{"id":"01KG8AKWR38QERP0RET2SKHZM5","cid":"bafkreifrfeq6urxojkyg3ugtt2uepeq67j4xezqlchktm3jaq5tdjoxeve","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3910,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":3836,"text":"CHAPTER XXIX.\r\nTHE REINE BLANCHE\r\n\r\n\r\nI cannot forbear a brief reflection upon the scene ending the last\r\nchapter.\r\n\r\nThe ratanning of the young culprits, although significant of the\r\nimperfect discipline of a French man-of-war, may also be considered as\r\nin some measure characteristic of the nation.\r\n\r\nIn an American or English ship, a boy when flogged is either lashed to\r\nthe breech of a gun, or brought right up to the gratings, the same way\r\nthe men are. But as a general rule, he is never punished beyond his\r\nstrength. You seldom or never draw a cry from the young rogue. He bites\r\nhis tongue and stands up to it like a hero. If practicable (which is\r\nnot always the case), he makes a point of smiling under the operation.\r\nAnd so far from his companions taking any compassion on him, they\r\nalways make merry over his misfortunes. Should he turn baby and cry,\r\nthey are pretty sure to give him afterward a sly pounding in some dark\r\ncorner.\r\n\r\nThis tough training produces its legitimate results. The boy becomes,\r\nin time, a thoroughbred tar, equally ready to strip and take a dozen on\r\nboard his own ship, or, cutlass in hand, dash pell-mell on board the\r\nenemy’s. Whereas the young Frenchman, as all the world knows, makes but\r\nan indifferent seaman; and though, for the most part, he fights well\r\nenough, somehow or other he seldom fights well enough to beat.\r\n\r\nHow few sea-battles have the French ever won! But more: how few ships\r\nhave they ever carried by the board—that true criterion of naval\r\ncourage! But not a word against French bravery—there is plenty of it;\r\nbut not of the right sort. A Yankee’s, or an Englishman’s, is the\r\ndownright Waterloo “game.” The French fight better on land; and not\r\nbeing essentially a maritime people, they ought to stay there. The best\r\nof shipwrights, they are no sailors.\r\n\r\nAnd this carries me back to the Reine Blanche, as noble a specimen of\r\nwhat wood and iron can make as ever floated.\r\n\r\nShe was a new ship: the present her maiden cruise. The greatest pains\r\nhaving been taken in her construction, she was accounted the “crack”\r\ncraft in the French navy. She is one of the heavy sixty-gun frigates\r\nnow in vogue all over the world, and which we Yankees were the first to\r\nintroduce. In action these are the most murderous vessels ever\r\nlaunched.\r\n\r\nThe model of the Reine Blanche has all that warlike comeliness only to\r\nbe seen in a fine fighting ship. Still, there is a good deal of French\r\nflummery about her—brass plates and other gewgaws stuck on all over,\r\nlike baubles on a handsome woman.\r\n\r\nAmong other things, she carries a stern gallery resting on the uplifted\r\nhands of two Caryatides, larger than life. You step out upon this from\r\nthe commodore’s cabin. To behold the rich hangings, and mirrors, and\r\nmahogany within, one is almost prepared to see a bevy of ladies trip\r\nforth on the balcony for an airing.\r\n\r\nBut come to tread the gun-deck, and all thoughts like these are put to\r\nflight. Such batteries of thunderbolt hurlers! with a\r\nsixty-eight-pounder or two thrown in as make-weights. On the spar-deck,\r\nalso, are carronades of enormous calibre.\r\n\r\nRecently built, this vessel, of course, had the benefit of the latest\r\nimprovements. I was quite amazed to see on what high principles of art\r\nsome exceedingly simple things were done. But your Gaul is scientific\r\nabout everything; what other people accomplish by a few hard knocks, he\r\ndelights in achieving by a complex arrangement of the pulley, lever,\r\nand screw.\r\n\r\nWhat demi-semi-quavers in a French air! In exchanging naval courtesies,\r\nI have known a French band play “Yankee Doodle” with such a string of\r\nvariations that no one but a “pretty ’cute” Yankee could tell what they\r\nwere at.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJHR3S6CZ17J8EX6P8AFY","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWR3RWYG6ER6MJ5DW1W3","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.203Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.243Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}