{"id":"01KG8AKV2V58V9ZYXZD1FB8B4K","cid":"bafkreifvu6xr3ogrtncmaq5ozyaeqiwqioscinprv5b6z3gkoft5uomzfe","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2605,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":2545,"text":"hear myself called to, out of the clear blue air, or from the depths of\r\nthe deep blue sea. But I did not have much leisure to indulge in such\r\nthoughts; for the men were now getting some _stun’-sails_ ready to\r\nhoist aloft, as the wind was getting fairer and fairer for us; and\r\nthese stun’-sails are light canvas which are spread at such times, away\r\nout beyond the ends of the yards, where they overhang the wide water,\r\nlike the wings of a great bird.\r\n\r\nFor my own part, I could do but little to help the rest, not knowing\r\nthe name of any thing, or the proper way to go about aught. Besides, I\r\nfelt very dreamy, as I said before; and did not exactly know where, or\r\nwhat I was; every thing was so strange and new.\r\n\r\nWhile the stun’-sails were lying all tumbled upon the deck, and the\r\nsailors were fastening them to the booms, getting them ready to hoist,\r\nthe mate ordered me to do a great many simple things, none of which\r\ncould I comprehend, owing to the queer words he used; and then, seeing\r\nme stand quite perplexed and confounded, he would roar out at me, and\r\ncall me all manner of names, and the sailors would laugh and wink to\r\neach other, but durst not go farther than that, for fear of the mate,\r\nwho in his own presence would not let any body laugh at me but himself.\r\n\r\nHowever, I tried to wake up as much as I could, and keep from dreaming\r\nwith my eyes open; and being, at bottom, a smart, apt lad, at last I\r\nmanaged to learn a thing or two, so that I did not appear so much like\r\na fool as at first.\r\n\r\nPeople who have never gone to sea for the first time as sailors, can\r\nnot imagine how puzzling and confounding it is. It must be like going\r\ninto a barbarous country, where they speak a strange dialect, and dress\r\nin strange clothes, and live in strange houses. For sailors have their\r\nown names, even for things that are familiar ashore; and if you call a\r\nthing by its shore name, you are laughed at for an ignoramus and a\r\nlandlubber. This first day I speak of, the mate having ordered me to\r\ndraw some water, I asked him where I was to get the pail; when I\r\nthought I had committed some dreadful crime; for he flew into a great\r\npassion, and said they never had any _pails_ at sea, and then I learned\r\nthat they were always called _buckets._ And once I was talking about\r\nsticking a little wooden peg into a bucket to stop a leak, when he flew\r\nout again, and said there were no _pegs_ at sea, only _plugs._ And just\r\nso it was with every thing else.\r\n\r\nBut besides all this, there is such an infinite number of totally new\r\nnames of new things to learn, that at first it seemed impossible for me\r\nto master them all. If you have ever seen a ship, you must have\r\nremarked what a thicket of ropes there are; and how they all seemed\r\nmixed and entangled together like a great skein of yarn. Now the very\r\nsmallest of these ropes has its own proper name, and many of them are\r\nvery lengthy, like the names of young royal princes, such as the\r\n_starboard-main-top-gallant-bow-line,_ or the\r\n_larboard-fore-top-sail-clue-line._\r\n\r\nI think it would not be a bad plan to have a grand new naming of a\r\nship’s ropes, as I have read, they once had a simplifying of the\r\nclasses of plants in Botany. It is really wonderful how many names\r\nthere are in the world. There is no counting the names, that surgeons\r\nand anatomists give to the various parts of the human body; which,\r\nindeed, is something like a ship; its bones being the stiff\r\nstanding-rigging, and the sinews the small running ropes, that manage\r\nall the motions.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ10MVYCHA419N8ERY5B","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKV2YF6ZEHFNWK9EJJCNC","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKV2YEJWFMRAAA32GN377","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.499Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.059Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}