{"id":"01KG8AME6YNBCZXH3254NWGF0E","cid":"bafkreibl5renavlrsztjtdhipsmtx6xkekupyozmdjpt3amcrbiirgyy7q","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7613,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":7549,"text":"his frenzied heedlessness let go his hold on the _tie_.\r\n\r\n“You, Baldy! are you afraid of falling?” cried the First Lieutenant.\r\n\r\nAt that moment, with all his force, Baldy jumped down upon the sail;\r\nthe _bunt gasket_ parted; and a dark form dropped through the air.\r\nLighting upon the _top-rim_, it rolled off; and the next instant, with\r\na horrid crash of all his bones, Baldy came, like a thunderbolt, upon\r\nthe deck.\r\n\r\nAboard of most large men-of-war there is a stout oaken platform, about\r\nfour feet square, on each side of the quarter-deck. You ascend to it by\r\nthree or four steps; on top, it is railed in at the sides, with\r\nhorizontal brass bars. It is called _the Horse Block;_ and there the\r\nofficer of the deck usually stands, in giving his orders at sea.\r\n\r\nIt was one of these horse blocks, now unoccupied, that broke poor\r\nBaldy’s fall. He fell lengthwise across the brass bars, bending them\r\ninto elbows, and crushing the whole oaken platform, steps and all,\r\nright down to the deck in a thousand splinters.\r\n\r\nHe was picked up for dead, and carried below to the surgeon. His bones\r\nseemed like those of a man broken on the wheel, and no one thought he\r\nwould survive the night. But with the surgeon’s skillful treatment he\r\nsoon promised recovery. Surgeon Cuticle devoted all his science to this\r\ncase.\r\n\r\nA curious frame-work of wood was made for the maimed man; and placed in\r\nthis, with all his limbs stretched out, Baldy lay flat on the floor of\r\nthe Sick-bay, for many weeks. Upon our arrival home, he was able to\r\nhobble ashore on crutches; but from a hale, hearty man, with bronzed\r\ncheeks, he was become a mere dislocated skeleton, white as foam; but\r\nere this, perhaps, his broken bones are healed and whole in the last\r\nrepose of the man-of-war’s-man.\r\n\r\nNot many days after Baldy’s accident in furling sails—in this same\r\nfrenzied manner, under the stimulus of a shouting officer—a seaman fell\r\nfrom the main-royal-yard of an English line-of-battle ship near us, and\r\nburied his ankle-bones in the deck, leaving two indentations there, as\r\nif scooped out by a carpenter’s gouge.\r\n\r\nThe royal-yard forms a cross with the mast, and falling from that lofty\r\ncross in a line-of-battle ship is almost like falling from the cross of\r\nSt. Paul’s; almost like falling as Lucifer from the well-spring of\r\nmorning down to the Phlegethon of night.\r\n\r\nIn some cases, a man, hurled thus from a yard, has fallen upon his own\r\nshipmates in the tops, and dragged them down with him to the same\r\ndestruction with himself.\r\n\r\nHardly ever will you hear of a man-of-war returning home after a\r\ncruise, without the loss of some of her crew from aloft, whereas\r\nsimilar accidents in the merchant service—considering the much greater\r\nnumber of men employed in it—are comparatively few.\r\n\r\nWhy mince the matter? The death of most of these man-of-war’s-men lies\r\nat the door of the souls of those officers, who, while safely standing\r\non deck themselves, scruple not to sacrifice an immortal man or two, in\r\norder to show off the excelling discipline of the ship. And thus do\r\n_the people_ of the gun-deck suffer, that the Commodore on the poop may\r\nbe glorified.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS2XR4F65K8W27CASPYP","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AME6YC5V2YPC91FX64GRS","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.086Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:48.842Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}