{"id":"01KG8AKX6VPCEXSG1Z2WD0YG8P","cid":"bafkreiaobnxbohamjh3pf7iqo6r56erjn5ip747y2hm36cuiuqgdgauiee","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4175,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:14.838Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","start_line":4111,"text":"CHAPTER XXIII.\r\nAN UNACCOUNTABLE CABIN-PASSENGER, AND A MYSTERIOUS YOUNG LADY\r\n\r\n\r\nAs yet, I have said nothing special about the passengers we carried\r\nout. But before making what little mention I shall of them, you must\r\nknow that the Highlander was not a Liverpool liner, or packet-ship,\r\nplying in connection with a sisterhood of packets, at stated intervals,\r\nbetween the two ports. No: she was only what is called a _regular\r\ntrader_ to Liverpool; sailing upon no fixed days, and acting very much\r\nas she pleased, being bound by no obligations of any kind: though in\r\nall her voyages, ever having New York or Liverpool for her destination.\r\nMerchant vessels which are neither liners nor regular traders, among\r\nsailors come under the general head of _transient ships;_ which implies\r\nthat they are here to-day, and somewhere else to-morrow, like Mullins’s\r\ndog.\r\n\r\nBut I had no reason to regret that the Highlander was not a liner; for\r\naboard of those liners, from all I could gather from those who had\r\nsailed in them, the crew have terrible hard work, owing to their\r\ncarrying such a press of sail, in order to make as rapid passages as\r\npossible, and sustain the ship’s reputation for speed. Hence it is,\r\nthat although they are the very best of sea-going craft, and built in\r\nthe best possible manner, and with the very best materials, yet, a few\r\nyears of scudding before the wind, as they do, seriously impairs their\r\nconstitutions— like robust young men, who live too fast in their\r\nteens—and they are soon sold out for a song; generally to the people of\r\nNantucket, New Bedford, and Sag Harbor, who repair and fit them out for\r\nthe whaling business.\r\n\r\nThus, the ship that once carried over gay parties of ladies and\r\ngentlemen, as tourists, to Liverpool or London, now carries a crew of\r\nharpooners round Cape Horn into the Pacific. And the mahogany and\r\nbird’s-eye maple cabin, which once held rosewood card-tables and\r\nbrilliant coffee-urns, and in which many a bottle of champagne, and\r\nmany a bright eye sparkled, _now_ accommodates a bluff Quaker captain\r\nfrom Martha’s Vineyard; who, perhaps, while lying with his ship in the\r\nBay of Islands, in New Zealand, entertains a party of naked chiefs and\r\nsavages at dinner, in place of the packet-captain doing the honors to\r\nthe literati, theatrical stars, foreign princes, and gentlemen of\r\nleisure and fortune, who generally talked gossip, politics, and\r\nnonsense across the table, in transatlantic trips. The broad\r\nquarter-deck, too, where these gentry promenaded, is now often choked\r\nup by the enormous head of the sperm-whale, and vast masses of unctuous\r\nblubber; and every where reeks with oil during the prosecution of the\r\nfishery. Sic _transit gloria mundi!_ Thus departs the pride and glory\r\nof packet-ships! _It is_ like a broken down importer of French silks\r\nembarking in the soap-boning business.\r\n\r\nSo, not being a liner, the Highlander of course did not have very ample\r\naccommodations for cabin passengers. I believe there were not more than\r\nfive or six state-rooms, with two or three berths in each. At any rate,\r\non this particular voyage she only carried out one regular\r\ncabin-passenger; that is, a person previously unacquainted with the\r\ncaptain, who paid his fare down, and came on board soberly, and in a\r\nbusiness-like manner with his baggage.\r\n\r\nHe was an extremely little man, that solitary cabin-passenger—the\r\npassenger who came on board in a business-like manner with his baggage;\r\nnever spoke to any one, and the captain seldom spoke to him.\r\n\r\nPerhaps he was a deputy from the Deaf and Dumb Institution in New York,\r\ngoing over to London to address the public in pantomime at Exeter Hall\r\nconcerning the signs of the times.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJQSB3A6BR5CJ3SG0FQ1M","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1GP71YDJ60P8SRH97MF","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AKX6VC017VMF38T9ZC0EH","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:19.675Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.911Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}