{"id":"01KG8AKWR3RWYG6ER6MJ5DW1W3","cid":"bafkreihxmaf7efr4rsewuwpon7jhhsyd6lq32lhmfinf2ywd4fibb6emqm","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":3967,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:15.149Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","start_line":3902,"text":"about 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\nIn the French navy they have no marines; their men, taking turns at\r\ncarrying the musket, are sailors one moment, and soldiers the next; a\r\nfellow running aloft in his line frock to-day, to-morrow stands sentry\r\nat the admiral’s cabin door. This is fatal to anything like proper\r\nsailor pride. To make a man a seaman, he should be put to no other\r\nduty. Indeed, a thorough tar is unfit for anything else; and what is\r\nmore, this fact is the best evidence of his being a true sailor.\r\n\r\nOn board the Reine Blanche, they did not have enough to eat; and what\r\nthey did have was not of the right sort. Instead of letting the sailors\r\nfile their teeth against the rim of a hard sea-biscuit, they baked\r\ntheir bread daily in pitiful little rolls. Then they had no “grog”; as\r\na substitute, they drugged the poor fellows with a thin, sour wine—the\r\njuice of a few grapes, perhaps, to a pint of the juice of\r\nwater-faucets. Moreover, the sailors asked for meat, and they gave them\r\nsoup; a rascally substitute, as they well knew.\r\n\r\nEver since leaving home, they had been on “short allowance.” At the\r\npresent time, those belonging to the boats—and thus getting an\r\noccasional opportunity to run ashore—frequently sold their rations of\r\nbread to some less fortunate shipmate for sixfold its real value.\r\n\r\nAnother thing tending to promote dissatisfaction among the crew was\r\ntheir having such a devil of a fellow for a captain. He was one of\r\nthose horrid naval bores—a great disciplinarian. In port, he kept them\r\nconstantly exercising yards and sails, and maneuvering with the boats;\r\nand at sea, they were forever at quarters; running in and out the\r\nenormous guns, as if their arms were made for nothing else. Then there\r\nwas the admiral aboard, also; and, no doubt, he too had a paternal eye\r\nover them.\r\n\r\nIn the ordinary routine of duty, we could not but be struck with the\r\nlistless, slovenly behaviour of these men; there was nothing of the\r\nnational vivacity in their movements; nothing of the quick precision\r\nperceptible on the deck of a thoroughly-disciplined armed vessel.\r\n\r\nAll this, however, when we came to know the reason, was no matter of\r\nsurprise; three-fourths of them were pressed men. Some old merchant\r\nsailors had been seized the very day they landed from distant voyages;\r\nwhile the landsmen, of whom there were many, had been driven down from\r\nthe country in herds, and so sent to sea.\r\n\r\nAt the time, I was quite amazed to hear of press-gangs in a day of\r\ncomparative peace; but the anomaly is accounted for by the fact that,\r\nof late, the French have been building up a great military marine, to\r\ntake the place of that which Nelson gave to the waves of the sea at\r\nTrafalgar. But it is to be hoped that they are not building their ships\r\nfor the people across the channel to take. In case of a war, what a\r\nfluttering of French ensigns there would be!\r\n\r\nThough I say the French are no sailors, I am far from seeking to\r\nunderrate them as a people. They are an ingenious and right gallant\r\nnation. And, as an American, I take pride in asserting it.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJHR3S6CZ17J8EX6P8AFY","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1H7Y803CZ7X80F0QFHZ","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKWR38QERP0RET2SKHZM5","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.203Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.325Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}