{"id":"01KG8AME6YQBCBY7PMTGMR9BRT","cid":"bafkreihxa57zgwkgdvy7kygh4jhmtt2ax3ekyx76m2uumvarxsp6ecjtn4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7326,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":7264,"text":"defend him from being seized up at the gangway, if I can—remembering\r\nthat my Saviour once hung between two thieves, promising one\r\nlife-eternal—yet I would not, after the plain conviction of a villain,\r\nagain let him entirely loose to prey upon honest seamen, fore and aft\r\nall three decks. But this did Captain Claret; and though the thing may\r\nnot perhaps be credited, nevertheless, here it shall be recorded.\r\n\r\nAfter the master-at-arms had been adrift among the ship’s company for\r\nseveral weeks, and we were within a few days’ sail of home, he was\r\nsummoned to the mast, and publicly reinstated in his office as the\r\nship’s chief of police. Perhaps Captain Claret had read the Memoirs of\r\nVidocq, and believed in the old saying, _set a rogue to catch a rogue_.\r\nOr, perhaps, he was a man of very tender feelings, highly susceptible\r\nto the soft emotions of gratitude, and could not bear to leave in\r\ndisgrace a person who, out of the generosity of his heart, had, about a\r\nyear previous, presented him with a rare snuff-box, fabricated from a\r\nsperm-whale’s tooth, with a curious silver hinge, and cunningly wrought\r\nin the shape of a whale; also a splendid gold-mounted cane, of a costly\r\nBrazilian wood, with a gold plate, bearing the Captain’s name and rank\r\nin the service, the place and time of his birth, and with a vacancy\r\nunderneath—no doubt providentially left for his heirs to record his\r\ndecease.\r\n\r\nCertain it was that, some months previous to the master-at-arms’\r\ndisgrace, he had presented these articles to the Captain, with his best\r\nlove and compliments; and the Captain had received them, and seldom\r\nwent ashore without the cane, and never took snuff but out of that box.\r\nWith some Captains, a sense of propriety might have induced them to\r\nreturn these presents, when the generous donor had proved himself\r\nunworthy of having them retained; but it was not Captain Claret who\r\nwould inflict such a cutting wound upon any officer’s sensibilities,\r\nthough long-established naval customs had habituated him to scourging\r\n_the people_ upon an emergency.\r\n\r\nNow had Captain Claret deemed himself constitutionally bound to decline\r\nall presents from his subordinates, the sense of gratitude would not\r\nhave operated to the prejudice of justice. And, as some of the\r\nsubordinates of a man-of-war captain are apt to invoke his good wishes\r\nand mollify his conscience by making him friendly gifts, it would\r\nperhaps _have_ been an excellent thing for him to adopt the plan\r\npursued by the President of the United States, when he received a\r\npresent of lions and Arabian chargers from the Sultan of Muscat. Being\r\nforbidden by his sovereign lords and masters, the imperial people, to\r\naccept of any gifts from foreign powers, the President sent them to an\r\nauctioneer, and the proceeds were deposited in the Treasury. In the\r\nsame manner, when Captain Claret received his snuff-box and cane, he\r\nmight have accepted them very kindly, and then sold them off to the\r\nhighest bidder, perhaps to the donor himself, who in that case would\r\nnever have tempted him again.\r\n\r\nUpon his return home, Bland was paid off for his full term, not\r\ndeducting the period of his suspension. He again entered the service in\r\nhis old capacity.\r\n\r\nAs no further allusion will be made to this affair, it may as well be\r\nstated now that, for the very brief period elapsing between his\r\nrestoration and being paid off in port by the Purser, the\r\nmaster-at-arms conducted himself with infinite discretion, artfully\r\nsteering between any relaxation of discipline—which would have awakened\r\nthe displeasure of the officers—and any unwise severity—which would\r\nhave revived, in tenfold force, all the old grudges of the seamen under\r\nhis command.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS32V8KWVR1XVNNS595G","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AME6Y33ZK7R0ECC22MCKW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AME6YF6RQ7S0CNAZ9YY84","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.086Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:48.607Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}