{"id":"01KG8AKVTVQT8970ZKD0F0Z1CE","cid":"bafkreifb5ssefpiagx3zv6ijw6gl3mhgengglx6ccfsvq7ewcb6ixbx2mi","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3105,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":3045,"text":"CHAPTER XVI.\r\nAT DEAD OF NIGHT HE IS SENT UP TO LOOSE THE MAIN-SKYSAIL\r\n\r\n\r\nI must now run back a little, and tell of my first going aloft at\r\nmiddle watch, when the sea was quite calm, and the breeze was mild.\r\n\r\nThe order was given to loose the _main-skysail,_ which is the fifth and\r\nhighest sail from deck. It was a very small sail, and from the\r\nforecastle looked no bigger than a cambric pocket-handkerchief. But I\r\nhave heard that some ships carry still smaller sails, above the\r\nskysail; called _moon-sails,_ and _skyscrapers,_ and _cloud-rakers._\r\nBut I shall not believe in them till I see them; a _skysail_ seems high\r\nenough in all conscience; and the idea of any thing higher than that,\r\nseems preposterous. Besides, it looks almost like tempting heaven, to\r\nbrush the very firmament so, and almost put the eyes of the stars out;\r\nwhen a flaw of wind, too, might very soon take the conceit out of these\r\ncloud-defying _cloud-rakers._\r\n\r\nNow, when the order was passed to loose the skysail, an old Dutch\r\nsailor came up to me, and said, “Buttons, my boy, it’s high time you be\r\ndoing something; and it’s boy’s business, Buttons, to loose de royals,\r\nand not old men’s business, like me. Now, d’ye see dat leelle fellow\r\nway up dare? _dare,_ just behind dem stars dare: well, tumble up, now,\r\nButtons, I zay, and looze him; way you go, Buttons.”\r\n\r\nAll the rest joining in, and seeming unanimous in the opinion, that it\r\nwas high time for me to be stirring myself, and doing _boy’s business,_\r\nas they called it, I made no more ado, but jumped into the rigging. Up\r\nI went, not daring to look down, but keeping my eyes glued, as it were,\r\nto the shrouds, as I ascended.\r\n\r\nIt was a long road up those stairs, and I began to pant and breathe\r\nhard, before I was half way. But I kept at it till I got to the\r\n_Jacob’s Ladder;_ and they may well call it so, for it took me almost\r\ninto the clouds; and at last, to my own amazement, I found myself\r\nhanging on the skysail-yard, holding on might and main to the mast; and\r\ncurling my feet round the rigging, as if they were another pair of\r\nhands.\r\n\r\nFor a few moments I stood awe-stricken and mute. I could not see far\r\nout upon the ocean, owing to the darkness of the night; and from my\r\nlofty perch, the sea looked like a great, black gulf, hemmed in, all\r\nround, by beetling black cliffs. I seemed all alone; treading the\r\nmidnight clouds; and every second, expected to find myself\r\nfalling—falling—falling, as I have felt when the nightmare has been on\r\nme.\r\n\r\nI could but just perceive the ship below me, like a long narrow plank\r\nin the water; and it did not seem to belong at all to the yard, over\r\nwhich I was hanging. A gull, or some sort of sea-fowl, was flying round\r\nthe truck over my head, within a few yards of my face; and it almost\r\nfrightened me to hear it; it seemed so much like a spirit, at such a\r\nlofty and solitary height.\r\n\r\nThough there was a pretty smooth sea, and little wind; yet, at this\r\nextreme elevation, the ship’s motion was very great; so that when the\r\nship rolled one way, I felt something as a fly must feel, walking the\r\nceiling; and when it rolled the other way, I felt as if I was hanging\r\nalong a slanting pine-tree.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQ1DWBBK9RCB78EZ3R5B","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKVTXV02J99E3J954G9E1","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.267Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.760Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}