{"id":"01KG8AM585RGPPVMSZ27YK695A","cid":"bafkreihcsv7rovpqphnenp3pcwrzg3g3ilio6vatdnso37hvkfnsbvdr2y","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":907,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":848,"text":"engagements, always acquitting himself as an officer mindful of the\r\nwelfare of his men, but never tolerating an infraction of discipline;\r\nthoroughly versed in the science of his profession, and intrepid to the\r\nverge of temerity, though never injudiciously so. For his gallantry in\r\nthe West Indian waters as flag-lieutenant under Rodney in that admiral’s\r\ncrowning victory over De Grasse, he was made a post-captain.\r\n\r\nAshore in the garb of a civilian, scarce anyone would have taken him for\r\na sailor, more especially that he never garnished unprofessional talk\r\nwith nautical terms, and grave in his bearing, evinced little\r\nappreciation of mere humour. It was not out of keeping with these traits\r\nthat on a passage when nothing demanded his paramount action, he was the\r\nmost undemonstrative of men. Any landsman observing this gentleman, not\r\nconspicuous by his stature and wearing no pronounced insignia, emerging\r\nfrom his retreat to the open deck, and noting the silent deference of\r\nthe officers retiring to leeward, might have taken him for the King’s\r\nguest, a civilian aboard the King’s ship, some highly honourable\r\ndiscreet envoy on his way to an important post. But, in fact, this\r\nunobtrusiveness of demeanour may have proceeded from a certain\r\nunaffected modesty of manhood sometimes accompanying a resolute nature,\r\na modesty evinced at all times not calling for pronounced action, and\r\nwhich shown in any rank of life suggests a virtue aristocratic in kind.\r\n\r\nAs with some others engaged in various departments of the world’s more\r\nheroic activities, Captain Vere, though practical enough upon occasion,\r\nwould at times betray a certain dreaminess of mood. Standing alone on\r\nthe weather-side of the greater deck, one hand holding by the rigging,\r\nhe would absently gaze off at the black sea. At the presentation to him\r\nthen of some minor matter interrupting the current of his thoughts, he\r\nwould show more or less irascibility; but instantly he would control it.\r\n\r\nIn the Navy he was popularly known by the appellation--Starry Vere. How\r\nsuch a designation happened to fall upon one who, whatever his sturdy\r\nqualities, was without any brilliant ones, was in this wise: a favourite\r\nkinsman, Lord Denton, a free-handed fellow, had been the first to meet\r\nand congratulate him upon his return to England from the West Indian\r\ncruise; and but the day previous turning over a copy of Andrew Marvell’s\r\npoems had lighted, not for the first time however, upon the lines\r\nentitled ‘Appelton House,’ the name of one of the seats of their common\r\nancestor, a hero in the German wars of the seventeenth century, in which\r\npoem occur the lines,\r\n\r\n                 ‘This ’tis to have been from the first\r\n                  In a domestic heaven nursed,\r\n                  Under the discipline severe\r\n                  Of Fairfax and the starry Vere.’\r\n\r\nAnd so, upon embracing his cousin fresh from Rodney’s victory, wherein\r\nhe had played so gallant a part, brimming over with just family pride in\r\nthe sailor of their house, he exuberantly exclaimed, ‘Give ye joy, Ed;\r\ngive ye joy, my starry Vere!’ This got currency, and the novel prefix\r\nserving in familiar parlance readily to distinguish the _Indomitable’s_\r\ncaptain from another Vere, his senior, a distant relative, an officer of\r\nlike rank in the Navy, it remained permanently attached to the surname.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKFBVG7QH9TYDJZBNPACG","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM585765HTZY1ZV0K0H8Q","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:27.909Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:34.610Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}