{"id":"01KG8AKVRDZXGM2H1RFF0WHDMX","cid":"bafkreigkizf7wo4yozm7j25myhqdvbhguptrazocluhgi6o3hvzcuqwaw4","type":"scene","properties":{"description":"# The Purser's Auction\n## Overview\nThis is a scene from Herman Melville's novel *White-Jacket*, extracted from the file [white_jacket.txt](arke:01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY). It is part of the [Melville Complete Works](arke:01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW) collection. The scene depicts a purser's auction on board a man-of-war. It spans from line 7618 to line 7734 of the source text.\n\n## Context\nThe scene is located within [CHAPTER XLVII.\nAN AUCTION IN A MAN-OF-WAR.](arke:01KG8AJS39K1V9TPKTGQA17NAS) of *White-Jacket*. The preceding scene is titled \"Narrator's decision to sell his jacket and arrangements for the auction\" [Narrator's decision to sell his jacket and arrangements for the auction](arke:01KG8AKVRDYZSWB78BAK9SFG4M), and the subsequent scene is titled \"Narrator's decision to sell his jacket and arrangements for the auction\".\n\n## Contents\nThis scene describes a purser's auction, a common event on naval ships to dispose of the belongings of deceased sailors. The scene introduces the Purser's steward, a charismatic and theatrical auctioneer, and details his humorous methods of selling items such as old boots. The narrator observes the auction and considers selling his own white jacket in a similar manner. The scene is divided into two chunks: [Chunk 1](arke:01KG8AMET8ZA7M0Z4RPH3MHNQV) which introduces the auction and the auctioneer, and [Chunk 2](arke:01KG8AMET8J18D1KF9C1H6MESN) which continues the description of the auction and the narrator's contemplation of selling his jacket.\n","description_generated_at":"2026-01-30T20:49:51.667Z","description_model":"gemini-2.5-flash-lite","description_title":"The Purser's Auction","end_line":7734,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:16.646Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"The Purser's Auction","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":7618,"text":null,"title":"The Purser's Auction"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS39K1V9TPKTGQA17NAS","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVRDYZSWB78BAK9SFG4M","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KG8AMET8ZA7M0Z4RPH3MHNQV","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG8AMET8J18D1KF9C1H6MESN","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"contains"}],"ver":5,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.189Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:49:51.922Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}