{"id":"01KG8AKVR1SQTM87WN14JH4SFA","cid":"bafkreidig3qdo53vtvowrlhyewebrt6z65mnsive4x77ybsglf3tk4kdaa","type":"section","properties":{"description":"# One other way of killing time while in port is playing checkers\n## Overview\nThis is a section extracted from the text file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY), discussing the game of checkers as a way to pass time on a man-of-war. It is part of Chapter XLII, titled [CHAPTER XLII. KILLING TIME IN A MAN-OF-WAR IN HARBOUR.](arke:01KG8AJS2XNNYG8VJ0DMZ113C3) within the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. This section discusses the sailors' fondness for checkers, the captain's leniency towards the game after an incident involving belaying-pins, and the sailors' particularity about their checker-cloths.\n\n## Context\nThe section is part of a larger chapter exploring various methods sailors employ to alleviate boredom while their ship is in port. It follows a section describing promenading on the gun-deck to admire the scenery [Still another mode of passing time, was arraying yourself in your best “_togs_” and promenading up and down the gun-deck, admiring the shore scenery from the port-holes, which, in an amphitheatrical bay like Rio—belted about by the most varied and charming scenery of hill, dale, moss, meadow, court, castle, tower, grove, vine, vineyard, aqueduct, palace, square, island, fort—is very much like lounging round a circular cosmorama, and ever and anon lazily peeping through the glasses here and there.](arke:01KG8AKVR30T2RHK4SM0J2N7XZ) and precedes a section about leaning over the bulwarks and speculating about the future [Still another way of killing time in harbour, is to lean over the bulwarks, and speculate](arke:01KG8AKVR3NV87YRM9YHT3B43P).\n\n## Contents\nThe section describes the sailors' fondness for playing checkers as a pastime while in port, subject to the captain's approval. It recounts a specific incident where the captain, Captain Claret, initially prohibited checkers, leading to sailors throwing belaying-pins at him in the dark. Subsequently, the captain indirectly allowed the game again, demonstrating his understanding of the sailors' needs. The text also mentions the sailors' fastidiousness regarding their checker-cloths, even to the point of requiring clean hands before playing. The section concludes by mentioning other ways of passing time, such as finding a comfortable spot for reverie or contemplating home.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:52.182Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"One other way of killing time while in port is playing checkers","end_line":6658,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.646Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"One other way of killing time while in port is playing checkers","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":6608,"text":"One other way of killing time while in port is playing checkers; that\r\nis, when it is permitted; for it is not every navy captain who will\r\nallow such a scandalous proceeding, But, as for Captain Claret, though\r\nhe _did_ like his glass of Madeira uncommonly well, and was an\r\nundoubted descendant from the hero of the Battle of the Brandywine, and\r\nthough he sometimes showed a suspiciously flushed face when\r\nsuperintending in person the flogging of a sailor for getting\r\nintoxicated against his particular orders, yet I will say for Captain\r\nClaret that, upon the whole, he was rather indulgent to his crew, so\r\nlong as they were perfectly docile. He allowed them to play checkers as\r\nmuch as they pleased. More than once I have known him, when going\r\nforward to the forecastle, pick his way carefully among scores of\r\ncanvas checker-cloths spread upon the deck, so as not to tread upon the\r\nmen—the checker-men and man-of-war’s-men included; but, in a certain\r\nsense, they were both one; for, as the sailors used their checker-men,\r\nso, at quarters, their officers used these man-of-war’s men.\r\n\r\nBut Captain Claret’s leniency in permitting checkers on board his ship\r\nmight have arisen from the following little circumstance,\r\nconfidentially communicated to me. Soon after the ship had sailed from\r\nhome, checkers were prohibited; whereupon the sailors were exasperated\r\nagainst the Captain, and one night, when he was walking round the\r\nforecastle, bim! came an iron belaying-pin past his ears; and while he\r\nwas dodging that, bim! came another, from the other side; so that, it\r\nbeing a very dark night, and nobody to be seen, and it being impossible\r\nto find out the trespassers, he thought it best to get back into his\r\ncabin as soon as possible. Some time after—just as if the belaying-pins\r\nhad nothing to do with it—it was indirectly rumoured that the\r\nchecker-boards might be brought out again, which—as a philosophical\r\nshipmate observed—showed that Captain Claret was a man of a ready\r\nunderstanding, and could understand a hint as well as any other man,\r\neven when conveyed by several pounds of iron.\r\n\r\nSome of the sailors were very precise about their checker-cloths, and\r\neven went so far that they would not let you play with them unless you\r\nfirst washed your hands, especially if so be you had just come from\r\ntarring down the rigging.\r\n\r\nAnother way of beguiling the tedious hours, is to get a cosy seat\r\nsomewhere, and fall into as snug a little reverie as you can. Or if a\r\nseat is not to be had—which is frequently the case—then get a tolerably\r\ncomfortable _stand-up_ against the bulwarks, and begin to think about\r\nhome and bread and butter—always inseparably connected to a\r\nwanderer—which will very soon bring delicious tears into your eyes; for\r\nevery one knows what a luxury is grief, when you can get a private\r\ncloset to enjoy it in, and no Paul Prys intrude. Several of my shore\r\nfriends, indeed, when suddenly overwhelmed by some disaster, always\r\nmake a point of flying to the first oyster-cellar, and shutting\r\nthemselves up in a box with nothing but a plate of stewed oysters, some\r\ncrackers, the castor, and a decanter of old port.\r\n\r","title":"One other way of killing time while in port is playing checkers"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS2XNNYG8VJ0DMZ113C3","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVR30T2RHK4SM0J2N7XZ","peer_type":"section","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVR3NV87YRM9YHT3B43P","peer_type":"section","predicate":"next"}],"ver":3,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.177Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:52.398Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}