{"id":"01KG8AM79J7TBXXXGGW090DNMD","cid":"bafkreienylnxmjecxtodr5p72ln2i6xeupxv7aosggbapwhwu3kstdaxki","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":2767,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:26.981Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 10","source_file":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","start_line":2708,"text":"‘But while, put to it by those anxieties in you which I cannot but\r\nrespect, I only repeat myself--while thus strangely we prolong\r\nproceedings that should be summary, the enemy may be sighted and an\r\nengagement result. We must do; and one of two things must we do--condemn\r\nor let go.’\r\n\r\n‘Can we not convict and yet mitigate the penalty?’ asked the junior\r\nlieutenant, here speaking, and falteringly, for the first.\r\n\r\n‘Lieutenant, were that clearly lawful for us under the circumstances,\r\nconsider the consequences of such clemency. The people’ (meaning the\r\nship’s company) ‘have native sense; most of them are familiar with our\r\nnaval usage and tradition; and how would they take it? Even could you\r\nexplain to them--which our official position forbids--they, long moulded\r\nby arbitrary discipline, have not that kind of intelligent\r\nresponsiveness that might qualify them to comprehend and discriminate.\r\nNo, to the people the foretopman’s deed, however it be worded in the\r\nannouncement, will be plain homicide committed in a flagrant act of\r\nmutiny. What penalty for that should follow, they know. But it does not\r\nfollow. _Why?_ they will ruminate. You know what sailors are. Will they\r\nnot revert to the recent outbreak at the Nore? Ay, they know the\r\nwell-founded alarm--the panic it struck throughout England. Your clement\r\nsentence they would account pusillanimous. They would think that we\r\nflinch, that we are afraid of them--afraid of practising a lawful rigour\r\nsingularly demanded at this juncture lest it should provoke new\r\ntroubles. What shame to us such a conjecture on their part, and how\r\ndeadly to discipline. You see then whither, prompted by duty and the\r\nlaw, I steadfastly drive. But I beseech you, my friends, do not take me\r\namiss. I feel as you do for this unfortunate boy. But did he know our\r\nhearts, I take him to be of that generous nature that he would feel even\r\nfor us on whom in this military necessity so heavy a compulsion is\r\nlaid.’\r\n\r\nWith that, crossing the deck, he resumed his place by the sashed\r\nport-hole, tacitly leaving the three to come to a decision. On the\r\ncabin’s opposite side the troubled court sat silent. Loyal lieges, plain\r\nand practical, though at bottom they dissented from some points Captain\r\nVere had put to them, they were without the faculty, hardly had the\r\ninclination to gainsay one whom they felt to be an earnest man, one,\r\ntoo, not less their superior in mind than in naval rank. But it is not\r\nimprobable that even such of his words as were not without influence\r\nover them, came home to them less than his closing appeal to their\r\ninstinct as sea-officers. He forecasted the practical consequences to\r\ndiscipline (considering the unconfirmed tone of the fleet at the time),\r\nif violent killing at sea by a man-of-war’s man of a superior in grade\r\nwere allowed to pass for aught else than a capital crime, and one\r\ndemanding prompt infliction of the penalty.\r\n\r\nNot unlikely they were brought to something more or less akin to that\r\nharassed frame of mind which in the year 1842 actuated the commander of\r\nthe U.S. brig-of-war _Somers_ to resolve, under the so-called Articles\r\nof War, Articles modelled upon the English Mutiny Act, to resolve upon\r\nthe execution at sea of a midshipman and two petty officers as mutineers\r\ndesigning the seizure of the brig. Which resolution was carried out\r\nthough in a time of peace and within not many days’ sail of home. An act\r\nvindicated by a naval court of inquiry subsequently convened ashore.\r\nHistory, and here cited without comment. True, the circumstances on\r\nboard the _Somers_ were different from those on board the _Indomitable_.\r\nBut the urgency felt, well warranted or otherwise, was much the same.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 10"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJV0GJ6SDZS7Z24MESH84","peer_type":"segment","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1FFTGRE9J93Z3K29NGY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AM79NWSN4W5MQXRJ1M4R6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AM79QTG0XBWMS3B1WCEDT","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:30.002Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.290Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}