{"id":"01KG8AKTGRXEPX8ZHR4XRFKHTE","cid":"bafkreid5eb4jbljlqbx5hnr3qcv66rdpcypweivnnslhwhe6xwonbrmswm","type":"section","properties":{"description":"# Midshipmen\n## Overview\nThis section, titled \"Midshipmen,\" is a textual document extracted from the file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY). It details the role and daily life of midshipmen, often referred to as \"middies\" or \"reefers,\" aboard a man-of-war. The text describes their position as students learning to become lieutenants, their often-supernumerary status, and their youthful, sometimes boisterous, behavior.\n\n## Context\nThis section is part of [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.](arke:01KG8AJPBQJ0Q2SB2WPXFS2KHD), a chapter within the larger collection [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW). It follows the section on [Warrant or Forward officers](arke:01KG8AKTGRBP5XZRV4PAC0A4FT) and precedes the section on [Berth-deck Underlings](arke:01KG8AKTGRSPZ5XMJYHSVH73T7).\n\n## Contents\nThe text describes midshipmen as boys sent to sea to learn naval duties, often engaging in behaviors like chewing tobacco, drinking, and swearing. They are characterized as being frequently underfoot, leading to the proverb that a useless person is \"as much in the way as a reefer.\" The description highlights their role as errand-boys for superior officers and their living quarters, the steerage, which is depicted as a noisy and sometimes chaotic environment, akin to a college dormitory. Despite some modern refinements in their dining arrangements, the text suggests their affairs could still fall into disarray. The section also touches upon the interactions between midshipmen and lieutenants, particularly in the early morning.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:49.298Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"Midshipmen","end_line":1107,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.646Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Midshipmen","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":1041,"text":"In this part of the category now come the “reefers,” otherwise\r\n“middies” or midshipmen. These boys are sent to sea, for the purpose of\r\nmaking commodores; and in order to become commodores, many of them deem\r\nit indispensable forthwith to commence chewing tobacco, drinking brandy\r\nand water, and swearing at the sailors. As they are only placed on\r\nboard a sea-going ship to go to school and learn the duty of a\r\nLieutenant; and until qualified to act as such, have few or no special\r\nfunctions to attend to; they are little more, while midshipmen, than\r\nsupernumeraries on board. Hence, in a crowded frigate, they are so\r\neverlastingly crossing the path of both men and officers, that in the\r\nnavy it has become a proverb, that a useless fellow is “_as much in the\r\nway as a reefer_.”\r\n\r\nIn a gale of wind, when all hands are called and the deck swarms with\r\nmen, the little “middies” running about distracted and having nothing\r\nparticular to do, make it up in vociferous swearing; exploding all\r\nabout under foot like torpedoes. Some of them are terrible little boys,\r\ncocking their cups at alarming angles, and looking fierce as young\r\nroosters. They are generally great consumers of Macassar oil and the\r\nBalm of Columbia; they thirst and rage after whiskers; and sometimes,\r\napplying their ointments, lay themselves out in the sun, to promote the\r\nfertility of their chins.\r\n\r\nAs the only way to learn to command, is to learn to obey, the usage of\r\na ship of war is such that the midshipmen are constantly being ordered\r\nabout by the Lieutenants; though, without having assigned them their\r\nparticular destinations, they are always going somewhere, and never\r\narriving. In some things, they almost have a harder time of it than the\r\nseamen themselves. They are messengers and errand-boys to their\r\nsuperiors.\r\n\r\n“Mr. Pert,” cries an officer of the deck, hailing a young gentleman\r\nforward. Mr. Pert advances, touches his hat, and remains in an attitude\r\nof deferential suspense. “Go and tell the boatswain I want him.” And\r\nwith this perilous errand, the middy hurries away, looking proud as a\r\nking.\r\n\r\nThe middies live by themselves in the steerage, where, nowadays, they\r\ndine off a table, spread with a cloth. They have a castor at dinner;\r\nthey have some other little boys (selected from the ship’s company) to\r\nwait upon them; they sometimes drink coffee out of china. But for all\r\nthese, their modern refinements, in some instances the affairs of their\r\nclub go sadly to rack and ruin. The china is broken; the japanned\r\ncoffee-pot dented like a pewter mug in an ale-house; the pronged forks\r\nresemble tooth-picks (for which they are sometimes used); the\r\ntable-knives are hacked into hand-saws; and the cloth goes to the\r\nsail-maker to be patched. Indeed, they are something like collegiate\r\nfreshmen and sophomores, living in the college buildings, especially so\r\nfar as the noise they make in their quarters is concerned. The steerage\r\nbuzzes, hums, and swarms like a hive; or like an infant-school of a hot\r\nday, when the school-mistress falls asleep with a fly on her nose.\r\n\r\nIn frigates, the ward-room—the retreat of the Lieutenants—immediately\r\nadjoining the steerage, is on the same deck with it. Frequently, when\r\nthe middies, waking early of a morning, as most youngsters do, would be\r\nkicking up their heels in their hammocks, or running about with\r\ndouble-reefed night-gowns, playing tag among the “clews;” the Senior\r\nlieutenant would burst among them with a—“Young gentlemen, I am\r\nastonished. You must stop this sky-larking. Mr. Pert, what are you\r\ndoing at the table there, without your pantaloons? To your hammock,\r\nsir. Let me see no more of this. If you disturb the ward-room again,\r\nyoung gentleman, you shall hear of it.” And so saying, this\r\nhoary-headed Senior Lieutenant would retire to his cot in his\r\nstate-room, like the father of a numerous family after getting up in\r\nhis dressing-gown and slippers, to quiet a daybreak tumult in his\r\npopulous nursery.\r\n\r","title":"Midshipmen"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPBQJ0Q2SB2WPXFS2KHD","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGRBP5XZRV4PAC0A4FT","peer_type":"section","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKTGRSPZ5XMJYHSVH73T7","peer_type":"section","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.920Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:49.613Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}