{"id":"01KG8AMDKTC61HR3SZ0M3H7ZR0","cid":"bafkreic5v4ujyz7inaxsvxun5io5eoyltsnxt2673xfbqi5rl3svt4u324","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":924,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.270Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":866,"text":"of him in his general character, as a flag-officer. In the first place,\r\nthen, I have serious doubts, whether for the most part, he was not\r\ndumb; for in my hearing, he seldom or never uttered a word. And not\r\nonly did he seem dumb himself, but his presence possessed the strange\r\npower of making other people dumb for the time. His appearance on the\r\nQuarter-deck seemed to give every officer the lock-jaw.\r\n\r\nAnother phenomenon about him was the strange manner in which everyone\r\nshunned him. At the first sign of those epaulets of his on the weather\r\nside of the poop, the officers there congregated invariably shrunk over\r\nto leeward, and left him alone. Perhaps he had an evil eye; may be he\r\nwas the Wandering Jew afloat. The real reason probably was, that like\r\nall high functionaries, he deemed it indispensable religiously to\r\nsustain his dignity; one of the most troublesome things in the world,\r\nand one calling for the greatest self-denial. And the constant watch,\r\nand many-sided guardedness, which this sustaining of a Commodore’s\r\ndignity requires, plainly enough shows that, apart from the common\r\ndignity of manhood, Commodores, in general possess no real dignity at\r\nall. True, it is expedient for crowned heads, generalissimos,\r\nLord-high-admirals, and Commodores, to carry themselves straight, and\r\nbeware of the spinal complaint; but it is not the less veritable, that\r\nit is a piece of assumption, exceedingly uncomfortable to themselves,\r\nand ridiculous to an enlightened generation.\r\n\r\nNow, how many rare good fellows there were among us main-top-men, who,\r\ninvited into his cabin over a social bottle or two, would have rejoiced\r\nour old Commodore’s heart, and caused that ancient wound of his to heal\r\nup at once.\r\n\r\nCome, come, Commodore don’t look so sour, old boy; step up aloft here\r\ninto the _top_, and we’ll spin you a sociable yarn.\r\n\r\nTruly, I thought myself much happier in that white jacket of mine, than\r\nour old Commodore in his dignified epaulets.\r\n\r\nOne thing, perhaps, that more than anything else helped to make our\r\nCommodore so melancholy and forlorn, was the fact of his having so\r\nlittle to do. For as the frigate had a captain; of course, so far as\r\n_she_ was concerned, our Commodore was a supernumerary. What abundance\r\nof leisure he must have had, during a three years’ cruise; how\r\nindefinitely he might have been improving his mind!\r\n\r\nBut as everyone knows that idleness is the hardest work in the world,\r\nso our Commodore was specially provided with a gentleman to assist him.\r\nThis gentleman was called the _Commodore’s secretary_. He was a\r\nremarkably urbane and polished man; with a very graceful exterior, and\r\nlooked much like an Ambassador Extraordinary from Versailles. He messed\r\nwith the Lieutenants in the Ward-room, where he had a state-room,\r\nelegantly furnished as the private cabinet of Pelham. His cot-boy used\r\nto entertain the sailors with all manner of stories about the\r\nsilver-keyed flutes and flageolets, fine oil paintings, morocco bound\r\nvolumes, Chinese chess-men, gold shirt-buttons, enamelled pencil cases,\r\nextraordinary fine French boots with soles no thicker than a sheet of\r\nscented note-paper, embroidered vests, incense-burning sealing-wax,\r\nalabaster statuettes of Venus and Adonis, tortoise-shell snuff-boxes,\r\ninlaid toilet-cases, ivory-handled hair-brushes and mother-of-pearl\r\ncombs, and a hundred other luxurious appendages scattered about this\r\nmagnificent secretary’s state-room.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AKTGR8XV55WSTC76NSQ24","peer_type":"section","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMDKXKPYATY994J702HAW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.474Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:43.208Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}