{"id":"01KG8AKW62X03HZEJW6JVTTJ5W","cid":"bafkreias3cjt67tg2x3tghb44iw3dc7lahu4g5yvl44wsj7a3qcpnfq7ye","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3142,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":3074,"text":"potations—and with many imprecations, concluded by driving everybody\r\nout of the cabin. We tumbled up the gangway in high good-humour.\r\n\r\nUpon deck everything looked so quiet that some of the most pugnacious\r\nspirits actually lamented that there was so little prospect of an\r\nexhilarating disturbance before morning. It was not five minutes,\r\nhowever, ere these fellows were gratified.\r\n\r\nSydney Ben—said to be a runaway Ticket-of-Leave-Man, and for reasons of\r\nhis own, one of the few who still remained on duty—had, for the sake of\r\nthe fun, gone down with the rest into the cabin; where Bembo, who\r\nmeanwhile was left in charge of the deck, had frequently called out for\r\nhim. At first, Ben pretended not to hear; but on being sung out for\r\nagain and again, bluntly refused; at the same time, casting some\r\nilliberal reflections on the Mowree’s maternal origin, which the latter\r\nhad been long enough among the sailors to understand as in the highest\r\ndegree offensive. So just after the men came up from below, Bembo\r\nsingled him out, and gave him such a cursing in his broken lingo that\r\nit was enough to frighten one. The convict was the worse for liquor;\r\nindeed the Mowree had been tippling also, and before we knew it, a blow\r\nwas struck by Ben, and the two men came together like magnets.\r\n\r\nThe Ticket-of-Leave-Man was a practised bruiser; but the savage knew\r\nnothing of the art pugilistic: and so they were even. It was clear\r\nhugging and wrenching till both came to the deck. Here they rolled over\r\nand over in the middle of a ring which seemed to form of itself. At\r\nlast the white man’s head fell back, and his face grew purple. Bembo’s\r\nteeth were at his throat. Rushing in all round, they hauled the savage\r\noff, but not until repeatedly struck on the head would he let go.\r\n\r\nHis rage was now absolutely demoniac; he lay glaring and writhing on\r\nthe deck, without attempting to rise. Cowed, as they supposed he was,\r\nfrom his attitude, the men, rejoiced at seeing him thus humbled, left\r\nhim; after rating him, in sailor style, for a cannibal and a coward.\r\n\r\nBen was attended to, and led below.\r\n\r\nSoon after this, the rest also, with but few exceptions, retired into\r\nthe forecastle; and having been up nearly all the previous night, they\r\nquickly dropped about the chests and rolled into the hammocks. In an\r\nhour’s time, not a sound could be heard in that part of the ship.\r\n\r\nBefore Bembo was dragged away, the mate had in vain endeavoured to\r\nseparate the combatants, repeatedly striking the Mowree; but the seamen\r\ninterposing, at last kept him off.\r\n\r\nAnd intoxicated as he was, when they dispersed, he knew enough to\r\ncharge the steward—a steady seaman be it remembered—with the present\r\nsafety of the ship; and then went below, when he fell directly into\r\nanother drunken sleep.\r\n\r\nHaving remained upon deck with the doctor some time after the rest had\r\ngone below, I was just on the point of following him down, when I saw\r\nthe Mowree rise, draw a bucket of water, and holding it high above his\r\nhead, pour its contents right over him. This he repeated several times.\r\nThere was nothing very peculiar in the act, but something else about\r\nhim struck me. However, I thought no more of it, but descended the\r\nscuttle.\r\n\r\nAfter a restless nap, I found the atmosphere of the forecastle so\r\nclose, from nearly all the men being down at the same time, that I\r\nhunted up an old pea-jacket and went on deck; intending to sleep it out\r\nthere till morning. Here I found the cook and steward, Wymontoo, Rope\r\nYarn, and the Dane; who, being all quiet, manageable fellows, and\r\nholding aloof from the rest since the captain’s departure, had been\r\nordered by the mate not to go below until sunrise. They were lying\r\nunder the lee of the bulwarks; two or three fast asleep, and the others\r\nsmoking their pipes, and conversing.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJHQ73FX1CD9D18EPP4J3","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKW5V6ZBM0ZAAEHCSJE6X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AKW5X0XGSMHE4CYJK37KP","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:18.626Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:25.586Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}