{"id":"01KG8AME6YK8MPCNDN5YGEJPS0","cid":"bafkreieada6yusz6icgtc3ff5stcjnd7nymuozvlajeh5kje7lthck5x4a","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7095,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 2","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":7033,"text":"When the Purser came on board, it turned out that he knew nothing at\r\nall about the box. He had never so much as heard of it in his life. So\r\nit was again brought up before the deck-officer, who immediately\r\nsummoned the master-at-arms.\r\n\r\n“Break open that box!”\r\n\r\n“Certainly, sir!” said the master-at-arms; and, wrenching off the\r\ncover, twenty-five brown jugs like a litter of twenty-five brown pigs,\r\nwere found snugly nestled in a bed of straw.\r\n\r\n“The smugglers are at work, sir,” said the master-at-arms, looking up.\r\n\r\n“Uncork and taste it,” said the officer.\r\n\r\nThe master-at-arms did so; and, smacking his lips after a puzzled\r\nfashion, was a little doubtful whether it was American whisky or\r\nHolland gin; but he said he was not used to liquor.\r\n\r\n“Brandy; I know it by the smell,” said the officer; “return the box to\r\nthe brig.”\r\n\r\n“Ay, ay, sir,” said the master-at-arms, redoubling his activity.\r\n\r\nThe affair was at once reported to the Captain, who, incensed at the\r\naudacity of the thing, adopted every plan to detect the guilty parties.\r\nInquiries were made ashore; but by whom the box had been brought down\r\nto the market-boat there was no finding out. Here the matter rested for\r\na time.\r\n\r\nSome days after, one of the boys of the mizzen-top was flogged for\r\ndrunkenness, and, while suspended in agony at the gratings, was made to\r\nreveal from whom he had procured his spirits. The man was called, and\r\nturned out to be an old superannuated marine, one Scriggs, who did the\r\ncooking for the marine-sergeants and masters-at-arms’ mess. This marine\r\nwas one of the most villainous-looking fellows in the ship, with a\r\nsquinting, pick-lock, gray eye, and hang-dog gallows gait. How such a\r\nmost unmartial vagabond had insinuated himself into the honourable\r\nmarine corps was a perfect mystery. He had always been noted for his\r\npersonal uncleanliness, and among all hands, fore and aft, had the\r\nreputation of being a notorious old miser, who denied himself the few\r\ncomforts, and many of the common necessaries of a man-of-war life.\r\n\r\nSeeing no escape, Scriggs fell on his knees before the Captain, and\r\nconfessed the charge of the boy. Observing the fellow to be in an agony\r\nof fear at the sight of the boatswain’s mates and their lashes, and all\r\nthe striking parade of public punishment, the Captain must have thought\r\nthis a good opportunity for completely pumping him of all his secrets.\r\nThis terrified marine was at length forced to reveal his having been\r\nfor some time an accomplice in a complicated system of underhand\r\nvillainy, the head of which was no less a personage than the\r\nindefatigable chief of police, the master-at-arms himself. It appeared\r\nthat this official had his confidential agents ashore, who supplied him\r\nwith spirits, and in various boxes, packages, and bundles—addressed to\r\nthe Purser and others—brought them down to the frigate’s boats at the\r\nlanding. Ordinarily, the appearance of these things for the Purser and\r\nother ward-room gentlemen occasioned no surprise; for almost every day\r\nsome bundle or other is coming off for them, especially for the Purser;\r\nand, as the master-at-arms was always present on these occasions, it\r\nwas an easy matter for him to hurry the smuggled liquor out of sight,\r\nand, under pretence of carrying the box or bundle down to the Purser’s\r\nroom, hide it away upon his own premises.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 2"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS32V8KWVR1XVNNS595G","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AMDKX20E8SXPXRWT0SMF6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AME6YQXMFJEZAKK20CSZM","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.086Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:48.241Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}