{"id":"01KG8AME7K36J62C3JRNTJBRJQ","cid":"bafkreigvqa3ko5tffx2dgkisvmil637ktakdo3ccr3y3ewblkex3x5laey","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":13364,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:36.278Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","start_line":13280,"text":"This rebuke not only abashed Mr. Pert, but for a time intimidated the\r\nrest; and the professor was obliged to proceed, and extricate the\r\nBritish fleet by himself. He concluded by awarding Admiral Rodney the\r\nvictory, which must have been exceedingly gratifying to the family\r\npride of the surviving relatives and connections of that distinguished\r\nhero.\r\n\r\n“Shall I clean the board, sir?” now asked Mr. Pert, brightening up.\r\n\r\n“No, sir; not till you have saved that crippled French ship in the\r\ncorner. That ship, young gentlemen, is the Glorieuse: you perceive she\r\nis cut off from her consorts, and the whole British fleet is giving\r\nchase to her. Her bowsprit is gone; her rudder is torn away; she has\r\none hundred round shot in her hull, and two thirds of her men are dead\r\nor dying. What’s to be done? the wind being at northeast by north?”\r\n\r\n“Well, sir,” said Mr. Dash, a chivalric young gentleman from Virginia,\r\n“I wouldn’t strike yet; I’d nail my colours to the main-royal-mast! I\r\nwould, by Jove!”\r\n\r\n“That would not save your ship, sir; besides, your main-mast has gone\r\nby the board.”\r\n\r\n“I think, sir,” said Mr. Slim, a diffident youth, “I think, sir, I\r\nwould haul back the fore-top-sail.”\r\n\r\n“And why so? of what service would _that_ be, I should like to know,\r\nMr. Slim?”\r\n\r\n“I can’t tell exactly; but I think it would help her a little,” was the\r\ntimid reply.\r\n\r\n“Not a whit, sir—not one particle; besides, you can’t haul back your\r\nfore-top-sail—your fore-mast is lying across your forecastle.”\r\n\r\n“Haul back the main-top-sail, then,” suggested another.\r\n\r\n“Can’t be done; your main-mast, also, has gone by the board!”\r\n\r\n“Mizzen-top-sail?” meekly suggested little Boat-Plug.\r\n\r\n“Your mizzen-top-mast, let me inform you, sir, was shot down in the\r\nfirst of the fight!”\r\n\r\n“Well, sir,” cried Mr. Dash, “I’d tack ship, anyway; bid ’em good-by\r\nwith a broadside; nail my flag to the keel, if there was no other\r\nplace; and blow my brains out on the poop!”\r\n\r\n“Idle, idle, sir! worse than idle! you are carried away, Mr. Dash, by\r\nyour ardent Southern temperament! Let me inform you, young gentlemen,\r\nthat this ship,” touching it with his cutlass, “_cannot_ be saved.”\r\n\r\nThen, throwing down his cutlass, “Mr. Pert, have the goodness to hand\r\nme one of those cannon-balls from the rack.”\r\n\r\nBalancing the iron sphere in one hand, the learned professor began\r\nfingering it with the other, like Columbus illustrating the rotundity\r\nof the globe before the Royal Commission of Castilian Ecclesiastics.\r\n\r\n“Young gentlemen, I resume my remarks on the passage of a shot _in\r\nvacuo_, which remarks were interrupted yesterday by general quarters.\r\nAfter quoting that admirable passage in ‘Spearman’s British Gunner,’ I\r\nthen laid it down, you remember, that the path of a shot _in vacuo_\r\ndescribes a parabolic curve. I now add that, agreeably to the method\r\npursued by the illustrious Newton in treating the subject of\r\ncurvilinear motion, I consider the _trajectory_ or curve described by a\r\nmoving body in space as consisting of a series of right lines,\r\ndescribed in successive intervals of time, and constituting the\r\ndiagonals of parallelograms formed in a vertical plane between the\r\nvertical deflections caused by gravity and the production of the line\r\nof motion which has been described in each preceding interval of time.\r\nThis must be obvious; for, if you say that the passage _in vacuo_ of\r\nthis cannon-ball, now held in my hand, would describe otherwise than a\r\nseries of right lines, etc., then you are brought to the _Reductio ad\r\nAbsurdum_, that the diagonals of parallelograms are——”\r\n\r\n“All hands reef top-sail!” was now thundered forth by the boatswain’s\r\nmates. The shot fell from the professor’s palm; his spectacles dropped\r\non his nose, and the school tumultuously broke up, the pupils\r\nscrambling up the ladders with the sailors, who had been overhearing\r\nthe lecture.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJVWWWFZ0PAGZX8HNA4ZW","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J19NC56FFGBCM2SWEZZY","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AME7AMMYSJS9G8G2KQD5X","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:48:37.107Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:54.649Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}