{"id":"01KG8AME6YTFDS3JECCDPE039G","cid":"bafkreibgayrhjumuru7hx2aih2dwoylclrljydud6yjkjrhdhazvezg45i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7222,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.274Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 5","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":7175,"text":"way been revealed to our man-of-war world—is but a slough and a mire,\r\nwith a few tufts of good footing here and there.\r\n\r\nBut there was one man in the mess who would have naught to do with our\r\nphilosophy—a churlish, ill-tempered, unphilosophical, superstitious old\r\nbear of a quarter-gunner; a believer in Tophet, for which he was\r\naccordingly preparing himself. Priming was his name; but methinks I\r\nhave spoken of him before.\r\n\r\nBesides, this Bland, the master-at-arms, was no vulgar, dirty knave. In\r\nhim—to modify Burke’s phrase—vice _seemed_, but only seemed, to lose\r\nhalf its seeming evil by losing all its apparent grossness. He was a\r\nneat and gentlemanly villain, and broke his biscuit with a dainty hand.\r\nThere was a fine polish about his whole person, and a pliant,\r\ninsinuating style in his conversation, that was, socially, quite\r\nirresistible. Save my noble captain, Jack Chase, he proved himself the\r\nmost entertaining, I had almost said the most companionable man in the\r\nmess. Nothing but his mouth, that was somewhat small, Moorish-arched,\r\nand wickedly delicate, and his snaky, black eye, that at times shone\r\nlike a dark-lantern in a jeweller-shop at midnight, betokened the\r\naccomplished scoundrel within. But in his conversation there was no\r\ntrace of evil; nothing equivocal; he studiously shunned an indelicacy,\r\nnever swore, and chiefly abounded in passing puns and witticisms,\r\nvaried with humorous contrasts between ship and shore life, and many\r\nagreeable and racy anecdotes, very tastefully narrated. In short—in a\r\nmerely psychological point of view, at least—he was a charming\r\nblackleg. Ashore, such a man might have been an irreproachable\r\nmercantile swindler, circulating in polite society.\r\n\r\nBut he was still more than this. Indeed, I claim for this\r\nmaster-at-arms a lofty and honourable niche in the Newgate Calendar of\r\nhistory. His intrepidity, coolness, and wonderful self-possession in\r\ncalmly resigning himself to a fate that thrust him from an office in\r\nwhich he had tyrannised over five hundred mortals, many of whom hated\r\nand loathed him, passed all belief; his intrepidity, I say, in now\r\nfearlessly gliding among them, like a disarmed swordfish among\r\nferocious white-sharks; this, surely, bespoke no ordinary man. While in\r\noffice, even, his life had often been secretly attempted by the seamen\r\nwhom he had brought to the gangway. Of dark nights they had dropped\r\nshot down the hatchways, destined “to damage his pepper-box,” as they\r\nphrased it; they had made ropes with a hangman’s noose at the end and\r\ntried to _lasso_ him in dark corners. And now he was adrift among them,\r\nunder notorious circumstances of superlative villainy, at last dragged\r\nto light; and yet he blandly smiled, politely offered his cigar-holder\r\nto a perfect stranger, and laughed and chatted to right and left, as if\r\nspringy, buoyant, and elastic, with an angelic conscience, and sure of\r\nkind friends wherever he went, both in this life and the life to come.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 5"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJS32V8KWVR1XVNNS595G","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AME6Y4RPZRCV7J60H45QR","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AME6Y33ZK7R0ECC22MCKW","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.086Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:48.346Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}