{"id":"01KG8AKV2YMS3YNAY2PMC7XE3Y","cid":"bafkreihpgmmb6hxk7r4emw4lurxb4wc7zjx2vxxe2w36uoasmbolkeyumq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2410,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":2347,"text":"tobacco, and mend his jackets and trowsers; and used to watch, and\r\ntend, and nurse him every way. And all the time, he would sit scowling\r\non them, and found fault with what they did; and I noticed, that those\r\nwho did the most for him, and cringed the most before him, were the\r\nvery ones he most abused; while two or three who held more aloof, he\r\ntreated with a little consideration.\r\n\r\nIt is not for me to say, what it was that made a whole ship’s company\r\nsubmit so to the whims of one poor miserable man like Jackson. I only\r\nknow that so it was; but I have no doubt, that if he had had a blue eye\r\nin his head, or had had a different face from what he did have, they\r\nwould not have stood in such awe of him. And it astonished me, to see\r\nthat one of the seamen, a remarkably robust and good-humored young man\r\nfrom Belfast in Ireland, was a person of no mark or influence among the\r\ncrew; but on the contrary was hooted at, and trampled upon, and made a\r\nbutt and laughing-stock; and more than all, was continually being\r\nabused and snubbed by Jackson, who seemed to hate him cordially,\r\nbecause of his great strength and fine person, and particularly because\r\nof his red cheeks.\r\n\r\nBut then, this Belfast man, although he had shipped for an\r\n_able-seaman,_ was not much of a sailor; and that always lowers a man\r\nin the eyes of a ship’s company; I mean, when he ships for an\r\n_able-seaman,_ but is not able to do the duty of one. For sailors are\r\nof three classes—_able-seaman, ordinary-seaman,_ and _boys;_ and they\r\nreceive different wages according to their rank. Generally, a ship’s\r\ncompany of twelve men will only have five or six able seamen, who if\r\nthey prove to understand their duty every way (and that is no small\r\nmatter either, as I shall hereafter show, perhaps), are looked up to,\r\nand thought much of by the ordinary-seamen and boys, who reverence\r\ntheir very pea-jackets, and lay up their sayings in their hearts.\r\n\r\nBut you must not think from this, that persons called _boys_ aboard\r\nmerchant-ships are all youngsters, though to be sure, I myself was\r\ncalled a _boy,_ and a boy I was. No. In merchant-ships, a _boy_ means a\r\ngreen-hand, a landsman on his first voyage. And never mind if he is old\r\nenough to be a grandfather, he is still called a _boy;_ and boys’ work\r\nis put upon him.\r\n\r\nBut I am straying off from what I was going to say about Jackson’s\r\nputting an end to the dispute between the two sailors in the forecastle\r\nafter breakfast. After they had been disputing some time about who had\r\nbeen to sea the longest, Jackson told them to stop talking; and then\r\nbade one of them open his mouth; for, said he, I can tell a sailor’s\r\nage just like a horse’s—by his teeth. So the man laughed, and opened\r\nhis mouth; and Jackson made him step out under the scuttle, where the\r\nlight came down from deck; and then made him throw his head back, while\r\nhe looked into it, and probed a little with his jackknife, like a\r\nbaboon peering into a junk-bottle. I trembled for the poor fellow, just\r\nas if I had seen him under the hands of a crazy barber, making signs to\r\ncut his throat, and he all the while sitting stock still, with the\r\nlather on, to be shaved. For I watched Jackson’s eye and saw it\r\nsnapping, and a sort of going in and out, very quick, as if it were\r\nsomething like a forked tongue; and somehow, I felt as if he were\r\nlonging to kill the man; but at last he grew more composed, and after\r\nconcluding his examination, said, that the first man was the oldest\r\nsailor, for the ends of his teeth were the evenest and most worn down;\r\nwhich, he said, arose from eating so much hard sea-biscuit; and this\r\nwas the reason he could tell a sailor’s age like a horse’s.\r\n\r\nAt this, every body made merry, and looked at each other, as much as to\r\n_say—come, boys, let’s laugh;_ and they did laugh; and declared it was\r\na rare joke.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ10JKKQP0HG6GFFSHC0","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKV2YSMC4ZA21ND4SBPRJ","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKV2YXD3Y5ESKFH7E5C65","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:17.502Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.704Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}