{"id":"01KG8AMDKG1E5XRF0E5SA88RS5","cid":"bafkreicwdrbwsisuig3kwvacjumctflbmtum65lx3cdvx6pk2rza3viqju","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":577,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":518,"text":"CHAPTER IV.\r\nJACK CHASE.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe first night out of port was a clear, moonlight one; the frigate\r\ngliding though the water, with all her batteries.\r\n\r\nIt was my Quarter Watch in the top; and there I reclined on the best\r\npossible terms with my top-mates. Whatever the other seamen might have\r\nbeen, these were a noble set of tars, and well worthy an introduction\r\nto the reader.\r\n\r\nFirst and foremost was Jack Chase, our noble First Captain of the Top.\r\nHe was a Briton, and a true-blue; tall and well-knit, with a clear open\r\neye, a fine broad brow, and an abounding nut-brown beard. No man ever\r\nhad a better heart or a bolder. He was loved by the seamen and admired\r\nby the officers; and even when the Captain spoke to him, it was with a\r\nslight air of respect. Jack was a frank and charming man.\r\n\r\nNo one could be better company in forecastle or saloon; no man told\r\nsuch stories, sang such songs, or with greater alacrity sprang to his\r\nduty. Indeed, there was only one thing wanting about him; and that was\r\na finger of his left hand, which finger he had lost at the great battle\r\nof Navarino.\r\n\r\nHe had a high conceit of his profession as a seaman; and being deeply\r\nversed in all things pertaining to a man-of-war, was universally\r\nregarded as an oracle. The main-top, over which he presided, was a sort\r\nof oracle of Delphi; to which many pilgrims ascended, to have their\r\nperplexities or differences settled.\r\n\r\nThere was such an abounding air of good sense and good feeling about\r\nthe man, that he who could not love him, would thereby pronounce\r\nhimself a knave. I thanked my sweet stars, that kind fortune had placed\r\nme near him, though under him, in the frigate; and from the outset Jack\r\nand I were fast friends.\r\n\r\nWherever you may be now rolling over the blue billows, dear Jack! take\r\nmy best love along with you; and God bless you, wherever you go!\r\n\r\nJack was a gentleman. What though his hand was hard, so was not his\r\nheart, too often the case with soft palms. His manners were easy and\r\nfree; none of the boisterousness, so common to tars; and he had a\r\npolite, courteous way of saluting you, if it were only to borrow your\r\nknife. Jack had read all the verses of Byron, and all the romances of\r\nScott. He talked of Rob Roy, Don Juan, and Pelham; Macbeth and Ulysses;\r\nbut, above all things, was an ardent admirer of Camoens. Parts of the\r\nLusiad, he could recite in the original. Where he had obtained his\r\nwonderful accomplishments, it is not for me, his humble subordinate, to\r\nsay. Enough, that those accomplishments were so various; the languages\r\nhe could converse in, so numerous; that he more than furnished an\r\nexample of that saying of Charles the Fifth—_ he who speaks five\r\nlanguages is as good as five men_. But Jack, he was better than a\r\nhundred common mortals; Jack was a whole phalanx, an entire army; Jack\r\nwas a thousand strong; Jack would have done honour to the Queen of\r\nEngland’s drawing-room; Jack must have been a by-blow of some British\r\nAdmiral of the Blue. A finer specimen of the island race of Englishmen\r\ncould not have been picked out of Westminster Abbey of a coronation\r\nday.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJPBCBJ9WPRN8NTZ6F7R0","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMDKJTRX5SP6EKXQPWC6K","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.464Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.265Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}