nSchoolmaster, or “the Professor.” They generally form a very agreeable\r\nclub of good fellows; from their diversity of character, admirably\r\ncalculated to form an agreeable social whole. The Lieutenants discuss\r\nsea-fights, and tell anecdotes of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton; the\r\nMarine officers talk of storming fortresses, and the siege of\r\nGibraltar; the Purser steadies this wild conversation by occasional\r\nallusions to the rule of three; the Professor is always charged with a\r\nscholarly reflection, or an apt line from the classics, generally Ovid;\r\nthe Surgeon’s stories of the amputation-table judiciously serve to\r\nsuggest the mortality of the whole party as men; while the good\r\nchaplain stands ready at all times to give them pious counsel and\r\nconsolation.\r\n\r\nOf course these gentlemen all associate on a footing of perfect social\r\nequality.\r\n\r","title":"The Ward-room Officers"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPBQJ0Q2SB2WPXFS2KHD","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGRQ8VWD72NXD2YKXCK","peer_type":"section","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGRBP5XZRV4PAC0A4FT","peer_type":"section","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.906Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:50.219Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}